Tremendous coordination, perseverance, dedication and sheer hard labour. These are the basic ingredients to complete a project of this magnitude. Meetings, planning, teamwork... ad nauseum. The first step in the line is of course to plan the distribution of the workload. A sculptor is then selected (based on their particular strengths) and he/she is then supplied with an engineers drawing of the element to be created. The artist then has to establish where this particular element will eventually fit into the bigger picture, and it is then up to them to see that it will blend in with adjacent elements, and also fit perfectly onto the existing concrete superstructure.

The material we used for this particular project was Polyurethane foam, a soft substance that is very easy to cut and work with. The only negative being that it has the nasty habit of  getting into your eyes and lungs. For this reason we used special  helmets that had an independant air supply which you had to strap to your back. It was quite a hoot to see these 'astronauts' hanging from the scaffolding. Extremely uncomfortable at first, but you get used to it eventually. Once an element is completed, it is artificially 'aged'. Cracks and erosion marks are sculpted into this piece, which is then ready for inspection by the team leader (aesthetics), and the engineers (for structural accuracy).

Once it is approved, the 'moulding squad' is called in. They will then start to coat the piece with a thick layer of silicone rubber. When they are finished with this, a fibre glass shell is moulded on top of the silicone. This  is to strengthen and stabilize the rubber mould  for the final casting process. A special patented 'slush' called GRC is then cast into  the mold once the original foam 'sculpture'  is taken out. This GRC  (Glass Reinforced Concrete) casting, known as the cladding, is then affixed into position on the structure. Some of the pieces are repeated in the design, in which case multiple elements are cast from the same mould.