Set to be installed over a set of light rail tracks, Junya Ishigami’s Cloud Arch will soon be one of the biggest landmarks in downtown Sydney. Commissioned by Sydney’s public art program, City Art, the arch will symbolize Sydney’s qualities of being “Green, Global, and Connected.” Over 50 meters high, it will change shape as viewer’s walk past it. Cloud Arch will act as both a gateway for the pedestrian George Street, and a defining feature of the city.
The artist, Ishigami, had this to say on the project: “Green, Global and Connected are the characteristics of the new Sydney, and this new public space about to be created in George Street will be the exact manifestation of these qualities…there is a need for a new symbol to embody and communicate these qualities to the world… The Cloud is that new symbol, comprehensible to all. The Cloud evokes comfort, openness and freedom. Through freedom, it is connected to cloud computing which, in turn, links to the quality of 'Connected City' so important to Sydney.”
The arch’s sinuous shape will be constructed of curved steel plates that taper together, rising up into a deceptively buoyant-looking structure. The arch is expected to be visible from numerous points throughout Sydney.
