The London Mastaba was a temporary sculpture in Hyde Park comprised of horizontally stacked barrels on a floating platform in Serpentine Lake. This was Christo’s first major public, outdoor work in the UK and could be visited from June to September 2018.
In order to prevent visible deformation of the Mastaba, a supporting steel frame and a scaffold space frame were designed to provide sufficient stiffness to the system. The steel frame consists of standard hot rolled steel I-beams IPE 300 and is supported on a platform of connected polystyrene-filled plastic cubes. The total floating capacity was chosen to ensure that plastic cubes and steel frame are not visible and the Mastaba appears to be floating directly on the water.
The floating sculpture is held in place by a number of anchor ropes, which connect to concrete block anchors placed on the lake bed.
The concrete blocks were especially designed to minimize impact on the lake bed. The anchor foot was designed to ensure it resists any movement in higher winds, to reduce the risk of the anchor dragging on the lake bed surface. The anchor ropes are connected directly to the steel frame by a number of vertical cantilever bars.
