Whilst in town for last week’s Interiors UK at the NEC, we dropped in on Birmingham’s “cultural quarter”, the aptly named Custard Factory – the 5-acres of riverside factories it occupies were built some 100-years ago, by custard’s inventor; Sir Alfred Bird. The Zellig building is the most recently redeveloped of the factories, and the 100,000 sq ft, £10m development’s centrepiece is this overwhelming steel and glass sculpture cum bridge network. Erected just over a year ago, by Nottingham-based Philip Watts Design, Chaos – as it’s known – is just that, a chaotic, discombobulating 5-storey mass comprised from 3 miles of steel tubing. Awkward, and seemingly unsteady, Chaos is part baby giraffe taking its first steps, part matchstick model – but most of all, it’s the most wickedly unique series of bridges we’ve ever seen. Just don’t ask us to cross them…
Chaos by Philip Watts Design