Creating “Nebula”: A Kinetic Sculpture for Hilton Anatole

Summary

In this article, we will explore the process of creating a suspended kinetic sculpture, Nebula, for the renovated Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas. Ruben Margoli, a musician and artist, spent several months designing the sculpture to fit the atrium space and evoke natural beauty with sweeping forms. The sculpture features a complicated three-dimensional weave that distributes a sine wave down towards a certain pattern, giving it movement. The article also describes the challenges faced during the design process and the final product.

The Design Process
The Kinetic Sculpture
The Challenges
The Final Product

The Design Process

Ruben Margoli was invited to participate in a competition to create a suspended kinetic artwork for the renovated Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas. He spent several months designing the sculpture, which he named Nebula, to fit the atrium space and evoke natural beauty with sweeping forms. He collaborated with Gizmo and Mark Zabatino, who designed a cable net to support the weight of Nebula, and engineer Michael Prattis to figure out the scale of the sculpture.

Margoli struggled to determine what material to use until he saw a bicycle reflector and decided to use 4,500 of them in the sculpture’s design. He spent a lot of time calculating the cable lengths and pulley angle using the tri function. The design required a lot of math to ensure that the sculpture would hang safely over people’s heads.

The Kinetic Sculpture

The sculpture consists of hexagonal diamonds with custom aluminum cones that are anodized gold. It will sparkle during the day and twinkle at night when bottom lit with a light from the ground. The sculpture will have a wave pattern that rolls through it, and the points of the hexagonal diamonds will have cables going up to the mechanism that makes it move. The sculpture weighs 11,000 pounds and will hang over people’s heads, so any failure would be a huge disaster.

The Challenges

The biggest challenge during the design process was determining what material to use for the sculpture. Margoli finally settled on using bicycle reflectors, which added an element of surprise to the final product. Another challenge was ensuring that the sculpture would be safe to hang over people’s heads. Margoli had to spend a lot of time calculating the cable lengths and pulley angle using the tri function.

The Final Product

The final product, Nebula, is a stunning kinetic sculpture that will be installed in the renovated Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas. The sculpture features a complicated three-dimensional weave that distributes a sine wave down towards a certain pattern, giving it movement. It consists of hexagonal diamonds with custom aluminum cones that are anodized gold. The sculpture will sparkle during the day and twinkle at night when bottom lit with a light from the ground. The sculpture weighs 11,000 pounds and will hang over people’s heads, making it a statement piece that will be sure to impress.