The ArcelorMittal Orbit’s Ambivalent Effect and the London Olympics: Art, Regeneration, Business and Sustainability

Abstract

This article examines the ambivalent effect of the ArcelorMittal Orbit artwork locally and globally, considering the process of its production and the impact of its final outcome. The ArcelorMittal Orbit aspires to become a permanent emblem of the regeneration of East London and a model for sustainability. However, its level of engagement with the surrounding area and the public and its relationship to ecological priorities are uncertain. The sculpture finds itself between art and architecture and enters the global architectural competitiveness often fostered by the Olympics, which frequently follows ambiguous practices in contemporary urban regeneration.

Notes

1. ArcelorMittal Orbit, ‘The ArcelorMittal Orbit and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games: A Legacy for London’, ArcelorMittal Orbit, <http://www.arcelormittalorbit.com/londons-journey/legacy> [accessed 13 July 2012].

2. ArcelorMittal funded the project with £19.6 million and the London Development Agency provided £3.1 million. See Greater London Authority, ‘Construction Begins on the Landmark ArcelorMittal Orbit’, London.Gov.UK, <http://www.london.gov.uk/media/press_releases_mayoral/construction-begins-landmark-arcelormittal-orbit> [accessed 28 November 2012]. ArcelorMittal operates in sixty countries, and in 2011, it produced 91.9 million tonnes of steel, representing 6 per cent of world steel production. See ArcelorMittal, <http://www.arcelormittal.com/corp/> [accessed 10 July 2012].

3. See, for example, Patricia C. Phillips, ‘Out of Order: The Public Art Machine’, Artforum (December 1988), 92–96; Malcolm Miles, Art, Space and the City (London: Routledge, 1997); Harriet F. Senie, ‘Responsible Criticism: Evaluating Public Art’, Sculpture, 22 (December 2003), 45–49.

4. See, for example, Sam Adams, ‘ALDERSBROOK: Residents Demand Say on Olympic Landmark’, Guardian-Series, 7 April 2010, <http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/rbnews/7988630.ALDERSBROOK__Residents_demand_say_on_Olympic_landmark/> [accessed 3 January 2013]; Oliver Wainwright, ‘ArcelorMittal Orbit by Anish Kapoor, Cecil Balmond and Kathryn Findlay’, Building Design, 29 October 2011, <http://www.bdonline.co.uk/buildings/arcellormittal-orbit-by-anish-kapoor-cecil-balmond-and-kathryn-findlay/5026971.article> [accessed 3 January 2013]; Tim Adams, ‘Anish Kapoor’s Orbit Tower: The Mother of All Helter-Skelters’, Guardian, 5 May 2012, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/may/06/olympics-orbit-anish-kapoor> [accessed 12 July 2012].

5. The adult ticket cost was £15 during the Games, something that provoked Kapoor’s discomfort. The ticket price for the visitors of ArcelorMittal Orbit after the Olympic Park re-opens in Easter 2014 has not yet been specified. See BBC News Entertainment and Arts, ‘London 2012: Kapoor Bemoans Orbit Ticket Price’, BBC News, 11 May 2012, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18024138> [accessed 10 July 2012].

6. Rosanne Martorella, Corporate Art (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990), p. 32.

7. See Peter Marsh, ‘ArcelorMittal Fails to Rule Out Europe Cuts’, Financial Times, 8 July 2012, <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7c63d252-c78c-11e1-85fc-00144feab49a.html> [accessed 10 July 2012].

8. See Boris Johnson, ‘The ArcelorMittal Orbit Would Boggle the Mind of Gustave Eiffel if He Could See It’, ArcelorMittal Orbit, <http://www.arcelormittalorbit.com/londons-journey/views/boris-johnson> [accessed 13 July 2012]. Britain has attempted in vain to build its own version of a London Eiffel Tower at Wembley, an idea that was pioneered by Sir Edward Watkin in 1889. See Felix Barker and Ralph Hyde, London As It Might Have Been (London: John Murray, 1982).

9. Both of those buildings are products of internationally established professionals: the first was designed by the global construction firm Populous and the latter by the internationally renowned architect Zaha Hadid.

10. Paul Deighton, ‘The ArcelorMittal Orbit Will Help Make the Olympics a “Great Day Out”’, ArcelorMittal Orbit, <http://www.arcelormittalorbit.com/londons-journey/views/paul-deighton> [accessed 13 July 2012].

11. Joanne Sharp, Venda Pollock, and Ronan Paddison, ‘Just Art for a Just City’, Urban Studies, 42 (May 2005), 1001–23 (p. 1013).

12. Tim Hall, ‘Opening Up Public Art’s Spaces: Art, Regeneration and Audience’, in Cultures and Settlements, ed. by Malcolm Miles and Nicola Kirkham (Bristol: Intellect, 2003), pp. 49–57 (p. 49).

13. Sebastian Coe, ‘The ArcelorMittal Orbit Leaves an “Indelible Memory”’, ArcelorMittal Orbit, <http://www.arcelormittalorbit.com/londons-journey/views/seb-coe> [accessed 13 July 2012].

14. Despite the wide rhetoric about the Olympics promoting urban regeneration or a host city’s renewal, Graeme Evans notes that ‘analyses of long-term regeneration effects are notable by their absence’. Graeme Evans, ‘London 2012’, in Olympic Cities: Cities, Agendas, Planning and the World’s Games, 1896–2016, ed. by John R. Gold and Margaret M. Gold, 2nd edn (London: Routledge, 2011), pp. 359–89 (p. 360).

15. In a post-Olympics report, the IOC states: ‘[l]ocating the Games in East London revitalized an industrial wasteland and set the stage for future economic growth in what had been a struggling section of London’. See IOC, ‘Fact Sheet London 2012 Facts and Figures: Update – November 2012’ (27 March 2013), Olympic.org: London 2012, <http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Reference_documents_Factsheets/London_2012_Facts_and_Figures-eng.pdf > [accessed 8 July 2013], p. 4.

16. Evans, ‘London 2012’, p. 369.

17. Iain Sinclair, ‘Olympics Ruined London Wasteland – Writer Iain Sinclair’, BBC News, 22 February 2012, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17098201> [accessed 8 November 2012]. Sinclair attacks the grand projects generated by the Olympics and narrates stories bound with the Stratford area in his Ghost Milk. Iain Sinclair, Ghost Milk: Calling Time on the Grand Project (London: Hamish Hamilton: 2011).

18. As Evans characteristically states: ‘London 2012 can […] be viewed as the “unfinished business” of the wider docklands and East London regeneration’. Evans, ‘London 2012’, p. 362.

19. John Horne and Garry Whannel, Understanding the Olympics (London: Routledge, 2012), p. 192.

20. See Greater London Authority, ‘Planning Report PDU/2627/01: ArcelorMittal Orbit’, Greater London Authority, 28 July 2010, <http://static.london.gov.uk/mayor/planning_decisions/strategic_dev/2010/20100728/arcelormittal_orbit_report.pdf> [accessed 22 August 2013].

21. See, for example, Kathryn Findlay, ‘The ArcelorMittal Orbit’s “Random and Chaotic Spaces” Set it Apart on London’s Skyline’, ArcelorMittal Orbit, <http://www.arcelormittalorbit.com/orbits-journey/perspectives/kathryn-findlay> [accessed 13 July 2012]; Andrew Altman, ‘The ArcelorMittal Orbit Is the “Centrepiece” of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’, ArcelorMittal Orbit, <http://www.arcelormittalorbit.com/londons-journey/views/andrew-altman> [accessed 13 July 2012].

22. It is made from 57 per cent recycled steel. See ArcelorMittal, ‘Building Britain’s Largest Sculpture’, ArcelorMittal, <http://www.arcelormittal.com/corp/news-and-media/our-stories/s11-arcelormittal-and-the-olympics-building-the-orbit> [accessed 10 July 2012].

23. See London Legacy Development Corporation, ‘ArcelorMittal Orbit to Light Up East London’, London Legacy Development Corporation, <http://www.londonlegacy.co.uk/arcelormittal-orbit-to-light-up-east-london/> [accessed 14 July 2012].

24. IOC, ‘Sustainability through Sport: Implementing the Olympic Movement’s Agenda 21’, Olympic.org: Sport and Environment, <http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Commissions_PDFfiles/SportAndEnvironment/Sustainability_Through_Sport.pdf> [accessed 28 November 2012], p. 5.

25. John Karamichas, ‘Olympic Games as an Opportunity for the Ecological Modernization of the Host Nation: The Cases of Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004’, in Olympic Games, Mega-Events and Civil Societies: Globalization, Environment, Resistance, ed. by Graeme Hayes and John Karamichas (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 151–71 (p. 171).

26. See LOCOG, ‘London 2012 Pre-Games Sustainability Report: Summary Report Delivering Change’, Learning Legacy, 24 April 2012, <http://learninglegacy.independent.gov.uk/publications/london-2012-pre-games-sustainability-report-summary-repo.php> [accessed 25 June 2013].

27. 3,000 tonnes of steel were used for the Aquatics Centre roof. See Peter Buchanan, ‘Zaha Hadid’s Aquatics Centre versus Michael Hopkins’ Velodrome’, Architectural Review, 24 July 2012, <http://www.architectural-review.com/buildings/zaha-hadids-aquatics-centre-versus-michael-hopkins-velodrome/8633443.article#> [accessed 3 January 2013].

28. Felicity Carus, ‘ArcelorMittal’s Emissions Make a Monumental Joke of Olympic Park Tower’, Guardian, 9 April 2010, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/apr/09/arcelormittal-anish-kapoor-orbit> [accessed 3 January 2013].

29. Ibid.