Crystal Panaroma
5Arc Designs has created a cantilevered viewing platform, and walkway with a glazed floor, perched on one of the highest points of the Rock of Gibraltar.
Named Skywalk, the viewing platform is built above an existing World War II military platform in the Upper Rock Nature Reserve that once served as a base for anti-aircraft Bofors guns. Arc Designs wrapped the existing stone platform with a 2,5 meter wide glazed walkway and balustrade, which cantilever over the steeply dropping terrain. Steel stairs lead from the walkway up to the top of the original platform, where the old octagonal concrete gun-base now serves as a seat for visitors to rest and gaze out towards the horizon.
Located just a little further north of O'Hara's Battery – the highest point on the Rock – the platform provides visitors with panoramic views both eastwards and westwards, with Europe and Africa, the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean all in sight.
"The design aspiration of this project was to afford the visitor with new and unrivalled views in all directions including over the rocky cliff-face below," said Arc Designs, "while at the same time ensuring a subtle intervention, which did not detract from the natural and historic nature of this unique setting."
The structure is anchored to the ground with numerous rock anchors, which each support a tensile load of 15 tones. The anchors ensure that the structure can withstand not just the imposed load of visitors above but also the considerable wind speeds.
The Skywalk can be accessed from the road via a panoramic lift, which anchors the overall cantilevered structure back to the terrain. Because vehicular access to this area is limited to very narrow and winding roads, the entire walkway structure had to be fabricated in smaller sections which could be transported and assembled together in-situ. The Skywalk's main steel structure comprises 18 separate pieces, weighing a combined total of over 30.000 kilograms, while the glazing modules, which include 750 square meters of glass panels, are roughly the equivalent area of four tennis courts with the largest component weighing approximately 650 kilograms.
Other developments include the construction of a 70 meter long suspended bridge, the restoration of numerous former military batteries and installations and introduction of interpretative and directional signage along newly established walking trails.
Photography: Stephen Ball, © Bovis-Koala JV