The waters of Canary Wharf have been transformed with a gigantic new sculpture – a blue whale leaping from the dock in Wood Wharf – available to see in the UK for the first time.
Delphini working for Diveco Marine completed manufacture of the steel super structure using recycled steel.
The spectacular four-storey-tall sculpture, titled Whale on the Wharf (Skyscraper), was borne of one shocking fact. Pound for pound, there is more plastic swimming in the world’s oceans than there are whales – 150 million tonnes of it to be exact.
Viewed up close, the giant whale reveals itself as an intricate mosaic, crafted of plastic collected from Hawaiian beaches.
To highlight just how much plastic produced by cities ends up in waterways, StudioKCA – a New York-based architecture and design firm – worked with the Hawaii Wildlife Fund to comb the beaches of Hawaii for plastic that they then used to build the 11 metre tall sculpture.
Designed by artist/architect duo Jason Klimoski and Lesley Chang, Whale on the Wharf (Skyscraper) is crafted from a variety of sustainable elements, not just recycled plastic but a first-of-its-kind, low-carbon concrete underwater base.
The base has been created using a circular economy method. The biochar used within the concrete mix is made up of some of the used coffee grounds collected from Canary Wharf’s many cafes and restaurants – an efficient use for it, with 190 tonnes of spent coffee grounds being produced at the Wharf every year. The artwork is supported with a braced steelwork structure made from recovered and reused steel.