Drift is a massive three-dimensional stainless steel polyhedral matrix of over 16,100 steel rods and more than 8,320 steel nodes. Measuring approximately 40 metres long, 23 metres high and 15 metres wide, Drift is suspended cloud-like in the air between levels 5 and 12 of the atrium of Hotel Tower 1. The structure weighs 14.8 tons. The geometry of the art installation was generated using a process specifically developed for Antony Gormley’s sculptures by engineer Tristan Simmonds and involves the packing of spheres around a “seed” body form or shape. Due to the scale of the structure, it had to be fabricated off-site and subsequently broken down into eight horizontal “slices” approximately 3 metres tall to be transported to Marina Bay Sands. It took 60 workers with different expertise, from engineers to welders, to assemble it in the atrium.
