Location: Secret Garden Party Festival

Studio: Abstract Machines

Role: Lead Designer

Type: Installation

Size: 8m x 8m x 1.5m

Value: £2,000

Cairo is collaboration between Nick Tyrer, Jak Drinnan and the Abstract Machines studio. The studio had the honour of designing an installation for the Secret Garden Party Festival. A festival that has celebrated love, creativity, and life. 2017 was the legendary festivals final event. Abstract Machines are proud to have been part of their farewell extravaganza. This project was designed and developed with students of our unit at Leeds Beckett University.

The aim of the project was to capture what SGP has become World-renowned for; Audience participation, community and celebrating the collective.

Cairo is freeform fractured landscape intended to create a playful social space, encouraging spontaneous interactions, and shared communal experiences. A playground for adults. The overall geometry is naturalistic, with no ordained logic. A mountain range that meanders and undulates, with peaks and valleys. The arrangement creates

The system is a semi-modular plywood frame, arranged in alternating layers of deformed hexagon tessellations. These overlapping tessellations create a Cairo tessellation. The Cairo frame consists of 2,200 individual elements, a mixture of CNC cut connections and hand cut posts. Capped with hexagonal panels, decorated to reflect the Cairo structure within.

Unfortunately, due to abysmal weather and torrential rain of the festival, the installation took on a secondary role at the event, acting as a refuge; an island in a sea of mud. At its peak Cairo provided respite for 45 gardeners.