Towering almost four stories high out of one of Bruges’ main canals, the Skyscraper (The Bruges Whale), is a project by Brooklyn-based architecture and design firm STUDIOKCA for the Bruges Triennial. Skyscraper was just one of the 14 other installations that was accepted for the art and architecture festival which centered on the theme of “liquid city.”
The designers envisioned the piece as a reminder of the 150 million tons of plastic that are in the ocean and the 8 million tons of it that are added every year. “A whale, breaching from the water, is the first “skyscraper of the sea”, and as the largest mammal in the water, it felt like the right form for our piece to take in order to show the scope and scale of the problem.” said Jason Klimoski, Studiokca principal.
STUDIOKCA’s Jason Klimoski and fellow principal Lesley Chang worked with the Hawaii Wildlife Fund and the Surfriders Foundation to collect 5 tons of plastic from the oceans for the installation. It took eight months from initial sketch to installation including the months it took the team to collect and clean the material from the ocean to complete the project.
“Skyscraper is a physical example of why we need to change how we use and dispose of plastic in the world today” said Lesley Chang.