Tower Bradford — Steve Messam

Tower

‘Tower’ -

a 10m high tower exploring the natural building blocks of Bradford, reflecting on how the city of Bradford has been physically shaped by the natural landscape which surrounds it. The tower is inspired by stone drawn from the quarry of the country park and clad in the fleece of local sheep breeds, drawing on the role of wool in the industrial heritage of the district.

Tower explores the building blocks of the Penistone Hill landscape and their relationship to the building of Bradford.

The 10m sculpture is clad in the raw fleece of Derbyshire Gritstone and Lonk, two sheep breeds common to the local area. This fleece cladding is inspired both by the role played by sheep in physically shaping and maintaining the surrounding landscape, and by the importance of wool in the industrial history of Bradford – not for nothing was it nicknamed the ‘Wool Capital of the World’.

The structure itself is created from block forms drawn from the stone quarrying of Penistone Hill Country Park – another physical building block of the city, which can seen as a product of the wilder landscapes that surround its urban core. The 7m high arch through the tower frames views across the surrounding landscape.