“Vigil” involves an artist living on climbing platforms and a tent suspended from the top of the Burstin hotel
The Folkestone Triennial, an art event which launched on 30 August and will run until 2 November, relies on the creativity of 20 artists including Yoko Ono and Andy Goldsworthy – and the practical construction skills of Andy Cruttenden MCIOB, writes Kristina Smith.
Over the past six months Cruttenden has worked on the 20 most unusual projects of his career, including a greenhouse on top of a school, five roof-mounted rotating headless chickens and a neon lit “hop garden” built on a former gasworks site.
The Triennial made national news headlines at the weekend, when the details of one artwork were announced: 30 pieces of gold buried on the town’s beach.
Cruttenden’s company, Martello Building Consultancy, a Chartered Building Consultancy, is technical adviser to the Folkestone Triennial. Cruttenden is director of the Folkestone-based firm, which he launched nearly three years ago and which now employs five people.
"Until you get involved in an event like this, you don’t realise how much work and preparation goes on behind the scenes. It’s been a real eye opener and a privilege to be a part of it."
Andy Cruttenden MCIOB
Martello’s involvement in each project has varied, with tasks including looking at building control requirements, advising on safety issues, assessing costs, obtaining quotes and appointing consultants and contractors.
Alastair Upton, chief executive of the Creative Foundation, which runs the Triennial, said: “Martello has been a godsend. They bring in expertise that the rest of the art production team does not have. It allows us to have a rigour about things that means we are not running into problems around things like building control or structural engineering issues.”
Cruttenden and fellow director Paul Kegos worked with specialist project managers employed by the Creative Foundation to oversee the creation of the installations, and in some cases with the artists themselves.
“Until you get involved in an event like this, you don’t realise how much work and preparation goes on behind the scenes,” says Cruttenden. “It’s been a real eye opener and a privilege to be a part of it. I’ve really enjoyed the whole experience.”
The project that required the most input from Martello was "Amusefoods", an installation on which a Fish & Chip frontage has been added to a polytunnel in which fish, potatoes, pea and mint plants are being grown. Situated on top of the flat roof of a sixth-form college, and accessed via a specially built staircase, the building will be in place too long to be classed as a temporary structure, so required Building Regulation approval.
A bamboo scaffold creates “The Electrified Line”, which provides a viewing point over a disused piece of railway line and the sea
Other work for Martello has included:
- helping to create a risk assessment for “Vigil”, involving an artist living on climbing platforms and a tent suspended from the top of the Burstin hotel by Folkestone’s harbour;
- appointing a contractor to build a bamboo scaffold to create “The Electrified Line”, which provides a viewing point over a disused piece of railway line and the sea;
- setting out the positions of poles for “Green/Light”, a modern take on a hop garden;
- and working with a structural engineer to assess which buildings the headless chickens for the work “Whithervanes” could be mounted on and how to mount them.
“The thing about art installations is that they are all very different and they all have their own specific requirements,” says Cruttenden. “In a lot of cases, there are no standards to follow and building regs do not apply, so it’s a matter of advising on what is good practice.”
Headless chickens for “Whithervanes”, and "Amusefoods", which features a Fish & Chip frontage to a polytunnel in which fish and vegetables are grown
Cruttenden’s favourite artwork, and a £1.6m project in its own right, is the conversion of a steeply sloping site which was waste ground into a new park. Martello’s role here was employer’s agent for the delivery phase, a contract the firm won in competitive tender.
London practice Muf Architecture/Art has created a space which reflects this year’s Triennial theme of “Lookout” and also references some of the site’s previous uses over the years.
“Payers Park is my favourite because it is a permanent work and it going to make a big difference to that area and to the whole town,” says Cruttenden. “But the whole of the Triennial is great news for Folkestone because it brings so many new people here.”
