Living with the Monster

Voyaging from the far reaches of the North Sea, SEE MONSTER will endure blustery winds and roaring waves as it encircles the UK coast in search for a new home. After a lifetime weathering the stormy seas, the retired rig will be reborn at shore in the former 1930s lido, the Tropicana.

Rising up above the weather-beaten coastal wall, SEE MONSTER’s silhouette will stand dominant above the town of Weston-super-Mare, providing an imposing backdrop to the daily life of passers-by. In the quiet hours of the morning, a local paper boy may witness the stirring beast, shrouded in a dense sea fog before the dawning sun burns through. At dusk the Monster will blaze, a golden beacon above the beach that heralds the end of a long summer’s day.⁠
⁠
Rendered in nostalgic sepia tones, this series of imagined experiences considers how SEE MONSTER’s presence will impress upon Weston-super-Mare and all those who reside within. What will it be like to live with a Monster?⁠

To see the series of renders on Instagram, click here.

Scaling Up

A cascade of silvery scales will wrap around SEE MONSTER’s exterior, a tactile kinetic façade that will mimic the movement of the Monster’s slippery skin, twisting and shimmering with the changing wind.

This month, we paid a visit to NEWSUBSTANCE’s production studio to test the prototype. After five design phases, our engineering teams have perfected the final model: 6,000 aluminium scales each fitted with two bolts, which are arranged with washers to allow free movement with the wind. Each scale is exactly 14mm from the next, creating the optimum aesthetic effect while allowing room for free movement.

To watch the video on Instagram, click here.

Making the Monster Accessible

We are honoured to be working with Dr Amit Patel to make sure SEE MONSTER is accessible to everyone. ⁠
⁠
Amit is a best-selling author, disability rights campaigner, motivational speaker and independent accessibility consultant. He is also registered severely sight impaired (blind), having lost his sight to keratoconus in 2013.

Amit studied medicine at Cambridge and qualified as a doctor, specialising in emergency medicine and major incidents. During medical school, Amit was diagnosed with keratoconus. He was one of the rare individuals for whom corneal transplants rejected, and he lost his sight completely just one year after getting married.

In September 2014,  Amit was matched to his first Guide Dog, Kika. Together, Amit and Kika travel through London and its surrounds on a daily basis, charting their journeys, challenges and the people they meet on their travels via their Twitter & Instagram accounts: @Kika_GuideDog and @BlindDad_UK.

Working as SEE MONSTER’s Accessibility Consultant, Amit helps us ensure that accessibility is at the very heart of SEE MONSTER’s design, from handrails and ramped floors, to ensuring the rig’s grated floors are suitable for guide dogs like Kika.

To watch our new video with Amit, click here.