When Terminal 5 opened at London Heathrow for British Airways in 2008, two signature pieces of art by Troika were commissioned for the south lounge complex. These featured some real wow factor and really enhanced the whole lounge aesthetic.
For quite some time, both of these pieces of art have been out of service. Since they both rely on electronics and mechanics, it is not surprising they experienced a fault.
“Cloud” Lounge Art Comes Back To Life
According to frequent flyers, as of yesterday the Cloud piece is now back in operation. I have always seen it hanging there but never seen it in action. Here’s a video showing what it does.
Cloud features 4,638 digitally controlled flip dots, which were used in airport signage back in the 1970s and 1980s. These cover the entire skin of the sculpture and can be animated in any way. It took 8 months to make, so I wonder how much it cost?
“All The Time In The World” Remains Offline
An electroluminescent art wall called All The Time In The World – also by Troika – is located between the First and Concorde Room lounges. I have only ever seen it as a black glass wall, not realising it was supposed to do something.
https://youtu.be/5hoSZekrWB4
This is designed to extend the notion of a world clock. It features real world capitals but also natural wonders, highest mountains, forgotten wonders, museums and modern wonders. Pretty cool!
Overall Thoughts
These two pieces are probably some of the coolest airline lounge art anywhere. I’m quite looking forward to seeing Cloud in person when I next pass through Terminal 5. The whole concept behind the pieces are in this article here.
Hopefully the bean counters at British Airways will find some money to fix All The Time In The World. Now that is a real wow factor piece that deserves to be in working order.
Have you seen either of these pieces in person? What do you think? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Pharos Architectural Controls Limited.
