Luneur Park · the Magicirco · October 2016

The columns of the Magicirco.

Seven giant striped pawn-skittles, four metres tall, lined along the edge of the first-floor terrace.

One act

Seven giant pawns
on the Magicirco.

Luneur Park reopens to the public on 27 October 2016 after a long renovation. In the previous months we receive the commission to build seven monumental scenographic elements for one of the buildings symbol of the rebirth: the Magicirco, the circular architecture with the blue mosaic roof and the multicoloured train frieze on the ground floor.

The seven pieces are to be installed along the edge of the first-floor terrace as a decorative attraction visible from every corner of the park. The shape: giant pawn-skittles, about four metres tall, with a swollen balloon body, broad base and spherical top. A board-game form brought to architectural scale.

The process in our workshops: styrofoam sculpting of the profiles, preparation of the fiberglass moulds, layered casting, stiffening, and finally the polychrome patina. Each column takes a different palette — green, orange, yellow, purple, pink, blue — consistent with the candy colours of the Luneur brand. No right angles: rounded everywhere, like all the graphics of the park.

The photos in our archive document the final workshop stage in the weeks just before the park's opening — the open moulds, the raw white styrofoam pieces, the finishing stage before painting, the final pieces ready for transport to Rome.

The Magicirco building at Luneur Park seen from the front: ground floor with multicoloured train frieze (yellow, green, blue, red), first-floor terrace with black balustrade, curved roof covered in shaded blue mosaic, park trees in the background; along the top-left edge of the terrace are the seven pawn-columns built by Creation Art, each with a different colour — The columns installed on the Magicirco, from the first-floor terrace

Finished giant pawn-columns in the Creation Art workshops: skittle/balloon-shaped pieces about four metres tall, painted in polychrome stripes — green, orange, grey, yellow, white — arranged horizontally for the final patina, industrial workshop in the background with materials and tools — The seven finished pieces, before transport to Rome

View of the painted columns in the workshop yard: polychrome pawns seen from a lateral angle, showing the balloon section and the broad base — Side view of the finished profile

Open fiberglass moulds for making the columns: pawn-skittle-shaped shells in white porous material, mounted on wooden stands in the workshop, awaiting the fiberglass casting — The fiberglass moulds, preparation stage

Finishing stage of the columns: raw pieces being sanded and prepared for painting, standing in the workshop yard — Finishing before the patina

Overview of the columns in the finishing stage: all pieces lined up in the workshop yard — All pieces together, workshop overview

Behind the scenes

Seven pawns,
a single shape.

Building seven columns identical in shape but different in colour is an exercise in replicability typical of our work for theme parks: a single sculpting of the master, seven castings, seven custom patinas.

The styrofoam model

We start from one single specimen: a block of expanded styrofoam carved with a hot wire and hand-finished into the pawn-skittle profile. Broad base, balloon body, spherical top. It's the master from which we'll make the matrix for the other six.

The fiberglass moulds

From the styrofoam model we make the fiberglass moulds — shells that open and close for the subsequent casting. From a single master come seven pieces identical in shape: the same pawn repeated seven times, with minimal tolerances.

The polychrome patina

On the seven identical pieces we apply seven different palettes in saturated stripes: green, orange, yellow, purple, pink, blue, white — the colours of the Luneur brand. The flat striped fill evokes the board game and reads from afar, from the park yard.

columns identical in shape, different in palette

~4 m

the height of each giant pawn-skittle

27/10/16

opening of the refounded park — our deadline

Tech sheet

All production data

Type: Seven scenographic fiberglass columns · giant pawn-skittle shape
Location: Magicirco · multi-storey building at Luneur Park · EUR, Rome · Via delle Tre Fontane 100
Position: Along the edge of the first-floor terrace, in a row
Production period: October 2016 · final workshop stage before the park's opening
Park opening: 27 October 2016 · reopening of Luneur after the renovation
Dimensions: About 4 m tall each · balloon shape with broad base and spherical top
Techniques: Expanded styrofoam sculpting · fiberglass moulds · layered casting · polychrome finish in saturated stripes
Palette: Green, orange, yellow, purple, pink, blue, white · each column with a different combination, consistent with the colours of the Luneur brand
Cluster: Part of Luneur Park
Second life: The seven columns are still on stage on the Magicirco terrace — visible from the park entrance

Second life

Seven years on top
of the Magicirco.

The seven pawn-columns have been installed on the edge of the Magicirco terrace since October 2016 and are still there, visible from the entrance of the park. They have become part of the Luneur landscape — a landmark above the ground floor of the Magicirco, recognisable at a glance.

For us they are our first signature on the refounded Luneur — the start of the dialogue with the park that then developed the following year with the Christmas Village 2017 and in other later seasonal projects. The polychrome striped columns are also an exercise in serial replicability that comes in useful in other theme-park projects.