Nick Sayers
In December 2013, I was commissioned to make a New Year Tree in Baku
ā capital of Azerbaijan ā by IDEA Public Union, an environmental
awareness campaign. The structure was made from over 2,000 green and
white recycled plastic bottles, held together with cable ties in a
triangular pattern. The design was inspired by islamic tiling and
architecture, and by mathematical beading structures Iād seen at
Bridges conferences. The conic shape was formed by making two
connected triangular meshes of bottles joined at the sides (3, 4 or
5 meshes joined together would have made successively shallower
cones). For the construction process, we were assisted by local
students. The mesh of bottles was supported by a metal framework
made at a local steelworks.