We took a look at Space Walk, which had become a new landmark of Pohang, in the last episode, “Space Walk, What Are You?” Now that we have looked into the meaning of the work, we wonder how this winding and high sculpture was created. So today we will take a look at the birth story of Space Walk, from material to construction.

What on earth is the structure made of?

With a total track length of 333 m, width of 60 m, depth of 57 m, and height of 25 m, Space Walk boasts an enormous size, and its presence is obvious even from Yeongildae Beach far away. The total track length, 333 m, is a number that symbolizes coexistence, cooperation and the future of POSCO, Pohang, and the city’s citizens, and also refers to Pohang’s symbol 3S – Steel, Science, and Sea.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Space Walk, which was built for two years and seven months from April 1, 2019 to November 17, 2021, is a work for which all the capabilities and technologies of POSCO were mobilized. In addition to paying the manufacturing costs of the sculpture, POSCO organized a task force that executed the entire process from production to installation. POSCO A&C supervised while POSCO E&C produced and installed it.

POSCO’s steel that was used for Space Walk, it’s me! “329J3L, SM355A”

Space Walk weighs 317 tons (except for concrete and illumination) and was manufactured with 100% POSCO steel, and was planned to become a safe and robust structure by combining artistic and engineering elements considering the installation environment and various natural disasters. The first step in a sturdy structure is material!

Since the work is located on the coast, it needs to prevent corrosion caused by salt, and after reviewing and studying various materials that are safe from strong winds and earthquakes, a material called stainless steel 329J3L was applied to the sculpture. Stainless 329 is a very expensive stainless steel grade produced by POSCO and is much stronger against salt than STS 304 and STS 316, which are generally used on beaches.

▲ Space Walk is being built.

▲ 329J3L, POSCO’s steel material used in Space Walk

The steel tube used in the structure of the sculpture is SM355A, an advanced high strength steel product of POSCO. Considering the characteristics of the sculpture that was installed on a beach, it was finished with metal fluorine resin paint on galvanized steel to be maintained without corrosion even in a harsh beach environment.

Safety, the first step of design!

The core of the design for Space Walk can be said to be “safety.” Since it was a structure with a height of 25 m, the design of the basic concrete that supported it was important. The basic concrete that supported 25 pillars was connected using ground beams,* and 114 micro piles* that supported 85 tons per pile were additionally built.
* Ground beam: A beam that connects bases underground to prevent the movement or return trip of pillars
* Micro pile: A stake with a diameter of 300 mm or less used for the base of structures and foundation reinforcement that is reinforced with high-strength steel material.

Space Walk can endure a maximum instantaneous wind speed of 80 m/s because it was manufactured with a design wind speed of 67 m/s. Considering that the maximum instantaneous wind speed of Maemi, the strongest typhoon that has occurred in Korea, was 60 m/s, it was designed not to move an inch against fierce sea wind.

In addition, it was designed to have seismic grade 1 in terms of seismic load to endure a very strong earthquake of magnitude 6.5 on the Richter scale. Its seismic load is the same as that of Korean nuclear power plants. Thus, it can be said to be as strong against earthquakes as nuclear power plants.

Its step load, 500 kg/m², is the same as the load applied to rooftop rally places and gym stands, and up to seven adults can stand within 1m². Since it is actually difficult for even four adults to stand within 1m², the structure is very safe. Although it was designed for more than 1,500 people to stand on the whole track, an automatic blocking device works if the number of people standing exceeds 250, considering safety.

Its rail load is 5kN/m², which is a strength that occurs when 10 adults push at the same time. However, since it is actually difficult for even four adults to stand within 1m² as mentioned before, the rail cannot collapse no matter how strongly people push.

Precise construction that does not allow even an error of 0.5cm

It was very difficult to install an atypical form of a large structure bent and twisted in a 3D manner rather than a linear form. POSCO Group showed its technology that completed the construction of an ultra-large sculpture with a 333-meter length that is supported by 25 steel pillars with a maximum length of 30 m with a margin of error of 0.5 cm or less between the starting point and end point.

To increase precision, state-of-the-art technologies and equipment used for atypical structures such as a mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) layout solution, GPS and 3D scanning detection, and ultrasonic nondestructive testing were mobilized, and experts of POSCO participated to ensure preparation.

Space Walk is an enormous structure like a pedestrian overpass, but as it is also a work of art, and each part of the structure had to be finished manually like a sculpture. Attention was also paid to small details of the stairs of the structure to increase its value as a work of art and processing was performed manually in order for the structure to shine on a sunny day.

Today, we looked at the birth story of Space Walk from design to construction. Space Walk, which was created with perfect preparation, was donated to citizens as an experiential public art work.

“Space Walk is a sculpture that symbolizes the coexistence and harmony of POSCO and Pohang. We hope this will become a landmark that represents Korea with lots of love from citizens. After a museum for Pohang blast furnace 1, which will be closed, is completed, the sculpture and museum will contribute as new tourism contents in Pohang along with Park1538, a POSCO promotion center,” said Jeong-woo Choi, POSCO Group CEO.

We hope that Space Walk, which presents a new paradigm of domestic public art, will establish itself as a space that will bring new joy to Pohang citizens!

An unidentified structure appeared one day in Hwanho Park, which is a resting place for Pohang citizens where they can see the beautiful coastline, sunset, and a panoramic view of POSCO.  The citizens looked at the long curved rail and wondered if it was a roller coaster. On November 18, the identity of the structure was revealed. It is called “Space Walk.” It is a public work of art that POSCO made. Let’s take a look at this attractive work of art that stands high in Hwanho Park.

Space Walk unveiled on November 18

On November 18, an unveiling ceremony was held for Space Walk, an experiential sculpture that is the largest in Korea, with 70 or more related people including Jeong-woo Choi, POSCO Group CEO, Kang-deok Lee, Pohang Mayor, and the designers in attendance. It has been two years and seven months since an MOU with POSCO was signed in April 2019.

▲ POSCO and Pohang City held an unveiling ceremony for Space Walk, Korea’s largest experiential sculpture, in Hwanho Park on November 18. From the left is Soo-hee Nam, Head of Pohang Works, Won-joon Yang, Head of the Corporate Support Division, Seong-hee Han, President of POSCO E&C, Hag-dong Kim, Vice Chairman & POSCO CEO, artist Ulrich Genth, Jeong-woo Choi, POSCO Group CEO, Kang-deok Lee, Pohang Mayor, Kim Byeong-uk, National Assembly member, Jeong Hae-jong, Chairman of the Pohang City Council, Ik-hyeon Jeon, Pohang Steel Management Corporation President, and Tae-geon Yun, CEO of The Ton.

Jeong-woo Choi, POSCO Group CEO, Kang-deok Lee, Pohang Mayor, etc. participated in the unveiling ceremony and commemorated the launch of Space Walk, and the next day, Citizen Open Day was held with citizens, and the Talent Donation Corps participated and presented commemorative photos, busking, and calligraphy to Pohang citizens.

Experience of Walking on Space of Zero Gravity

Space Walk, which took two years and seven months from planning to completion, is an experiential artwork that visitors can walk on and appreciate the work and landscape. With Space Walk, visitors can have the experience of walking in space with zero gravity or on a cloud. Space Walk is nicknamed “cloud” because it looks like a cloud that is gently falling.

The total track length of Space Walk is 333 meters, and it is 60 meters wide, 57 meters long and 25 meters high, and has a smooth and magnificent shape with varying curves. Space Walk was manufactured with 100% POSCO steel and the capabilities and technologies of POSCO were fully mobilized for it.

The project of building a sculpture was promoted to contribute to the vitalization of the regional economy by making Pohang a tourist attraction as well as win-win cooperation with the local community after POSCO declared corporate citizens who develop together as a management philosophy in 2018.

On April 1, 2019, the 51st anniversary of POSCO’s foundation, POSCO and Pohang City signed an MOU to make Hwanho Park a tourist attraction with the installation of works of art of world-famous artists in Hwanho Park, which POSCO co-established with Pohang for its citizens in 2001.

POSCO and Pohang decided to build a work of art with steel to symbolize Pohang, which is rapidly growing with POSCO, and culture and art tourism contents, as a subject matter, and selected German artists Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth through a public contest in June 2019.

“The project of building Space Walk can be said to be an exemplary case of a public art project that POSCO and Pohang cooperated on from planning to construction and executed by complying with the process by each step from signing an MOU to designing, collecting citizens’ opinions, manufacturing and installation,” said Dae-hyung Lee, former art director of the Venice Biennale.

Artists of Space Walk, Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth

Heike Mutter (1969) and Ulrich Genth (1971), who designed Space Walk, are German artists who majored in pure fine arts and media art and are internationally renowned for viewer participation art works and architectural sculptures.

Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth went to Pohang several times for the installation of Space Walk and visited various attractions such as Pohang Works, Jukdo Market, and Sunrise Park and communicated with Pohang citizens and met local historians to get to know the city. Based on this experience, they completed eight designs that interpreted Pohang’s culture and the characteristics of citizens, and the final design was decided in communication with an advisory committee composed of experts in domestic sculpture, architecture, and art, Pohang, and POSCO officials.

Space Walk Design Intention

The design of Space Walk is based on the concept of “Light” in the Sun and Moon Myth of Pohang, the “song of light and steel” based on iron, a driving force of economic growth in Korea, and “walk on the sky and art together slowly.”

In order to express POSCO’s vision and value from the perspective of Community with POSCO, the company’s steel products were used as the material of the work, and it was designed as a participatory work completed through the audience’s experience.

Space Walk is reminiscent of a roller coaster from a distance, and the image of “fast speed” is evoked, but what visitors experience on the track of the work is the relationship between the body and space, walking slowly along the work.

This contradictory experience means the “relativity of time,” an important aesthetic concept of Space Walk, and an elegant curve drawn with steel and illumination embroidering the night sky symbolize steel and Pohang, the city of light. When people climb on the work of art and look at the landscape that is open on all sides, the panoramic view elicits exclamations from them.

Artistic meaning of experiential artwork Space Walk

The biggest feature of Space Walk is that it is an experiential art work where visitors climb on the work and walk on the stairs, communing with and experiencing the work through touch and hearing beyond vision and becoming one with it. Public works of art usually focus on the relationship between visitors and the works of art, whereas experiential works of art focus on the experience of changing from a simple gallery to a cultural creator as visitors participate in and relate to the works of art.

In addition, the process of the audience experiencing the work itself exists as part of the work, and through this experience, the true artist’s intention can be read. For example, visitors who have walked through the work of art realize that they cannot climb into the circular loop when they arrive at the center of the sculpture. Regarding this, the artists explained, “Visitors can experience a reflection on modern society that seeks only convenience through an intended inconvenience and the relativity of time and space through the effort of returning.”. The two-way track eventually returns and merges into one, through which the artists express “the harmony between art and man, business and citizens, POSCO and Pohang-si,” which is also a message that anyone who has walked on the work can read naturally.

Space Walk is a huge paradigm shift in public art and a work of art that shows the transformation of the times in the way culture is consumed.

Hwanho Park, where Space Walk is located, is the center of Yeongilman Bay Tourist Special Zone, and if Korea’s first and largest experiential sculpture becomes a representative landmark that symbolizes Pohang, it is expected to create synergy with a marine cable car project. In particular, it is expected to contribute to the vitalization of tourism in connection with new cultural contents in Pohang such as Park1538, a history museum, the night view of the steelworks, and Pohang Blast Furnace Museum 1.

We looked at Space Walk, which will become a landmark of the city along with the light of Pohang, where the sunrise is beautiful. Space Walk can be said to be the result of the integration of POSCO’s technologies and capabilities. In the next content, we will take a look at the birth story of Space Walk, from material to construction, in detail!