COP26 - Hope sculpture

This engaging public art installation by Steuart Padwick, is sited at three locations across Glasgow for COP26 and beyond. The 23m high Hope sculpture is at the beautiful woodland park of Cuningar Loop, part of Clyde Gateway, Scotland’s biggest and most ambitious regeneration programme. The 4.5m high Beacon of Hope is located at the city’s architecturally significant Glasgow Central Station and the 3.5m high Hope Triptych at the University of Strathclyde’s Rottenrow Gardens. Visitors will be encouraged to access the sculptures via a walking and cycling route that connects the three pieces.

Each sculpture is constructed using low carbon, reclaimed, recycled or sustainable materials, of which, almost all have been locally sourced. It is a showcase for how leading industry partners are committed to build more sustainably, as we transition to a net zero future. The build demonstrating a 75% lower carbon impact.

The monumental Hope sculpture features an age, gender, race neutral child, embracing the surrounding nature and reaching out to a greener, hopeful future. The child stands above towering, 20m high elegant columns that take their form from the brick chimney stalks that once littered the East End of Glasgow. Unlike its predecessors, this deconstructed chimney stalk is made from an innovative new low carbon 100% cement free concrete incorporating locally sourced aggregates and recycled crushed glass in the child figure.

Careys delivered the piling mat and temporary works platform, as well as constructing the foundations (80cm in depth and 5m in diameter) – with cast in anchors for the supporting columns - to support the construction of the Hope sculpture. The piling mat and temporary works platform was formed using recycled 6F5 - a recycled aggregate formed by the processing of inorganic material that has previously been used in construction, whilst also using cement free concrete supplied by Aggregate Industries (member of Holcim).

Linking our built environment with improved mental well-being, Padwick has worked with Mental Health Foundation on all messaging. Words of Hope have been written by some of Scotland’s favourite voices, writers and poets including Jackie Kay, Andrew O’Hagan, Ali Smith, and 2020 Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart as well as local school children. These words have been inscribed directly onto all of the sculptures including the Caithness stones at Cuningar Loop.

The Hope sculpture will serve as a beacon of hope and positivity towards reaching global environmental milestones and a reminder that we, as a society do care about each other and our planet.