Solar Pyramid
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The Solar Pyramid is a proposed sculpture in Poolsbrook Country Park, Poolsbrook, Staveley, Derbyshire, England. When it is completed it will take the form of a giant sundial, visible from the M1 motorway to thousands of travellers every day.
While earlier reports gave the intended height of the construction as 40 or 45 m, as of December 2006 the project's official web site now says that it will be the UK's largest sculpture at 58 m high (It is in fact smaller than both 'The Scot monument' built in 1844 in Edinburgh at 61.1m and 'The Monument' built in 1677 in greater London at 61.6m). The Solar Pyramid will be slightly taller than B of the Bang and almost three times as tall as Angel of the North.
Designed by Matlock-based artists Richard Lester Swain and Adam Walkden, and supported by the Royal Greenwich Observatory, this timepiece will incorporate three blades coated in reflective coloured stainless steel, leaning towards each other at precise angles to measure and display the movement of the Earth and Sun. New solar panel technology will provide the energy to run a precise clock buried beneath the sculpture.
The project is still raising funds (using a 'buy a brick' scheme, now in partnership with Leukaemia Research) and has missed its originally planned completion date. According to the official website as of December 2006, construction is now scheduled to begin in the spring of 2007, with completion later in 2007.
