Have you ever heard of a singing tree? Well, there is a tree-like sound sculpture in Burnley, Lancashire named “ The Singing Ringing Tree” which is made of different lengths of pipes and as the wind runs through these pipes, they make melodious tunes.
“The Singing Ringing Tree” got its final shape in 2006 as a part of Panopticon art which is a symbol of the renaissance of that area. In the hills of Pennines, overlooking Burnley, in Lancashire, England, the sculpture got its standing position. Architect Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu of “Tonkin Liu” architect company designed this structure.
The sculpture is 3 meters (10 feet) tall consisting of 320 pieces of galvanized pipes stacked into 21 layers. The design is calculated for each layer and lengths of pipes with the support of parallel pipes spaced 200 mm apart. The noise changes with the wind interaction. The designers used the wind flow of Burnley to make the sound and the minimum required wind speed was 8km/hr.
The sculpture is widest at top, extending about 4 meters and also towards the top 25 pipes produce the sound. The narrowest part is the middle with 1.2 meters, where it is highly stressed. From eye -level, the figure of eight spiral of the structure is clearly observed.
Engineer Jane Wernicke explains, “the pitch of the note is a function of both the diameter and length of pipes, as well as the speed of the wind.” Tonkin Liu talked about the materials for this sculpture and among bamboo, plastic,timber,they chose galvanized steel as per the site. The sculpture assembly was the trickiest part. The pipes functioned like flute. It took two months to assemble the pieces, then transported to the site.
“The Singing Ringing Tree” was launched by the Mayor of Burnley, the counselor Mohammed Najib and designer Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu on 14 December, 2006.
Burnley was not economically prosperous and the sculpture was made to attract the visitors. It is funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency and the Lancashire Economic Partnership among others to create this statement piece. It cost around 60,000 Euro.
The sculpture won the National Award of the Royal Institute of British Architecture (RIBA) for architectural excellence in 2007.
“The Singing Ringing Tree” is named after the children’s story of Grimm’s Brother, popular among British children. The sculpture is a part of Panopticons which is a project involving a series of sculptures across Lancashire. It includes four landmarks built over a six year period. There is another “Singing Ringing Tree” in Saudi Arabia which was built with the help of Tonkin Liu.
Architect Tonkin Liu says about this sculpture, “it was all about people out into the countryside, coaxing them out of their cars and making something that was more than a sculpture.” The sculpture and the site offers a scenic view of Burnley. From this sculpture point, visitors can enjoy a scenic view of Pendle Hill, East Lancashire and if the day and fortune is clear, Turf Moor Football Stadium can show a peek.
The sculpture was moved to the city of Abilene in 2022. The whole structure was placed in a suitable area for proper wind flow.
But most of the visitors never heard the sound of the tubes. And the sculpture became silent in Abilene and the reason is still unknown.
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Nusrat Jahan Sonia
Intern
Content Writing Department
YSSE