On the Shoulders of Giants

Edinburgh, Scotland

Found on the steps to the St James Quarter shopping mall in Edinburgh’s city center, On the Shoulders of Giants is a one-of-a-kind custom monument to Scotland’s cultural history. Formed from laser-cut, textured upright panels, and rendered in the blue of the Scottish flag, the 12-foot-tall sculpture is a dual-view piece which compels passers-by to engage with it.

Walk up the stairs and you see the faces of a young man and a woman. Walk down and it morphs into two intellectual giants, fashion textile designer Bernat Klein and illustrator and sculptor Cecile Watson.

Design details

Discovery

Creating figurative art is unusual for David Harber but the chance to try something new, and design a meaningful embellishment for the city, is exactly what made this a special project. A fit-for-purpose sculpture, which provides a focal point in a busy public space, tells a story and offers a distinct experience whether you walk up or down the steps.

Design

As well as a long-term piece of public artwork, this piece had a practical purpose: to provide a protective screen against the W Hotel’s decorative ribbon that runs alongside the stairs. We created the face profiles from a series of laser-cut uprights.

Development

Access to the site and overcoming the physical makeup of the granite steps was a challenge. But after hours of design reviews, digital surveys, and a close collaborative relationship with the structural engineers, we created a strong, durable base plate to sit between the sculpture and the steps. We solved concerns around weight-loading of the crane with a purposely designed counterbalance lifting beam on the sculpture and an extended reach.