It’s not every day as a construction professional that you get the opportunity to be involved in a project that is of national importance and located in one of the most prominent locations in your country’s capital city, sitting outside of your nation’s parliament buildings.

For Hugh Holder and I, this project has been a culmination of our professional experiences thus far, combining Hugh’s design acumen and my construction knowledge, to produce a monument that as designers we are extremely proud of. We were part of a team of construction and fabrication professionals that brought the project from design through to a successful installation in our nation’s capital.

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A major element in the design encompassed the use of Corten Steel, a weathering steel that finishes with a beautiful rich brown patina. It would be the first such installation and use of this material as a finishing element in Barbados, so from the design perspective we thought that this material more so than any other, helped us to convey the strong message of the breaking bondage of a colonial past via the imagery of the Shackle elements and the emergence of Barbados as a new republic through the metaphor of the Barbadian Family. The rich brown tone of Corten Steel represented accurately the material that chains and manacles of the slave era were forged from. It was perceived that this material honestly captured the look and feel of the past, whilst still offering a low Maintenance option for what would be a public monument in a very well trafficked urban location in the Tropics.

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After an exhaustive search of possible suppliers for the Corten Steel elements in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, we were happy to choose Cambridge Corten© as the steel fabrication and supply specialist for the project. From the initial contact, through project consultation, through to installation, we found the approach taken by Mark and his team to be professional and timely. We were impressed that the Cambridge Corten© team were willing to undertake the creation of some unique forms and elements for the project that would have been outside their usual scope of work at that time. However, Mark brought a “can-do” attitude to the project and was able to meet and deliver on a demanding schedule that the project required to meet its opening date. In fact, the elements from Cambridge Corten© though classified as a long lead external item, as the elements had to be shipped from the UK, were the first finish elements to arrive in Barbados on time and within budget. The additional support offered by the company in ensuring on the ground advice was shared with the local installation contractor and their willingness to assist with
other areas of the project in supplying a specialist form for one of the concrete elements, ensured that the project was completed on time. The company’s attention to detail and quality was appreciated and as the first such installation of its kind in Barbados and possibly the eastern Caribbean, we the designers were impressed by their attitude to getting the job done correctly and on time.