Suspended within the main entrance lobby of University Health’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Nest hovers at the center of the grand stair, occupying the vertical space as visitors arrive and move upward through the building. Encountered from multiple levels and viewpoints, the installation becomes a constant presence within the daily rhythms of the hospital.

Nest is a gravity-shaped thin-shell sculpture composed of thousands of slender aluminum elements woven into a porous volume measuring eight by eight by eighteen feet. At once protective and open—dense yet permeable—the form recalls the construction of a bird’s nest: an object made through accumulation and care, and a place of shelter, nurturing, and growth. The work also resonates with Priscila De Carvalho’s glass installation Mother Birds, reinforcing the hospital’s mission to support mothers and children through spatial and thematic connection.

The sculpture resists a single reading. Depending on viewpoint, it may suggest a nest, an artery, a woven basket, or a child’s toy. With no front or back, its circular form reveals a different character from every angle. As visitors ascend the stair, the branching interior frames shifting views of the double-height lobby, other occupants, and the exterior beyond the glass façade, creating moments of compression and release choreographed through the density of the weave.

Though organic in appearance, the form is resolved through physics-based simulation. Constructed from aluminum strips less than two millimeters thick, the structure relies on curvature and continuity rather than mass for stability. More than four thousand uniquely laser-cut elements are precisely positioned within a grid shell, their interior surfaces painted blue to deepen the sense of depth and enclosure.

Through scale, material, and movement, Nest introduces a sense of care and continuity into the hospital environment. The installation transforms passage through the lobby into a moment of quiet discovery—an experience shaped by protection, connection, and collective strength.

Photos: Mark Greenberg

More about the process:
Photos of the installation
Woven Assembly Prototypes
Form and Color