ARTIST John O’Rourke

ARTWORK Sentius Tectonicus

LOCATION Tyneside, England

YEAR 2016

The Centurion is a 2.8m high sculpture of a Roman soldier, constructed from Corten steel, that will mark Segedunum Roman Fort in Tyneside. The sculpture ties the Roman heritage of the site to the more recent industrial past.

We were approached by artist John O'Rourke, who had been working on the half scale plywood sculpture, and were commissioned to reverse engineer the artwork creating blueprints for a full scale steel replica. This involved digitally drawing the 575 components, before resizing them and then producing two sided cut templates in preparation for water jet cutting of the components. Modelling the sculpture digitally allowed the artist to make modifications to his sculpture, quickly and through 3D visualltions, provided confidence in his alterations.