Strand East Tower the 40m landmark at Danes's Yard, Stratford - London

Designed by ARC-ML architects and engineers eHRW, the sculpture will have a beautiful slender form made up of a simple wooden lattice of 72 twisted, diagonal laths and 16 horizontal galvanised steel rings. It will narrow in the centre to form a hyperboloid shape, just 6.3m wide, opening out to 8.3m wide at the top. This shape creates a self-supporting structure which needs no further internal support, creating a light, transparent sculpture, held together by 32,000 bolts.
Visible from many points around Stratford, by day the sculpture will be left in its natural blonde wooden colour and at night it will be lit from over 600 LED lights within the sculpture which are fully controllable in both intensity and colour and which can be programmed to achieve a range of effects.

Ikea, the Swedish furniture giant, is to build its first neighbourhood in Britain at the 26-acre canal-side Dane's Yard.
Strand East will include 1,200 houses, nearly half of which will be family homes, as well as shops, cafés and a 350-room hotel – all linked by car-free walkways.

Those preferring to make their way by river will be able to use moorings, a water taxi service and even a floating cocktail bar. Cars will be parked underground, while rubbish will be removed by underground suction tunnels.

It is the second biggest private investment in the Olympic Park after the Westfield shopping centre, and will be the first major British development for LandProp, part of the Inter Ikea Group, the company's investment arm.

Other members of the multi-disciplinary team designing and constructing Strand East tower include:
• Wood Beton S.p. A (Italy) – Contractor
• Hoare Lea Lighting – Lighting Designers
• Traxon – Lighting Suppliers
• Lighting Technology Projects – Lighting Installers