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Global street artists have harnessed the effectiveness of powered access from Nationwide Platforms to create Europe’s largest open air art gallery.

40 artists from Europe and North America used the equipment during a four-day street art festival in Bristol which saw 12 multi-storey buildings transformed into permanent works of art.

To help the spectacle take shape, Nationwide Platforms provided a range of platforms and working at height expertise, ensuring that even the tallest of buildings could become huge canvasses for the giant graffiti works.

Key facts

• A total of three 11.5 metre diesel scissor lifts were used where artists could gain clear access “straight up” the sides of the buildings. This type of platform proved ideal as it enabled two artists to reach the required heights at the same time

• An additional four boom lifts provided “up and over” access to heights above obstacles, including two articulating Niftylift Height Rider units providing access to 12 metres, and two Genie units enabling the artists to reach up to around 27 metres

• Supplementing this, three Bronto truck mounted platforms giving access to 43, 45 and 50 metres respectively were used to give the artists access to the highest points of the buildings, as well as being used by the national media to gain coverage of the whole event from a birds-eye view

• The truck mounted platforms were also managed and controlled by two fully-trained machine operators, leaving the graffiti artists to focus fully on their tasks

• Many of the machines used at the festival were deployed from Nationwide Platforms’ Bristol depot, a 2.2 acre site which is home to around 700 powered access units

Case StudyStreet Art Project, Bristol