Can-do creativity with the Cratefan

It bears a slight resemblance to the Incredible Hulk but the Cratefan in Jozi and Cape Town is no ordinary superhero.

Three years ago Porky Hefer and Warren Lewis at Animal Farm creative consultancy were playing with the toys they keep in the office to keep their minds young and imaginations active. The 2010 World Cup in the back of their minds, they had an “architectural foray with Lego” that resulted in the idea for the Cratefan.

Cratefan is a 16,5m, 25 ton "fan man" made using 2 500 standard Coca-Cola bottle crates.

But before fan man was realised, Hefer first had to convince Coca-Cola South Africa of the validity and awesomeness of the project. As a boon, it fitted in perfectly with Coca-Cola's recycling initiative “Live for a difference”, with its goal of recovering and reusing 50% of their packaging worldwide by 2015.

The project was managed by Art at Work Art Project Management, who fought tirelessly to keep the original scale and detail and to secure the awesome location of Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown, Johannesburg central, and the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.

Cratefan has a complex inner skeleton of scaffolding, which was worked out from 3D drawings, taking into account the final outer layer of crates, Hefer explains. All materials will be recycled or reused after the World Cup.

Now that the platform has been laid, even bigger ideas can be born. “Hopefully Cratefan gets reborn in other places around the world at events like the Olympics in London and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil,” Hefer says.

Three years ago Porky Hefer and Warren Lewis at Animal Farm creative consultancy were playing with the toys they keep in the office to keep their minds young and imaginations active. The 2010 World Cup in the back of their minds, they had an “architectural foray with Lego” that resulted in the idea for the Cratefan.

Cratefan is a 16,5m, 25 ton "fan man" made using 2 500 standard Coca-Cola bottle crates.

But before fan man was realised, Hefer first had to convince Coca-Cola South Africa of the validity and awesomeness of the project. As a boon, it fitted in perfectly with Coca-Cola's recycling initiative “Live for a difference”, with its goal of recovering and reusing 50% of their packaging worldwide by 2015.

The project was managed by Art at Work Art Project Management, who fought tirelessly to keep the original scale and detail and to secure the awesome location of Mary Fritzgerald Square in Newtown, Johannesburg central, and the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.

Cratefan has a complex inner skeleton of scaffolding, which was worked out from 3D drawings, taking into account the final outer layer of crates, Hefer explains. All materials will be recycled or reused after the World Cup.

Now that the platform has been laid, even bigger ideas can be born. “Hopefully Cratefan gets reborn in other places around the world at events like the Olympics in London and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil,” Hefer says.