Blowin' In The Wind

Greenwich Millenium Village, one of Europe’s largest regeneration projects, is a model of innovative sustainable community development for Thames Gateway, winning over thirty awards. Under the community development plan, residents selected ‘artworks’ for communal outdoor spaces from presentations by six selected artists & designers. My proposals were chosen for two of the four commissions. The proposed interventions drew visual references from research into local ecology and industrial history. But the physical interpretation of each addressed unique site-specific considerations – spatial relationships, sightlines and existing landscaping design languages, underpinned by sustainability.

‘Blowin’ in the Wind’is a permanently sited kinetic installation. Its physical form and visual language are developed from redefining the movement of reeds in the wind in adjacent wetlands, through the light qualities of broken glass shards from a nearby vandalised bus shelter. Sited centrally in the communal courtyard, the piece is visible day and night from most flats. Community involvement was key to the process. Residents were invited to encapsulate personal objects/messages in a resin-casting workshop, bestowing individual and collective significance. Castings were fixed randomly along the stalks between glass shards. Realisation involved many technical challenges. Working with specialist suppliers, materials were selected for durability, UV resistance and dynamic characteristics. UV and weather-resistant bonding between glass and stainless steel was particularly problematic, requiring several test iterations as no previous uses of this combination in dynamic conditions were located. Design dimensions and details were heavily influenced by safety considerations, requiring stress calculations and modelling. Most challenging was emulating the dynamic movement of reeds in the wind, only achievable through full scale mock-up/testing.