The City as Sculpture: From Skyline to Plinth, 2002

We are developing the idea of four seasonal ‘events’ per annum with Simon Faithfull and Sue Jones of the non-profit making arts group e-2 and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.

Several years ago, as a visiting professor to the TU Vienna, I ran a design programme based upon the notions of ‘a space before, a space between and a space after’. The essence of this programme dealt initially with the designer’s own memory of what constitutes space by asking them to design a space to be made. Then, with the investigation of the late 20th architectural space invader – advertising, and finally with an attempt to synthesise these two investigations to create a future architectural space.
There are parallels with the process of designing Whitecity.

In the case of Whitecity, the ‘space before’ has two characteristics – the local physical and social memory and the preconceptions of what characterises a ‘shopping centre’, most clearly communicated through the views of our client, Chelsfield.
The ‘space between’ is that part of the design process through which we are currently travelling – the design and planning process. Here, consideration of the media world – the role of promotion and advertising – and its inevitable invasion of the ‘space after’ is not yet at the forefront of our minds. Why? Probably because, like Lionni explained, we feel nobler than others when it comes to creating ‘space’. We know that the advertising teams and interior designers will arrive later, and we hope that our ‘architectural space’ is strong enough to:

a) keep its identity and character
b) remain exciting no matter what the changing world of fashion and commerce puts into it.

We have to remind our client and ourselves that memorable spaces are usually exciting, unique and of recognisable quality. They are spaces that are not static. People and events move through them like light and sound. They are spaces that are continually changing with time and the changing density of human activity within them, but they do not surrender their intrinsic and enduring qualities. Such spaces have immense potential to attract visitors. In a highly competitive marketplace, the creation of such spaces must be of value not only to the development itself, but also the locality and, in this case, London as well.
So we have come full circle. Architectural space is not in conflict with the commercial world, for ultimately, a measure of its quality is that it will attract the consumer. Architecture is, at a very different scale, to be consumed and hopefully retained in the memory. It is genuinely capable of transformation which gives it spatial sustainability.

When architects removed the places for sculpture on their buildings, sculpture found itself upon the city plinth – the pavement and the piazza. The piazza was designed to create space and distance to appreciate the architecture, not, to my knowledge, to create extra space for sculpture.
Since most sculpture is silent and still, it became, perhaps, an apt companion for the piazza – an area a little ‘removed’ from rushing metal and the dynamic of the city.
When not in a piazza or park, sculpture having hit the pavement finds itself occupying quirky left over spaces – a chance encounter with Elizabeth Frink’s Horse and Rider just along Piccadilly?

However, new piazzas of varying scale are becoming a luxury within the city and as the densified city emerges, probably fewer and smaller will be the reality. Canary Wharf’s Cabot Square is ‘filled’ with ‘urban’ water at its centre. There is no real sense of place, and the sculptures of Lynn Chadwick are edged out without relationship to the Square. Tinguley’s approach above IRCAM in Paris is both apposite and happy and contrasts with the corporate world’s approach to space and sculpture.

Someone commented that public art galleries and museums are like ‘hospitals for art’.
Maybe we should be advocating that hospitals are equally valid places for major art. I would support expanding the idea ‘art for hospitals’ as major urban spaces, both indoors and out.