Client: Westfield Stratford City

Location: London, United Kingdom

Completion date: 2011

Artwork budget: $2,000,000

Project Team

Client

Westfield Stratford

Westfield Stratford

Other

London Borough of Newham

Overview

Digital Fountain captures the essence of water both visually and acoustically, relaying the effect digitally through a unique combination of glass, aluminium and LCD technology.

Between the 12m high ‘Water Fall’ sculpture and the seven 8m long ‘Water Rill’ benches, seven thousand LCD screens are individually programmed to fade in and out in a liquid manner. In addition, seventy-four speakers are individually orchestrated to provide a complementary soundscape.

The programming behind the scenes only describes the personality of the artwork, never its precise motion. This results in a continuously evolving, never-repeating audio-visual cascade.

Goals

Digital Fountain fulfils a Section 106 agreement. It was commissioned to contribute a cultural attraction which would give something back to the community by providing a sense of pride and added local interest. Referencing the River Lea, that once ran through the site, the sculpture offers movement and animation while avoiding the difficulty associated with using real water. The integrated design contributes to the overall wayfinding and navigation strategy of the Westfield Stratford Shopping Centre providing a point of reference where, today, people often wait to meet one another, have lunch or relax in the sunshine.