Location: St Paul’s Cathedral, London, UK
Type: Public Art Installation
Collaboration: Umut Baykan
Fabricator: RASKL
Engineer: ARUP
Client: London Festival of Architecture / Cheapside Business Alliance
Budget: £12,500
Rose
Rose is the winning design for the London Festival of Architecture’s signature installation at St Paul’s Cathedral. Designed by Nick Tyrer and Umut Baykan. The judging panel unanimously agreed that the winning scheme successfully brings colour to an anonymous traffic island, offering city workers and visitors of all ages a moment to look up and down and to view a piece of the city through a different lens.
The project is being developed with ARUP engineers and RASKL fabricators, set for installation in May, and will be on site until 2021.
Concept:
St Paul’s cathedral (1669-present) is not the oldest cathedral at this site, it is not even the oldest with that name. ‘Old’ St Paul’s Cathedral (1087-1666) reigned over medieval London for nearly 600 years.
Our plinth design is inspired by the key feature that is omitted in Sir Christopher Wren’s redesigned cathedral; the much-celebrated Rose window that was lost in the Great Fire of London.
Rose is a contemporary interpretation of this nearly forgotten stained-glass window. A playful reminder to the public about our collective narrow perception of time. Offering visitors, a moment of reflection on our place in history, to re-evaluate the issues that collectively face us and the planet.
Design:
Suspended from the St Paul’s Gateway, Rose spirals overhead, creating overlapping petal geometries in a bright and colourful form. The installation is made of hundreds of panels, the depth varying to create a dome.
The panels are clad in a dramatic dichroic film, a material that reflects and refracts light in a startling spectrum of colour. Creating a brilliant range of colours dependent on viewing angle.
Our aim is to not only create a beautiful object, but to make a spatial experience to bathe the pavement in a kaleidoscope of colours that change throughout the day.