Bronze Plaques
By Marina Willer, commissioned by Tideway
Marina Willer of design studio Pentagram has been commissioned by Tideway to create a unifying identity for a series of bronze plaques for 12 of Tideway’s sites across London. A cropped version of the identity will also feature on the lower section of wayfinding totems.
Marina has been tasked with creating a unique artwork that expresses the transformational importance of the Thames Tideway Tunnel for London and celebrates the effort and engineering of over 30,000 people to bring about a cleaner River Thames.
In response to the brief Marina has developed a moiré interference pattern–produced by overlaying similar but slightly offset patterns–that features a central disc as the primary element. The interruptions across it’s surface will be emphasised by changes in the levels of bronze relief, and are strongly evocative of the movement of water and the circular form of the tunnel itself.
Inscribed along the outer perimeter of the plaques are the words ‘THAMES TIDEWAY TUNNEL CONSTRUCTED 2016–2025’ to mark the tunnel’s construction period and the triumphant statement ‘A HIDDEN FEAT OF ENGINEERING AND THE WORK OF 20,000’.
Each plaque will measure 600 x 600 mm. In the West the plaques will be found at Putney Embankment Foreshore,King George’s Park and Carnwarth Road Riverside; moving into Central London they will be present at,Chelsea Embankment Foreshore, Heathwall Pumping Station, Albert Embankment Foreshore,Victoria Embankment Foreshore and Blackfriars Bridge Foreshore; and in the East they will be found at Chambers Wharf, Earl Pumping Station, Deptford Church Street and King Edward Memorial Park.
