Sykes Get Artistic!

Sykes recently completed the installation of an impressive piece of structural artwork at the LSE, located on its Legacy Garden upon the 6th floor terrace of their Centre Building in London. The artwork was the result of a competition held by the LSE to design a living, breathing space that invites people to use it, in honour of Mayling Birney who was a professor at LSE in the Department of International Development.

The piece consists of two triangular shaped triangular infinity pools with a number of inverted stainless-steel ‘shards’ set in them, and through the middle of the ponds there is a ‘road’ with plum blossoms etched into it. The winning artists says that the idea is that “The Chorus of Ripples provides a place for meditation, and through the refraction of mirrors from diff­erent angles, you will see the world and yourself from di­fferent perspectives.”

Sykes engaged with a Somerset based fabrication company called Inspired Metals for the ponds and shards, as they specialise in bespoke metalwork and fine art sculpture and this project was outside the remit of our regular fabricators. Our works consisted of clearing the hardstanding from the pond area, crane lifting the ponds and shards into position, installing etched paving slabs in the central walkway, and finally filling the ponds with water and adding a black colouring dye to create a reflective surface and to prevent algae.

The finished installation looks very impressive!