United Kingdom
Gardens themselves.^8 This team was augmented
not just by the artists, who were brought in at an
early stage, but also by various in-house engineers
- highways, electrical and structural. Where special-
ist knowledge did not exist within the authority, it
was recruited from outside. A company of water
engineers called Invent was consulted regarding the
fountains and pumps while the lighting design was
in part undertaken by a company called Equation.
The construction was overseen by a management
contractor, Tilbury Douglas Construction Ltd (now
known as Interserve).
A significant difference between this project and
the Blue Carpet is that, in this case, no individual
seems to have been the sole driving force behind
the design, which seems to have emerged instead
through a protracted series of meetings and discus-
sions. The process does not seem to have been an
easy one. Most designers recoil in horror from the
idea of design by committee, but Lyn Mitchell admits
that ‘It was designed by committee. Every single
decision went through about a hundred hoops. The
politicians had their say, everyone had their say and
there was public consultation.’^9 The designers look
back on the process like war veterans. ‘It was very
complex and painful’, says Mitchell.
Responding to the public’s desire to see a replace-
ment for the Goodwin Fountain, the design team
opted for an array of jets which would spring from
ground level. There would be no basin of water to
collect litter or fill up with suds in the manner of the
old fountain and the design had the advantage that
the jets could easily be switched off if the central
area was required for another purpose (in this way
a vestige of the ‘entertainment space’ concept
remained).
Although the water in the rills appears to flow
into the fountain, there are actually two separate
circulation systems. Similarly, while it appears that
the eight large bronze vessels carry a large quan-
tity of water, the reservoir tanks are in fact below
ground. One ingenious feature of the system is
that it adjusts according to weather conditions. An
anemometer attached to one of the lamp columns
measures wind speed and can initiate a progressive
shutdown. On calm days everything will work, but
as the wind speed starts to rise, the flow from the
spouts will be reduced and the height of the jets is
reduced. On really windy days the spouts and the
fountains cut out altogether although water will still
flow along the rills, thus overcoming the risks and
inconvenience of blown spray which is so often a
problem in the British climate.
The generous budget for the project and the
emphasis on quality rather than economy meant
that a circular plan could be adopted, even though
