Mount Street, one of London’s (and the world’s) epicentres of style and fashion, has recently welcomed ‘Silence’, an elegant water feature designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, after a joint commission by property developer Grosvenor and the Connaught hotel, in partnership with Westminster City Council.
The feature, delivered in collaboration with UK architects Blair Associates, generates clouds of mist that erupt from the base of two trees in a raised granite-edged pool in front of the Connaught Hotel in Mayfair. Atomisers hidden at the base of the trees create clouds of water vapour every 15 minutes. At night, the vapour effect is illuminated by glass lenses located just below the surface of the water.
The unveiling of the piece celebrates the end of the first phase of a £10 million programme to improve key arteries across London’s Mayfair and Belgravia neighbourhoods, with the understanding that the space between buildings is as important as the buildings themselves. In the case of the area that comprises Ando’s ‘Silence’, unnecessary signage has been removed and pavements upgraded and extended, with two new pedestrian areas introduced to the street.
These improvements to Mount Street, home to fashion stores such as Balenciaga, Christian Louboutin, Lanvin, and Marc Jacobs, were delivered through an innovative funding arrangement. Westminster City Council invested the funds needed to pay for the work with Grosvenor delivering the improvements. After five years from completion of the works, Grosvenor will make a refund to Westminster equivalent to the project cost.
Photographs by Adrian Brookes
