A13 Artscape
London, England
Various artists, 1997-2004
The A13 Artscape is an ambitious public art project transforming 6 kilometers of the A13 motorway through the harsh urban landscapes of the industrial borough of Barking and Dagenham in east London.
Lead creative on the project, Irish architect Tom de Paor (b.1967), envisioned a linear park along, through and around the motorway which would ‘ fire your curiosity and make a whole new road experience’.
de Paor has collaborated with a number of artists on the project in his quest to choreograph this new environment for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers, both during the day at night. The composition includes earthworks, lighting, installations, sculptures and growing landscape elements, which link at the areas as well as punctuate the journey.
Particularly striking elements include Pump House by de Paor and Clare Brew at Movers Lane, Anu Patel’s subway approach and the Twin Roundabouts
At the interchange of the old A13, now the A1306, by Thomas Heatherwick (b.1970).
Heatherwick’s whimsical structures on the roundabouts look like the road’s tarmac has been pulled up into the sky.
Amy Dempsey
DESTINATION ART
University of California Press
Berkley Los Angeles
2006
ARTERIAL A13
ARTSCAPE PROJECT
Tom de Paor and Others
Barking and Dagenham, London (2004)
The Arterial A13 Artscape Project is one of the largest and most ambitious public
Art projects in the UK. Its aim was to improve the environment of the A 13, a major highway in Barking and Dagenham, by introducing artist- designed landscapes, greener verges, cycleways and footpaths, lighting schemes, refurbished subways, and landmark features to punctuate the route and signify a sense of place.
The project originated in the 1997 as a partnership between the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and Transport for London.
Architect Tom de Paor was commissioned as the lead artist/ designer, and it was he whom came up with the Arterial concept.
The project involved extensive public involved extensive public consultations and community involvement.
Tom de Paor describes the concept as a “strategy for the margins and edges of the
A13 trunk-road corridor, to choreograph serial and individual objects in space and produce a unified temporal experience… The vehicle windscreen acts as a moving proscenium within which the changing composition is constantly frame.
Arterial is a journey through interlinking imaginative landscape on a grand scale,
With ideas, themes and connections set up to fire our curiosity and make a whole new road experience.”
The individual pieces on the A13 make up the project are located on and off the roadside: junctions, roundabouts, subways, and community areas affected by the road, including parks and local housing estates. Individual projects range from the refurbishment of dark and neglected subways, new landscaping to create privacy from the road for residents and pedestrians and a new green areas of the public, lighting and sculptural installations, new public seating, and playgrounds.
The roll-call of designers and artists involved includes Thomas Heatherwick, MUF Architecture Art, Kinnear Landscape Architects, Graham Ellard, and Stephen Johnstone.
The project was a victim of its (perhaps) overambitious programme and local antisocial behavior, but is a brave attempt to tackle urban blight. The projects have benefit the local community directly in terms of facilities, but have also given them, and those driving past, a recognizable sense of identity.
NEW PUBLIC SPACES
Published in Great Britain in 2006 by Mitchell Beazley
Octopus Publishing