The development of SA1 waterfront in Swansea aims to reconnect the Prince of Wales Dock to the rest of the city. The vision for SA1 is for it to be a ‘lively, attractive waterside destination, fostering a high standard of urban design and architecture with an emphasis on innovation, modernity and flexibility’. The Ice House Square forms a key public realm space in the waterfront development as well as a landing point for a new bridge by Wilkinson Eyre architects. The square forms a new strategic space that is capable of nurturing an accessible pedestrian city neighbourhood in what originally was conceived as a industrial dock area.
The placemaking quality of the ICE square is as much about connectivity and movement as it is about its social functions. As a key movement distributor the square supports the process of rediscovering spatial connections of the new neighbourhood as well as creates a memorable nigh time space that interacts and reacts to the presence of people. A lighting installation by artist Peter Fink developed with the landscape architects from Studio Fink creates an informal overlay over the paving grid using embedded LED programmable strip lighting. The presence of people in the square creates metaphorical rooms of light as well as accentuates the direction of their movement. When the light installation is not triggered it pulses gently with random flows of light and with individual programming on specific days such New Year, St Davids, Valentine …….
ICE Square | Swansea Wales | Studio Fink
Image & Text Credit | Studio Fink
