The New Cathedral

Lidl facade (are supermarkets the new cathedrals?)

Installation day at Lidl, Berwick Green, South Gloucestershire.

I did a series of opaque window vinyls for a Lidl store in South Gloucestershire, where an art commission is a planning permission requirement, in 2017 (see link here) and again this year. In both cases these are not really windows, which I found depressing until a comment from an ultra positive friend who pronounced these architectural features to be “a lovely idea”. I certainly don’t often get the chance to work on such an exhilaratingly large scale.

Both windows installed. Each panel measures 4.62 × 1.14 metres.

My design presents a series of windows, slightly changing in colour, with views of a waterside path and a road bordered by local views under a cloudy sky. The sequence is broken up by the actual window frames and, as a counterpoint, by columns of trees where the colour scheme is reversed. The details are taken from my drawings of the area which is on the north west edge of Bristol and contains a network of routes, both visible and historical. Not only roads and motorways, but also a rail network, an airfield and a stream that I followed down to the River Avon.

View from across the A4018

Computer screen shot of the design

Because the windows will mostly be viewed by car passengers rather than pedestrians, it is the overall design and the colour scheme that is the most crucial. The colours on my illuminated screen (above) are never exactly the same as the printed version which exists in the real world with changing light conditions and the occasional reflection, apart from that there is no difference between the design and the vinyl artwork. I’m happiest with the top section where you can see - although you’ll need binoculars or a zoom lens - a row of buildings wedged between cloudy vegetation and a six lane highway.

Detail, on the screen and on the window.

Approach corridor

Vinyl/glass/vinyl window at Manchester Children’s Hospital: 1800 mm square.

Sunburst was not the title intended for the piece I have just installed in a white corridor leading to the paediatric mortuary at Manchester Children’s Hospital. However in the record breaking February sunshine this week and framed by the corrugated sides of the hospital building outside, it glows like a gentle star. As you can see in the photo below left, dramatic shadows and colours are cast on to the floor - surely the best thing about stained glass. Evidently I hadn’t dared imagine the effect would be so good as the collage of my design on to the photo of the space shows (below right).

Left: Feature window at the entrance to the paediatric mortuary. Right: Photomontage of the same space.

This feature window is part of a commission for artworks in the series of rooms that make up the mortuary. It was almost two years ago when I designed the work following consultation with staff and bereaved families and to a brief that asked for the artwork to be abstract, with no representational imagery and using gentle colours and shapes. Last month I wrote about the colour scheme and the door vision panels; there will be more on the wall designs (digitally printed wallpaper), wall panels and viewing windows when the new furniture arrives to complete the rooms later on.

Below is a page of sketches showing the development of the design for the feature window. I was concerned about working with - rather than fighting against - the horizontal bars and not blocking the wonderful view.

12 sketches showing development of the design

Window detail: vinyl on the left in this picture.

The feature window is made up of a hefty piece of laminated and toughened printed glass (2500 x 780 x 17mm) flanked by two pieces of printed transparent vinyl applied to the surface of the existing window. I hadn’t tried this combination up against each other before, and was apprehensive that the colours on the vinyl would look weak against the sparkling enamels on the glass. But they compliment each other well, the white/shadows are just as strong, and the pattern cast on the floor is colourful but subtle.

Drive By Design

Driving along Cecil Road

This is the first part of my commission for a new Lidl store in Kingswood, South Gloucestershire. The side of the building is on a residential street, so the standard elevation has been enlivened with a series of "windows" and a design printed on opaque vinyl that links the three sets of panels with ribbons of colour and pattern.  

As you can see from the two sets of designs above, things change during the building process. Where there were four windows per set, there are eventually five. Where the landscape design took account of these windows, in the end it didn't and there was a fence with a banner on it partly obscuring the end windows that announced the opening of the shop in November (below).

However, I am happy with my design. The geometry goes well with the grids of the building and the fence, the stars in various forms link with the lines of trees and upright posts and the colour scheme looks just right under the grey or the blue sky. In the details taken from the partially obscured windows (who knows, the banner may have been removed by now) you can see different types of stars and details from local buildings both printed and reflected in the vinyl.