Water from 150 km Away
Installation, 2025
London, UK
Design: ZHANG Jie
It‘s an interactive spatial installation that reconnects London with the distant origins of its most iconic river. Composed of timber framing, mirrored surfaces, and projection, the work brings the headwaters of the River Thames—located 150 kilometers away—into the everyday streetscape of London, creating a moment that is both quietly surreal and spatially dramatic.
Rather than treating water as an abstract motif, the installation draws from a specific and meaningful source. The project focuses on Lyd Well, the spring near the villages of Coates and Kemble where the River Thames begins its journey toward London. Although the river flows not far from St John’s Gate, this origin remains largely unseen and unknown to most of the city’s residents.
The installation records the movement, texture, and sound of the river near Thames Head, reinterpreting them within a mirrored projection environment at St John’s Gate. By experiencing this distant water source within the urban fabric, visitors are invited to re-examine their relationship with familiar landscapes and the ecological systems that sustain the city.
For ease of construction, sustainability considerations, and potential reuse, the installation uses no actual water. Instead, the river’s surface is rendered through projected imagery, while two angled mirrors above create a doubled, shimmering field of reflected movement. Along the edges of the projection, low vegetation evokes the natural ecology of a riverbank.
Stepping beneath the structure, visitors find themselves immersed in the flowing visuals—an encounter that feels as though one is wading into the river itself, experiencing a landscape both remote and unexpectedly present.
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Focus on the themes of publicness and theatricality within everyday spaces.
Outstanding Proposal (2023, China)Zhoushan Hello Islands Installation Competition
Honorable Mention (2023, Italy)
Reuse Italy Competition
Honorable Mention (2022, Estonia)
Tallinn Architecture Biennale-Vision Competition
Shortlist Nomination (2021, USA)
Ann Arbor Art Center-Alley Project
First Place (2020, UK)
Bubble Future Competition
Second Place (2019, India)
Archasm Competition
Members
ZHANG Jie / 张婕is a spatial designer and artist based in Shanghai. She trained as an architect at Huaqiao University and the University of Hong Kong from 2013 to 2020. Since relocating to Shanghai in 2020, she has focused on small-scale installations and spatial design, while continuously providing commercial interior design services for retail companies and government projects.
YANG Chen / 杨晨 is an architectural designer and illustrator based in Florence. He studied architecture at Huaqiao University (2013-2018) and Politecnico di Torino (2019-2021), and has worked at WNA Architects in Torino and ACE Srl. in Florence.
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