Fifteen designs shortlisted for the Shaping Water Competition

Fifteen designs have been shortlisted for the Shaping Water Competition, which invited ideas for a large-scale installation celebrating the essence of water for Clerkenwell Design Week.

The competition, which was organised by Dezeen in collaboration with Villeroy & Boch and Ideal Standard, attracted over 200 entries from 40 countries.

It challenged participants to create a striking, large-scale public installation for St John's Gate, a historic landmark in the heart of Clerkenwell, London.

Designers were asked to explore both the functional and aesthetic qualities of water, highlighting its dynamic nature and its transformative impact on wellbeing.

Proposals needed to respond to the context of the site while offering an engaging experience for Clerkenwell Design Week visitors and passersby alike.

A total of 15 designs have now been shortlisted and are in the running for the £5,000 prize pot, with the winning design set to be realised during this year's Clerkenwell Design Week. The winner will be revealed later this month.

The shortlisted entries are listed below in the order that they were submitted.

Formless
Chuxiong Feng
Boston, USA

Landscape architect Chuxiong Feng designed an installation that explores the essence of water through sound and tone. A central cluster of resin sound-pipes plays recordings of water from around the world, which is surrounded by a grid of resin tubes.

Tinted in blue and grey, the tubes shift in colour and transparency throughout the day as light moves across their surface, reflecting how water changes from one place to another.

"The installation offers a moment of pause and relaxation," Feng said. "Its abstract presence reflects the formless nature of water, inviting visitors to reconnect with its essence."

Colours Within
Sabina Blasiotti
Sabi Space
London, UK

Sabina Blasiotti, architect and director of Sabi Space, has proposed The Colours Within – a poetic installation that invites reflection on life's impermanence and the lasting imprint of our actions.

Four towering blocks of coloured ice would stand beneath St John's Gate, melting slowly over time. As they dissolve, natural pigments flow out, creating an evolving tapestry of colour on the ground, to symbolise the traces we leave behind.

The work invites quiet reflection on impermanence, presence and legacy. Like the gate itself – marked by layers of history – the installation would become a meditation on what remains after we're gone.

"Rather than competing for attention, the translucent blocks of coloured ice complement the St John's Gate presence, quietly inviting curiosity and drawing passersby to its centre," Blasiotti said.

Floating Field
Position Studio
New York City, USA

Floating Field is a concept by Position Studio that explores water's ability to sculpt terrains over time – from carved valleys, shifting coastlines and geological formations created through erosion and deposition.

The pavilion aims to represent this transformative power in an abstract way, using transparent PVC modules and a layer of flowing water to capture the fluidity and dynamism of water.

The installation would be composed of 90 prefabricated vacuum-formed PVC modules, which create shifting reflections and refractions as visitors pass by.

"We aim to translate water's transformation of the landscape into an abstract, formal typology, while embodying its characteristics through the transparency of the modules," said Poyao Shih, founder of the studio.

Living-Breathing
Kamilla Csegzi
New York City, USA

Architect Kamilla Csegzi's proposal Living-Breathing is an evolving ecosystem crafted from mycelium.

Everyday bathroom ceramics such as sinks and bathtubs are used as moulds to shape the mycelium structures, which have been layered to mimic water's natural movements to create organic forms that gradually transform in line with varying humidity levels.

"Living-Breathing embodies water's regenerative potential," Csegzi said. "Beyond its moment as an installation, it continues its life cycle in a fully circular process."

"The installation does not simply depict water's role in the world – it embodies it, evolving and dissolving just as water does across landscapes and time."

Legacy Mist
Vincent Yee Foo Lai
Temporary Office
New York City, USA

Temporary Office co-founder Vincent Yee Foo Lai has proposed an installation that honours Dr John Frost – a physician and botanist who founded St John's Hospital and the Medico-Botanical Society in the 19th century.

Visitors would pass through a cloud of vapour infused with the aroma of historically significant plants. In this context, the mist becomes a medicine, inviting visitors to pause, breathe and reconnect with their senses.

"As visitors pass through a cloud of botanically-infused vapour, they encounter not only the scented wisdom of global traditions but also an invitation to pause, breathe and feel – a contemporary act of public care," Lai said.

Echoes of the Well
Shift
London, UK

Design studio Shift proposed Echoes of the Well, a sound and water installation that aims to reconnect visitors with Clerkenwell’s lost springs and historic healing sites.

Three slip-cast ceramic towers, inspired by the forms of historic fountains and the Gothic architecture, emit water droplets, with the rhythmic sound of the drops creating a calming, sensory experience that evokes the area's historic connection to water.

The ceramic towers, made from three stackable parts, can be arranged in different formations. Their smooth, hard surfaces make the water sounds louder and clearer.

"These soft, meditative sounds echo the presence of Clerkenwell’s lost wells and springs, evoking the quiet reverberations of hidden water sources that once sustained the area," said Emilie Robinson, founder of the studio.

Echoes of Rain
Adrian Siu and Kay Tu
London, UK

Designers Adrian Siu and Kay Tu proposed a rainwater harvesting installation called Echoes of Rain, which features reclaimed glass petals arranged to channel rainwater from one to the next.

The delicately positioned petals are etched with wave-like patterns that echo the textured glass windows of St John's Gate. As raindrops land on the glass, they create a shifting soundscape shaped by the rhythm of the rain, before being channelled into a central reservoir to be used for watering nearby plants

"More than a functional system, Echoes of Rain invites passersby to see, hear and feel water in new ways, encouraging them to reconsider its significance beyond utility and embrace its poetic, ephemeral beauty," the designers said.

Harmonic Tides
Arthur Mamou-Mani
London, UK

Architect Arthur Mamou-Mani has designed Harmonic Tides, a glowing corridor formed from 3D-printed walls reminiscent of waves.

Each structure features a ripple-like geometry, informed by the hydrodynamic forms found in nature, such as river eddies and spiral ocean currents. The structure is made using sugar-based PLA, an industrially compostable bioplastic.

LED lights and gentle music enhance the sense of an underwater world to create a relaxing space for visitors to spend time in.

"Harmonic Tides explores the structuring principles of water and the universality of flows, celebrating the constant transformation and interconnectedness of natural systems," Mamou-Mani said.

Whistle Works
Alexandra Bellamy, Atim Kilama Oceng and Xing Sun
London, UK

Designers Alexandra Bellamy, Atim Kilama Oceng and Xing Sun have proposed a playful installation of musical glass sculptures that celebrates Clerkenwell’s industrial heritage and its transformation into a design hub.

Made from locally recycled glass, the vertical water flutes whistle gently as water flows through them, evoking the hidden River Fleet that once powered local trades.

By day, the colourful glass sculptures would catch and refract sunlight into the water pools. By night, soft integrated lighting would keep the sculptures subtly glowing.

"Whistle Works reimagines water not as a utility, but as a source of rhythm, delight and wellbeing – shaping water into sound, form and experience," the designers said.

Water Tales
Rekha Barry-Houston, Szymon Milczarek and Maria Trif
Chapman Taylor
Manchester, UK

Architects Rekha Barry-Houston, Szymon Milczarek and Maria Trif from studio Chapman Taylor have proposed a concept called Water Tales, which comprises two contrasting arched spaces made from cardboard tubes that invite visitors to consider the issue of water scarcity.

The first space is stark and dry, evoking absence, while the second is lush and immersive, filled with plants and sounds of water.

The tubes are shaped into pointed arches that echo the Gothic architecture of the site. Strategic openings in the structure invite visitors to look up and experience "forest-bathing" – a calming, nature-immersive experience shown to boost wellbeing.

"The fluid form of the proposal mirrors the dynamic flow of water," the designers said. "As visitors move through the space, they hear relaxing sounds of water and tales of water played through the tubes."

"This auditory element enhances the experience and draws attention to the critical issue of water scarcity."

The Feeling Well
Madeleine Erb, Humzah Uzzaman and Jennifer Yu
Landor
London, UK

Madeleine Erb, Humzah Uzzaman and Jennifer Yu from design practice Landor have proposed a meditative installation called The Feeling Well, which explores how water can shape our mental and emotional landscape over time.

As visitors watch water droplets fall onto a block of salt, they would see it gradually dissolve, symbolising how emotions can transform us. Inspired by the site's history as a place of ritual and purification, the installation would use water as a symbol of renewal and emotional balance.

Over the three-day event, visitors would be able to scan a QR code to share how they're feeling. Each input releases a droplet from above, slowly shaping a unique salt landscape to represent a physical map of collective emotional states.

"Each drop of water carries the potential for renewal, softly washing away the weight of negative emotions and allowing space for growth," the designers said. "Just as water has the power to carve through rock, it also holds the potential to heal, restore and rebalance."

A Drop in the Ocean
Matthew Pratt
MAP Works
London, UK

MAP Works founder Matthew Pratt has proposed a sculptural installation that represents a single droplet of water made of cascading acrylic cylinders.

Suspended in mid-air, the droplet appears frozen in time and fragmented, creating shifting reflections that surround visitors in light and movement.

The cylinders are arranged using a phyllotaxic pattern – a natural growth structure found in plants – to reflect harmony and efficiency in design. Each piece would be precision-cut and fitted into a waterjet-cut steel base.

"This installation is a powerful encapsulation of water, demonstrating its transformative and unifying essence, to invite visitors to pause, reflect and immerse themselves in the beauty and significance of water," Pratt said.

SinkSong
Andre Kong Studio
London, UK

Architect Andre Kong's proposal SinkSong transforms everyday washbasins into a sculptural celebration of the meditative quality of water in motion.

Informed by pebble stacks, bird baths and cascading waterfalls, it features three rising columns of varying heights made from stacked white ceramic basins, each skewered onto a central steel pole.

At the summit of each column, water flows gently from one basin to the next in a hypnotic cascade, gathering in a pool below before being drawn back up to begin its circular journey again.

"Designed with modularity in mind, SinkSong is both a sculptural installation and a reusable, adaptable system," Kong said.

"It's an exploration of material reuse, impermanence and the possibilities of simple components coming together to create something beautiful, greater than the sum of their parts."

The Waves of Stillness
Identity Designers
London, UK

London studio Identity Designers has proposed an immersive installation exploring the essence of water in stillness and in motion.

Designed as a walkthrough experience, the installation comprises two contrasting spaces: a quiet, inner sanctuary inspired by the underwater world and a dynamic outer zone echoing the fast pace of the outside world.

The inner space features curved paths, reflective surfaces, soothing water sounds and ocean scents to encourage slow, mindful movement.

In contrast, the outer space reflects constant motion through small reflective sheets powered by the wind, which move and shimmer continuously, capturing the dynamic nature of water and urban life.

"The beauty of this installation lies in its duality," the studio said. "The inner space provides calm and stillness, while the outer space embodies motion and energy. Like water itself, these two sides coexist, each shaping and enhancing the other."

Rain is the Most Common Form of Conversation
Deniz Ozcan, George Gedeon, Max Lalande Danciger
London, UK

Designers Deniz Ozcan, George Gedeon and Max Lalande Danciger's proposal aims to transform London's constant rainy weather from an everyday annoyance into a reason to pause, gather and reflect.

The installation, which mimics rain so people can gather and enjoy the sound and feel of it, comprises an upper platform that releases water to simulate rain. A second platform below catches and redirects the water into tanks, where it would be pumped back up to repeat the cycle.

"The installation celebrates what we seem to despise the most as a form of water within the everyday, yet acknowledges it as a big part of our urban culture," the designers said.

"As it continues to rain, we shall never run out of things to say to each other during a brief encounter in the elevator."

Partnership content

The Shaping Water Competition is organised by Dezeen in partnership with Villeroy & Boch and Ideal Standard. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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