Madeira Terrace Public Art Scoping Report, Brighton & Hove
Otherworlds…. Public Art Scoping Report
Year
2022-ongoing
Client
Brighton & Hove City Council
Services
Public Art Approach and Commission Management
Locations
Madeira Terrace
Brighton & Hove
A Public Art Scoping Report for Madeira Terrace
We have been appointed by Brighton & Hove City Council to work with the design team, led by Purcell, and devise a public art approach for this major heritage structure on Brighton & Hove seafront.
A phased approach is being adopted for this strategy, driven in part by the long-term phased conservation programme, with the potential to collaboratively develop artworks on the site over a longer term through partnership opportunities, co-production and with external funders.
This project and site provides an opportunity to respect the ecology and heritage of the Terrace, but to inject some playfulness and delight to an element of the fabric of the city that has been hidden for so long.
Brighton & Hove City Council’s ambition is to see the Terrace used as a year-round place for: local people; sustainable tourism; leisure; recreation and culture.
“We will take this opportunity to highlight the city’s existing amazing natural assets, combine these with the creative talent of residents and create something extraordinary, in the most sustainable way possible.”
The terrace was constructed in 1890 to provide a sheltered walk and to link Marine Parade with Madeira Drive. It is comprised of two principal parts, the shelter hall containing the lift, reading rooms and toilets and the two flanking sheltered walks. The two-tiered walkways are constructed in cast and wrought iron and formed of 152 arches supported on cast iron columns.
It was designed by Philip Causton Lockwood to maximise the experience of promenading, enable views out to sea and long distance views along the various levels of the walkway. It is said that you can sit on the upper terrace and see the curvature of the earth. The terrace is the longest cast iron structure in England, with a Brighton adaptation of Orientalism.
The layered structure and its interconnectivity with its landscape is also significant in particular its relationship with the pre-dating retaining wall and remnant landscaping including the oldest and longest green wall in the country. Over 100 species have been recorded here. Fully closed to the public in 2016 the planting in the arches has flourished and become verdant at both the lower level and on the deck.
Brighton & Hove City Council is undertaking this first phase of restoration to the west of the Madeira Terrace Shelter Hall (Concorde 2) to the steps opposite Royal Crescent. This section is half of the original Terrace, which was later extended.
“Otherworlds… will invite artists to consider and interrogate this site paying attention to what is beneath our feet, in the soil, the sea, and the rock to reimagine what the Eastern Seafront is and might be.”
Through a series of temporary and permanent commissions Otherworlds…. considers the unique and inspired site and structure of Madeira Terrace, its interconnectivity to the landscape and the enduring perseverance of its historic green wall, which lays claim to being the oldest and longest green wall in the country and is imagined here as a witness to our changing world and environment.
Like us, almost all plants are part of a social network. The green wall at Madeira Terrace is an intertwined habitat comprised of a mass of interacting components that rely on each other to function. Supported by a mycorrhizal network beneath our feet fungal threads enable neighbouring plants to be in continuous dialogue with one another, using fungi as pathways to exchange nutrients, minerals, water, carbon and nitrogen as well as warnings.
In this context proposals will be encouraged to think imaginatively about circular economies. Madeira Drive itself was built in the 1870s on levelled rubble, tipped over the 1830s sea wall and in the spirit of this act artists will be invited to demonstrate a consciousness in the reuse of materials.
See here for more information on the restoration project.
Commission Update:
Following a competitive process, we are working with a local artist to develop a winter light commission. More information will be provided here in due course.