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Date: 2018 - 2021

Location: Oxford, UK

Project: Public Art Commission

Partners: Arcadis, Broxap, The Department of Education (DfE), Iffley Academy, Kier Construction Group, Pegasus Design, Oxford City Council, Stride Treglown Architects, The Galleries Trust

Artist: Jon Lockhart

We are pleased to be working in partnership with artist Jon Lockhart to develop site specific works for a large-scale capital works project – Iffley Academy in Oxford. Lockhart often creates work directly with the public through participatory events and collaborative activities and has been awarded major Arts Council England, British Council and Paul Hamlyn Foundation funding for various projects including a participatory arts programme for Tate Britain. 

PONY devised a Public Art Strategy, working closely with the Department of Education, Arcadis, Kier Construction and Stride Treglown Architects. We focused on the civic legibility of the school (a special academy for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities), where multi-sensory and landscaped interventions informed by the changing seasons and biophilic principles stimulate intellectual and physical interaction between communities, the natural ecology and surrounding protected conservation area. We worked with architects Stride Treglown and landscapers Pegasus Design to harmonise strategies and extend a sense of connection; ensuring an integrated public art scheme that is underpinned by immersive experiences.

A new 23 metre entrance walkway structure featuring laser cut tree branches and coloured roof will generate a sense of the unexpected through projected shapes and colours, producing an immersive installation interacting with natural light, transforming the originally static space. The manifestation opens up the sky as children travel along the path, enveloping those below in ‘Iffley violet’, providing psychological comfort and a direct connection to the school as students physically traverse towards the building’s entrance. The installation seeks to create a sense of community and cohesion offering a place to pause and connect as viewers become active participants of a multi-sensory artwork. It is both an object and an atmosphere, its appearance is not fixed, as it is predicated on the changing levels of luminance at any hour of the day and the movement of the students themselves.

Additionally, we also redesigned the entrance roundabout, taking inspiration from Iffley’s laneways and the River Thames course that navigates around the village, simultaneously influenced by a 6th Century Anglo-Saxon brooch discovered at the site, with references to the formal ‘mandala’ of the Academy’s logo. The evolved design complements the school’s desire to encourage environmental learning, with the addition of sensory planting that will attract bees and become a learning zone full of exciting things to touch and smell. We also worked closely with Pegasus Landscape Architects to ensure we enhanced the arrival sequence with the overall design and access objectives.

The £8,500,000 development is funded by The Department of Education and was completed in mid 2021.