British architecture studio Stanton Williams looked to ancient and historical communal designs when creating Henge, a sculptural stone installation that is on display in Canary Wharf as part of London Design Festival.
Located at Wren Landing in London's business hub Canary Wharf, the monolithic Henge installation comprises thirty 2.4-metre-high stone slabs, each weighing 300 kilograms and made from Jurassic limestone.
These stand on plywood seats and have been slotted together by structural engineers Webb Yates using computer-cut pieces of plywood to form a circle overlooking a canal.
Thirty slabs of Jurassic limestone make up the installation
Stanton Williams worked with stone supplier LSI Stone, Webb Yates and design agency Experimentadesign on the project, which was designed and built in just six weeks and assembled like "a child's toy". "We had to get a special, very small crane to lift the stone into place with all the trees around," Stanton Williams co-founder Alan Stanton told Dezeen.
"They managed to assemble it so it all goes together ? a little bit like a child's toy."
Henge was placed within an existing circle of trees
The way in which people surrounding a performer make "architecture with their bodies" was one of the main influences on the circular design, which Stanton hopes will be used both for performances and as a place to rest.
"We have a photograph taken from the top of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, looking dow...