1999

product design

** millennium products award **

winner of the Millennium Products Award

SPRING is a free-standing drinking fountain, for external use in private or public spaces.

It is both a public utility and a sculpture. SPRING is inspired by water, its qualities of dynamism and reflection. At the touch of a hand, a jet of water flows up.

The design challenge was to create an object slender enough to intrigue but precise enough to function.

The touch sensitive function required development of a special mechanical switch, sealed to meet the standards of the Water Research Council. The deceptively strong tapering profile is manufactured in external grade Stainless Steel, with the fountain housing laser-cut to an accuracy of up to 0.4mm.

SPRING belongs to a family of street furniture developed to colonise the city at a human scale, developed with Eric Parry at Cambridge University.

In 1999 SPRING was selected as one of the most innovative products and services in Britain. The Millennium Products initiative was created by the Design Council to identify, encourage and promote UK innovation, and was launched by the Prime Minister.

Six SPRING fountains have been installed within the parks and streets of the Greenwich Peninsula in London.