When I started to make sketches for this area it was split up into different surfaces. There were planting with bushes, asphalt-covered surfaces for a car park and pavements with concrete slabs. The trees bore witness to the fact that it had been like this for a long time. There were other houses there as well, apart from a fire station. The space was now split up, the plaza had shrunk and become cluttered. The competition I participated in was really only about a sculpture that was to be placed by the entrance to the library, but I felt it was necessary to consider the entire scene.  

I cleared the plaza of everything except the trees, turning it into a large gravel area where you could walk in any direction you wanted. Some new trees were added to remove the patterns made up by the former arrangement. New objects were introduced, like islands, solitary entities, which would not be in the way but which made up a structure and gave the place character. At the entrance to the library I placed a fountain with placidly flowing water and a water surface just above the ground. The broad concrete rim is softly rounded; it is excellent to sit on and even to lie on. The plaza is framed by a pruned beech hedge, which turns pleasantly like a ribbon that you draw through the air with your hand – a dance with a slight delay of the soft folds of the ribbon as it floats through the air.  

Three seven meter high cones make up the sculpture itself. They were constructed from perforated rolled sheets of stainless steel at the city shipyard. At the bottom of every cone there is a source of light. The light is reflected at the top of the cone. The narrow slits in the sheets form screens that overlap each other, making up new patterns resembling the kind of moiré effect you get when looking through the overlapping nylon surfaces of sheer pantyhose. The light lends them a fleeting, magic quality. The cones become ethereal, light and unreal. In the daytime when the sun shines on the metal surfaces they seem very solid, almost obtrusively massive. The project had a low budget, but the clients were wonderful. They all felt that even if there were several buildings around the plaza it should be possible to create a common urban space.