Materials Stay in Use, Value Stays in the System – How Artist Niamh Hannaford Turned Circularity Principles into Contemporary Art at Canary Wharf – 23.09.26

Waste from a Canary Wharf construction project returned to the live site it came from this weekend in its new form, a suspended sculpture demonstrating the principle that if materials stay in use, value stays in the system.  

Titled Ní chronaítear an t-uisce go dtriomaítear an tobar, the sculpture and performance piece by Irish artist Niamh Hannaford demonstrates how materials that might otherwise be discarded can be recovered, reused and transformed into something unexpected. Using materials found inside the scaffolding, glass sheets, crane straps, and construction debris of One North Quay and Wood Wharf construction sites, alongside dock water and sunlight as active materials, Hannaford reimagines elements of the building process as sculptural installation, mobilising the assemblage of reclaimed materials through performative maintenance. Echoing the potential of repetitious effort by enacting environmental glimmers – a breath – a stretch – a break – for those that are tense of body. 

The decision to site the work within a live construction site, rather than a gallery, was deliberate. Visitors encountered the sculpture surrounded by the same scaffolding, hoarding and raw structure the materials were drawn from, closing the distance between a building’s waste and what that waste can become. 

It is the second occasion on which CWG has brought together the worlds of construction and public art. Studio KCA’s Whale on the Wharf, a permanent 11-metre sculpture of a breaching blue whale, was crafted from plastic waste collected from beaches in Hawaii. Less visible, but arguably more significant, is what sits beneath the water. The sculpture’s base uses an innovative concrete mix incorporating biochar made from spent coffee grounds collected from Canary Wharf retailers, nicknamed “bio-espresso”, locking carbon absorbed during the coffee plants’ growth into the structure itself. 

Both artworks are visible expressions of an approach to material reuse that runs deeper across Canary Wharf. CWG has brought waste management in-house to reduce waste across the district and has sent zero waste to landfill from managed areas since 2009. The same thinking governs the structural work: 2,500 tonnes of demolition material from the century-old false quay on the One North Quay site were crushed into recycled concrete aggregate and reused in the slab of a residential building in the Wood Wharf neighbourhood. From a building’s slab to a sculpture suspended inside a live construction site, the principle holds. Materials stay in use, and value stays in the system. 

Niamh Hannaford, Visual Artist, commented: “This work could not be built alone, many hands have held and supported it. From passers-by on the street, to my friends and family, and of course, Lowri and the construction team, who supported my vision with an openness needed to realise an event such as this.  

After living with my material collection I grew to feel a kinship with these materials that hold so much. The sticky residue of global supply, held together with my own personal histories. Lifting and lugging them. As I washed and tended to my hoard aboard my floating home, I watched the buildings from which they emerged swell and grow. I thought, how amazing would it be to bring this work back to the site that birthed it and install it there.  

The whole process was joyful, working with the team assembled within an active construction site. The logistics associated with this added a layer to the work that cannot exist in other contexts. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to everyone who helped make Ní chronaítear an t-uisce go dtriomaítear an tobar possible. Go raibh maith agaibh.” 

Lowri Harries, Associate Curator at CWG, said: “It was such a joy to watch our visitors take in Niamh’s creative use of materials and make the connection between the sculpture and the construction site around them. Our decision to place the sculpture inside One North Quay was deliberate to land the idea of circularity and how the principles are being deployed at Canary Wharf to make something truly beautiful. As Canary Wharf transitions from a linear to a circular economy, we’re finding art, such as Ní chronaítear an t-uisce go dtriomaítear an tobar, and Studio KCA’s Whale on the Wharf (Skyscraper) is one of the best ways we have of making that visible, and we hope it encourages people to see value where they’d assumed there was waste.” 

One North Quay is a 23-storey, 823,000sq ft vertical science and innovation campus designed by renowned architects Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) and developed in partnership with Kadans Science Partner. The 23-storey landmark development will bring together laboratories, research spaces, start-ups and established science and innovation businesses under one roof.