Bryden Wood win Paul Cadden art commission with [tectiva] Graphite

In January 2021 we launched [tectiva] Graphite. The darkest colour in the stylish, muted range.

As part of the launch EQUITONE ran a competition to win a bespoke artwork by award-winning and celebrated hyper-realistic Graphite artist, Paul Cadden. The lucky winner of the competition was Cristina Portoles, an Architect at Bryden Wood, London.

After much careful deliberation, Cristina decided on The Forge project to be used as the basis for the artwork.

												The Forge, copyright Paul Cadden

The subject of the artwork, The Forge (designed and engineered by Bryden Wood, and developed by Landsec), is the world’s first major commercial building to be designed and constructed using the pioneering Platform approach to Design for Manufacture and Assembly (or P-DfMA). The piece captures an “in-progress” moment of the building, which has now ‘topped out’ at nine storeys high.

The highly acclaimed P-DfMA approach brings all sorts of benefits including using 46% less steel overall, a reduction in embodied carbon of 25%, and increased productivity. In fact, this will be the UK’s first commercial building to be Net Zero in both construction and operation (in line with the UKGBC’s definition).

Cristina from Bryden Wood said:

“I was so surprised to win the competition. I was lucky that I had lots of amazing projects to choose from, but I think I chose well, given that this is such a landmark project. Paul has done such a wonderful job. I just have to find the best spot in the office to display it!

“The platforms approach is also about to be mandated by the government for all social infrastructure projects, so the Forge is really a key event in construction. Capturing this moment in its build is pretty special!”

Click here to find out more about Bryden Wood’s project

View more of Paul Cadden’s stunning hyper-realistic artworks here