Select a region
A £2.5m block of flats more than seven metres above the ground has been unveiled among towering pieces of public art at the Waterfront.
As part of the Government’s ‘Percentage for Homes’ scheme, ‘Faceless Flats’ - a piece of construction designed by Danish architect Norman Carlsberg - now fills the space between the dozens of sculptures around the Harbour.
‘Faceless Flats’ joins ‘Castle Quay’, ‘Horizon’ and ‘Albert Place’ as token gestures of public living space which developers are forced to produce, when really they just want to build more quirky art that no one gets or appreciates, such as ‘Pointless Spike’, ‘Tree from Sleepy Hollow’ and the immersive piece of modern art: ‘Hurricane Force Wind Tunnel.
Artist Lord Carlsberg said that with ‘Faceless Flats’, he was trying to blend the joys of bijou living with the rich expense of home ownership.
He said: “St. Helier should be celebrated for what it is - a disjointed hotpotch of buildings which has evolved without any sense of purpose or joined-up thinking.
“The beauty of the Town is that it takes a keen eye to find that charm; you really need to sweat to find its allure.”
He added: “Looking down from Fort Regent, which no one knows what to do with, you gaze across at Town’s opposite shoulder, Westmount, which no one knows what to do with.
“Your eyes then sweep to the north of the bowl, which no one knows what to do with, before they rest on the gleaming offices and car parks of the Waterfront, which no one knows what to do with.
“This is why filling it with random pieces of expensive art - paid for by developers, who simply pass it on to purchasers - is so important to the Town’s distinctive identity.”
