The commissioning of a landmark sculpture was the first element of an ambitious cultural masterplan for the largest regeneration project in Western Europe developed by Futurecity, with a team including Gehl Architects and Arup. Futurecity launched an international arts competition and five major artists were shortlisted. The winner, Mark Wallinger’s proposal for a 50 metre high white horse ,was granted planning permission in 2010 and the project is in development.

During the shortlisting stage, social enterprise company Future Creative delivered an outreach programme, working with five secondary schools who ‘adopted’ one of the shortlisted artists and learnt about their work. The young people and their teachers explored the process of commissioning, designing and building art in the public realm.

 The sculpture will be a landmark for Ebbsfleet Valley, a new town of 10,000 homes with a municipal centre and Ebbsfleet International railway station providing direct links to Paris. The sculpture will be seen from the A2, by the 44 million car journeys passing it every year and by over 1 million train passengers using the station.

Early documentary about the proposals:

CGI fly-throughs of sculpture proposals from each of the shortlisted artists: