Anatomy of Time by artist Clare Twomey is a sculptural façade that seems to emerge from the ground and climb the southwestern corner of Grosvenor’s 65 Davies Street development.

The artwork is based on Mayfair’s local ancient plants and water ways. This vast, yet gentle composition of the local botanical narratives indented into the façade of the building create an artwork that is embedded into the building and flows out of its terracotta façade.

Tracing the path of the River Tyburn, and carved into the surface of the building, the leaf shapes sustain a relationship with the architecture and local area. The leaf patterns were inspired by William Curtis’s Flora Londinensis, a pioneering study of urban nature in London.

The use of terracotta reflects the cultural connections and historic uses of the material within the surrounding Mayfair area. NBK worked with the design team to manufacture the bespoke tiles that create the leaf patterns. The artwork considers – from its materiality, the manufacturing processes and through the celebration of botanical heritage of Mayfair – all aspects of a sustainable future.