Water Tower 2

Siment is a collection of planters and vases inspired by urban infrastructure in present-day India. It’s also about how, in India, concrete is often transformed from a purely functional material into an opportunity for decoration. We created typologies of the Brutalist water-towers and flyover infrastructure pillars we found, which had all taken on a secondary or unofficial use over time. They were painted or used as surfaces for expression, and had become ornaments in the neighbourhood. Siment celebrates this blurring of decoration and function and the creation of secondary uses that is omnipresent in Indian life.

As we started creating typologies of the water towers we came across in India, we found no two to be the same. Our response was to come up with three styles – which we called Watertower 1, 2 and 3 – that broadly reflected the forms or functions of the structures we came across most frequently. The functional and architectural features of these towers, such as the ladders, windows and stairs, have been turned into miniaturised decorative elements. Each design was 3D-printed, the moulds made out of silicone and the pieces cast in concrete.