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Royal Academy of Arts - Water Feature

A star feature at the Royal Academy

OCMIS has designed and built many prestigious water feature and fountain projects over the years. Among these is a fountain created as part of the extensive Burlington Courtyard Refurbishment at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The fountain is prominently positioned in the courtyard entrance and serves as a welcoming sight to those arriving at the Gallery.

The fountain is dedicated to the memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the artist and Founding President of the Royal Academy. Its construction was funded by a donation from Mr Walter Annenburg, a former American Ambassador to London. The design is cleverly conceived, with the layout of the nozzles matching the relative positions of the stars and planets on the night of Sir Joshua’s birth in 1723. This provides a delightful display during the day, and as night falls the water from each fountain nozzle is dramatically illuminated by twin low-voltage tungsten lamps.

The design of the fountain was carefully considered to retain an unobstructed space within the courtyard. The fountain nozzles are located beneath the Aberdeen and Cornish granite paving; nozzle housings and surrounds in stainless steel were also designed to complement this flush-surface finish. There are 18 Oase Cascade 70 fountain nozzles operating to a maximum height of 2 metres. The water drains down a single profile slot to twin return drains and into the plant room, from where it is re-circulated.

The Plant Room was specially designed and is located underground, adjacent to the main entrance of the Academy. The reservoir tank is an unusual configuration, measuring 13m x 2m in order to fit the available space. The plant room was prefabricated from concrete sections and then craned into position. The fountain Control Panel was designed by OCMIS and drives two independent Grundfos pumps, each producing a maximum of 67.5 cubic metres per hour. The fountain is programmed to provide an interesting and varied 10 minute display every half hour. In between these displays there is a static half metre display. The OCMIS Control Panel allows for a manual over-ride and reprogramming to change display heights and configuration. This State-of-the-art technology enables the fountain displays to be choreographed for specific events. For example, at the moment Her Majesty The Queen dedicated the Annenberg Courtyard, the fountains burst into life in a display timed to Handel’s Water Music. This flexibility is now regularly used to complement displays of contemporary sculpture within the Courtyard.

There are a number of additional safety and control features built into the system, including automatic shut-down during frosty weather, linked into the Academy’s own Building Management System.

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