Sculpting Water: NEON Designs a Landmark Fountain with HIMACS

Designed for Brent Cross Town by NEON, the Neighbourhood Square Fountain reinterprets the traditional civic fountain as a contemporary sculptural form. HIMACS solid surface was selected for its precision, durability and ability to seamlessly integrate colour, water and complex geometry.

Fountains have traditionally formed the hearts of neighbourhoods, towns and cities, creating landmark gathering points for communities and visitors. While honouring the soothing and multi-sensory properties of water, they also celebrate the unique character of their respective locations by combining art and architecture into meaningful works for the public realm. 

For Brent Cross Town, a new 180-acre park town in north London by Related Argent and Barnet Council, interdisciplinary design practice NEON was commissioned to create an iconic installation for “Neighbourhood Square.” Led by architect Mark Nixon and visual artist Viliina Koivisto, the design strategy carefully considers community identity and interaction while ensuring robust, low-maintenance, environmentally sensitive infrastructure that is also emotionally resonant. 

“We were interested in creating a piece that could shift between being contemplative and playful, depending on how people choose to engage with it. The Fountain offers calm moments through its sound and movement, but it also invites light-hearted interaction, especially from children. That duality felt important for a public space like this,” says Mark Nixon of NEON.

HIMACS, in vivid and uplifting tones of green and turquoise, was the material of choice for a number of reasons, both aesthetic and practical. 
This intricate and striking design features a series of stacked, tapering plates that guide water downward, with radial corbels supporting their edges. The gentle shift of the plates introduces a calm asymmetry, giving the sculpture a variety of intriguing aspects when viewed from different angles and perspectives. These overlaps also create a variety of cascades, enriching the sensory experience of the falling water.

The project demanded a material that could guarantee precision, performance and longevity. HIMACS offers not only the technical and aesthetic sophistication demanded to meet such exact geometries, but also the durability, weather resistance and colour stability required for an exterior installation of this nature. This long-lasting, easy-to-maintain functionality enables peace of mind, while the material’s ability to be repaired and reused enhances sustainability and the lifecycle of the installation.

The malleability of HIMACS also offered considerable value to the project, together with its natural compatibility with water. Thermoformable into almost any shape desired and seamlessly joined to create sleek, grout-free surfaces, the material can be worked like wood while having the enduring properties of stone.  

An eye-catching, vivid green was chosen for the vertical elements to echo the surrounding landscaping, while a soothing turquoise was chosen for the water tables to echo the appeal of this essential element. The Fountain was opened in November 2025 to the delight of residents in this lively new north London community. 

“The Fountain at Neighbourhood Square has swiftly become a focal point, providing a vibrant space for coming together and for restaurants and retailers to spill into and animate,” says Morwenna Hall, Executive Director and COO, Related Argent. “The form and colour of the HIMACS material make The Fountain visually distinct, it is unexpected and joyful, and it purposefully complements the natural surroundings. Our aspiration was to create a true landmark to be treasured by the community for the decades to come.” 

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