Finest Architectural Illustrations

How do we make more public space around the Thames? We freeze it

I developed Frost Flowers while I was Design Director at NBBJ as part of a series of London concepts exploring how architecture could reimagine the city. The proposal imagined a set of foldaway natural ice rinks on the River Thames, with circular structures that would close in summer and blossom open in winter like flowers.

Each retractable jetty was designed to drop beneath the water’s surface, collect river water, and then lift back up to freeze into a skating rink. The concept was explicitly connected to London’s frost fair history, including the last recorded fair in 1814, when the Thames froze for several days and became a temporary civic landscape of skating, food stalls, performances, and celebration.

​

For me, the project was about memory as much as form. I was interested in whether a contemporary design could revive the “winter spirit” of the frost fairs and turn the Thames into a place for shared public life again

​

Christian Coop (MSAI) is an Associate Partner at HTA Design and a leading architectural artist