A Place of Landings – narrative placemaking and public art, Kent
A Place of Landings is a narrative placemaking project centred around a Grade II listed Art Deco RAF control tower at the former West Malling airfield. Once an active RAF base, the site carries a rich legacy of wartime history, post-war aviation, community memory and later cultural references, including appearances in Wish You Were Here and The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour.
Richard Wolfströme developed a series of public-realm interventions that bring these layered histories into everyday experience, combining archival research, local memories and contemporary voices to create something both informative and unexpected.
Working with local writers from Future Creative and specialist fabricators millimetre, the project includes large cast-steel narrative roundels, integrated seating, winding text embedded into pathways and a series of brass rubbing plaques depicting aircraft associated with the former airfield. Children’s kenning poems add a playful layer, while some pathway texts align with the scale and orientation of the original runway.
The resulting landscape reveals history through movement, memory and discovery, allowing the character of the former airfield to remain present within a contemporary development.
Narrative placemaking & public art: Richard Wolfströme
Writing & community narratives: Future Creative
Fabrication: millimetre
Commissioned by: Futurecity
Client: Liberty Property Trust UK
Writing & community narratives: Future Creative
Fabrication: millimetre
Commissioned by: Futurecity
Client: Liberty Property Trust UK
