Demon with Bowl

O’Keefe were commissioned by Knight Dragon to carry out and install the 60ft tall ancient Mesopotamian ‘Demon with Bowl’ bronze Damian Hirst statue on the Greenwich Peninsular. This project is a smaller part of Knight Dragon’s vision in making the area the capital’s most boldly modern landscape.

O’Keefe undertook the installation of six piles for the concrete plinth, the erection of the mammoth sculpture using mobile cranes, and landscaping works to the site adjacent the IFS Cloud (formerly Emirates) cable car which remained operational throughout the contract period, via a Design & Build contract.

During the nine-month-long project, which completed in April (2023), O’Keefe worked with One Landscape Architecture and Gardiner & Theobald construction management consultants to manage all the elements, including working near the overhead cable car lines, with TFL (as the new Silvertown tunnel works were taking place under the site), and with specialist contractor Pangolin who erected the statue.

The original design by Arup was for four piles, but due to the proximity of “the Dangleway’s” overhead lines the piling rig would have needed to work within the 15m “No working” zone of the cable car. Operations also had to be 20m from a cable car tower. To overcome this, O’Keefe utilised a smaller mechanical excavation plant and a smaller piling rig to ensure they would not need to encroach within these restricted zones.

O’Keefe also redesigned the pile design in conjunction with its piling specialist to install six piles of 450mm diameter which would allow the use of a smaller piling rig. These were located up to 18m from the cable car lines. The pile design was particularly challenged by the ground conditions as the first 6m was made ground and the water table was high.

• Contract: Demon with Bowl
• Client: Knight Dragon
• Location: Greenwich Peninsula
• Value: £2.4m
• Duration: 30 weeks
• Scope: Design & Build, Piling, Groundworks, Landscaping, TFL Interface