Design in the Park
Find out more about Chain Reaction, and how running water was designed into the landscape of the park.
Chain Reaction was designed by sculptor Ray Smith to be appreciated from every angle and has become a landmark entrance to the park on Skeldon Gate. Set at the top of a series of steps, the formal planting around it reflects and extends the geometrical form of the sculpture as it reaches out from the top of the steps into the sky.
The work was installed in June 1992 and represents the transition of responsibility from the Milton Keynes Development Corporation to the newly formed Parks Trust. Building on the solid foundations of the MKDC designers and planners, the Parks Trust became custodians of all of the city’s parks and green spaces.
Image 1: Chain Reaction installation (Living Archive: CPA069)
The source of the rill: Two watercourses meet at the bottom of the Chain Reaction steps, where a path dissects a small circular pool. One stream is clearly identifiable from the plants growing along its banks as it flows down the hill from the Cave sculpture, nestled into the hillside. This stream was originally designed to carry overflow water from the round pond and fountain, since replaced by the Milton Keynes Rose. The second water source is less obvious. A spring that was captured and turned into a formal feature can be found hidden upstream along the rill, as it passes beside Ronald Rae’s Animals in War sculpture and below the zigzag paths of the City Garden that runs down to the canal.
Image 2: The captured spring at the top of the rill
This water course recalls the early design elements for Campbell Park which included plans for a “Water Carpet”, an ambitious series of walkways to be installed over a granite edged pool, accessed from a glass bridge, and leading to a futuristic cone shaped hill. The bridge and cone were never fully realised but the rill follows through the idea that parks should comprise of strings – or routes that connect the different – beads – or points of activity in the park – in the wider settings – such as the woodland and grazing areas. (Milton Keynes Linear Parks: Development Principles, MKCDC, MAH/02/02/013)
Image 3: The water carpet and cone as drawn by Helmut Jacoby (Buckinghamshire Archives: D-MKDC/16/1/71)
The use of pools and rills here also demonstrates the influence of 18th century landscape design such as William Kent’s garden at Rousham House in Oxfordshire. Meandering streams carry water through the landscape and lead the visitor around the varied features and landscapes of the park.
Image 4: Looking upstream towards the shopping centre, from the 1986 development plan for Campbell Park (© Milton Keynes Development Corporation. Crown Copyright). Image courtesy of Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre: EXB/04/006.
Here Neil Higson, Chief Landscape Architect of the MKDC, describes a trip to Rousham with Wayland Tunley, one of the new city’s architects.
Follow the Campbell Park Trail to discover the history of this Grade II listed landscape. Featuring archive photos and videos with the people who helped make the park what it is today.
