The Making Of A Sculpture Poised To Take Flight In The Peninsula London

Restaurants perched high in the sky often boast unrivaled views, which holds true for Brooklands by Claude Bosi, a Michelin-star rooftop restaurant and bar in The Peninsula London. But the stylish locale offers much more than stellar food and city views. For the ultimate wow factor, diners need only look up—not out.

Above the elegant tables, a silhouette of a Concorde jet commands attention, appearing as if in-flight. Expertly designed by Neil Ferrier, founder of the design firm Discommon, and his team, the 48-foot-long sculpture of the Concorde took nearly four years—and countless metal panels—to complete. Opening the third season of Once Upon A Project, a podcast presented by KI and available on the SURROUND Podcast Network, host AJ Paron, EVP and design futurist at Sandow Design Group, considers the sheer scale of the visual.

“Imagine taking on a design challenge so outrageous, so ambitious that it sounds nearly impossible,” Paron says. “Like say, putting a Concorde inside a restaurant.” Rather than create the jet out of a more forgiving material such as foam, which would have created far fewer logistical challenges, Ferrier opted to stay as true to the real plane model as possible, choosing gleaming panels of metal.

“This is the largest project our firm has done to date,” Ferrier shares. From winning the project bid to creating the lifelike Concorde sculpture that seems to descend from the restaurant’s ceiling, listen to the full episode of Once Upon a Project for must-know design details.