Earlier this summer, Swift Creatives released a series of Sculptural Surveillance towers in Denmark, which resemble abstract garden sculptures more than cameras. These avant-garde concepts challenge traditional outdoor monitoring devices. Why? We wanted to transform the everyday, in this case security tech, from an eyesore into art.
Each tower is built from powder-coated recycled aluminium and integrates a motorised 360° camera, lighting or a speaker, giving it the presence of intentional design in a garden or plaza. Like all the best product design, it's striking, and a little unusual.
The goal was to shift surveillance from strictly utilitarian into something residents could feel proud of. Under daylight or lamplight, the playful, abstract shapes invite a second look and spark curiosity and engagement with your environment instead of dread.
We’re not alone in rethinking infrastructure. Look at London’s new Thames Tideway Tunnel project, a £4.6bn “super-sewer” built under the river. Instead of grim pump stations, it delivered more than three acres of new waterfront parks and art. A Guardian report calls it “dramatic new public spaces dotted with giant artworks”. Now, one section by the Thames has brooding black concrete monoliths doubling as benches and fountains, while another has mosaic murals and poetry etched into tiles, all seamlessly integrated into the public realm. It’s proof that even a sewage pipeline can be joyful: the engineering is hidden and the plazas stand out.
Or take a stroll in Fitzrovia, a creative quarter in London, where a programme called Fitz&Sits has turned the pavement into an outdoor furniture exhibit. Nine benches were installed across the area as part of the 2025 London Festival of Architecture. Each one is both a functional seat and a sculptural artwork “designed for the community”, often made from recycled or reclaimed local materials. These tiny civic installations invite passers-by to sit, chat or pause for a moment. The benches are, by aim, an expression of Fitzrovia’s character, each one reflecting something of the area’s identity. Planners say projects like this show placemaking can be “imaginative... rooted in place” and that even small design touches can make a street feel “welcoming, personal and connected”.
For new creative ideas, you need a good place to grow them. A fertile ground for ideas. We created these surveillance artworks in our Innovation Lab, which, for me, proved that the playfulness of creation is as much part of the process as the end result. In the lab, we treat every idea like play. We have fun with it and often we make it via fast prototyping (because, as any creative will tell you, an idea in the head is one thing, holding it in your arms is another matter entirely).
We applied this approach to Sculptural Surveillance: one week, we 3D-print cap prototypes, the next we hand-carve foam mock-ups, iterating with sketches and LEDs. We quickly jump between digital renders and fully functioning working prototypes, quite literally sanding shapes by hand and tweaking components, to see what feels right so that our ideas can be refined quickly. This hands-on loop means every concept gets tested in the real world as we go.
All of this makes me optimistic: civic tech really can be beautiful. And why shouldn’t it? By being so, it becomes engaging; you notice it, you react to it as a human.
For those thinking of undertaking similar ventures, we’d advise being aware of the risks of creative design, and, as a consequence, prototype fast, so you can fail fast, engage fast and iterate fast. Also design with empathy, and involve people early, even a camera post can delight, and you’ll find people will react in ways that are unexpected.
I’ve seen strangers stand wide-eyed and grinning at our sculptural tower: an unlikely scenario if the camera were a brutalist utilitarian design.
The trend for me is clear: from sewer vents to park benches, artful touches can turn infrastructure into something people love, even tiny interventions can make a place feel new and personal. I believe that building our future on that vision - with rapid prototyping, community engagement and creative design - will give us infrastructure that’s as smart as it is soulful.
