Sweet Terrain

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Sweet Terrain is a landmark public artwork by Rafael El Baz and Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad that reimagines construction waste as a vehicle for cultural storytelling and place-making. Drawing on 12 tons of raw clay excavated from HS2’s Old Oak Common station—the UK’s largest infrastructure project—the artists reprocessed this displaced material into more than 300 square metres of intricately patterned ceramic tiles, permanently re-sited within the station itself. Developed in close collaboration with a community of Middle Eastern bakers, the designs take inspiration from ornate maamoul moulds, transforming everyday baking tools into instruments of civic architecture and celebrating the intersection of food culture, heritage, and identity. The clay was reworked by Craven Dunnill Jackfield, one of Britain’s oldest tilemakers, sustaining traditional craftsmanship while ensuring durability and finish of the highest quality. Commissioned by HS2 with the support of High Speed 2, Sweet Terrain offers a working model of sustainable manufacturing that ties together community, industry, and environment in a permanent expression of cultural and material transformation.

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