Diana memorial finally chosen

A£3 million moat-without-a-castle alongside The Serpentine is to be London's permanent memorial to Princess Diana. After months of bickering and infighting the design emerged today as the winning proposal for the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain.

The big surprise is that the winner's so-called conventional design is not by any stretch of the imagination a fountain as normally understood. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has chosen the moat - created by American landscape designer Kathryn Gustafson - over British sculptor Anish Kapoor's entry, a dome of water.

Ms Gustafson, who is based in Seattle and has not travelled to Britain for today's announcement, will lead a design team in partnership with London-based architect Neil Porter.

The team will spend about four weeks refining the design proposal shown before submitting it to Gordon Brown for final approval. Then construction finally begins.

The Government has promised that the memorial fountain will be complete in time for the sixth anniversary of the Princess's death next summer.

Today's announcement ends months of bitter argument among the Diana Memorial committee, which was evenly split about which entry should win - however it seems inevitable that critics will question whether Ms Gustafson's "water feature " is the fitting choice.

Diana's friend Rosa Monckton chaired the committee and is understood to have insisted the Gustafson moat would have been preferred by the Princess.

The 50- by 80-metre stone ring contains two streams of water which flow down into it from the Serpentine bridge.

In the "fast lane" water rushes through the channel towards a cascade.

In the "slow lane" water flows into a dish and then ripples down a gentler slope. Both lanes of water - which will be shallow enough for children to paddle in - converge in a dished hollow. By night the moat, which will be planted with grasses and trees, can be lit up. Ms Gustafson said the moat is a symbol of the Princess "reaching out, letting in". She added that her design is "historic and formal, contemporary and relaxed".

She said: "Those with whom one comes into contact, while being affected by those around one - these were both attributes associated with Princess Diana. We have endeavoured to create a water feature that can be associated with these qualities.

"The memorial fountain should receive and be inclusive of all those people that come upon it. whatever their backgrounds, culture or beliefs. The hope is that people leave the memorial having gained from the experience."

Ms Gustafson's best known work in Britain before today was the Glass House in the National Botanic Garden of Wales.

The entry rejected by Ms Jowell by 1991's Turner Prize winner, Kapoor, 48, is described by the artist as "ethereal but has some of the head-turning qualities that Diana had".

The winning design will be funded by £3 million of Treasury money raised by selling Princess Diana commemorative coins.

Culture Secretary Ms Jowell took control of today's highly sensitive decision after the Treasuryappointed selection committee reached its embarrassing impasse - which left Mr Brown "livid".

The eight-strong committee had whittled down more than 100 entries to Kapoor and Gustafson but was then split down the middle.