An Audience with Nature
Our design journey began with two questions:
‘How do we look up into the tree canopy without a pain in the neck?’
‘Can we inhabit a pine cone and sit inside it like seeds?’
Using principles borrowed from nature, our treehouse is an inhabitable amphitheatre. Mimicking pine cones, the structural strength of the pods comes from their shape and their arrangement as a cluster. Organised over two tiers, for those who want to keep their feet on the ground or the climbers amongst us. It is a space to sit down and look up, to witness the greatest designer of them all, nature.
Appearing translucent from afar, and curious in form, the event begins as visitors are drawn near. Upon closer inspection a woven fabric emerges, revealing activity within. There are people inside, milling around and sitting in individual pods, like seeds in a pine cone. All gathered in an undulating fabric, wrapped in a circle facing a large black pine tree.
Using digital programming and applying it to a centuries-old construction technique and material, allowed us to re-frame willow weaving and elevate it beyond the realm of craft to contemporary architecture. The woven willow is choreographed into digital patterns inspired by Kew’s research into the DNA and genome sequences of conifer trees.
A clearing in the woven timber invites you to step inside a wooden amphitheatre with two tiers of seating. The stage is set and nature is performing. You take your place and recline backwards into your pod. Gazing up into the canopy of the large black pine you realise you haven’t spent much time looking upwards. The leaves blow in the wind and suddenly sound and vision connect. The gentle, natural swaying hypnotises you. The show begins.