Tree canopy

Dartington estate, uk

WoCo were commissioned by Timber Strategies to create an experimental lightweight canopy structure in collaboration with Cullinan Studio for ‘Evolving The Forest Conference’ – an event to celebrate 100 years of modern forestry on the Dartington Estate. The event was designed to explore the future of forestry and making with timber; drawing together foresters, environmental managers, policy-makers, scientists, architects, artists, writers and philosophers.

Using green ash timber the concept was to create a ‘canopy under canopy’ by working with an existing cluster of silver birch trees. The structure had primary and secondary components – creating temporary collars that clamp to the existing trunks without causing any damage, supporting slender and flexible ash laths, resulting in a grid shell canopy suspended from the trees themselves. The ash timber came from a tree on the Estate, felled due to ash die back – a serious disease, which is killing ash across Europe.

Together with Cullinan Studio, we ran a prototyping workshop, which worked with a small group of participants from the conference to assemble the canopy. There was no plan for the exact shape and so the participants dictated the final form, which remained in place for a number of months after the conference was over. Visitors were encouraged to use the canopy as a place to reflect.

Services – Concept Design, Prototyping, Fabrication and Assembly