Fleeting forest
Fleeting Forest was 2023’s winter art installation at Granary Square, Kings Cross, London.
Co-designed with Assemble
Fleeting Forest was an assemblage of trees, passing through the square on a winter stop-over, on their way to permanent homes in public parks, community gardens and schools elsewhere in London.
When the installation came to an end in February 2024, the specimen trees went on to be planted in Bramcote Park – our project with Assemble in South Bermondsey, London.
The remainder of the plants have been distributed to community gardens and schools around King’s Cross.
Young fir tres were harvested for the installation from Ashdown Forest in Sussex as part of their landscape management plan.
A sound piece by Cameron Bray could be heard within the clearing which captured the journey that the trees and plants were on – from a tree nursery just north of London to the heathland wilderness of Ashdown Forest, Sussex, to the trees’ eventual urban home at Bramcote Park. Sounds of weather, wildlife and play were brought together in this forest clearing, a rest point for the trees before they continued on their journey.
The temporary habitat of Fleeting Forest was also designed to serve as an open-air seminar room for architecture students from neighbouring Central Saint Martins, to gather, reflect and discuss the state of our woodland habitats and their potential to help build a regenerative, greener urban environment.