Have you ever found yourself wanting to build a tree house, but being a little short of space? Then this exhibition is for you! More than 25 leading architectural practices have built tiny treehouses for bonsai trees, and now you can see them in Connaught village. This summer (4th July – 31st August) the Museum of Architecture is holding an exhibition of Bonsai Treehouses in Oxford Square. First entry is at 9am and last entry at 6pm. And advanced booking is strongly recommended.
The installation explores architecture in miniature, celebrating craftsmanship, imagination, and the relationship between built form and nature. Discover remarkable bonsai specimens alongside imaginative treehouse designs, created by architects and designers. Each tree has its own story, and every treehouse design explores this year’s theme: Together.
The designs are from more than 25 of the UK’s leading architectural practices, who accepted an unusual challenge: to design a treehouse for a bonsai tree. Working at a scale where a single branch becomes a structural challenge and every millimetre counts.
The results are as varied as the practices behind them. Foster + Partners has looked
underground, finding its inspiration in mycorrhizal fungi – the buried networks through which trees quietly sustain one another across a forest floor. Macro Micro Architects has reached back three centuries, to the mass felling of Scots pine for British naval shipbuilding, and asked what it cost the landscape. White Arkitekter has designed not for people at all, but for pollinators – a seasonal resting spot for bees and insects that will quietly disassemble itself when autumn arrives, leaving no trace on the tree.
You can also participate in one of the MoA’s creative workshops – they are perfect for friends and families to do together. Click here to see the workshops’ details.
