FRESH PERSPECTIVES

MFLA Partner James Munden led a “walking forest/moveable landscape” through London’s South Bank and Waterloo as part of the 2008 London Architecture Festival. With members of the public, the group carried a forest of birch trees through derelict and abandoned spaces, car parks, alleyways and streets for brief periods of time.

TYPE

Installation / Participatory Performance

LOCATION

London, England

CLIENT

London Festival of Architecture

TIMELINE

2008

STATUS

Temporary

SIZE

n/a

Raising the possibility of creating multi-functional environments, the tour brought greenery to an abandoned public square, calmed traffic under a railway, and highlighted the boundaries between public and private space.

Carrying an ‘instant landscape kit’ that comprised of trees, furniture, and other elements, the landscape developed into different forms where a variety of activities took place in spaces where they would otherwise not, creating a weekend of surreal events as people took back their streets.

As described in the UK landscape Institutes monthly magazine:

“An act of creative genius combined with muscular athleticism brought the Pied Piper approach to Landscape Architecture to the backstreets of London’s South Bank and Waterloo as part of the London Architecture Festival. James Munden from London-based practice Whitelaw Turkington, together with members of the public moved a forest of birch trees through the area, greening an unloved square opposite the Old Vic Theatre; calming traffic under a railway arch; reclaiming the street in front of a row of cottages and extending a forest out across the Thames in front of the Oxo Tower.”

CONSULTANTS

Whitelaw + Turkington

Collaborators

Landscape Institute, UK

PHOTOGRAPHY

Jon Spencer

Whitelaw + Turkington