Trees as Place
Trees as Place: Excerpt from exhibition video. Video by Julian Rutten.
Contributors: Julian Rutten; Stanislav Roudavski; Mark Burry; Gini Lee; Jeff Malpas; Mark Taylor.
Presented as part of the Place and Parametricism exhibition at Real/Material/Ethereal: The 2nd Annual Design Research Conference at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
Tags: #place-and-parametricism #exhibition #place #trees #interspecies
This project contributes to the theory and practice of architectural, urban and landscape design, particularly in the context of design for biodiversity. It focuses on large old trees. They are important as habitats. Yet, their numbers dwindle. To address this problem, design needs to consider the agency and needs of nonhuman stakeholders. Current research in design lacks the necessary theory and practices. In response, the project asks: what forms of communication can depict trees as places for multiple forms of life? It hypothesises that an integration of quantitative and qualitative representations can reveal ethical, aesthetic, biological and technical aspects of trees as places.
Because plants differ from humans and animals, it is difficult to express their lived worlds for human understanding. In response, the project uses photography, video, laser scans and sound to expose hidden aspects of tree and their ecosystems. In a reverse move, the project represents various ways trees serve as meaningful places or habitats. The project provides an innovative interpretation of trees as places, investigates the capabilities of existing means of representation and frames key questions for further exploration.
The video documentation of the project has been selected to participate in a curated event Real/Material/Ethereal: The 2nd Annual Design Research Conference in 2019. The theoretical concepts of the project have been published in a peer-reviewed research article. The components of the project have been peer-selected for presentation at the Digital Cultural Heritage: Future Visions conference in Shanghai, China in 2019, winning the best paper award. The work was supported by the ARD DP Grant and co-created with colleagues who are professors and leaders in their fields.
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