‘Treehouses at Kew’ will be Kew’s main exhibition running from April to October 2023 during which it will unveil seven treehouses, a gallery exhibition and an accompanying visitor programme. An anticipated 900,000 visitors will attend the exhibition during its run, and each treehouse should inspire visitors in interactive ways to learn more about climate protection, biodiversity and sustainable design.
Three treehouses will be chosen through the Treehouses at Kew Design Competition, three others will be direct commissions by architects from Kew’s designated International Scientific Priority countries and one treehouse will be co-designed in collaboration with young people.
The exhibition will reflect the value of good design and the role architects can play in addressing some of society’s most pressing problems - sustainable use of materials, responding to the climate crisis and creating places that successfully balance the needs of people and the planet. It is seen as a unique opportunity to use creative and architectural thinking to design within and around Kew’s living collection and produce inventive, accessible, and innovative designs.
Kew’s 14,000 trees are the backbone of its UNESCO world heritage site in West London and offer an example of how trees are the ‘lungs’ of our entire planet.
The international design competition invites architects and multi-disciplinary teams to come up with a design for a treehouse for one of three selected trees within Kew’s 320-acre site - a Maple, a Pine and a Silver Lime.
Each treehouse design should respond to that tree’s specific theme. The themes are:
1: Celebrating play - a Norway Maple
2: Highlighting nature’s architecture and biomimicry - a Pine
3: Showcasing pioneering sustainable materials and innovative design - a Silver Lime
Designed and built using sustainable renewable materials, each treehouse should celebrate and explore key aspects of trees and their importance to our world by bringing visitors closer than ever before to Kew’s living collection.
The jury, which includes Kunle Barker, Manijeh Verghese, Oliver Wainwright, Morag Myerscough, and Simon Allford, is looking for designs that are architecturally interesting, demonstrate boldness, are pioneering in the use of materials and include a legacy life so the treehouses can be reassembled elsewhere.
It is anticipated that the delivery of Treehouses at Kew will be supported by a number of partners including Finsa UK Limited, Xilonor and Arup.
This will be a two-stage competition and is open to UK-based and international architecture practices, with submissions welcomed from collaborations. Further information about the submission process can be found on the Museum of Architecture’s website. A video about the competition is available to view here.
All first stage submissions should be emailed to treehouses@museumofarchitecture.org by 12 noon (GMT) on Monday 7 February 2022.
The successful winning entrants will be required to work with Kew Gardens and Museum of Architecture to realise their treehouse onsite and to be included in various project components such as the gallery exhibition, visitor programming, publications, marketing and press and commercial activities associated with the project.