Treen (tree-screen), Aylesbury (UK) 2013
Oxford Brookes University
Situated in the new state-of-the-art mental health unit “The Whiteleaf Centre” in Aylesbury, our brief was to design a privacy screen for a courtyard path between two bedroom wings. This is to encourage people to walk the path and not the wings. We were tasked to create a module of the screen and test it in an offsite location. We hope to work with the client further and install the design on their site. The centre is already working with artist Chris Tipping on the theme of growth and rejuvenation to mirror the improvement of the mental health of patients in the centre. Building on this theme we decided plant growth was an effective but subtle screening material and through a series of tests developed a simple cut plastic bottle and ‘screw-attach’ system that allows users (staff/patients) to add their own plants to the ‘tree’ – reflecting the mental growth of patient in the plants.
Client: NHS & Tom Cox, Artscape Project Manager
Tutor: Ilona Hay
Students: Theo Jones (Co-ordinator) Egil De Lange Kobberstad (Back up Co-ordinator) Ilaria Lombardini (Programmer) Gina Hwang (Treasurer) Karolien Yperman (Researcher) Isik Tlabar (Documenter) Victoria Adegoke (Health & Safety) Aaron Harwood (Construction Manager) Dominic Ramli Davies (Back up Construction Manager)
Research Question:
Can an effective, subtle, less obtrusive screen be made rather than a fence?
Photographer: Theo Jones
United Kingdom, Architecture, Client-funded, 0-10, Undergraduate, Months, Temporary, +, Propositional, Collaboration, Curricular, Students with tutor, Oxford Brookes Univ.
