mobile orchard press release2-130514-hi

7/30/2019 Mobile Orchard Press Release2-130514-Hi

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1theMobile Orchard - byatmos www.mobileorchard.info project summary 2 (14.05.13)


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performing and watching

picking and eating

sitting and nestling

The City of London Festival has commissioned atmosto design the centrepiece for their2013 summer festival - an inhabitable and itinerant public sculpture to celebrate trees andcommemorate the enduring British orchard.

The Mobile Orchard re-imagines what urban fruit trees could be.

It centres on a balletic duo of two intertwining trees; a fluid, organic, highly-inhabitableshelter and structure that prompts and frames a miniature stage for the city.

Its wild and sprawling roots nestle a wide range of landscaped seating that pr ovide spiral-ling access to nooks and niches deep within its twin trunks. The intrepid are tempted toclimb upwards & straddle its high, ergonomic branches; to perch inside the very top of thetrunk and admire the view out across the f ield of branches.


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Each root flows seamlessly into the skywards-spiralling trunks and back out as branches a bove -bifurcating and splaying into lightweight lasercut leaves and blossom, providing delicate layers ofdappled summer shade.

The branches nestle a constellation of over 500 fresh apples - food from heaven awaiting theplucking, encouraging visitors to explore and hunt for healthy sustenance.

The undulating canopy creates ever-changing patterns of shadows and dappled light -sheltering theatre, music and dance performances, shading and entrancing the audiences

luxuriating beneath its boughs.

The crenelated bark is further grooved with radiating seams of dynamic lighting - their luminousveins running the length of the tree to terminate in glowing LED bulbs above.

The entire landscape will be a deeply-sculpted timber structure, spliced with thin curling layers ofstructural steel - parametrically designed and digitally fabricated using minimal material to giveextraordinary rigidity and yet encourage wind-responsive lightness, mimicking the elegantstructural prowess of nature itself.

The central trees will be accompanied by a sprawling, choir of 100 young fruit trees, scatteredacross the local neighbourhood.

Rest and picnic-spot, playground and place of wonder, the ensemble celebrates the glory andbeauty of trees and nature - and our own human interactions.

view from above(no leaves)

view from frontshowing areas for lounging , climbing and perchingprototype: contoured plywood


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Map + Itinerary

mobile orchard press release2-130514-hi

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