Planted Cities Festival

We designed an Urban Living Furniture modular system surrounded by a Living Tunnel, Bar and Canopy for the inaugural Planted Cities Festival.

This design concept for this public installation at Coal Drops Yard was intended for a kombucha drink brand and based around biomimetic designs employing the use of traditional crafts, biofabricated materials and entirely natural renewable materials. The design was created in collaboration with Akama Bambu specialists in bamboo architecture and traditional construction techniques. The concept centres around a bar with a canopy and seating area of two organically curved bench pods made from a coffee resin and inset with mycelium leather.The seating pods are encircled by a woven living willow screen, planted with mycelium pouches with cascading planting. The bar itself is a beautiful parametric bamboo weave creating a curvaceous and undulating self supporting form with a sculptural canopy overhead. Suspended from the canopy are mycelium hanging pouches containing epiphytic plants such as orchids. An undulating woven bamboo tunnel leads visitors through the canal archway creating glimpses of the water beyond.

The end life use of the display was paramount in the design planning stage and there were plans for it to be re-sited in a community garden where the willow screen could be planted into the ground and become a full living sculpture. All materials were renewable, recyclable or biofabricated. The concept aimed to highlight how important it is to bring natural materials and planting into highly urban areas and the ease with which this can be done with modular low costs designs.