Thomas Heatherwick has been compared to Michelangelo, but this cartoon version of nature is no David
The Tree of Trees, an object to be erected outside Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s jubilee, is, according to the studio of its designer, Thomas Heatherwick, a “sculpture” that “seeks to put the importance of trees and nature at the heart of this historic milestone”. Here I’ll pass by the abuse of metaphors (do milestones have hearts?) but not of trees, this being another case of certain designers’ mania for picking them up, moving them around and putting them where they don’t want to be.
This 21 metre-high steel structure will carry 350 small trees, planted in aluminium pots, which will be distributed around the country after the jubilee. It is approximately tree-shaped, but this awkward, angular construction is not much like an actual living organism. It is a tree emoji realised with structural engineering. It has strong vibes of the Marble Arch Mound, the disastrous artificial hill erected last year. Here, as there, a cartoon version of nature is placed in a London ceremonial space by people who don’t seem to have thought much about what it is that makes trees lovely.
