The Tree of Trees

The Queen’s Green Canopy is an initiative to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022. Since its launch last year, people across the United Kingdom, from members of the Royal Family to cub scout groups and conservation charities, have together planted more than one million trees. Heatherwick Studio has been invited to create a sculpture to stand in front of Buckingham Palace to represent this remarkable project during the celebrations in June.

Much of the Studio’s work is informed by the idea of designing cities in a way that brings us closer to nature. It includes a new public park called Little Island on the Hudson River in New York, the ‘1,000 Trees’ development in Shanghai and a Maggie’s Centre for cancer care in Leeds made from wood and immersed in gardens.

The Studio also has a history of designing large-scale public projects that have showcased British creativity to the world: the unfurling petals of the London 2012 Olympics cauldron, and the Seed Cathedral which represented Britain at the 2010 Shanghai Expo. This latest commission brings these two strands together to honour the Queen and help inspire a generation to protect and plant more trees.

The focus of the structure is the humble sapling, multiplied and elevated. It raises 350 young trees above our heads in a symbolic 21-metre-high ‘Tree of Trees’. The trees are supported by a lattice of metal pipes, which are stacked on top of one other and twisted into a helix. The trunk is a single vertical pipe surrounded by smaller horizontal pipes, welded together, giving the sculpture a warm, weathered patina.

Along each ‘branch’ are suspended pots, each of which holds a single sapling. The pots are made from brushed aluminium and designed to be a precious keepsake.

After the Jubilee, the trees and pots will be gifted to communities and organisations across the UK. The pots will be treasured as reminders of the Platinum Jubilee. And as the young saplings take root, the sculpture’s legacy will flourish in the connections that the Queen’s Green Canopy has made among people across the British Isles as they came together to celebrate the Queen and to nurture our natural world.