Wooden Foliage

 

CEPT Campus

Ahmedabad

 

In colloboration with Rooshad Shroff

 

100 wooden cylinders + 7,000 wooden discs + 26,000 staple pins + 72 hrs + 384 man hrs = 1 wooden canopy

 

We sliced linear wooden elements into thin wooden discs. The idea was to connect the wooden discs and make something that would be fluid, light and flexible, in contradiction to woods original chunky form. Each of the wooden discs was designed to have 6 holes along its perimeter and these holes were then manually connected to each other by using staple pins, almost like stitching the wooden discs together. 

 

What we got in the end was an extremely flexible, wooden cloth.  Strings were attached to it and it was finally raised from the ground by a team of more than 20 people. The wooden cloth, once installed became a canopy, it was simple, discreet and hidden in between the existing trees. We called it, ‘wooden foliage’ as it provided shade just like a tree. 

 

It did not stand out, it was not rigid, nor was it bold, it just hung there between the trees, like natural green foliage and discreetly did what it was meant to do; provide shade.