Status : Competition
Year : 2013
Design Team : A collaboration & submission with MIR creative studio; Jim Keen, Jun Pak, Raymond Bourraine
The Problem : The 21st Century is witnessing the largest human migration in history. Mankind is fleeing the countryside for the vague promises of "modern" city living, leaving desolation in its wake. From the irradiated wastelands of Fukushima and Chernobyl, to the battlefields of the Middle East, to the oil-devastated Niger Delta, humans are being forced from nature and pushed into cities that are inhumanely designed; Row upon to of concrete forms layered in pollution with no access to clean air, water and landscape. How can this desperate flow be reversed?
The tree answers this question simply : A deployed / planted seed absorbs pollution to fuel its growth into a kilometer high purification and manufacturing machine. It turns pollution into raw materials from which it manufactures new cities seeded around its base. The Tree resolves the balance between the devastation Old World cities wreak while providing a home to the billions looking for new ways of life. In only five years The Tree turns dead, empty land into an Oasis for new beginnings.
