Alex Haw, principal at atmos, is a confirmed foodie, so the orchard was an appropriate starting point for their contribution to the City’s annual green-themed festival. Atmos (see Blueprint May 2013) are masters of crafting spaces and structures with digital woodcutting, and for the Mobile Orchard, they used 4mm planes of Latvian birch (sponsored by DHH Timber). The branches spread out in one direction particularly, as if in a wind, and the two-metre-odd cantilver is counterweighted by the base of roots. A special touch for the City festival was the inclusion of white leaves in the shape of every London borough, cut from priplak, a polypropylene.
Like the best trees, Mobile Orchard is climbable. Its shape includes nine smooth, sculpted steps, and it carries on an atmos record of previous inhabitable sculptures that have travelled as far as Hong Kong. What about the fruit? Apples were placed in its branches in the City, requiring constant replenishment by Festival crew as office types, lured by the sensual, curvy installation, took them. Really, it would be a sin not to.
Herbert Wright
