A forest is set to be planted in the heart of central London this summer as part of an installation that set designer Es Devlin has designed for the city's design biennale.
The Forest for Change will fill the entire courtyard of Somerset House, which will be home to the London Design Biennale from 1-27 June. It will include 400 trees of 23 different varieties that are native to the UK and northern Europe.
"When I was first shown around Somerset House many years ago, I discovered that the enlightenment principles on which the building was conceived specifically forbade the introduction of trees into the courtyard," said Devlin, who is the event's artistic director for 2021. "Of course, the first thing we wanted to do when considering this year's biennale was to counter this attitude of human dominance over nature by allowing a forest to overtake the entire courtyard."
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