Architects Zeller & Moye and artist Katie Paterson have installed a public artwork in the grounds of Bristol University, England, which is made up of samples from more than 10,000 tree species.

The artwork was commissioned to mark the opening of the University's new Life Sciences building and will be permanently sited in the historic Royal Fort Gardens.

Entitled Hollow, the installation's exterior structure, made of Douglas Fir, is designed as a forest canopy, with the arrangement of posts representing the varying heights of trees.
The installation is accessed via a small opening. Inside, visitors are met with samples of over 10,000 unique tree species ? from petrified wood fossils of ancient forests to the most recent emerging species.
"Some samples are incredibly rare ? fossils of unfathomable age, and fantastical trees such as Cedar of Lebanon, the Phoenix Palm and the Methuselah tree, thought to be one of the oldest trees in the world at 4,847 years of age," said Paterson.

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"[There's also] a railroad tie taken from the Panama Canal Railway, which claimed the lives of between 5,000 to 10,000 workers over its 50-year construction, and wood salvaged from the remnants of the iconic Atlantic city boardwalk devastated by hurricane Sandy in 2012."

Hollow is the result of a three-year-long research and sourcing project carried out by Paterson, who regularly explo...