Experience the High-Life at Kew Gardens with the Xstrata Treetop Walkway
Kew’s summer festival celebrates trees 24 May 2008 - 28 September 2008
Kew’s summer festival will take visitors on a thrilling, innovative and educational
journey around the gardens, from deep underground to the unseen, green world of
the tree top canopy.
Journey from the roots to the leaves
The pinnacle of this festival will be the new Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop Walkway, which gives visitors
the opportunity to journey from the fascinating root system, learning about the
tree’s life underground, to the tree canopy where you can explore biodiversity
from above.
The pioneering structure of the Xstrata Treetop Walkway is an ingenious design based
on a Fibonacci
numerical sequence, often found in nature’s growth patterns. Designed
by Marks Barfield Architects,
the architects of the London Eye, it has a low environmental impact in keeping with
the overall underlying environmental message behind the festival.
Supported by the Hanson Environment Fund, Kew’s Rhizotron (taken from the
Greek rhiza, meaning root) will give visitors a unique opportunity to delve into
the underground world of trees. The Rhizotron, entered through an apparent crack
in the ground, will show visitors the lively natural world beneath the trees, explaining
the vital relationships between the trees roots and the micro-organisms in the soil.
Then, rising 18 metres into the air, the Xstrata Treetop Walkway will allow visitors
to wander through the canopy of sweet chestnuts, limes and broad-leaved oaks to
discover birds, insects, lichens and fungi that rely on these huge organisms. This
200 meter long walkway will not only be a thrilling, tranquil and intimate experience,
but will also offer a unique birds-eye view of the vast 300 acres of Kew.
Investigate the science
The fun and excitement of the learning experience doesn’t stop there! Visitors will
be able to explore various attractions around the gardens to find out about how
trees work and how they benefit the environment. There will be a display demonstrating
the biodiversity found in a woodland habitat installed in the Princess of Wales
Conservatory. The exhibition will focus on the flora and fauna found in and on the
woodland floor. Large forest trees will form the framework of the display which
will include a woodland glade jam packed with bluebells and cowslips. The display
will include many other native plants which provide food and shelter for thousands
of other organisms and give an insight into the diversity of life supported by temperate
woodland. See examples of how fauna use the woodland floor. The homes of foxes and
badgers are shown, as are the wasp and wood ant nests. The presence of humankind,
vital to the management of woodland, is acknowledged by including coppicing and
charcoal burning in the display.
The Nash Conservatory will be showing Canopy - an exhibition of powerful imagery
developed from highly magnified Electron Micrographs, revealing high definition
photographs of plant structures. Using the pollen, seeds and leaves from a variety
of trees grown at Kew and Wakehurst Place. The rich diversity of the plant world
is revealed at a microscopic level by artist Rob Kesseler. This extraordinary body
of work has been developed in collaboration with Kew scientists Madeleine Harley
and Wolfgang Stuppy.
Visitors will be able to explore the inner-workings of trees by peering into an
open section of a huge fallen Oak tree that will be placed near the Victoria Plaza.
There will be large sculptures of microscopic elements of the tree surrounding the
Oak so that visitors can get a more detailed look at root hair fibres and leaf pores.
Visitors will also have an opportunity to ‘tune into trees' and experience nature-loving
artist Alex Metcalf's ‘Tree Listening Installation'. Listen to the sound of water
being pulled up from a tree's roots to the leaves through headphones hanging from
its trunk.
Get an interactive, global perspective
The Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop Walkway website will bring people closer to trees
both at Kew and in other countries. Besides exploring an interactive map of Kew's
trees, website visitors will be able to read blogs by people working with trees
around the world, play quiz games and share significant experiences of trees. There
will also be a mobile phone game for those actually visiting the walkway.
Looking East
For a far-eastern perspective, visitors can see a display of Kew’s famous bonsai
trees in the Bonsai House. The Bonsai Collection includes conifers, maples, a Japanese
white pine, a rhododendron, beech and an oak tree. The smallest is a Cotoneaster
horizontalis, just 10cm high, and the tallest is a Chinese quince standing around
60cm high.
Take a step back
The beauty of trees is celebrated in a special category of tThe beauty of trees
is celebrated in a special category of the Garden Photographer of the Year exhibition
to be shown at Kew Gardens from 23rd May for the duration of the summer festival.
The panel of eleven judges deliberated at length over the thousands of entries from
all around the world to select the final one hundred or so images to create the
show. As well as Trees, visitors will be able to see the very best photographs for
Garden Views, My Garden, Plant Portraits, Life in the Garden and also the U16s category,
Young Garden Photographer of the Year. Entries are now being called for next year's
show. Go to www.igpoty.com for
more details.
Funding
Xstrata plc is a global, diversified mining group listed on the London and Swiss
stock exchanges. They were inspired by the concept of the Treetop Walkway, seeing
it as an imaginative and relevant project.
Construction materials supplier Hanson, part of the Heidelberg Cement Group, set
up The Hanson Environment Fund in 1997, using landfill tax credits accumulated by
the company, to support environmental and community initiatives from not-for-profit
organisations. More than £17.5 million was distributed before the fund closed to
new applicants in 2006, supporting hundreds of worthwhile projects across the UK.
As a lasting legacy, the fund's final £1 million has been awarded to the Rhizotron.
The remainder of the funding comes from Defra, who fund half of the annual costs
of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, plus two un-named individuals and Hanson.
The Fibonacci sequence
Discovered by Leonardo Fibonacci in the 12th century, it is a simple mathematical
sequence that lies at the heart of the growth of many plant structures, such as
the spiral form of a pine cone. Starting with 0 and 1, each new number is the sum
of the two before it, thus: 2, 3, 5,8,13, and so on. The ratio provides a perfectly
proportioned growth pattern. This sequence is used for the spacing of the connection
points for the diagonals of the walkway trusses. The 12m long trusses are connected
to circular nodes which are in turn supported by pylons. It provides a seemingly
random, natural appearance that in fact comes from a clear underlying geometry.
The Architectural Brief for Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop walkway
To provide a unique visitor and learning experience by giving access to the normally
inaccessible root zone and upper tree canopy, conveying complex interrelationships
of the tree fauna, flora and fungi in a stimulating manner.