Windows on Willesden Playwood

Project Details

Location: London

Project: Installation in front of Willesden Library

Client: Brent Council , Architecture Foundation

Contract Value: £4,000

Project Description

On Willesden High Street lies a small space between the Willesden Library Centre and the old library building. The space lacked any significant character and is completely subservient to the buildings that surrounded it. The low budget proposal aspired to bring activity to the space, animating it in a way that reflected the events taking place inside the library, and to augment it in a tactile way that encouraged people reach out and touch, listen, read, play and sit. We saw the intervention as something that needed to be at human scale; a size that people could relate too and engage with. Alongside the installation we ran a series of interactive workshops with artists, writers and poets.

The “Playwood” design comprised of 3 elements: trees, lighting and audio. 16 trees arranged in a [seemingly] random configuration, had a physical presence in the site. Their configuration would allow for clear routes through or force the public to walk in and around them. Theatre style profile lights projected leaf patterns and brought depth to the design and visual enhancement at night. Audio fairy tale stories were broadcast through exterior speakers to fill the space with sound and give people reason to pause in the space just that little bit longer than usual. 

The design of the trees was playful and a bit tongue and cheek. Lollipop shaped and occupied by typical fairy tale forest creatures, they sought to draw the activities taking place in the children’s library, out to the front of the building. Children and adults can sit on them play on or amongst them as they wish.