TREE OF KNOWLEDGE

Dame Bradbury’s school, Saffron Walden, is part of the Stephen Perse Foundation. Following previous work for the Foundation, Chadwick Dryer Clarke was appointed to design a relocation of the school’s library into an existing Edwardian caretaker’s house. This was an opportunity to re-imagine the learning possibilities and the wider role of the library within the school. The existing library had for many years contained a small ‘Tree of Knowledge’ which had been made by previous pupils of the school. The current pupils wished to continue this concept into the new library, and as such a multi-functional tree was proposed as a new centre-piece. The tree is formed from lacquered mdf and steel, and forms seating for reading or story-telling. The tree has integrated IT, can play audio recordings, and has a central LED-lit snug within the trunk. Knitted within the roots of the tree are book shelves, and acoustic panels form leaves.