Hall of Trees

Hall of trees is a Foyer in Dundee City, a building to provide a halfway house for young homeless adults. The brief described the need to incorporate a range of accommodation, meeting and living spaces, along with suitable opportunities for residents to re-develop skills that they could employ, to find their own feet again. I aimed to create a scheme that pushed the boundaries of reality, using ideas drawn from Norse mythology, and space conditioned by light filtered through a landscape of trees. Residents live among the treetops, apparently floating above the city they once walked the streets of. A large communal banquet hall with a sizeable hearth encourages interaction, and provides centrality to the scheme. Elongated walls and crisp paths guide residents beneath the canopy of birch trees, with floating courtyards and elegant ramps create walkways for those above.