Giant Acorns from The Circus Re-locate to Bushey Norwood
29 Jun 2017
Back in 1754 the, now famous, architect John Wood the Elder had the extraordinary vision to design and build something groundbreaking in the City of Bath.
With inspiration taken from amphitheatres, prehistoric stone circles and grand squares, Wood designed The Circus, a terrace of houses curving around a central circular space. Then topping each house with large, imposing, Bath Stone Acorns, with 108 altogether placed around the roofs of The Circus. Many believe these represent John Wood the Elder’s fascination with Druids, or perhaps reflecting the mythical story of King Bladed and his pigs discovering the waters of Bath, what do you think?
Today, the Acorns are a source of delight and wonder of this magnificent, historical architecture and as part the Forest of Imagination vision to take: the City on the Edge, a collaboration between Bath architects, Grant Associates and furniture designers and makers, Herman Miller, set to relocreate the Acorns up at Bushey Norwood as part of an installation.
Each Acorn, is over a metre tall and this ring of Giant Acorns reminds visitors of John Wood The Elder, the City, The Circus, King Bladud, Druids, Stone Circles and is a playful installation in the playful intervention in the landscape, creating a space to gather, take photos and possibly play hide and seek…
Andrew Grant, Bath’s internationally respected architect, celebrated for his work on the iconic, Garden’s by the Bay in Singapore – recently highlighted on the BBC’s Planet Earth series, narrated by David Attenborough it has since become the BBC’s most watched natural history programme, and his team form Grant Associates created and designed the giant acorns, while Herman Miller, long-term sponsor of Forest of Imagination, set to build each actual Acorn.
Forest of Imagination was founded to develop the concept of conveying collaborative creativity, imagination and the environment into the heart of thinking, education and the urban landscape.
A forest is one of the best classrooms. Children, playing outdoors, learn through first-hand experiences and in cooperation with others. They play with ideas, thoughts and materials in a safe environment.
To help the Forest of Imagination to create these outdoor classrooms and workshop spaces we supported a range of collaborations, partnerships and teamwork between disciplines and industries to support and offer new perspective in the building and creation of our temporary workshops/structures/resting spots/installations in Bushey Norwood.
This year’s Forest of Imagination will connect people to nature in a variety of wild and imaginative ways. Forest is open from June 30th until July 2nd from 10am to 6pm every day. Forest of Imagination is free to all.
For directions to Forest check here.