See Thomas Heatherwick’s 70-Foot-Tall Tree Sculpture Honoring Queen Elizabeth II

Celebrity StyleSee Thomas Heatherwick’s 70-Foot-Tall Tree Sculpture Honoring Queen Elizabeth IIIt was unveiled outside Buckingham Palace in honor of her 70th anniversary on the throne

By Rachel Davies

May 25, 2022

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The Thomas Heatherwick Tree of Trees being constructed outside Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Photo: Matthew Chattle/Future Publishing via Getty Images

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It’s been 70 years since Queen Elizabeth II took the British throne, and to celebrate this milestone, one of the U.K.’s most prominent designers Thomas Heatherwick has created a unique structure. Standing 70 feet tall in honor of the Platinum Jubilee, his “Tree of Trees” was unveiled outside of Buckingham Palace just yesterday, per People.

Stateside, Heatherwick Studio’s most recognizable work is probably the Vessel in Manhattan, the honeycomb shaped Hudson Yards structure that first opened in spring of 2019. Like the Vessel, the “Tree of Trees” presents a contemporary industrial imagining of an organic form, though the London structure actually incorporates that which it references. With 80 steel tube branches, the sculpture supports 350 young potted trees that are splayed out to create the silhouette of a single tree. The tree features an irrigation system that keeps each pot properly watered regardless of weather.

Thomas Heatherwick standing among parts of the sculpture.

Photo: Peter Nicholls - WPA Pool/Getty Images

Heatherwick Studio’s structures tend to have some connection with nature, whether it’s the daylight-filled and solar panel-coated Google offices that the studio codesigned with Bjarke Ingels, the eye-grabbing floating park on New York City’s Hudson River, or even the studio’s first residential project, which is completely green-filled. Heatherwick is committed to the emotionality plants bring about in a space, as he explained to Architectural Digest in a 2020 interview about the residential property: “[Biophilia] is not just about plants; it’s about seeing movement, having change, hearing sound, and smelling smells, all these micro-effects we take for granted until they are missing from new developments.”

The “Tree of Trees” will remain outside Buckingham Palace throughout the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations this June. It consists of 350 native British trees planted in aluminum pots.

Photo: Dominic Lipinski - WPA Pool/Getty Images

The “Tree of Trees” is not only a symbol of the Queen’s lasting legacy, but it also specifically reflects her interest in trees themselves—she’s reportedly planted over 1,500 of them across the globe in the past 70 years. The sculpture was commissioned by the Queen’s Green Canopy, a Platinum Jubilee tree-planting initiative. A ceremony at the Buckingham Palace on June 2 will see the “Tree of Trees” light up with LED lights as the principal beacon of the Jubilee celebration, along with 3,000 other beacons lit across the U.K. at the same time. The weekend will see plenty of other opportunities for the Queen and citizens to celebrate, including the opening of royal residences to visitors and more laid-back affairs, like street parties and concerts.

According to Heatherwick, the Queen herself is a fan of the sculpture. “Apparently she gave a big thumbs up, so we were excited about that,” he reportedly told People.

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