FOREST SPATIAL TYPOLOGIES

spatial typologies of forest

2013, SUBMISSION FOR SCENARIO JOURNAL

The forest is a place of enmeshed memory; it holds a special place in our imaginations.

The forest is usually imagined as an ambiguous spatial condition as the positions of the trees in the forest are seemingly random and indeterminate. However, within the obvious ambiguity, there exist certain definable spatial typologies and perceivable qualities of the forest.

SINGLE TREE AS A MARKER
As the forest is composed of a number of individual trees, a single significantly different tree out of a stabilised forest acts as a marker in the landscape.

TWO POINTS IMPLYING A LINEAR AXIS
Two or more successive points in the field implies a linear axis either straight or not, a directional journey through the forest with an entry and an exit. Like the march through the landscape, the two points are the beginning and the destination.

DOTS IN THE LANDSCAPE
Similar to a constellation, dots in the landscape forms a nonlinear connection with each other.

DENSENESS IN THE CENTER
As the numbers of trees increase in the center of the forest, denseness becomes a perceivable quality, like looking at the dark forest in the landscape.

SPACING AS FRAME
Gaps between trees act as a window to the landscape, and similarly the incremental spacing of
the trees perpendicular to the line of sight.

AVENUE OF TREES
Row of trees flanking alongside a path or a path clearing cutting through a dense forest. Avenue of
trees is inherently linear, and acts as a threshold or approach prior to a destination.

CROP CIRCLE CLEARING
The crop circle clearing is a negative space within that is not visible to the outside, a sort of courtyard of the forest typology. Here, the ground and the sky becomes more apparent than the surroundings.

LOOSELY DEFINED SPACES
There is a kind of spatial intelligence in process when a family is finding a picnic spot among the woods. Discounting the view factor, narrowly spaced trees act like an ambiguous wall whereas a further spaced region act as a picnic room within the forest.

MEANDERING
The virtue of a meandering within the forest is the consistent flexibility of the paths offered within the forest. For meandering a path is therefore not defined, characterised only by the stabilised spacing between the poles, like a pathless trekking within the jungle.