tate harmer + students create temporary walkway in dartmoor national park

The design objective for the spatial structure involved creating a boardwalk that provided experience in landscape.

with a resting area, a seating space over the stream, and a semi-enclosure, each piece framed views of the natural surroundings.

the project gave students an opportunity to learn how to design and build at a 1:1 scale in a completely collaborative environment, allowing them to understand their decisions and start to establish how to work together as a team.the walkway was constructed from locally fallen douglas firs, which were milled on site from the raw timber logs, as well as a redundant telegraph pole. this component formed the substructure element as a series of driven piles, between which spanned large sections of lumber as a superstructure. the path was then completed with ‘chevron’ decking to accommodate a gentle curve through the terrain.the work is a demonstration of tate harmer’s key beliefs: working with nature (in this case local materials and the landscape of the site) and a collaborative team-based approach to architecture.

 

the installation uses locally fallen douglas firs

 

beginning of the walkway

 

the materials that were used, allowed the collective to add a subtle curve through the terrain

 

all of the pieces were milled on site

 

the design team