THE ARBOREAL LIBRARY

History saved in carefully pruned trees

The project emerged during Ludvig Holmen’s third year at the Architectural Association while he studied under Ricardo deOstos, Nanette Jackowski and Nathan Su. The upcoming short film is narrated by Robert Pogue Harrison who’s writings on gardens, history and culture was the starting point of the project.

"After the founding of the Qin dynasty, Confucian scholars, whose texts were banned under the new regime, founded a garden to keep their stories safe. Developing a language that uses tree sculpting as elaborate Chinese characters, the scholars wrote down the country’s history for the next two millennia. During the cultural revolution in 1967, the garden was attacked and burnt down. The inferno that followed burnt to hot that soil solidified leaving huge hollows where the roots of the trees once grew. Today, the garden is being excavated, exposing the porcelain roots which are examined to rediscover the countries history.

“By the twisting and contorting of the trunks to the attentive trimming of every little twig, a master of the craft could write infinitely intricate histories”