This Artist Created a Gorgeous Larger Than Life Tree

New York-based design studio THEVERYMANY has made its second public pavilion design contribution to Canada in the form of the elaborate arboreal vision known as the Pine Sanctuary.

The striking sculpture sits at the entrance of Mississauga’s Riverwood Conservancy, a charitable organization whose mission revolves around educating the community on nature and the environment. The $350,000 public project was partially funded by the Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program in commemoration of the country’s 150th anniversary.

Constructed of ultra thin aluminum, the towering pavilion has earned comparisons to everything from trees to flower petals to webs. Its curved shape is formed by large leaf-like extensions. Various shades of black, blue, green and white paint coat each of the laser-cut pieces.

According to ArchDaily, the studio employed “Structural Stripes,” its signature building method “in which a continuous surface is de/composed into custom designed and digitally fabricated parts, cut from ultra-thin aluminum.” Unlike a tree, the Pine Sanctuary lacks a singular base or trunk for support. Instead, multiple legs help it maintain its upright stance without relying on assistance from scaffolding or form work.

“A system of branches rotates around a center point,” the architects said of the sculpture. “There’s no trunk holding up this arboreal structure. Instead, it opens up into a shady space. ‘Branches’ touch the ground lightly around a covered grove, like a redwood hollowed out. Its feet, splay in all directions, along the way creating a labyrinth through which one can slip in, out and around. Circling the structure, no facade ever repeats itself. The new, unique angle upon every step forward prolongs the sense of discovery.”

In 2014, THEVERYMANY unveiled “Vaulted Willow,” its first tree-like public pavilion in Canada, in Edmonton’s Borden Park.

h/t Inhabitat