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A walk in the woods – with a difference!

Introduction

Taking the chance to look at any space from a different angle will reveal previously unseen features, angles and perspectives. Now, with the opening of its newest feature, the world-renowned Kew Gardens offers visitors the chance to see the unseen, green world of trees from two unique angles.

Kew’s Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop Walkway, which open this Saturday (24th May), give visitors the chance to understand how the trees, planted by Capability Brown, survive and thrive in their habitat, and how changes to the habitat around them affect their growth and development.

From the roots to the leaves

Forming a major part of Kew Gardens’ summer festival, the Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop Walkway highlight the biodiversity and huge community of organisms that inhabit the space around each tree, and how they all inter-depend.

Entering the Rhizotron and heading underground, visitors are shown the diversity and importance of life among the root system of the trees in the Gardens in a gallery lit with swirling patterns on the ceiling, and lined with wood panelling taken from trees that have fallen down around the park.

Emerging from the gallery, you get a real feeling of the size and imposing nature of the trees in this part of Kew Gardens. That feeling of height only gets more breathtaking as you climb up the flights of stairs to reach the Xstrata Treetop Walkway. At 18 metres above the ground, the impression upon reaching the walkway itself is of walking through the treetops themselves.

Designed so that visitors in parts duck through the leaves, and pass within touching distance of the swaying boughs of the trees, the use of a steel grating as the walkway surface allows visitors to see right through to the woodland floor below them. Not only does this heighten the impression of walking among the treetops, it gives the appearance from below that people above are almost walking on thin air.

In addition, this grating helps the whole structure to blend in with the surroundings, minimizing the visual impact of the walkway. The steel used in the pylons and walkways is a specific ‘weathering’ steel that has an outer skin of rust to protect the metal below, as well as allowing the structure to appear minimal and blend in with the tree trunks alongside it.

At 200 metres long, the circular walkway gives a real insight into the structure of the trees, and the wildlife that lives among the higher branches. Birds, insects, lichens and fungi all exist alongside one another and create the community of organisms that help the trees to survive. Among the attractions for younger visitors to enjoy are a Bluetooth game that tells visitors what trees they are looking at and what to look out for, and ultra-sensitive microphones in some of the trees allowing visitors to hear the movements of water through the trees, and insects through the root structure.

On a clear day, the views further afield are equally impressive as the display of the trees closer to hand. The Gherkin, Wembley Stadium and the City of London are all clearly visible, as well as planes approaching Heathrow Airport.

At the end of each walkway section, there is a circular viewing platform allowing wider view of the surrounding trees and gardens, while in one corner there is an outdoor ‘classroom’ section, where up to 30 children can be accommodated for talks and demonstrations without disturbing other people on the walkway. One of the things that kids will love, and some adults will find a little less comfortable, is the fact that you can feel the structure moving slightly as people move about.

Investing in the present for the future

The project to build the Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop Walkway has been four years in the making, and has not been without its engineering challenges. The companies involved - Marks Barfield Architects and engineers Jane Wernick Associates - took radar images of the root structures around each of the tress and carefully planned the placing of the pylons so as to avoid damaging any of the roots of the trees in place. Tony Kirkham, head of the arboretum at Kew, said that he was also on hand most days of the major works “watching like a hawk” to ensure no damage was done.

The walkway is designed to be both strong and durable. According to Mr. Kirkham, it is strong enough to have people standing shoulder to shoulder on the whole of the walkway area, and considerably more. The pylons that extend 18 metres into the tree canopy also extend the same distance down into the ground.

As the steel weathers over time, it will blend in even more naturally with the trees around it, taking on a light brown colour that will begin to resemble a tree trunk. And with a projected lifespan of 500 years, the walkway is already having preparations made for its future. “We have already started planting new trees around the walkway area,” says Mr. Kirkham, “We know the trees that are currently here aren’t all going to last for another 500 years, so we have to start planting for the future now, and will continue to do so as and when we see fit.”

The last time Kew Gardens had a temporary treetop walkway in place, 167,000 people visited it in the space of four months. With the new Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop Walkway opening this weekend, many more children and adults will have the chance to experience this fascinating view of the trees.

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