The Sacred Grove

Staging the wild dynamics of the forest

Behind this name, this garden stages the ecological role of fallen trees within forest ecosystems: the opening of light, the decomposition of wood, the acceleration of succession.

Sacred groves are recurring elements through history, amongst westerns and non-western cultures. They are protected spaces where mankind converses with deities, primordial and elemental places where nature and humans connect.

This garden is an interpretation of that concept. It stages a fallen tree in the middle of a meadow, surrounded by a dense forest edge. It is a space of intense life where bacteria, insects, and fungi are busy decomposing the wood; where birds feed on the process; where perennials, shrubs, and saplings are stretching for the light opened by the fall. The death of one tree starts the rebirth of many others. 

Cloistered by wooden poles, the central meadow becomes a sanctuary, a place where visitors are guests, invited to sit under the trees and be present in a process they did not initiate and will not complete.