The Forest School is a platform and network operating across CSM exploring the Forest as a prism through which we can understand the causes and implications of climate and ecological emergency. As many forests burn across the globe, there is a hope they may hold answers and solutions. Possible solutions range from using forests for carbon offsetting, to more empathic approaches. Solutions that see forests as intelligent interdependent ecosystems, embodying deep thinking. There are many myths that anchor forests deep in our cultural psyches yet guardian communities with practices of gratitude and connection with nature have been marginalised.
The programme is led through a series of events, projects, and partnerships including: Lunchtime talks, Constructive Land, Compostations (a collaborative unit between MA Regenerative Design and M Arch), the Nature of Place residency and The Forest School Assembly – a collective meal of edible landscapes. Forest School is being used as a case study to imagine what a forest-based satellite campus for CSM could look like. The journeys taken into the forest are helping the discovery, learning and ways we can re-form, not only the practice of art and design, but the ways in which we live together within wider planetary systems. Forest School hosted a series of lunchtime talks devised by a team at Central Saint Martins (CSM). The talks brought together; Forestry England, White Arkiteker, Colombian forest networks, UAL staff and students. They were attended by over 500 people.
Forest School is deeply integrated into the curriculum of the MArch. Associate Lecturers Paloma Gormley and Summer Islam are leading Constructive Land – a year-long research project in partnership with Forestry England. The project investigates and tests the production and application of new biobased materials drawn from “unproductive” woodland material. Students from the course designed and built an experimental timber structure, in Summer 2022. The structure facilitated teaching and community engagement within woodlands.
Forest School is being used as a case study to imagine what a forest-based satellite campus for CSM could look like. The journeys taken into the forest are helping the discovery, learning and ways we can re-form, not only the practice of art and design, but the ways in which we live together within wider planetary systems.
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