When we heard about the three-day green Woodland Design Lab, we pulled on our boots, packed our camping bags, and booked our train ticket straight from Liverpool to Wales to be a part of it! Run by Jenny Hall of Crafted Space and Tabitha Pope of Recycled Venues (the same folks who dreamed up this crazy CD Fish at the Glastonbury Festival), and held in the verdant Snowdonia National Park, the lab attracted an inspired group of roughly 20 green-minded architects, artists, builders, designers, and structural engineers who were not at all deterred by camping in muddy, soggy conditions. The idea behind the lab was to learn about site specific design in a short amount of time using all natural materials that were largely harvested directly from the Graig Wen campsite where we stayed. (If that sounds weird to American campers used to strict National Park laws, you should know that none were broken in Wales!) After roaming what was once a slate quarry and choosing their favorite sites, the group split off into small teams that constructed three awesome pieces of art cum architecture (come rain or sunshine) in just one and a half days - including the incredible wooden Skybowl you see above.
