TREE FORM opens at the Palazzo Diedo in Venice

TREE FORM is inspired by the intelligence of trees as diverse spatial forms with inherent strength created over millions of years through natural evolution. How can we understand and visualize the capacities of branching trees as structural and spatial form in architecture? And how can the assembly of trees create new ways of building and living in a regenerative architecture that benefits forests, people, and the spaces they inhabit? TREE FORM embraces the diversity of trees in their varying natural form as the lowest carbon-emitting structural system available. It imagines how architecture might move from the extractive, modern-era free plan of standardized structural elements to a regenerative tree plan where tree form becomes a distinctive and collaborative partner in the daily lives of people.  

TREE FORM leverages a new computational and design workflow that is being developed at MIT and prototyped with WholeTrees Structures to understand the collective behavior of an assembly of trees as building structure for a wide range of architectural building types. The varied natural forms of branching trees can create complex but efficient structural load paths. These forms are captured through photogrammetry and integrated in a computational approach for characterizing and discretizing the irregular geometries inherent in diverse tree species to estimate their structural capacity. For a given architectural form, the shared structural role of an assembly of trees is developed through a ‘digital twin’ model that integrates finite element analysis to understand structural performance of a community of tree forms across different design configurations. This enables architects to collaborate with scanned trees in digital forest inventories and to design with the wild character of arborescent tree form in ways that are improvisational, playful and precise.

TREE FORM supports a value chain of relational benefits for trees, forests, people, and the spaces they inhabit. Harvesting small-diameter, invasive, or low-value branching trees is essential for forest health, forest restoration and forest fire resiliency. TREE FORM reduces forest ‘waste’ by transforming low-value trees with branching forks into higher-value structural markets for regenerative architecture. This incentivizes the sustainable management of forests, supports local forest communities, captures carbon, and demonstrates a circular material process applicable to a wide range of varying natural materials.

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Front, illuminated model view of multi-story mass timber building with branching tree columns

TREE FORM Architectural design by KVA Matx with MIT Digital Structures

Photo Credit; KVA Matx

Design Model and Digital Twin with scanned tree inventory

TREE FORM Architectural Designby KVA Matx with MIT Digital Structures

Image Credit; KVA Matx, MIT Research team

Plan view drawing of a mass timber building with branching tree columns and capitals

TREE FORM Architectural design by KVA Matx with MIT Digital Structures

Drawing Credit; KVA Matx

Plan view drawing of a mass timber building with branching tree walls

TREE FORM Architectural design by KVA Matx with MIT Digital Structures

Drawing Credit; KVA Matx

Perspective view rendering of a mass timber building with branching tree columns and capitals

TREE FORM Architectural design by KVA Matx with MIT Digital Structures

Image Credit; KVA Matx

Perspective view rendering of a mass timber building with branching tree walls

TREE FORM Architectural design by KVA Matx with MIT Digital Structures

Image Credit; KVA Matx

Plan and views of prototype design and integrated structural analysis system model under lateral loads.

GIF Credit; TREE FORM Structural analysis model by MIT Digital Structures with KVA Matx

Diagram of the integrated design and structural analysis workflow.

Image Credit; TREE FORM Structural analysis model by MIT Digital Structures with KVA Matx

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‍TREE FORM exhibit tree prototypes

Scan #5000- Sugar Maple FSC & SFI certified forest, Maine  

Scan #5007- Yellow Birch Managed Forest plan selective harvest, New York  

Scan #5008- Sugar Maple FSC & SFI certified forest, Maine 

TREE FORM Research Team

The TREE FORM Research Team includes Rachel Blowes (MIT SMArchsBT ‘25), Charles Janson (MIT MArch ‘25), Prof. Sheila Kennedy (FAIA, KVAMatx), Assoc. Prof. Caitlin Muller (PhD), and designers Sam Sundstrom and Austin Tsailin (KVA Matx). Industry partners are Amelia Baxter (CEO, WholeTrees), Kevin Stewart (Strategic Initiatives, WholeTrees), and Russell Miller-Johnson (Principal, Engineering Ventures). Special thanks to Aleks Banas, Zoe Gao, Bernardo Gonsalez, Joyce Tullis, and Jordan Walters ( MIT MArch ‘26–‘27).

Resources

Visit KVA Matx and read a recent interview with Sheila Kennedy.

Visit the MIT Digital Structures research group, and read about Caitlin Mueller’s work with trees.

Learn about Industry Partner WholeTrees Structures.

View WholeTrees' online platform of tree scans.

To read the WholeTrees Structures blog on their participation in the TREE FORM project, please visit the Wholetrees “Journey To Venice”.