Clients: Future Cities, Winchester City Council, Havant Council, Grainger PLC Berewood
Site: Berewood, Hampshire, UK (2016)
Designer: Wayward
Consultants: Structure Workshop
Grow, Grow, Grow Your Boat is an adventurous new artwork by Wayward that explores Nautical Forestry and the fascinating maritime history of the ancient woodland of the Forest of Bere that surrounds and connects the new town of Berewood. Our work draws from the integral role of the forest’s oak trees in shipbuilding from the 16th to 18th centuries, and ties this history to forest schools, natural play, living architecture and sustainable water systems.
The project includes a living sculpture – a steel armature to grow a 1:5 scale model of the HMS Victory from living oak trees, and a model boat pond to create a destination for the new town.
Alongside the work, a year-long programme of community engagement includes an initiative with Berewood Primary School to grow 700 oak trees from acorns (the amount recorded for building the hull of the HMS Victory, in Ships of British Oak: The Rise and Decline of Wooden Shipbuilding in Hampshire), a nautical forest school and community model boat building workshops with the International Boatbuilding Training College (IBTC) in Portsmouth.