forest of imagination
the climate spa
The Climate Spa began its life as a pop-up installation at The Holburne Museum in Bath, as part of the 2024 Forest of Imagination Festival. The scheme was designed and built by a group of young architects at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, in collaboration with The Necessary Space, Platô Cultural, Grant Associates and students from the University of Bath and the University of the West of England.
the concept
To create a 'Space for Playful Awakenings', or a SPA. This magical liminal place invited children to act as ‘Sparchitects’, helping to devise therapies and treatments to help adults overcome their apathy towards the climate and natural world. These therapies included: awakening wonder, seeing the invisible, measuring what matters with what matters, and togetherness. Visitors could build their own bug boxes, write letters to nature, or simply enjoy being in the shade of the surrounding trees.
the theme
‘A Million Small Acts’, celebrating the collective power of small individual contributions. The physical structure conceptualises this idea by utilising hundreds of small, standard lengths of timber. The timbers are fixed together to create a seemingly delicate embrace; however, through triangulation and the overall circular shape, the collective strength is far greater than the sum of the individual parts.
the story
The Climate Spa began with a story - of Kay, a young explorer who travelled the world in a magical tree balloon in search of answers to the climate crisis. She met polar bears and sea lions in the Arctic, and shared stories with tree frogs and jaguars in the Amazon, until a deep yearning drew her to Bath, where she landed in the gardens of the Holburne Museum.
