Meet Barry Cox, a religious architect who got inspired by traveling around the world and decided to built a church made out of living trees in his own backyard. The place counts more than 4000 trees in total and is located in Ohaupo, New Zealand. Although it was intended to be a private area, in 2015 he decided to make it a public place.
The first step in his project was to design an iron framework that would be used as the core of the church, for the roof he used a 'cut-leaf alder' tree because it can be bent and re-shaped easily which allows him to train the tree over the temporary framework until the branches become strong enough to support the weight of the church themselves. For the walls he used an Australian tea tree called 'Copper Sheen' because of the thick and textured foliage. It was also important to choose from types of trees that were able to penetrate enough light through the walls and ceiling, otherwise the grass that he used for the floor would die and it would be to dark inside to see.
Barry Cox is also the owner of a business named Treelocations which is specialized in relocating trees up to 8m tall with the use of a Tree-spade. The different types of trees he used for the project are Cut Leaf Alder (roof), Copper Sheen (Walls), Camelia Black Tie, Ginkgos, Alders, Poplars, Alnus Imperialis, Maples, Oaks, Beech, and Taxodium.
For me this project means that no matter who you are, or where you are from, people have the ability to create wonderful things in such artistic and imaginative ways that can be used as an inspiration towards others. And that is the beauty of art!
