We have all returned from Paris and the whirlwind of the holidays. We want to take a moment to thank all of our volunteers, supporters, design team, and media team for the amazing work and brilliance that went into making the project a success and share the story of the trees.
The Trees
The end result! A stunning display with thousands of ribbons.
There were ultimately 3 trees built. The giant one was about 13 feet high and 20 feet wide. The two smaller ones were 8' high and used one of our design team member's, John Swain, hanging hoop design. One of which was "planted" in L'Bourget, "Inside" COP21 where the NGOs and politicians met.
The large tree, which we named "The Tree of Solidarity" was installed twice. First at a giant 2-day festival called "The Village Mondial des Alternatives" put on by the
The second spot was for 5 days at the "104 Space"
People intently writing and tying ribbons.
Fabrication Process
Laser-cut mock-up of Tree
Members of our design team was gracious enough to keep adjusting the 3D model on Paris time (THANKS Mateo!), based upon refinements we were making with the folks there on the ground.
Here you can see us start to slot the pieces together!
The tree was cut out of Poplar, a locally grown sustainable farms in France. It is soft wood and water resistant. It's going to have a long life (see the Epilogue, below).
Above is the cool artists workshop that we were able to construct it all in.
This is how we laid out the pieces before we installed it in 104 space. By the end of our stay (and with some modifications) we were able to assemble the large tree from start to finish in less than 1.5 hours. Pretty fast for something so big and complicated.
Interior "keystone" space capturing a cathedral-like quality.
Engraving of the central question that the Climate Ribbon Project poses. Placed in both French and English on the front and back steps.
But in the end, despite the many challenges we faced, it was a great success and the tree's design and aesthetics were a huge part of that.
And it's not over!
The Epilogue:
The trees are finding new homes. One of the small trees will be with a group "Foresters without Borders" who are planting hundreds of thousands of trees across France and the other remained with our team in Les Lilas as they host ribbon events in 2016.
The large tree was taken to Southern France where a Utopian community has adopted it. Mind you, this is not-your-father's-hippy-dropout-commune. This is a high functioning village with 300 residents, many of whom are expert builders and craftsmen. They are going to retrofit and weatherproof the tree for permanent installation at the very center of their village. It is being unveiled early this Spring.
There will be more from the Climate Ribbon team soon, including a full Paris debrief with videos. And if you are in NYC this weekend, please join members of the Climate Ribbon team at the COP 21 Report back at the Mayday Space.