Tree Island is a permanent public realm installation on Phillimore Walk, outside Kensington Central Library. The site is a long raised planting bed holding three street trees - or rather, two trees and a stump, all that remains of a third. The work takes that absence as its subject, returning the missing tree not as a replacement but as a sculptural echo of what once stood there.

Anchored directly onto the existing stump, a fan of CNC-cut timber ribs rises and opens outward, reaching toward its two surviving neighbours and forming a frame for the market signage the street had previously hung from a banner. At each of the remaining trees a bench takes the same radial geometry, formed as though rippling outward from the trunk. The three interventions share one material language, so the full length of the planter reads as a single considered gesture rather than a collection of street furniture.

The ribbed language continues into the ground, with linear timber elements set among the planting so that the boundary between sculpture and landscape is deliberately soft. Planting was delivered through Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg's Pollinator Pathmaker and planted by local volunteers, allowing grasses and perennials to grow up through the structure over time - the work is intended to be gradually claimed by the landscape it sits in.

Colour and surface were developed by artist MAMIMU, drawing on the palette of Kensington's landmarks: the cobalt blue of Leighton House, the psychedelic hues of Biba, and the cherry blossom pinks of the Kyoto Garden. Beneath this, the concept draws on underground ecological networks - the mycorrhizal and pollinator systems that connect trees invisibly to one another - a fitting reading of the London Festival of Architecture's 2026 theme, Belonging.

Tree Island was commissioned as part of Rooted in Kensington, in partnership with Opportunity Kensington and with the support of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, with curatorial and production support from Vestalia Chilton.

Fabrication: CNC Projects / Bronzewood