Forgive me that this has taken a while to write up and that the exhibition will probably be closed by the time you read it. It was a spontaneous-ish visit just before we went on holiday and my plan to write this post the night before we left for holiday went awry for reasons I will blog about at length in my holiday posts. Don’t worry, they will be coming soon too. So my memories of “Bonsai Treehouses” are a little fuzzy but luckily I took a ton of photos, so this post will be pretty even if the information is a) vague and b) obsolete.
You’re probably wondering where the Museum of Architecture is. Me too! Turns out that it is not a physical museum but more of a concept at the moment. They are the group that put on “Gingerbread City” every Christmas and this summer, they also put on an outdoor exhibition – a collection of architect-designed treehouses built in and around bonsai trees.
I say spontaneous-ish because I only booked this late the night before. Roo had been off college for a while and was starting to get bored when this ad popped up in my news feed. He’s interested in architecture, so this seemed like a decent post-work outing that we could fit in before holiday. I booked for 6pm, we met at Liverpool Street and jumped on the tube to Paddington.
The first thing to know is that Oxford Square, which is where the trees were, is not very near Oxford Street. I’m glad I checked before we got on the tube cause honestly, I would have just assumed it was near Hanover Square or one of those. It’s actually in Tyburnia, which is kinda near the Marble Arch end of Oxford Street but not particularly close to any tube. We chose Paddington because it meant Elizabeth Line rather than Central Line and, during the heatwave, these decisions really mattered. The Elizabeth Line has aircon and the Central Line is like the sauna room inside the second circle of Hell. When someone’s messed with the thermostat and it’s got stuck on “Super-torture”. So Paddington and a shady 10 minute walk seemed like the best option.
And I got to walk through some streets I’d never seen before. Tyburnia is fancy! Sure, it might have been the place when they used to execute people but now it slays. Sorry, that was a terrible GenZ joke. I had a GenZ with me, if that justifies it at all.
But look how lovely it all is!
And talking of fancy houses, let’s get on to the exhibition itself. It’s not huge but there is a welcome tent with a few refreshments for sale (mainly crisps and bottles of water) and a friendly greeter who explains what’s going on. Then you’re free to wander around the square and look at all the tiny trees and even tinier houses. There are information boards about both architecture and bonsai trees, plus there is a chillout zone under a decidedly non-bonsai (nonsai?) oak tree. There’s a tent which I think is used for art activities as well but probably not at 6pm on a Thursday.
There are about 24 treehouses in the exhibition I think so I won’t go through them all in detail but there was a real variety – some had 3D printed plastic elements, while others used natural materials or pieces left over from other projects. There was even a slightly chaotic Lego build:
This was a “children-led” design, which had a explanation board saying it was designed “without thinking, without symmetry”. I could see Reuben was itching to add some thinking and symmetry but there was a strict “no touching” policy.
The rest of the designs he had no such issue with, and spent most of the time awestruck about how well constructed and detailed they all were.
If you’re wondering why he’s wearing elf ears, it’s because he thought tiny treehouses were “elf-coded”. You can’t argue with that logic.
And it does match nicely with the hobbit-hole house that was reimagined for the fairy market:
This one was beautifully detailed and was one of my favourites:
One of Roo’s favourites was this one, with the cats:
Just look at the tiny ladders! And look at all these little wooden books in this one:
I also liked this one, with the tiny rope ladder and the cosy-looking hideaway spots:
Reuben had some doubts about the physics on this one, where the stairs hung off the branches pof the trees but it sure looks striking:
And this one looks idyllic. At this point, I was imagining a holiday where we’d do nothing but lounge around the pool. Spoiler – that did not quite happen. But I’m happy for these tiny folk:
There were also boards with real-life examples of treehouses and tree-inspired architecture. Most of them looked fun to visit, if a little rural for my taste. The one that was apparently built by “amateur weekend builders” looked especially worrying:
Of course, it would have all been more beautiful if we weren’t several weeks into a drought – I’m sure it’s usually a very green part of town but, like the rest of town, it was yellowish when we visited and subject to a hosepipe ban. It was nice and shady though, and a welcome relief from being cooped up at home. It’s a shame it isn’t running longer but I understand that the circumstances are outside their control. I think they are selling off the bonsai trees after the exhibition closes, so I don’t think it will pop up again but you never know. For more information about the Museum of Architecture, click here.
It was pretty much dinner time by the time we’d finished looking at trees, so we went to ASK for some very welcome cold drinks and hot pizza. Roo blended almost too well with the decor:
And they had really cool pizza scissors that actually worked:
On the way back to Paddington, we spotted one of those “London sights” that often appear on Insta posts but I’ve never seen IRL. The man in the clock!
Then Roo stopped for a quick tea party with these chill dudes:
So a fun post-work outing for a hot evening. I’ll be keeping an eye out for whatever Museum of Architecture do next.
