tate harmer + students create temporary walkway in dartmoor national park

tate harmer + students create temporary walkway in dartmoor national park
all images courtesy of tate harmer

the design objective for the spatial structure by tate harmer and dartmoor arts students involved creating a boardwalk that provided a more intimate experience with the landscape as you cross the valley floor. with a resting area, a seating space over the stream, and a semi-enclosure, each piece framed views of the natural surroundings.

the project gave students an opportunity to learn how to design and build at a 1:1 scale in a completely collaborative environment, allowing them to understand their decisions and start to establish how to work together as a team.

the installation uses locally fallen douglas firs

the walkway was constructed from locally fallen douglas firs, which were milled on site from the raw timber logs, as well as a redundant telegraph pole. this component formed the substructure element as a series of driven piles, between which spanned large sections of lumber as a superstructure. the path was then completed with ‘chevron’ decking to accommodate a gentle curve through the terrain.

beginning of the walkway

the work is a demonstration of tate harmer’s key beliefs: working with nature (in this case local materials and the landscape of the site) and a collaborative team-based approach to architecture.

the materials that were used, allowed the collective to add a subtle curve through the terrain

looking down from the forest

all of the pieces were milled on site

the design team

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.