Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre 

Jakaranda Tree deliver heritage projects and approached Bright Green to work with them on the Wondrous Woods project at the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Telling Centre. Transforming the visitor experience into a playful indoor woodland complete with bespoke artificial trees.  

The trees, made with real ash stems and artificial birch foliage, were crafted by the Bright Green team to work in synthesis with the woodland graphics covering the walls. To give the impression the foliage was bursting out from these visuals to cover the walls and ceiling of the interactive space with life like branches and leaves. Adding to the multi-sensory experience and transporting visitors deep into a magical wood. 

When designing these trees the functionality of the space had to be considered alongside the visual impact. With bench seating nearby the multi stemmed corner tree was constructed onto a hidden base plate as there simply wasn’t room for a large planter that would reduce the seating capacity. The base plate was then disguised beneath a bespoke made mound, dressed with incredibly lifelike artificial ferns and grasses to further enhance the woodland atmosphere. In the opposite corner a boxed in pillar meant that real wooden stems weren’t practical for the lower half of the second tree. An effective two metre canopy was built to extend from the top of an illustration of a trunk covering the pillar. A variety of Old Man’s Beard vines and real branches were cleverly positioned to blend the artificial canopy seamlessly with the woodland graphics. Creating a realistic and tactile canopy that would work in harmony with the illustartions and the activities and quotes they contained, rather than overpowering the experience. 

The lush artificial trailing foliage the team installed camouflaged unsightly cabling in the room and surrounded the SMARTboard to make it feel less intrusive within the woodland scene. We would like to congratulate Jakaranda Tree and the Roald Dahl Museum on this magical and immersive space which is certain to spark visitors’ imaginations and leave a long-lasting impression. 

If you’d like to experience the Wondrous Wood for yourself visit the museum website.

Photos courtesy of  Lee Simmons graphic design