Growing a New Kind of School:

Forestry, materials & buildings

At Evolving Forests, we spend a lot of time at the intersection of woodlands and design. We see the beauty, complexity, and potential of forests, and we see how much the built environment is beginning to lean on those same forests for building materials. But there’s a missing link.

Forestry and construction still live in different worlds. Those who grow our future materials rarely meet those who shape them into buildings, and vice versa. Yet the challenges we face, from biodiversity loss to the need for low-carbon building, demand that these worlds work together.

The significance of our built environment and the materials we shape it from cannot be underestimated. Without shelter, there can be no community. And without community, there is no prosperity (of any kind). Forests, communities, ecological and economic prosperity are increasingly becoming inseparable - a truth long obscured by our obsession with limitless growth and capital-driven measures of success.

All these reasons and more are why we’ve been developing the idea of an Institute for Forestry and Materiality: a new centre of learning, research and practice that creates a symbiosis between forest, community and practice.

Why now?

The timing feels urgent.

• The UK’s forestry sector talks about skills shortages but has very few places for people to learn the craft and science of regenerative forest management. A place open to investigating & teaching innovative silvicultural practice

  
  

• Designers and architects are moving towards timber and bio-based materials, but often without a real understanding of where those materials come from, or the ecological systems that produce them.

  
  

• And all the while, construction is responsible for over 40% of global emissions. If we’re serious about decarbonising, the materials we use need to change, and fast.

  
  

• This is about more than training new foresters or new architects. It’s about creating a new movement of practice that spans disciplines, connects people to place, and equips them to make bold, ecological choices.

A place of learning and making

Our vision is a new school focussed on under- and post-graduate level courses that educates the foresters and material designers of the future. A year-round campus where students, researchers, craftspeople and communities come together; a place where:

• MSc and BSc programmes in timber, forestry and natural materials cross streams.

• Research digs into regenerative silviculture, circular materials and bioregional design.

• Practical exploration, play, and demonstrations bridge the gap between theory and practice.

• Partnerships with local landowners, universities and industry anchor the work in real-world needs.

South Devon feels like the right home. Its woodlands, history of rural innovation, and the Dartington legacy of experimentation and education that pervades the region all point towards the possibility of something pioneering here, but we’re open to offers.

Starting the conversation

We’re under no illusion: creating a new institution is a big undertaking. But so was Bauhaus when it began. So was the Architectural Association. So was the Centre for Advanced Timber Technology. Each of these started because the times demanded something different, and people came together to make it happen. This will be a place that not only teaches but sets the agenda for future forests and materials, of radical research and in-depth teaching.

Right now, we’re in the feasibility stage. We’re scoping the business case, building partnerships, exploring sites, and listening carefully to those who might shape, and be shaped by, this work. To do that well, we’re seeking £30–50k in feasibility funding, and we’re gathering support from anyone who shares this vision.

An open invite

This is where you come in. We’d love to hear from foresters, architects, craftspeople, educators, funders, policy-makers - anyone who feels the pull of this idea. Does this resonate with you? Could you see yourself, your organisation, or your community being part of it?

If you’re curious, supportive, or even sceptical, we want to start the conversation. Because the only way this becomes real is if enough people believe in the need, and the opportunity, to grow something new together.