Architype

On 9th June, Architype’s Edinburgh studio hosted a film evening as part of 2025’s Architecture Fringe welcoming researchers from UK Treescapes, Deirde Heddon and Rachel Clive along with collaborators and members of the public.

‘Three Words for Forest: Exploring uncertainty in a time of climate crises’ was developed from and built upon a play that was the creative output of a study into the effects of adaptation to the climate crisis on forestry and its workers – memorably weaving together interviews with 30 forestry practitioners and land workers from across the U.K. Architype’s Regenerative Design and Infrastructure Specialist, Scott McAulay, opened the event by talking about regenerative material choices and designing for a changing climate before passing on to the UK Treescapes team who introduced the film.

The film itself moves powerfully between different themes, from access to land, love for our natural world and the possibilities created by regenerative agricultural and forestry practices to human creativity and the time horizons of forests that extend far beyond the length of our own lives. It’s punctuated throughout by interviewees’ thoughts on and their own three words for forest and whereas many environmentally focused films focus on visuals, the play’s focus on voices accompanied throughout by a lone cellist left a lasting impression on our audience.

Our discussion afterwards, led by Deirdre, Rachel and Scott, moved in as many directions as there were themes in the film. It touched upon agricultural, construction and forestry policies, political imaginaries and technical capability, educational models, and of surprise at the complementary work being done by others in the room, underwritten by collective delight to be overlapping beyond the usual siloes and sparking new conversations.

Having seen the play last year, Scott felt that it spoke to how timber is grown and used in ways that centred life and landscapes, in a way that is rarely given consideration when the construction sector approaches building and designing with wood. Building on past events that he has developed and learning from his expertise that has shaped Architype’s approach to Regenerative Design and Infrastructures – purposefully creating spaces for overlap beyond our projects, we extended an invitation to develop such an event in the spirit of the Architecture Fringe’s provocation of reciprocity, and it was a joy to welcome foresters and planners, mass timber engineers and theatre practitioners, architects and architectural educators, specialists in the genetics of trees and more to the Old Assembly Hall for an evening.

“I found the film really moving and was impressed by the depth of storytelling from different voices. It inspired a great conversation afterwards between the group covering our shared experiences across different sectors. It was interesting to hear how many of us are limited by poorly-informed policy, misconceptions around timber use or by the lack of funding in local industry preventing innovation. I’m hoping if we keep talking about it, we will be able to instigate change.” – Sam Dugdale, Senior Architect at Architype

“It was a relaxed and convivial event and a real pleasure to discuss the relevance of the play with people from the architecture and construction sector – as well as with the other members of the public that were there.” – Dr Rachel Clive, Research and Innovation Associate: Three Words for Forest – Exploring Uncertainty in a Time of Climate Crisis

“It was invaluable to have people in the room who work in an adjacent sector (construction / architecture) for two reasons: first of all, to see whether and how the play resonated with that sector; secondly, by listening to experts from this sector, to expand my knowledge about the complex relationships between forests, timber production and construction. The need for and potential of more timber in construction came through clearly, but also the many barriers preventing this. The event opened up new pathways of connection and traction, impressing even more the complexity of forestry, which touches upon and impact so many other domains, but is also impacted by them. It very helpfully foregrounded the need for more cross-sectoral dialogue to support integrated policies.” – Professor Deirdre Heddon, PhD, FRSE

You can find out more about Three Words for Forest here and UK Treescapes here.

Watch the film online here.