Local residents and community organisations in and around Fosters Estate in Hendon were closely involved in a masterplan to improve their estate and build hundreds of new affordable homes in between the existing blocks.

Their ideas to enhance the estate included repurposing trees that needed to be removed into outdoor furniture, enabling residents to continue to enjoy them rather than see them destroyed.

We worked closely with Barnet Homes to remove the felled trees, mill them and turn them into nine temporary ‘seasoning benches’.

The simple design retains the shapes of the original trees by using the milled boards stacked between spacers – just as freshly milled timber is left to air dry naturally. Once fully seasoned, the timber will be further re-purposed as permanent external and internal furniture.

The benches have been really well received by the local community and heralded as a simple, sustainable solution that could be adopted at other development sites, sequestering the embodied carbon and turning the loss of valued trees into something positive.

We’ve spoken to quite a few residents and they all said they love the benches!