Nest | Tri-Lox

TRI-LOX , the Brooklyn-based design and fabrication practice specializing in sustainable wood, proudly announces the debut of their latest installation NEST , an interactive playscape located on the rooftop terrace at Brooklyn Children's Museum ( BCM) in Crown Heights. Inspired by the unique nests made by the baya weaver bird, an example of which is featured in the BCM collection, NEST is made from reclaimed NYC water tower cedar fashioned into an organic form that creates a woven landscape with a climbable exterior, circular hammock area, and permeable interior space for open and creative play.

“In exploring the museum’s educational collection, we came upon a series of incredible bird nests and let them inspire our design,” said Alexander Bender , Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Tri-Lox. “One nest in particular, made by the baya weaver bird, offers an intricately woven form with rooms, tunnels, and multiple entries. This concept was then transformed into a climbable playscape that retains the natural materiality of the nest and tells a story of an iconic design within our vertical urban habitat – the NYC rooftop wood water tower. We quite literally brought the water tower back to the rooftop with this project”, says Bender, “it just had to be turned into a giant nest first.”

NEST is the newest focal point on the BCM rooftop, completing a multiyear capital project representing several established and respected voices in architectural design. The striking yellow building, designed by Rafael Viñoly and completed in 2008, was added to by Toshiko Mori with a pavilion that made a place for community gathering on the 20,000 square foot rooftop in 2015. In 2017, landscape architects at Future Green Studio connected the rooftop to Brower Park below with a mini-woodland, boardwalk, and plantings. Within a footprint of 1,800 square feet, NEST complements the various elements on the rooftop as a new focal point and community asset, offering the Museum’s target visitors, children ages 2-8, as well as caregivers, a place to play, climb, and explore the nature around us, even in the urban environment.

Tri-Lox was commissioned by BCM through a request for proposals in mid-2017. The design and fabrication studio put to use the reclaimed materials they are known for, namely the rooftop water tower cedar from their Skyline collection , to create an organic form with parametric design tools paired with fine craftsmanship.

“We were especially proud to work on this project with Tri-Lox. This sculpture has deep roots in our Brooklyn identity and community, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be sharing it with our Brooklyn kids,” said Stephanie Wilchfort , President and CEO at BCM. “NEST at Brooklyn Children’s Museum was made possible by a grant from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and support from Congresswoman Yvette Clarke and Congressman Ed Towns,” continued Wilchfort.

With the shared priority of creating a community-representative space that can serve children at various ages and stages of development, NEST met the Museum’s priorities for a climbable and iconic play structure and pushes those design strategies even further to incorporate contemporary theories of play and child development. The baya weaver nest’s organic form aligns with philosophies around non-prescriptive play, leaving the experience open ended, offering new challenges to children as they grow, and ideally bringing them back to the Museum to learn from its rotating exhibitions that expand upon its diverse collection.