The Treedom | Atelier YokYok

The Treedom is a social installation for public space. It acts as a porous pavillon delicately grown in the middle of the city. A low-tech woodwork, made of local materials and typical stones of the region. It offers benches & bar counters for people to socialize as well as a symbolic silhouette in the urban landscape.

The City of Alberobello, in the Puglia region in the south of Italy, invited YokYok to install The Treedom for the Light Festival 2023.

Alberobello wanted to bring an artwork that could be lived and enjoyed by its inhabitants on a mineral piazza in the center of the city. The Treedom proposed by YokYok is about a small architectural landscape evoking ‘‘il bosco’’ like the forests that were present in the ancient times of the city. Designed for urban space, it has been adapted to the slope and the pavement using local stones from one of the numerous quarries of the region. This mineral addition makes a link with the local architectural history based on the first ressource of this karst region: the limestone. This abundant ressource of the area is at the origin of the famous Trullo architecture, making Alberobello recognised a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The woodwork has been done with a team of builders on site and by night during one of the hotest week of this year 2023. It is structurally simple and low-tech. Vertical poles, horizontal benches, stones weights, and a lot of triangulation above made by a bunch of boards. The result is a strong structure designed for people and delicately put on a public square.

The benches & bar counters have a structural role. They link the poles together and stabilize them, avoiding people to move them at the lower part. The installation has no foundations. It is directly put on the pavement which couldn’t be drilled through, as being part of UNESCO protected site. Finally they create social spaces for encounters and a labyrinthic circulation that invites people to get lost and experience the installation from inside.

The installation lies in two elements:

- a luminous canopy - acting as a signal & symbolic silhouette
- a functional ground floor, offering use, to rest and socialize

The lighting of the installation is composed of 34 fluo T5 tubes with the support of the french firm Sammode, specialized in architectural lighting.

The concept of the plan is simple: to link all the poles together The Treedom with at least a bench or a bar counter and to let a free circulation on the pavement of the square remaining inclusive and accessible for disabled people. Small spaces are created to foster encounters and discussions.

The stones make the space a bit more chaotic and bring a natural touch to this labyrinthic geometrical forest. They have a structural role, to weight the installation and stabilize the pole bases in the direction which is not secured by a bench. These simple construction principles allows the project to be economical, local, dismountable and re-usable.

YokYok designs for people. Creating encounters & social interactions are focus points considered essentials in our post-covid times, to disconnect from screens, to enjoy authentic moments. YokYok believes that people needs to keep a physical contact with space. Simple constructive details & materials like stone, wood and warm light can help to it. Here, just woodwork, elbow grease and confortable benches to sit on. A tribute to low-tech. Finally, the Treedom is nothing more than a place to meet.

The Treedom by YokYok
size: 11x11x10m
materials: wood, stones, lights
client: City of Alberobello
organizer: Light Festival
curator & production: Lightcones
realization: YokYok
light maecenas: Sammode (France)
engineer: Milae (France)
event: Alberobello Light Festival 2023
date: July 22nd to January 22nd
location: Alberobello, Italy