The tree is resurgent in architectural history, design theory, architectural curatorial projects, and the larger realm of architectural aesthetics. The recent translation of Cesare Leonardi and Franca Stagi's The Architecture of Trees, first published in 1982; the ongoing FormaFantasma: Cambio exhibition and its related catalogue, commissioned by London's Serpentine Galleries to probe the governance of the timber industry; and the recent exhibition Architecture Arboretum, held at Princeton's School of Architecture and curated by Sylvia Lavin—all point to a contemporary focus on this natural element- cum-artifact.1 Such interest is partly in response to the carbonization of the atmosphere and the promise that the increased planting of trees will deliver a biotechnical (and ultimately politically palatable) way out of climate catastrophe. It also represents a larger artifactual turn in landscape aesthetics and theory—away from a strong focus on the visual and ecological qualities of urban networks.

Trees represent something...

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