Wood Value
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Rising from the Ash: Newton Park trees shape student projects
Monday, 25 November, 2024Bath Spa University is proud to champion sustainability across its courses and campuses, with a unique collaboration highlighting the hard work of staff and students in order to heighten the University’s values.
Each year, a number of trees on our Newton Park campus are felled due to disease or rot. Instead of this valuable resource going to waste, the wood embarks upon a journey that sees it arrive back where it started, this time in the form of student work.
That journey begins at Newton Park, with Grounds Manager Penny Snowden describing the reasons behind felling some the campus’ leafy residents:
“Over the years, there are many trees that have come in that we don’t want, some of which are seeded in. Many of those are Ash trees, some of which have become diseased with ash dieback.
Instead of logging the trees up and sending them off-site, where they have no real value, we started thinking about how we could make more use of them. This is where the Product Design students come in.”
From Newton Park to Locksbrook, the timbered wood makes its way to the creative heartbeat of BSU. With many of our art and design courses based at Locksbrook, the wood finds a new home from which it begins the next stage of its journey.
As described by Erin Deighton, Subject Leader for Product Design:
“We secure the timbers from Newton Park and season them for two years. They are then ready for us to use in student projects. By doing this, we’re managing to bypass importing expensive materials.
We then teach the students about the product coming from Newton Park, emphasising the importance of understanding the source of the material and how to best work with it.”
The wood from Newton Park becomes an integral part of student study, with it being utilised by first year students all the way to students undertaking their final products.
As Erin mentioned, using resources from BSU’s grounds allows students to take advantage of local and sustainable materials, saving them money when it comes to planning for their projects.
BSU Product Design student Charlie Hawker commented on the importance of using the wood from Newton Park:
“It’s amazing that I’ve got access to this wood. There’s so much of it and I can use it to create things like shelves, stools and chairs. It’s taught me a lot on how I value wood as well. All of the trees that were cut down needed to be cut down and it’s great to use a local product that was timbered sustainably.”
Another BSU Product Design student, Ben Waldie, touched on how the Newton Park wood is saving costs for students:
“I’ve used the wood from Newton Park for a number of years on different projects. It’s super valuable to me and allows me to use different woods and timber that I ordinarily wouldn’t have the chance to use. It’s also saving of a cost to us as well, really underpinning every project on sustainability due to its locality.”
In a cyclical journey that brings us back to where we started, some of the wood from the trees that were felled at Newton Park arrives back at our picturesque campus, as part of exhibitions that take place in our Commons building to champion the work of our Product Design students.
With Bath Spa University committed to continually improving its environmental performance, initiatives like this allow the university to hit its sustainability targets whilst enhancing student experience.
Speaking about the natural waste, Penny concluded:
“There are many reasons why the trees need to come out, we’re not just cutting down trees to make furniture. It’s natural waste on the estate that can be re-used, much like it would have been in past times. It’s really nice to provide that resource for our students to use in a different way.”
Discover how you can take the next step in your creative journey by exploring our range of creative courses.