This unrealized proposal for the City of Mississauga’s winterized oak trees approached the wrapped trees as living components of the infrastructure. We see street trees as a unique type of infrastructure because of the feedback their health and growth provides, which can act as a barometer for the health of the urban ecosystem.

Instead of treating trees like ornaments for public spaces, planners are increasingly acknowledging them as important functional pieces that cool streets, absorb stormwater, filter air, and elevate feelings of well-being of those around them. Although trees are programmed into streetscapes like stop lights, their biological status gives them a kinship to people. The complexity of health factors that a tree samples is more nuanced than can be obtained from any man-made device. We share the same air and water as the urban forest, but we see the impact of harsh living conditions manifested on street trees in a way we have trouble recognizing in ourselves.

The proposal was to celebrate and highlight that aspect of the city, and further emphasise our relationship to our environment, by picking out 30 trees on Hurontario Street as necessary elements of urban infrastructure, using three typologies of design, ANTENNA, BAROMETER, and SIGNAGE.