Designing the Place To Be Sculptures: From Sketch to Steel

It’s been such a freeing experience developing the sculptural forms for Place To Be, and I wanted to give you a little behind-the-scenes glimpse into the design process.

It all started with a series of hand-drawn sketches—exploring soft, rounded forms that feel welcoming, grounded, and quietly powerful. The shapes in these sketches have gentle curves and a vessel-like form which will give the willow work it’s structure.

From there, I worked with the brilliant Dermot at Geelan Fabrications to translate the drawing into a 3D steel framework. This version (image below) captures how the shapes will feel in 3D space. Seeing the form in wireframe really helped me understand how the curves will lift, taper, and hold weight.

The technical drawing sheet created by Geelan Fabrications, showing multiple views and dimensions of all three sculptures.

But once I saw the form rendered in 3D, I felt it needed a little more contrast and variety—something to enrich the dialogue between the three sculptures and make their differences sing. So I tweaked the profile, pushing some lines further and adding more variation to the silhouette. The edited version (below) reflects those changes—subtle but intentional.

Updated design sketch for the Place To Be project. This refined version introduces more contrast and variation to the form, enhancing the dialogue between the three structures to be built at Parndon Wood Nature Reserve.

These sculptures are designed to feel like powerful, balanced sanctuaries — with an organic and feminine presence. I can’t wait to see them rise up from the woodland floor at Parndon Wood in just a few weeks!

Thanks for following along!