The Modernist Glade

August 2021 – August 2023

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The Modernist Glade is a temporary public art project  devised by Hayatsu Architects and artist Tue Greenfort, with curator and producer Aldo Rinaldi, was commissioned by Milton Keynes Council and Milton Keynes Development Corporation.

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Inspired by the drawings of Helmut Jacoby which were originally commissioned by the MK Development Corporation in the late 1960s to imagine Milton Keynes, the commission celebrates the idea of ‘The Forest City’.

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​The Modernist Glade is a public art and architecture installation designed by Hayatsu Architects and Danish artist Tue Greenfort, with curator and producer Aldo Rinaldi. Milton Keynes’ expansive Station Square plays host to a grid of 48 trees interlaced with market stalls, event spaces, and new architectural pavilions.

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This space will also be the home to architectural structures: a cinema screen and accompanying film programme, which forms part of the project's two-year engagement programme, and an enigmatic beehive structure with a glazed ceramic flower face and bee painting canopy.

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Hayatsu Architects also designed a new micro mobility hub in the station square, providing a home for scooters, merging the new interventions into the existing transport infrastructure. Existing flagpoles proudly hang new banners addressing a renewed graphic identity of the square taken from the four colours of oyster mushrooms.

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The project's interactive nature aims to raise awareness of urgent discussions about how to reverse climate change in a positive and open way, whilst also testing a greener approach to the square’s extensive concrete landscape, enhancing biodiversity and adding a new layer of natural habitat.

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The project is part of the Renaissance: CMK initiative that Milton Keynes Council (MKC) and Milton Keynes Development Partnership (MKDP) are leading to drive the wider revitalisation of the centre.