The ‘forest room’ dining hall ceiling is supported by six timber multi-stemmed column grouping, each consisting of three diagonally placed straight columns, in a triangular arrangement in plan. 

As each individual column rises to the ceiling, it branches out into two additional secondary timber columns. 

Each of the primary six column grouping is also mirrored to the grouping opposite it, in either direction, creating a fractal interplay.

Overlaid on the six column groupings, are six additional arched smaller branch-like columns, springing from the primary columns to the opposite column groupings, along the long axis of the room. 

The interplay of the straight, triangular, and curved members has been explored to enhance the positive ambiguity of subtle shifting and changing arrangements of similar, but different forms, creating a sense of perpetual motion and growth.

The diagonal and curved branches encourage one to lift ones eyes, and thereby, expand one’s chest cavity, as our eyes follow the path of the timber elements from one column to the next, and across the room to the grouping on the opposite site of the room. 

TMS Elgin Mills Campus Dining Hall, Photographer, Tom Arban. 

Farrow’s collaborators on the project are Aspect Engineers, TriAxis Construction Managers, and Timber Systems fabricators.