Together with OLA – Office for Living Architecture, Studio Animal-Aided Design developed a competition entry for the extension of the House of the Forest in Stuttgart, which received an Honourable Mention. The proposal for a baubotanical Educational Tree combines forest education, architecture, and ecological development in a structure that grows alongside the forest over decades. OLA was responsible for the architectural and baubotanical concept of the project. The Educational Tree is conceived as a vertical learning and experience space. Across multiple levels, visitors move from the forest floor into the tree canopy, experiencing the different layers, microclimates, and living conditions of the forest. Processes of growth, use, renewal, and material cycles are not only explained but made spatially tangible.

Studio Animal-Aided Design developed the biodiversity strategy for the project. Following the principles of Animal-Aided Design, the Educational Tree is conceived as a habitat framework that evolves together with the baubotanical structure and the surrounding forest. Nesting aids, bat roosts, deadwood structures, and different stages of ecological succession create habitats for numerous forest species and make ecological processes observable over long periods of time. The result is a place of learning where forest ecology, biodiversity, and baubotanical growth are not presented as separate topics but can be experienced as interconnected processes. In this way, the Educational Tree becomes a living exhibit and a real-world laboratory for exploring the interaction between architecture, forest ecosystems, and biodiversity.