Tiny Forest
Stand-Level Carbon Modelling Through Augmented Reality Simulation
Duration
2024
Researcher
Hanju Seo
Affiliation
- Royal College of Art · School of Design
- Snap Inc.
Role
- Principal Investigator
- AR Systems Architect (Snap Lens, citizen-science platform)
- Researcher (stand-level carbon modelling, forest ecology)
Collaborator
- Bilal Ahmad · Software Development
- Linc Yin · Concept Development & Prototype
Exhibition
- RCA x Snap Augmented Un/Realities, London, 2024
Public conversation about trees tends to default to the single stem: plant a tree, save the planet. The unit is legible, the gesture is clear, and the complexity disappears. Tiny Forest starts from a different position. A forest is not a collection of individual trees; it is a system with its own composition, density, species interactions, and soil conditions, all of which determine how much carbon it stores and how resilient it remains over time. Understanding a forest requires thinking at the level of the stand, not the stem.
The project developed an augmented reality platform using Snap's lens technology that allows users to place and configure a virtual forest in any physical space they inhabit. Species, density, and soil type are all selectable parameters; the platform responds in real time with a carbon storage estimate calculated from species-specific sequestration data. The result is not a visualisation of a tree but a simulation of a forest as a managed system: what it contains, how it functions, and what happens to its carbon capacity when its composition changes. Built as a citizen-science platform, the experience was designed for public participation rather than specialist use, with the interface calibrated so that a visitor with no prior knowledge of forestry could engage meaningfully within minutes.
The platform was exhibited at RCA x Snap Augmented Un/Realities in London in 2024, where members of the public used it to explore and configure forest scenarios in the exhibition space. The responses confirmed the core premise: that shifting the unit of understanding from the tree to the forest is not only possible through an accessible interface but changes how people reason about planting, management, and the ecological value of what they are proposing to grow.
Tiny Forest AR platform demonstration — species and soil configuration, real-time carbon storage modelling, and public exhibition at RCA x Snap Augmented Un/Realities, London.