Heatherwick Studio’s 1000 Trees project takes root in Shanghai
With his spiky UK pavilion for Shanghai’s 2010 World Expo, Thomas Heatherwick became one of the most sought-after designers in Asia. Mr He-si-wei-ke, as he is known, remains one of only a handful of recognised Western names in China, and his latest project, a spectacular new complex in Shanghai’s Moganshan district, is sure to seal his status as one of the UK’s most innovative architectural ambassadors.
The first phase of this mixed-use development for the Tian An China Investments Company is due for completion in May 2020. Set on a former industrial area in a bend of Suzhou Creek, with the low-level warehouse and factory conversions of the trendy M50 arts district to the south, the site is also home to that rare commodity in Shanghai: a woodland park.
It would have been a relatively simple matter to cram the project’s required 300,000 sq m floor area into a conventional tower. But Heatherwick’s desire to avoid a high-rise development looming over the M50’s converted warehouses demanded more imaginative thinking. The result is a tree-lined ‘mountain’ that wraps itself in the landscape and lifts trees to every level of the building. As Heatherwick describes it, this unique topography ‘knits the new with the old’.
Hundreds of concrete columns were used to distribute the weight of the trees to the ground. Widening at the top to form a huge planter containing one tree and a variety of hanging plants, each of the columns features horizontal ribbing that helps break up its height from a distance; up close, the structures resemble handcrafted pottery. Each column looks as if it is free-floating, but is actually tied back to support the floors and to provide seismic stability. This structural grid creates a stack of boxes that are staggered at each storey height to form multilayered terraces, indoor spaces and sky gardens with the planters rising just above head height to give the illusion of trees floating in mid-air.
RELATED STORY
Research on the column designs has taken two years; growing and selecting the correct locally sourced tree species (chosen for their hardiness at varying altitudes and wind speeds, but also for their colour variation) has taken even longer. With 60 per cent evergreen species, the mountain will always be lush and verdant, although natural seasonal variation will be reflected in the shape and form of deciduous varieties.
On the riverside elevation, the treescape spreads out at ground level to form a new public park and riverside walkway. On the south side, however, the idea was to cut away the monumental form as if slicing through the hillside, exposing an architectural section of the building. Billboard-size advertising opportunities have been formed in the exposed structural grid, interspersed with original paintings and graffiti art inspired by, and typically carried out by, the M50 creatives. The art continues in the cavernous interior of the building, with local and internationally renowned graffiti artists’ work on display.
A gamechanger for the designer, this project also demonstrates the importance of an enlightened client with a long-term commitment to architecture. The project’s second phase (including a 100m-tall tower) is not due to be completed before 2024, but 1000 Trees has already changed the urban landscape forever.
As originally featured in the November 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*248) – on newsstands now
INFORMATION
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi almost become lovers in Luca Guadagnino’s Chanel No.5 campaign: watch the film
Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi front the new Chanel No.5 campaign in a film directed by Luca Guadagnino and soundtracked by Daft Punk
By Hannah Tindle Published
-
Art Basel returns to Paris: here is everything to see and do
Art Basel Paris 2024 (18 - 20 October 2024) returns, opening at the newly renovated Grand Palais
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
PAD London’s 16th edition is a blisteringly optimistic case for human achievement
At PAD London, collectible design is more than rarefied furniture; it is a compelling case for the uplifting power of craftsmanship at the dawn of the AI revolution
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
Neri & Hu’s dynamic New Bund theatre takes centre stage in Shanghai’s cityscape
In Shanghai, Neri & Hu’s New Bund 31 Performing Arts Center is a theatre offering a contemporary take on a classical archetype
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Fotografiska Shanghai invites us to 'a poetic immersion' into the realm of photography
Fotografiska Shanghai by AIM Architecture opens nestled into a green corner of the Chinese city's Suzhou Creek
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Remembering Alexandros Tombazis (1939-2024), and the Metabolist architecture of this 1970s eco-pioneer
Back in September 2010 (W*138), we explored the legacy and history of Greek architect Alexandros Tombazis, who this month celebrates his 80th birthday.
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
All hail the power of concrete architecture
‘Concrete Architecture’ surveys more than a century’s worth of the world’s most influential buildings using the material, from brutalist memorials to sculptural apartment blocks
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Three Object Apartment embraces raw concrete honesty in the heart of Athens
Three Object Apartment by DeMachinas is a raw concrete home in Athens, which confidently celebrates its modernist bones
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Modernist architecture: inspiration from across the globe
Modernist architecture has had a tremendous influence on today’s built environment, making these midcentury marvels some of the most closely studied 20th-century buildings; here, we explore the genre by continent
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Architectural gardens around the world to soothe the soul
From small domestic gardens, to nature reserves, urban interventions and local parks, here are some of the finest green projects that place nature at their heart
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Giovanni Michelucci’s dramatic concrete church in the Italian Dolomites
Giovanni Michelucci’s concrete Church of Santa Maria Immacolata in the Italian Dolomites is a reverently uplifting memorial to the victims of a local disaster
By Jonathan Glancey Published