Shanghai, China
Designed by Thomas Heatherwick and his team at Heatherwick Studio, Tian’an 1000 Trees takes the form of two tree-covered mountains, featuring up to 1,000 structural columns and more than 70 plant species.
Emerging as large planters, each column holds a cluster of trees that are kept lush by an integrated and automated watering system.
Developed by Tian An China Investments Company Limited, Tianan 1000 Trees is located on the banks of the Suzhou River in Shanghai, which has become by a consensus an immediate aesthetic landmark in Shanghai.
Phase One of the development, brilliantly illuminated by lighting designers Speirs Major and LEOX Design Partnership, officially opened on December 22.
Once Phase Two is complete, the 300,000 sqm project will “become the most shining ‘pearl’ along the 42-kilometer-long Suzhou creek riverside in Shanghai’s downtown,” states Song Shengli, deputy director of Putuo’s publicity department.
Following the success of the UK Pavilion for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, Heatherwick was invited to create a new multi-use complex next to Shanghai’s M50 Art District.
Bordered on one side by a public park and on the other three sides by concrete towers, the site incorporated several historic buildings including a flour mill, and was split between two plots separated by a narrow strip of government land.
The studio’s aim was to design a building that would relate to the park and the arts district and, while meeting the client’s requirement for a large and dense development, would have interest at a human scale.
From this point, the studio began to explore how these columns, normally hidden within the structure, could become a prominent feature of the building and articulate its mass more finely.
The name “1000 trees” was based on the actual 1000 trees that were planted on the façade.
The stepped terraces cascade down, and there are a thousand styles of different-height columns stretching out as flowerpots, with 1000 trees planted at the top.
The astonishing flower columns scattered, the dramatic trees displayed, together they form a visually poetic landscape, giving the building a dreamy atmosphere day and night.
Flower columns and pots with different heights, sizes and shapes grow from the ground to the top.
Collectively, the planters contain approximately 25,000 individual plants and 46 different plant species including shrubs, perennials, climbers.
The lighting designers set up complex projection positions and logic: using the combination of a very narrow-angled buried lamp group as the basic lighting and using additional light groups to deal with the edge of the flowerpot that cannot be covered by the lighting directly below.
The mixed-use development includes restaurants, museums, galleries, and entertainment hubs are currently included in the project’s initial phase. Phase two is already underway.
To highlight Shanghai’s historic value, heritage buildings are also incorporated into the mega-complex.
Specifically, the final development will include four buildings and a bell tower—now a sightseeing elevator—belonging to a former four plant.
All in all, Heatherwick’s aim was to have a warm and live structure with harmonious relationship between human and nature rather than a concrete mammoth.
Project: Tian’an 1000 Trees
Architects: Heatherwick Studio
Design Team Leaders: Lisa Finlay and Dani Rossello Diez
Project Leaders: Thomas Impiglia, Fergus Comer, Jimmy Hung, Christian Álvarez Gómez, Jeremy Backlar, Jordan Bailiff, Einar Blixhavn, Sarah Borowiecka, Mark Burrows, José Cadilhe, Yuxiang Cao, Rodrigo Chain, Linus Cheng, Ruggero Bruno Chialastri, Kacper Chmielewski, Leonardo Colucci, James Darling, Silvia Daurelio, Vincenzo D’Auria, Thomas Glover, Tamsin Green, Hayley Henry, Le Ha Hoang, Sheau-Fei Hoe, Xuanzhi Huang, Hao-Chun Hung, Leung Hung, Jessica In, Linnea Isen, Ben Jacobs, Catherine Jones, Madhav Kidao, Panagiota Kotsovinou, Wendy Lee, Nicolas Leguina, Shan Li, Jeroen Linnebank, Virginia Lopez Frechilla, Débora Mateo, Vichayuth Meenaphant, Dimitrije Miletic, Craig Miller, Sayaka Namba, Philipp Nedomlel, Regina Ng, Claudia Orsetti, Hannah Parker, Monika Patel, Daniel Portilla, Jeff Powers, Matthew Pratt, Enrique Pujana, Thomas Randall-Page, Ryszard Rychlicki, Emmanuelle Siedes Sante, Julian Saul, Osbert So, Skye Sun, Nicholas Szczepaniak, Cliff Tan, Kenneth Tagoe, May Tang, Ezgi Terzioglu, Chris Tsui, Ivan Ucros Polley, Paula Velasco Ureta, Paul Westwood, Simon Winters, Eda Yetis, Kelin Yue, and Ezgi Terzioglu
Lighting Designers: Speirs and Major Associates and LEOX Design Partnership
Collaborators: Alan Chandler, Basilica De La Sagrada Familia, GDC, Inhabit Group, Ingrid Hu, MLA Architects, Mode, Ltd, P&T Architects and Engineers Ltd, UEL, Rider Levett Bucknall, Urbis Limited, Van Den Berk, Wah Heng Glass Group, Shanghai Institute of Architectural Design and Research, and Wilf Meynell
Developer: Tian An China Investments Company Limited
Photographers: Qingyan Zhu
