With Thomas Heatherwick's controversial 1,000 Trees project recently opening in Shanghai, the British designer told Dezeen why he believes the top of structural columns is "the best possible place" to plant trees in this exclusive interview.
Heatherwick designed the project to be a distinctive shopping centre that he hopes will become the "heart of a district that had no heart before."
"Typically, big building projects like these are big, sterile blocks," Heatherwick told Dezeen.
"Mixed developments with shopping and restaurants can weirdly sterilise places in spirit. We didn't want to be the people that built a big cheesy wall next to the main art district."
By covering the building in trees, Heatherwick aimed to both "humanise" the project and add environmental benefits in a way that the designer claims is preferable to "heavy" green roofs. Nature "affordable way" to make complex facades
As the name suggests, the shopping centre is covered in 1,000 trees and 250,000 plants supported in large planters that sit at the top of the building's structural columns.
According to Heatherwick, this planting has many environmental benefits, but also contributes to breaking down the scale of the large building.
Top: 1,000 Trees recently opened in Shanghai. Above: it was designed by Thomas Heatherwick
"The integration of plants was in response to the scale," said Heatherwick.
"How can you affordably bu...