Lift up a park, tree by tree

I’ve joined Heatherwick Studio this week as their Strategic Communications Director. It’s a 200 strong practice based in Kings Cross, London. They design objects, buildings and places – from a car and a bus to visions and masterplans for cities all over the world.

The studio made its name with projects like the Seed Cathedral for the Expo in 2010 and the Olympic Cauldron for the London games. Last year, they completed gems like Little Island above the Hudson River in New York and the beautiful new Maggie’s Centre in Leeds.

For me, this is the latest stage in an accidental journey from campaigning in the NGO sector to working in the built environment. The glue that holds it all together is what you might call social outcomes. I’m into design because of the way it moulds and conditions the way we all live.

You can see that in Heatherwick’s latest project which launches this week called 1,000 Trees. It’s a mixed-use development designed to emerge as two forest-capped mountains from the waterfront in Shanghai.

Instead of concealing the columns behind the facade, they’re revealed to free up the internal space and provide the structural means to lift up a park, tree by tree, with nearly a quarter of a million plants cascading across the structures and creating the appearance of a mountain slope which changes with the seasons.

If there’s a conversation we could have, not least about public and community engagement, drop me a line: [email protected]