Heatherwick Studio just unveiled plans to build a 15-acre tree-covered mountain in the middle of Shanghai. The studio was commissioned to design a complex of housing units, offices, shops, a hotel and a school for the plot located next to Shanghai’s main art district, M50. Named ‘The Moganshan,’ the project was conceived as urban topography instead of a building.

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The sprawling development will be split across two plots separated by a narrow piece of government-owned land and connect the adjacent part with the river. Several historic building will be included in the project and flanked by high-rise towers on three sides.

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“Conceived not as a building but as a piece oftopography, the design takes the form of two tree-covered mountains, populated by approximately one thousand structural columns,” said the studio. “Instead of being hidden behind the facade, the columns are the defining feature of the design, emerging from the building to support plants and trees,” they added.

+ Heatherwick Studio

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