Shanghai Museum East, Shanghai, China

Winning Entry - Global Public Art Competition

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A vast collection of treasured antiquities, the Shanghai Museum functions as a link to the past; a gateway of sorts that connects us to the events and people who came before and allows us to create a living dialogue that can continue to grow over time. At the same time, I began to consider the atrium space and its function, and how as a central circulation point that it too serves as a connector albeit on a more fundamental and functional level.

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Imaging how these different worlds converge, I found myself imagining an ephemeral tree hovering within the atrium space. From a design perspective, the tree brings the natural world into this built environment and plays off the familiar presence of trees in public open spaces. On a deeper level, however, it plays off our more fanciful perceptions and interpretations of trees and forests, serving metaphorically to connect earth to sky, man to nature, and past to present, imbuing the rich stories found in the museum’s collection with a sense of whimsy and wonder.