TREE OF LIGHT

Project

Haikou Duty Free Shopping City

Client

China Duty Free Group

Creative 

Wētā Workshop 

Build 

Dafeng Industry

Location 

Haikou, Hainan, China

Opened

October, 2022

Role on the project

Lead Design & Art Direction 

The Tree of Light is the crown jewel of the themed atrium, a towering 25m sculpture comprised of thousands of iridescent, polycarbonate orbs, illuminated with over 9000 programmable LEDs. This volumetric pixel sculpture represents the very life force of the atrium. 

During the day, the Tree of Light is a highly interactive experience, with sensors that respond to the presence and movement of visitors, creating playful displays of light and sound. As the evening approaches, the tree's carefully choreographed light sequences are demonstrated in the evening light show. With its dynamic, ever-changing display, the Tree of Light appears to be a living organism, conveying emotion and thought through its rhythms of light and color. It is endlessly enchanting and a joyous spectacle to behold.

DESIGN PROCESS

The forest theme naturally gave rise to a large ‘mother’ tree at the center of the space, with canopies extending far into the circular volume of the atrium. However, something so monolithic can be alienating to the human scale. To counteract this, the design uses the idea of aggregation of many bits that make up a whole; thousands of orbs assembled to form a tree.  

A digital sculpture of the tree's volume was created and manipulated to provide the best spatial experience for visitors at different floor levels. Orbs are scattered inside of this 3d volume and parametrically controlled to create variations of density and scale. Due to the random intersection of orbs, a remarkable bubble-like formation emerges, giving the overall sculpture a feeling of weightlessness. 

Through a process of standardisation and simplifying the approach to fabrication – the sculptural form is developed into modular sections, strategically repeated, stacked and rotated to make up the final form. The goal was to create as few unique orb sections as possible to maintain the impression of randomness. 

images/drawings by me (unles stated otherwise) 

Collaboration with structural engineers Atelier One led to the design of an internal steel structure, shaped to follow the form of the tree. Half the number of orbs are supported from the ground, while the rest are suspended from above. Fabrication and installation by Dafeng involved the a bespoke connection system that allowed for adjustability on-site in order to conceal the steel structure from visitors.

The orbs are translucent and luminous, like pixels in a volumetric display. This  presented a challenging exploration in materials and lighting. In the evening, the atrium boasts a light show with 10 unique stories told through projection, lighting, and animation on a large LED screen, each story accompanied by a uniquely choreographed lighting sequence of the Tree of Light. The final lighting design and art direction, developed by our team, successfully brought the vision for the Tree of Light to life.