Text description provided by the architects. Bent by Spring is a suspended bamboo canopy conceived as both seasonal marker and urban stage. Commissioned by Power Station of Art for the Shanghai International Flower Show, the public installation occupies the sunken entrance plaza of Gucheng Park (the old city park), along the must-visit tourist route connecting The Bund and Yu Garden. Framed by the dense texture of Shanghai's old city and facing the skyline of Lujiazui across the river, the project stages a dialogue between local atmosphere and cyber-urban spectacle.
The installation consists of ten clusters of raw bamboo poles emerging from the perimeter of the plaza and bending inward to form a low, hovering canopy above the central steps. At the end of each pole, woven bamboo flowers reinterpret the traditional Twelve Floral Fairies of the lunar calendar, orienting the structure toward approaching visitors.
The installation explores a semi-improvised atmosphere rich in elasticity, color, and texture — suspended somewhere between deliberate control and casual freedom — using the least possible material to establish the greatest possible spatial presence. The entire structure is composed of only forty raw bamboo poles, each under 8.5 meters long, yet together they create a cantilever spanning 7.2 meters, reaching 4.5 meters high, and covering a projected area of 136 square meters. The structural assembly can be completed within just two working days.
'Bent by Spring' is both a metaphor for the form and the departure for the construction itself. The weight of the flower heads bends the bamboo into arcs, shaping a sheltered public space. The steel pipes anchoring the bamboo bases act both as counterweights and as places for visitors to gather and rest. Glass lamp shades, plastic hair ties, colored cable ties, and bamboo mahjong mats are assembled as sampled collages — an homage to the everyday commodities of Yu Garden.
The bamboo grove sways and as the city lights begin to glow. Beneath the canopy, upon bamboo stools, among the flowers — spring bends the bamboo, and stirs the blue hour as well.
BENT BY SPRING
LOCATION Shanghai, China
ARCHITECT HCCH Studios
PHOTOGRAPHY Guowei Liu