HCCH Studio bends bamboo into a luminous canopy for Shanghai’s old city

Rafael CunhaDESIGN2 days ago3.7K ViewsShort URL

Bent by Spring bamboo canopy by HCCH Studio at Gucheng Park in Shanghai

Commissioned by Power Station of Art for the Shanghai International Flower Show, Bent by Spring is a temporary bamboo installation by HCCH Studio set within the sunken entrance plaza of Gucheng Park in Shanghai’s old city. Positioned on the route between the Bund and Yu Garden, the project occupies a threshold between dense historic fabric and the distant skyline of Lujiazui, using an intentionally light structure to create a new civic foreground.

Rather than treating the installation as an isolated object, HCCH Studio organized it as a low canopy that follows the perimeter of the existing plaza. Ten clusters of raw bamboo rise from the edge and bend inward above the central steps, leaving the middle open for circulation, gathering and informal events. The resulting space is neither a pavilion in the conventional sense nor simply a piece of festival decoration: it behaves more like a temporary room whose boundaries are defined by arcs, movement and shadow.

Bent by Spring bamboo canopy framing the Shanghai skyline — The bamboo canopy frames a view toward the Lujiazui skyline across Shanghai. Photograph by Guowei Liu. Image courtesy of Power Station of Art.

The structure is made from just forty raw bamboo poles, each less than 8.5 metres long. Together they form cantilevers of up to 7.2 metres, reach approximately 4.5 metres in height and cover a projected area of 136 square metres. The structural system was developed with Zhun Zhang and can be assembled within two working days, giving the installation a degree of economy that is central to its character.

Its form comes directly from the material’s capacity to bend. Instead of forcing bamboo into a predetermined geometry, the design uses the weight attached to the tips of the poles to draw them into long arcs. The title Bent by Spring therefore describes both an image and a constructional method: the bamboo appears to bow under a seasonal bloom, while gravity becomes an active part of the design process.

Bundled raw bamboo poles in the Bent by Spring structure — Raw bamboo poles are bundled and tied, allowing the structure to retain the irregularity and elasticity of the material. Photograph by Guowei Liu. Image courtesy of Power Station of Art.

At the end of the poles, woven bamboo flowers reinterpret the traditional Twelve Floral Fairies associated with the lunar calendar. Seen from below, the flower heads appear as open lattices suspended against the sky; after dusk, integrated lighting turns them into a loose constellation above the steps. Their scale shifts the installation between the botanical and the architectural, allowing a familiar decorative motif to operate as part of a larger spatial structure.

Woven bamboo flower suspended from Bent by Spring by HCCH Studio — A woven bamboo flower reinterprets the traditional Twelve Floral Fairies of the lunar calendar. Photograph by Guowei Liu. Image courtesy of Power Station of Art.

The project deliberately mixes bamboo craft with ordinary urban commodities. Glass lamp shades, plastic hair ties, coloured cable ties and bamboo mahjong mats are assembled into the flower heads as a kind of sampled collage. HCCH Studio describes these elements as an homage to the everyday goods found around Yu Garden, allowing the installation to draw from the visual culture of its immediate surroundings rather than presenting bamboo as a purified or nostalgic material.

At ground level, the steel pipes that anchor the bamboo also become counterweights and informal seats. This detail is important to the project’s public role: the structural requirement is converted into furniture, encouraging visitors to sit beneath the canopy rather than simply pass around it. Photographs of the installation show the plaza being used as a stage, meeting place and resting area, with the bamboo frame accommodating performances and ordinary daily activity alike.

Public event beneath Bent by Spring bamboo canopy in Gucheng Park — The sunken plaza becomes a temporary stage beneath the bamboo structure during the Shanghai International Flower Show. Photograph by Guowei Liu. Image courtesy of Power Station of Art.

The contrast with Shanghai’s skyline is particularly evident at the edge of the park. From certain viewpoints, the irregular bamboo arcs and woven flowers overlap with the vertical profile of Lujiazui in the distance. The project does not attempt to compete with that skyline. Instead, its low-tech assembly, tactile joints and visibly flexible members introduce another register of urbanity—temporary, handmade and responsive to movement.

Overall view of Bent by Spring bamboo canopy by HCCH Studio — Ten clusters of bamboo bend inward from the perimeter of the plaza to form a low, open canopy. Photograph by Guowei Liu. Image courtesy of Power Station of Art.

As daylight fades, this contrast becomes more pronounced. The illuminated flower heads hover above the darker bamboo structure while the canopy opens toward the surrounding trees and city beyond. What begins as a compact festival installation becomes a changing piece of public infrastructure: shade during the day, a gathering frame in the evening and a luminous marker after dark.

Bent by Spring installation within Gucheng Park in Shanghai — Bent by Spring is embedded within the mature landscape of Gucheng Park and used as an informal gathering place. Photograph by Guowei Liu. Image courtesy of Power Station of Art.

Bent by Spring ultimately derives its presence from doing relatively little. With a restricted quantity of material and a short construction period, HCCH Studio uses bending, repetition and gravity to produce a spatial experience considerably larger than the physical means used to make it. The project’s most persuasive quality lies in this imbalance: a small kit of parts creates an urban room that feels loose, festive and temporary, yet firmly embedded in the life of the park.

Project credits

Project: Bent by Spring
Design: HCCH Studio / @hcchstudio
Design team: Hao Chen, Chenchen Hu, Qisen Yang, Feng Qi
Structure: Zhun Zhang
Contractor: Art ZHOU
Design period: March–April 2026
Duration: 3 weeks
Location: Shanghai Park of Old City / Gucheng Park, Shanghai, China
Photography: Guowei Liu / @dailyliuguowei
Image courtesy: Power Station of Art (PSA)

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