LOOK: Shanghai’s very own ‘Hanging Gardens’ are really starting to take shape

Will wonders never cease?

Absent from the world for more than 2,500 years, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are really starting to take shape once again along the Suzhou Creek in Shanghai.

Because of its unusual and vertical design, an innovative real estate project being built in Putuo District has earned many comparisons to the mythical gardens of Babylon’s Nebuchadnezzar II, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

However, Thomas Heatherwick, the British architect who designed the project was actually inspired by China’s scenic Huashan. The complex has been dubbed “1,000 Trees” because, when finished, there will be that number of pillars rising into the sky, topped by greenery. Heatherwick says that the whole thing was “conceived not as a building but as a piece of topography.”

The multi-use complex is currently under construction in a 15-acre space along the Suzhou Creek and Moganshan Road, right next to Shanghai’s M50 art hub. The area used to be occupied by Shanghai’s Fufeng Flour Factory. When the factory opened up in 1900, it was the largest and most modern of its time in East Asia.

Four buildings belonging to the former factory will be preserved in the new project’s design, which Heatherwick has said aims to create a “harmonious co-existence of old and new buildings.”

There are two sections/phases of the project, which will be separated by a narrow strip of greenery and connected by the sidewalk.

Work on “1,000 Trees” first caught everyone’s attention last July. After which Heatherwick Studio released this video of its construction.

Phase one is now beginning to truly take shape and ground has already been broken on phase two, which promises to be even taller and more impressive. Check out how Shanghai’s own “Hanging Gardens” are looking nowadays:

And what it will look like when it’s done:

It’s estimated that people will be able to visit the complex in late 2019. It will include everything from shopping to restaurants to hotels to museums to art galleries, not to mention high-end residences.

We can only presume that future visitors to our fair city are going to have an extremely difficult time deciding between staying in this leafy utopia or in that ultra-extravagant hotel being built in an abandoned quarry down in Songjiang district.

[Images via NetEase / Heatherwick Studio]