Xinpeng Liu · CLIENT: Tim Hortons
This project creates a near zero energy smart vertical garden for Tims Cafe in the underground first floor of Beijing's Jewelry Mall. Reinterpreting classical Chinese garden philosophy with a green core and walkable rainforest landscapes, it integrates intelligent irrigation, full spectrum LED grow lights and rooftop photovoltaics for energy self sufficiency and closed loop water recycling. The 236 square meter space combines ecological materials, therapeutic planting and digital operations, building a sustainable commercial interior landscape model reconnecting urban dwellers with nature.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- This near-zero-energy smart vertical garden for Tims Cafe in Beijing's underground commercial area merges classical Chinese garden philosophy with modern low-carbon technology. Its four strengths include creating a walkable, viewable green core that integrates coffee service and social spaces, breaking rigid underground commercial design. An intelligent irrigation system and full-spectrum LED lights simulate a rainforest microclimate for tropical plants. Photovoltaic power and closed-loop water circulation enable near-zero-energy operation using recyclable materials. By blending commercial functions with ecological landscape, it transforms a light-deprived basement into an immersive urban oasis, reconnecting humans with nature and setting a new standard for sustainable commercial design.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Design area 236 square meters
- Tags
- Sustainable design, Classical Chinese garden, Vertical Greening, Rainforest Landscape, Composite Commercial Space, Smart Garden
- Production Technology
- The design was crafted via a synergistic methodology blending classical Chinese garden design principles with modern sustainable landscape and digital technologies. Core techniques included extracting traditional garden spatial logic, layered layout, dynamic circulation, and nature human integration, to restructure the enclosed underground space into a landscape centered green core with composite functions. Ecologically, carbon sequestering, minimally processed natural wood was adopted for structural frameworks, enabling circular resource utilization. Technologically, a customized intelligent system was integrated, full spectrum LED grow lights simulating natural daylight, automated precision irrigation drip and sprinkler, photovoltaic power supply for landscape operations, and closed loop water circulation. Plant selection followed the right plant for right place principle, with scientific multi species collocation for a stable indoor plant community. The design also applied horticultural therapy principles, leveraging plant psychological benefits to enhance human experience, unifying cultural expression, ecological sustainability and technological innovation throughout the design and implementation process.
- Design Challenge
- The greatest challenge was creating a viable, sustainable vertical garden in a fully enclosed underground space with no natural daylight, poor ventilation and limited vertical height-overcoming these inherent physical constraints while balancing cultural expression, commercial functionality and ecological sustainability. Externally, technical hurdles included simulating a stable growing environment for tropical/subtropical plants in Beijing's climate, developing a self-sufficient near-zero energy system for landscape operations, and achieving closed-loop water circulation to meet green building standards. Internally, the creative challenge lay in reinterpreting classical Chinese garden philosophy for a modern commercial underground context: translating its spatial aesthetics and functional logic into a compact, composite space without losing cultural essence, and integrating traditional design motifs with minimalist modern architecture. Additionally, aligning the landscape's long-term O&M efficiency with low-carbon goals required iterative testing of intelligent irrigation/lighting systems and ecological material applications, ensuring technological feasibility matched design vision while satisfying commercial space usage demands.
- Project Duration
- Design commenced in December 2022, and the project was completed in Beijing in August 2024.
- Operation Flow
- This indoor garden space works in a simple and intuitive way for daily use. Visitors can walk through and experience the green environment freely, just like being in a natural garden. The whole system runs automatically without complex operation.
The intelligent lighting and watering devices adjust themselves based on the actual needs of plants, providing stable light and water at proper times. Clean energy is used to power the whole landscape system, and water is recycled to reduce waste.
Different plants are arranged to create a comfortable and refreshing atmosphere. This design not only makes the underground space feel open and lively instead of dark and closed, but also keeps plants healthy for a long time. It brings real nature experience to people indoors, improves comfort effectively, and creates a more pleasant commercial space with low energy use and easy daily management. - Research
- This research is a practical design and environmental study focused on indoor landscape and underground commercial spaces. Its goal is to solve the lack of nature in dense cities, improve underground space experience, and create a healthy, low maintenance and sustainable green area. We used on site investigation, user behavior observation and plant growth testing. Tools included environment measuring devices and long term monitoring of light, ventilation and plant conditions. Participants included commercial space visitors, daily users and later stage management staff. Results showed the space greatly improved comfort, plant survival remained stable, energy and water use stayed low, and management was simple. The research showed that integrating traditional garden ideas with smart systems can effectively improve underground environments. It provides a usable model for commercial space design, promotes urban ecological development, and offers a replicable method for healthy, low carbon indoor landscape design.
- Inspiration
- This project reconnects humans with nature within a 236-square-meter underground commercial space in Beijing, addressing the loss of urban green areas caused by high-density development. Located in the basement of Beijing International Jewelry Trading Center, the site lacks natural daylight, ventilation, and vertical height.
Inspired by classical Chinese garden design principles, particularly the Lion Grove Garden, the concept creates a walkable, viewable, and inhabitable green core that integrates coffee service, social interaction, and nature education. Traditional elements are refined into minimalist modern architecture, breaking conventional commercial layouts to reduce enclosure.
Smart operation systems and near-zero energy technologies sustain the vertical garden without natural light. Intelligent maintenance, ecological materials, and closed-loop energy and water systems support low-carbon design.
The result transforms the constrained underground space into an urban oasis combining commercial function, natural ecology, cultural heritage, and sustainability, expressing classical Chinese garden aesthetics through contemporary, technology-empowered design.
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