Experience A Mangrove Made Of Glass In The Philippines

For a swishy new resort in the Philippines, Nikolas Weinstein Studios has formed borosilicate tubes into a major, must-see installation—the largest of its kind.

Step Through The Looking Glass With Nikolas Weinstein Studios

• Dozens of engineers, designers, and installers led by Nikolas Weinstein
• 14 tons
• 16,385 custom borosilicate-glass tubes
• 4+ years of work
• 5,400 linear feet of cables

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For Mangrove, a glass-tube sculpture that spans the entire eight-story atrium of Solaire Resort North in Quezon City, Philippines, and can withstand seismic activity, American artist Nikolas Weinstein collaborated with Arup, which performed structural calculations and modeling using Dyna Oasys software.

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Weinstein considered different vantage points for viewing the sculpture—its twisting, tapered form and title inspired by the roots of local mangrove trees—including when riding the resort’s escalator from the first floor.

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At Nikolas Weinstein Studios in Long Island City, New York, the team used a custom-built kiln to fabricate thousands of internally fluted, borosilicate-glass tubes, before wiring them together into modules, each one a unique size and shape with different twists, widths, and curves, all digitally tracked and labeled.

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A custom tool locked injection molded–acrylic plugs that act like knuckles managing friction and controlling each tube’s orientation into their ends.

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After all components were shipped to Manila, an on-site crew of 40 installers worked for six months to assemble Mangrove using hoists and cherry pickers.

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Scaffolding reaching 65 feet tall was also erected to complete the artwork, which is larger than a Boeing 747 airliner.

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Interiors of Solaire Resort North are by Habitus Design Group, its founder Samantha Drummond bringing on Weinstein to create a centerpiece that would speak to the development’s “urban oasis” theme.

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The glass-tube modules were stitched together on-site with aircraft cables to curved stainless-steel spines that rise out of plinths integrating plants, seating, and water features.

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“I build sculptures that ‘talk’ to buildings,” says Weinstein, whose interest in organic forms was sparked by internships at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Mangrove was recently recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest glass-tube installation.