Singapore Botanical Studio This Humid House Creates A Massive Dreamlike Installation For Beast Shanghai
The Mirror at Rockbund Square is a verdant floating maze of locally sourced flowers, grasses and fruits.
What a feat for This Humid House – the homegrown botanical design studio recently unveiled a large-scale public installation in collaboration with Beast, a Shanghai-based luxury lifestyle brand specialising in floral artistry, art and decor, and fragrances. Titled The Mirror, this dreamy display at Rockbund Art Museum was created specially to celebrate the launch of the all-new Atelier Beast fragrance collection, and was put together using locally sourced flowers, fruits, and shrubbery.
Through elevated flower pot stands, this whimsical pop-up garden appears to be ‘floating’, with curved infinity mirror walls creating optical illusions as visitors wander their way through the maze of herbage.
See also: Learning The Way Of Botanical Design Studio, This Humid House
Nestled amidst the leaves and vibrant blooms are an unexpected detail: melons. This isn’t simply a random quirky touch – it’s a nod to the Chinese summer tradition of eating melons to cool down during the hottest time of the year.
“A little melon patch hidden inside a garden feels unexpected, but somehow completely natural at the same time. We wanted visitors to stumble across these small moments of happiness while wandering through the work,ˮ according to John Lim, founder of This Humid House.
At the centre of it all is a metallic water fountain anchoring the installation as a main focal point, with black water lilies floating alongside rose hips and curly willow.
As for the inspiration behind this whole set-up? “Because this was a fragrance collection, we became interested in the qualities of scent itself – something light, diffuse and without fixed direction,ˮ Lim shares. “Rather than creating a garden with clearly defined focal points, we imagined a landscape shaped by a series of small encounters. A little bit of everything – flowers, grasses, fruits, and unexpected discoveries – coming together to evoke summer.ˮ
This partnership with Beast isn’t This Humid House’s first major foray into international waters; They’ve worked with plenty of lifestyle and design brands from all over the world, won first place at Festival Flora in Cordoba, Spain, and also participated in last year’s Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show in London.
The Mirror by This Humid House will be up and running till July 5, 2026, at Rockbund Square Shanghai, China.