Ned Kahn

Ned Kahn is an environmental artist based in San Francisco, California. He works to make the invisible forces of nature visible. In collaboration with Masdar City Kahn brought characteristics of wind to life through The Wind Tree. 

This tree-like artwork with bioplastic panels symbolising the leaves of a tree reacts to the wind and animates as air passes through. The public is invited to walk into the artwork to see how light and temperature change to create a small microenvironment. The more you step inside and around the artwork, the more patterns and light changes you will be able to witness.

The installation is made up of 22,000 UV-resistant polycarbonate panels that are counterbalanced so that they can return to their original position after they react to the wind. When the wind flows through, it will also animate the surface and create different experiences as people interact with it.

‘The Wind Tree’ is 7 meters high, 7 meters wide at the top and 4 meters wide at the bottom. Our China team fabricated this artwork out of vertical and horizontal stainless-steel tubes with welded wire screens. Attached to the screens are thousands of small panels that were changed from stainless steel to polycarbonate representing a significant reduction in C02eq.