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Mandai Zoo pillar transformation

Custom-sculpted rainforest trees for the Mandai Zoo Kindergarten (Zoo School), built around structural pillars, with a canopy mural and hand-painted 3D printed birds overhead.

Client
Mandai Zoo Kindergarten (Zoo School)
Made for
Nature discovery and experiential learning
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What we brought

  1. What we can do

    A pillar turned into a rainforest tree

    We modelled each trunk in 3D around its pillar, with carved bark, a hollow and branches reaching into the canopy.

  2. How we look after you

    Birds made to last

    The exotic bird figures were precisely 3D printed and reinforced with fibreglass for long-term durability.

  3. What you get

    Hyper-realistic painting

    Our artists primed and painted the birds by hand, so they look real in flight across the canopy.

The build

How we built it

5 steps, from the brief to the finished piece. Pick a step to jump to it.

The brief

Step 1 of 5

At Additive Inn, our 3D printing studio in Singapore, we were asked by the Mandai Zoo Kindergarten (Zoo School) to turn a structural pillar into a towering rainforest tree, and to give a second pillar, in the reception area, a tree of its own.

Design and prototyping

Step 2 of 5

We modelled both trees in 3D with a carved bark texture and shared every round as a 3D file the client could view. The reception tree's branch had to run under the false ceiling and hold a pangolin figure by its tail.

  1. Zoo School tree, revision 3

    We modelled the trunk with two branches, a hollow and bark texture, shown here from three sides.

    Render

  2. Zoo School tree, revision 4

    We gave the trunk a rough, broken top and a deeper hollow.

    Render

  3. Reception tree, revision 3

    We ran a branch along the false ceiling and notched it to hold the pangolin's tail.

    Render

  4. Reception tree, revision 3.1

    We angled the branch and set it lower, so it could be made thicker.

    Render

  5. Reception tree, revision 4.1

    We gave the trunk a flared, rougher top and a knotted branch.

    Render

Production

Step 3 of 5

We built the trunks around the two pillars and added the canopy mural to the ceiling above the Zoo School tree. The bird figures were 3D printed, then strengthened with fibreglass.

The pillar stands beneath the ceiling mural.
The reception trunk takes shape.
The sculpted Zoo School trunk is still unpainted.

Finishing and installation

Step 4 of 5

On site we hung the pangolin figure from the reception tree's branch, then primed both trunks and painted them as bark. Our artists primed and painted the bird figures to a hyper-realistic finish, so the canopy reads as a living habitat.

The pangolin figure goes up.
We fixed the figure to the branch.
The pangolin is in place before painting.
The first bark colour goes on the trunk.

The final build

Step 5 of 5

The finished trees give the school towering trunks, a rainforest ceiling and birds in flight.

This is the finished reception tree.

Finish close-ups

These close-ups show the painted bark and a bird in flight across the canopy.

A macaw flies across the canopy.
This shows the painted bark up close.

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