Hypertree Maquette

The Hypertree Maquette reimagines the urban tree as a layered structure of drought-adapted plants, designed by Kevin Abanto with Indira Almonacid, Gino Lermo, Micheline Remy and Pedro Venegas. Sited in the Miraflores District of Lima, the project answers a clear climatic question: how to bring greenery to a coastal desert city without leaning on water the city can scarce afford to spend.

Lima sits in one of the driest urban settings in the world, receiving almost no rainfall across the year. That condition shapes every responsible landscape decision here. The team’s choice of xerophyte vegetation, plants evolved to survive on very little moisture, follows directly from the environmental conditions of the city. Because these species need low water consumption and little maintenance, they suit both the climate and the long horizon of an installation meant to endure with minimal care.

A tree assembled from many roles

Rather than treating planting as decoration, the Hypertree gives each type of vegetation an objective specific to the project. Some species may anchor the base and hold soil, others screen sun or frame views, and together they combine into a single composed form, the Hyper tree. This logic of assigning a distinct function to each component is close to how architects approach any system built from parts, where the whole performs better than the sum because each element does deliberate work.

The idea also speaks to a wider conversation in arid-city design. Xeriscaping, the practice of planning landscapes to slash irrigation, has become a serious tool wherever fresh water is limited, and the Hypertree reads as an architectural take on that principle. By concentrating planting into a deliberate vertical structure, the project shows how green presence in the public realm need not depend on thirsty lawns or imported species.

For a dense, design-conscious district like Miraflores, a proposal like this carries value beyond its footprint. It models a way of greening streets and plazas that respects the desert rather than fighting it, and it treats maintenance and water as design constraints from the start. The Hypertree Maquette stands as a study piece that turns a hard climatic limit into the very shape of the idea.