The train station in Angers, France just got very green. Five illuminated “trees” hang from the ceiling in French designer Alexis Tricoire’s latest interior landscape installation.

Tricoire–the self-proclaimed “green fingers designer”–describes The Levitating Forest as a symbolic gateway to the city of Angers and the Anjou region, known as the horticultural capital of France. 

Luminous light rings, like wheels, symbolize the movement of the trains. These rings encircle five trees (two ficus and three camphor trees) that float 16 feet (5 meters) above and along the station’s glass facade. Viewable from indoors and out, at night the trees appear to levitate, their light radiating from the station to its surrounding urban landscape. An additional two pieces on the floor function as outdoor seating.

Plants growing below the trees will eventually cover the cone-shaped vessels to be suggestive of the tree’s roots. A drip irrigation system hydrates each pot via two of its four supporting cables, and a misting system is triggered if the it gets too hot.

Constructed of brushed stainless steel and polycarbonate, each piece is three meters (about ten feet) in diameter and may appear to hang lightly from above, but each one weighs a whopping ton. Three types of lighting work in fusion to illuminate the trees: ribbon-like lights along with LED spotlights inside the rings and under the frame, offering a generous amount of light to promote plant growth.

Tricoire says he placed the trees in unexpected places as a poetic gesture and to create an emotional connection to nature for travelers en route to their destinations.

ps. Check out Tricoire’s ‘Lustre Babylone’ spherical plexiglass pendant light planter we featured here.