PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Rising Moon is a temporary pavilion designed to serve as an anchor attraction during the 2013 Hong Kong Mid-Autumn Festival. It re-interpret traditional paper lanterns with recycled plastic bottles on the same time creating a Synthetic Moon, thus promoting the message of environmental protection.
Second Award | RTFA 2014 Awards
Category: Public Building Built
Participant Name: Stanley Siu
Country: Hong Kong
OVERALL EXCELLENCE: Rising Moon is a hemispheric art installation made from recycled plastic bottles and LEDs lights-up the Hong Kong cityscape. An illuminating geodesic dome created for the Mid-Autumn Festival Lantern Wonderland 2013 in Victoria Park in Hong Kong.
A total of 4,800 five-gallon polycarbonate water bottles were acting as individual beacons, referencing the cavernous shape of traditional Chinese Paper Lanterns. These plastic bottles contains LED torches that are attached to the pre-fabricated triangular modules and are assembled as a pavilion on-site, whose interior is fitted with a sea of 2,300 bottles hanging in an undulating formation from the ceiling. There is also an opening at the crown of the 20-meter-diameter sphere allows moonlight to pass inside, lighting up both in the internal space as well as the reflective pool of water it sits on. The position of the floating sculpture manifests refractions of changing lunar phases on the surface of the water.
Following its deconstruction, the temporary space will be completely recycled, promoting Hong Kong as a sustainable city.
USE OF TECHNOLOGY: Rising Moon is hemisphere structure measuring 10 meters in height and 20 meters in diameter, sitting on top of reflective pool in order to complete a Full Moon with the reflection from water.
Rising Moon is erected with 150mm CHS steel frames, and constructed base on Level 3 Geodesic calculations. The facade consists of 148 prefabricated triangular steel components, each crossed with cable wires forming a cable net. Polycarbonate water bottles tied with LED light bulbs are secured onto the cable net to complete one triangular component. These 148 triangular steel components have total 13 different orders, and each has a designated location on the geodesic structure. Three heavy cranes were operated to assemble 148 triangular components, after tests were ran by lighting technicians.
The location of every LED in the five-gallon polycarbonate water bottles was mapped through DFX programming by lighting technician, thus lighting effects and animation can be displayed. The position of the opening at the crown of the hemisphere was also calculated carefully base on the path of the Moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival by astronomy applications, in order allows moonlight to pass inside.
IMPACT ON ASIA: Mid-Autumn Festival is a common tradition in Asia, with family & friends gathering under the full moon once a year, a symbol of Reunion. As more and more Asian cities are becoming metropolises, they demand a fast living pace. People are forgetting about things in life, where local context, cultures, traditions, & nature are all disappearing.
Modern lifestyle promotes and encourages consuming, while ignoring all the consequences and affects on the nature and us. We are taking a small step forward, through the attention on Rising Moon we are raising questions that would let visitors take a step back and think about the way we live while celebrating the festival.
Rising Moon demonstrated the exploration of local context, cultures, traditions, & nature, then developing these unique elements into the new design. Where an un-popular choice of material, PET bottles, is chosen and played a vital role.
The Visual impact attracted visitors to approach the pavilion, soon they realised this is made of thousands of recycled plastic bottles and reacted with surprise. Many ended with silence, they start to ask themselves questions on what they have seen. This strong visual contradictions, strike the messages on sustainable lifestyle deep in every minds.
COMMERCIAL AND SOCIETAL SUCCESS: In recent years, our society becomes more aware of Sustainability, on different aspects of our living environment such as food, shelter and transportation. As a temporary pavilion, we proposed using sustainable materials, which is recyclable after deconstruction or even using recycle material for construction directly, to promote Hong Kong as a sustainable city.
Each year, there are thousands of polycarbonate water bottles distributed and the amount of consumption is increasing. The polycarbonate water bottles will then be recollected by distributer for reuse after distillation. This sparks our ideas for this year’s Lantern Pavilion. We proposed to reuse the retired 5 gallons polycarbonate water bottles as a representation of the traditional Chinese Paper Lanterns.
Rising Moon is not only a piece of architecture, it is also an art sculpture. While visitor are celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival and enjoying the architecture of the pavilion, we have brought questions about sustainable lifestyle to them as well.
When almost 7000 PET bottles were acquired by Rising Moon could only represents 15 minutes of consumption of the city, we might as well think about what can be done so that our future generation will grow up in a healthier environment.
