Until now I’ve made upcycle lighting design out of plastic milk containers and mail bags. The lampshades I’ve made are by cutting the containers into smaller parts. I’m still looking for an interesting way to make a lighting piece out of these containers without cutting them or using scissors.
During my search for other designs made out of plastic bottles or containers I came across an object, a structure that is quite big. It’s actually a piece of architecture, a dome. And I think it’s just very very impressive and beautiful.

Plastic bottles re-interpret traditional paper lanterns

The dome is called ‘Rising Moon‘ and is designed by Daydreamers Design, an art & design collaboration based in Hong Kong. Rising Moon was a temporary pavilion designed to serve as an anchor attraction during the 2013 Hong Kong Mid-Autumn Festival, held in Victoria Park from 14 September 2013 to 22 September 2013.

“For over hundreds of years, it is the Chinese’s tradition to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, to be gathered under the full moon once a year with family and friends, a symbol of Reunion. With such tradition and folklore, the Moon has always been the main focus during Mid-Autumn Festival as it become brighter, bigger in size and a perfect circle during the Full Moon Phase. Our concept is to bring the distanced Moon closer to the surface of Victoria Park, which gives the visitors a dynamic visual impact, a Synthetic Moon. Each year, there are thousands of polycarbonate water bottles distributed and the amount of consumption is still increasing. The polycarbonate water bottles will be recollected by distributer for reuse after distillation. This sparks our concept on our proposal for this year’s Lantern Wonderland 2013, to achieve a sustainable design. While we celebrate such meaningful tradition of ours, we might as well think about what can be done so that our future generation will grow up in a healthier environment.”

They reused 5 gallons polycarbonate water bottles as a representation of the traditional Chinese Paper Lanterns. The outer dome surface of the moon was wrapped around with water bottles. Each water bottle was connected with a Light Emitting Diode (LED) device and each LED is controlled by computer to generate different lighting effects on the moon surface [see video at end of post]. LED is low energy consumption and reusable. The Rising Moon was sitting on top of a reflective pool. This was to allow the Moon to have a complete sphere visually on the outside, having the other half appearing on the pool as a reflection.

Photos © Daydreamers Design

Rising Moon is approximately 10 meters in height and 20 meters in diameter. The entire lantern is made from recyclable, reusable and upcyclable materials, including approximately 7,000 recycled plastic bottles (4,848 5-gallon bottles and 2,300 1.5-liter bottles), steel frames, cable wires and energy-saving LED lights. The plastic bottles will be recycled after the display.
All in all, like I said, an immense impressive upcycle lighting design structure. The design received the Gold Award at the Lantern Wonderland Design Competition.

Design by Daydreamers Dessign | Info by A Design Award