Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) gave new life to 7,000 recycled plastic bottles by using them to construct a three-story high lantern designed by four young, energetic Hong Kong based architectural designers. This giant lantern was installed in Victoria Park’s Soccer Pitch. Combining the concepts of environmental conservation, vitality and creativity, the lantern is expected to inspire visitors and local residents alike during this much-loved Chinese festival.

The “Hong Kong Mid-Autumn Festival” is one of the highlights of the Government’s “Hong Kong: Our Home” campaign, under the theme “Vibrant Hong Kong.”

The lantern installation, named “Rising Moon,” whose design won the Gold Award in the Lantern Wonderland Design Competition, is a hemispheric installation measuring 10 meters in height and 20 meters in diameter. In addition to about 7,000 recycled plastic bottles, other recyclable and reusable materials, including steel frames, cable wires and energy-saving LED light bulbs, are used to construct the lantern. The lantern sits on a pool of water, where lighting effects will allow it to join its reflection to produce the different lunar phases.

The concept of “Rising Moon” is to bring the distant moon to earth. Drawing inspiration from daily life, the designers decided to re-interpret the lantern form using recycled plastic bottles, promoting a green message. 7,000 plastic bottles may sound like a lot, but such an amount is actually consumed in just 15 minutes every day in Hong Kong.

The giant lantern is accessible to the public, and can accommodate a maximum of a hundred people at a time.

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