- Tower burning is a facet of mid-autumn festivities in southern China that has died out. Hong Kong architects have built an eco-friendly, flame-free version
- It’s also a showcase for the polyethylene bricks used to make it; they have wider application in internal and external building design, the architects believe
Mid-Autumn Festival, the traditional time of worshipping the moon, means many things in Chinese culture. Mooncakes and lanterns are still around today, but some ancient practices " such as tower burning " have disappeared.
Hong Kong architecture studio Daydreamers Design is reigniting that tradition with The Wishing Pavilion in Victoria Park, Causeway Bay.
The custom of building a tower and setting it on fire was practised in Guangdong, southern China, in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) dynasties. Tall structures were built of bricks and tiles, with wood and bamboo placed inside. On the night of the ceremony, the towers would be lit, the flames bringing good luck and good harvests, the villagers believed.
Stanley Siu Kwok-kin, the founder of Daydreamers Design, combines this concept with another tradition " releasing candle-lit lanterns into the night sky that carry the senders' wishes with them. "Traditionally, the towers are slim " people are not supposed to go inside," Siu says. "But I wanted Hongkongers to experience the tower, so I enlarged the footprint." (Of course, no real flame is involved. LED globes and computer programming create an enchanting simulated fire).
Siu and his team opted for an 18-metre diameter base for the six-metre tower, designed as a vortex so people move through it in a circular pattern.
In the middle, attached to a fake flame which rises up and out of an open skylight at the top " positioned to give a view of the moon " are dozens of illuminated sky lanterns that people can touch as they make their wishes.
Meanwhile, a music and light show plays through the tower's main structure, made of 5,000 plastic bricks crafted in seven different shades of orange and red to replicate the varying intensity of fire. This architectural reinterpretation of tower burning in a contemporary pavilion also invokes imagery of a rising dragon.
The Wishing Pavilion is Siu's second commission from the Hong Kong government's Leisure and Cultural Services Department for the Mid-Autumn Festival, and like the first, in 2013, made from recycled PET water bottles, it features an environmental element.
"We wanted to continue that theme, but traditional (clay) bricks are not sustainable," says Siu. "I also wanted the skin of the lantern to be shiny and bright. So, we sought manufacturers in mainland (China) who could make us bricks out of recycled plastic."
This proved to be problematic. PET drink bottles, a Type 1 plastic in recycling terminology, were not robust enough for the purpose. Type 2 high-density polyethylene " the type used for making shampoo bottles " had the required heat tolerance, but the mainland Chinese factories Siu approached were not used to working with this type of material.
To make the bricks, fragments of the raw material had to be melted and recast in a mould. Some contractors produced prototypes that were too thick to be translucent, another created a handmade product that was "beautiful", but too expensive. Eventually, one was found that could do the job within budget.
Siu believes this tower to be proof-of-concept for polyethylene's potential use in interior design, and eventually, construction.
Furniture, he says, is one area showing progress. For example, European brand ecoBirdy is making children's furniture out of recycled plastic toys, and Siu believes Chinese manufacturers could use this material to follow suit.
For exterior application, more research is required to enable the recycled plastic to withstand the sun.
But Siu believes that with further development, and the addition of a chemical or other strengthener, recycled plastic could one day be the primary ingredient of building facades that are lightweight, robust, and sustainable.
The Wishing Pavilion can be visited in Victoria Park, Causeway Bay from September 13 to 27.
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