Earning top jury and online honors in the pop-ups and temporary category, Ring of Celestial Bliss was a 70-meter wide, 270-degree lantern comprising cutting-edge projection technology and a light-emitting diode, or LED, display.
Guo Shan-shan, chief brand officer of display initiator Taipei City-headquartered Delta Electronics Inc., said the screen featured 15 projectors producing a 30,000 lumen maximum output. “At two to three stories high with 12 million cells, it was Taiwan’s biggest-ever fusion projection performance offering an unprecedented experience.”
According to Guo, the form and materials used in the lantern drew inspiration from the culture and history of Hsinchu, aka the city of bamboo walls. “The main body of the screen, 30 meters long and 10 meters high, was constructed out of a reusable steel framework, while the external skeleton was made of bamboo, an eco-friendly building material,” she said.
The lantern’s design reflects concepts of environmental awareness and sustainability. It was based on the eternal hexagram in the Chinese classic “Book of Changes,” representing the constant illumination of the sun and the moon, the changing of the seasons and their eternal rebirth
And after its 15-day run ended March 10, 2013, the lantern was broken down and its materials reused. The steel framework was donated to a local elementary school, while the bamboo outer was given to Earth Passengers workshop for use in classroom construction. The projection screen was recycled and made into shopping bags.
The Architizer A-plus Awards, established in 2013, attract nearly 2,000 submissions worldwide for 67 categories each year. Each award is divided into jury and online voting sections, with more than 200,000 architecture enthusiasts contesting the latter.
A public parking tower in Wulai District, New Taipei City, and a steel taxi stand at Magong Airport in outlying Penghu County, won a jury award and special mention in the 2014 edition of the competition. (YHC-JSM)
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