Lantern

Lantern

On the grounds of the Chengdu International Garden Festival, The Lantern unfolds like a translucent lamp, emitting an ethereal glow. Designed by TLS Landscape Architecture, the installation invites visitors into a maze reflecting both the literal and the abstract nature of humble bamboo, which bears an enduring presence in the Chinese city.

 In its form, The Lantern draws on the strength and humbleness of the material which is always hollow at the core. Reflecting this, the concentric installation is shaped from a bamboo outer frame and a steel structure wrapped in white acrylic mesh, encircling a hollow center that emanates a mystical, elemental glow.

The first element shaping The Lantern is four rows of living 10 meter timber bamboo held in place by a stout bamboo scaffold. Visitors enter the installation via gravel paths that wind between these rows, before turning at the midpoint to enter the second component – the lantern itself. Seven circular layers of white mesh shape its form, rising 4 meters high and spreading 1.5 meters apart, and held in place by a slender stainless steel frame. To resist wind loads, rods brace the tops of the verticals in a spiral Changsha pattern, inspired by the city symbol, the mythic firebird.

 TLS Landscape Architecture punctuates the layers with delicate openings to create a complex maze – that is semi-translucent – urging visitors to navigate their way to the center. At the core void is the glowing cloud created by mist emerging from a below-ground chamber containing nozzles and up lights to emit a constantly shift glow. The cloud passes through the mesh layers and reacts to the breeze and movement of people running in circles searching for a way in or out. Further, a stone band surrounding cloud chamber is inscribed with the poem: ‘All conditioned phenomena are like an illusion, a shadow, a glow of lantern, where the glow has gone, there is nothing. Hollow lantern, as humble as bamboo.’