Project: The Full Moon
Authors: SHISUO design office
Photo: Jianyuan Ye
Geo: Shanghai, China
After September’s spectacular full moon, here is another moon — an architectural one. In 2025, a giant glowing sphere called The Full Moon appeared on Shanghai’s Huangpu waterfront for seven days. SHISUO design office created it at the invitation of the Power Station of Art for the Mid-Autumn Festival, working with Shi Qinling, a master of traditional Shanghai paper-cutting.
Authors: SHISUO design office
Photo: Jianyuan Ye
Geo: Shanghai, China
After September’s spectacular full moon, here is another moon — an architectural one. In 2025, a giant glowing sphere called The Full Moon appeared on Shanghai’s Huangpu waterfront for seven days. SHISUO design office created it at the invitation of the Power Station of Art for the Mid-Autumn Festival, working with Shi Qinling, a master of traditional Shanghai paper-cutting.
The sphere was built from a steel frame and translucent acrylic panels with an openwork pattern. The design drew on the ancient motif of "three hares with conjoined ears", known from the Dunhuang murals. Waterproof panels with a crackle texture replaced traditional paper: by day, the structure resembles an enormous filigree lantern; after dark, it glows from within like a full moon.
Part of the sphere is cut away, so its appearance shifts as you walk around it, echoing the phases of the real moon. Visitors could step inside, and the top of the dome was left open. The moon’s path was calculated so that, on a clear night during the Mid-Autumn Festival on 6 October, its full disc would be visible through the opening. The waterfront setting also called for a less poetic detail: the openwork shell lets wind pass through, reducing the load on the structure during typhoon season. After seven days, the installation was dismantled and the pier decking restored, leaving no trace of the intervention.
