Hometown Moon by SYN Architects is a poetic architectural installation on the theme of the full moon. 

Ksenia Oshchepkova

Chinese architects from the bureau SYN Architects built an unusual chapel on a mountain in Shandong Province, which from afar resembles a full moon in the night sky. Upon closer inspection, it can be seen that the complex structure includes a water tank mounted on stilts and hovering over rocky ledges, and a pavilion in the shape of a quarter of a ball, illuminated from the inside. The glass facade of the pavilion, which the architects placed at the far end of the pool, is reflected in the water surface, forming a perfect circle. 

Bypassing the colonnade and the monumental portal in the lower tier of the building, visitors enter the “inverted world” — a hall in which the lower half of the hemisphere is reflected in the ceiling lined with chiseled metal. The rays of the sun falling from the outside gently illuminate the inner surface of the concrete bowl. 

The expressiveness of geometric volumes, the play of light and optical illusion emphasizes the asceticism of the space, the walls and floor of which are covered with concrete tiles. The installation in the form of moss-covered hills recalls the natural context of the chapel. 

The head of the bureau, architect Zou Yingxi, explains that he sought to create an emotionally charged image that will remain in the memory of visitors to the chapel for a long time. “In my understanding, there are two types of architecture: the one that disappears and the one that remains,» says the author of the project. — I try to develop buildings that will resist destruction. I hope that Hometown Moon will become one of them, and even if it ever disappears, it will continue to exist in the spiritual world.” 

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