A striking spherical bamboo installation has been unveiled in Fugang, Taoyuan, Taiwan, offering visitors a unique architectural experience rooted in traditional craftsmanship. The "Meeting Dome" by artist Cheng Tsung Feng transforms the ancient art of Taiwanese bamboo chair weaving into a large-scale public art piece that invites community gathering and reflection.
The installation represents a creative reinterpretation of traditional Taiwanese bamboo chair weaving techniques, expanding the familiar woven seat pattern into a monumental three-dimensional structure. Feng's project continues his ongoing exploration of artisanal practices, demonstrating how everyday crafts can be translated into powerful spatial forms. The artist has taken the intimate scale of household furniture and magnified it into an architectural experience that serves the broader community.
The construction of Meeting Dome showcases remarkable technical precision and artistic vision. Thin bamboo strips are carefully layered in parallel formations and extended across a hexagonal metal framework, creating a continuous lattice surface that forms the sphere's distinctive appearance. This geometric composition deliberately recalls the Chinese character for "person" (人), symbolizing both structural balance and human connection. The interplay between the organic bamboo material and the precise metal framework creates a striking visual contrast that merges tactile materiality with structural clarity.
The installation's open geometry serves a deliberate purpose, keeping the spherical structure permeable from all angles and encouraging visitors to move freely through the space. As natural light filters through the layered bamboo strips, it creates shifting patterns of shadow that animate the ground beneath and provide comfortable shaded areas under the dome. This dynamic play of light and shadow changes throughout the day, offering visitors different experiences depending on when they visit.
Inside the Meeting Dome, bamboo stools are thoughtfully arranged in varied groupings and heights around a central planting of native Taoyuan vegetation. This careful spatial layout invites visitors to pause, sit, and interact with one another, deliberately recalling the informal ways neighbors once gathered on bamboo chairs in village streets, under trees, and in neighborhood alleyways. The interior design reflects a deep understanding of how traditional community spaces functioned in Taiwanese culture.
By magnifying a familiar household object into an architectural scale, Cheng Tsung Feng's Meeting Dome successfully transforms utilitarian craft into a profound artistic statement. The installation serves as both a celebration of traditional Taiwanese craftsmanship and a contemporary space for community engagement. The work reflects on themes of memory, community connection, and the important role that everyday objects play in shaping our shared spaces, creating a bridge between Taiwan's cultural past and its artistic future.
