Falling Hours

Material and Structure
Professional architects from BIAD, who also designed Qatar World Cup Stadium, oversaw the design process, and an ice sculpture team from Harbin Ice World was brought in to create the structure. The structural guidance team at the BIAD has designed several spoke-wheel self-anchored cable structures in recent years. These structures resemble a conical hourglass suspended from a circular wall, with all the cable's forces anchored in the ring beam around the cable like a self-balancing bicycle wheel. Hourglass created a miniature replica of the Lucerne Stadium's cable membrane structure in response to this concept. The membrane at the base of the spokes and the ceiling are supported by a pressurized spar located at the hourglass's center. The membrane surface is comprised of a PTFE mesh laminate that strikes a compromise between strength and light transmission, and it, together with eight cables, is responsible for transporting the sand in the hourglass down the bottom half of the spokes. ETFE membrane, also used in the Water Cube（National Swimming Center）, covers the top half of the spokes, providing the necessary light for the installation.

Design Concept
We were struck with the concept of "recording time" when walking along the beach at night in Aranya. As the moonlight danced on the edge of the dazzling ocean and our feet trod on the smooth sand, we saw the intersection of nature and time. As designers, we felt that time spent with loved ones and companions is the most precious and cherished. The framework consists of a membrane structure, cable structure, and steel structure that delicately and subtly interact with the sand.

Use Procedure
Participate before New Year’s Eve: obtain “Time Funnel” and collect sand
Get "Time Funnel" and collect quicksand: we designed a small funnel to pour sand into the hourglass. The sand on the beach is collected by people with funnels and dumped into the top of the hourglass through a round hole.

New Year's Eve ceremony
In unison, when the New Year's Eve bell rings, the group draws their ribbons together, opens their hourglasses, and watches as the sand flows down. Everyone may use a pen to write down their wishes for the future on the hourglass membrane.

Fade away
The building's materials are collected from nature, and then decomposed back into nature. The ecological and environmental protection of the building is carefully considered. As time passes, the sand returns to the beach, the ice melts into the ocean, and there leaves only one membrane to document the New Year's Eve memories of Aranya 2023 and the most genuine wishes for the future.

The unexpected way in which structures and people interact
On New Year's Eve, while we were gathering sand for the hourglass, we overheard a conversation amongst guests in which they discussed the wishes they'd made when pouring the sand into the hourglass.  The frigid winter night has seemingly warmed up as the structure now contains not just handfuls of sand, but also everyone's hopes for the New Year. For architects, this may be the happiest time ever.

Lead Architect: Xiyan Yang
Design Team: Xiyan Yang, Zhiyan Chen, Guanjia Li
Design Guide: Yizhi Fu, Yang Hu, Long Ma
Structure Engineer: Yi Chen
Lighting Design: Xiuhong Ma, Yining Zhao
Economics: Fan Wang
Electrical Engineer: Shuang Li
Construction: Beijing Shishang Culture Communication Co., Ltd
Partner: Tencent Video "Amazing offer" architect season