Giant cube made of bottles sends recycling message

Visitors checking out the Cubic Colours of Life structure after the lighting ceremony at Armenian Park in George Town.

AT first glance, the giant cube structure put up at Armenian Park in Penang may look like multicoloured crystals in the evening.

But upon closer inspection, visitors will find that the cube is actually made up of 28,000 plastic bottles supported by a steel frame which had been installed with colourful lights.

The 3.6m tall and wide cube takes on a different hue when the lights are switched on in the evening from 7pm.

Named ‘Cubic Colours of Life’, the structure will be displayed for two weeks at the park until Sept 4 in conjunction with George Town Festival 2017.

Penang Island City Council management services director Mohamed Akbar Mustapha said the artistic structure was designed by BYG Architecture to drive home a message on recycling.

BYG Architecture director Michael Ong said the idea was also to reflect the diversity and colours of George Town.

“Creating this structure was tougher than we thought and a team of seven took about a week to complete it.

“The lighting effect took some time too as we needed the cube to reflect changing colours,” he said at a lighting ceremony at the park recently.

Ong added that he hoped the structure would inspire more architects to be involved in art.

“We are working on bringing this structure to other places so that it will have a wider audience.”