A city often takes decades to move from initiation and planning through design and construction to actual use. Yet during this long process, what the public typically sees is reduced to cranes, fences, dust, and scaffolding.

Must urban development really take place in such a fundamentally non-participatory way?

01/ The Evolution of Urban Branding Approaches
Within China’s rapidly advancing new-city development, a recurring yet often overlooked question persists: how can a city be understood and perceived by the public while it is still under construction?
New urban districts usually require five to ten years, or even longer; public perception, however, does not wait for completion. While construction unfolds behind the construction fences, imagination and judgment are already formed beyond them.
Against this backdrop, ArchiDogs initiated a collaboration with Yuhang Municipal Government of Hangzhou, centered on a core inquiry: how can urban branding be truly perceived rather than merely communicated? Instead of imposing a grand narrative, the project proposes a gradual and process-oriented approach. Through visible, accessible, and discursive forms of urban curation, it seeks to rebuild the relationship between city-making and public engagement.

02/ Urban Curation: From “Reveal” to “Exploration”
Following the 2024 “Reveal the New Center” exhibition series, 2025 marked a further step forward with the introduction of the concept of “Exploration”. This shift extended curatorial practice beyond indoor exhibition spaces and into the real construction site itself, giving rise to “Central Axis Future Exploration Day”.

02.1/ Curatorial Approach | A Contemporary Interpretation of Instant City
The curatorial methodology draws inspiration from Instant City, a concept proposed in the 1960s by the British architectural collective Archigram. The idea suggests that a city need not wait until completion to be understood; it can instead be continuously “activated” throughout its process of development.
Through both spatial and route arrangement, the public is invited to stroll and experience the growth of the new center. The city is no longer merely an abstract planning diagram, but a framework that can be walked through, sensed, and inhabited. In parallel, working within the “Urban Micro Aesthetics” proposed by Zhang Lei, artists and designers introduced a series of artistic nodes along everyday paths. These micro-interventions favor subtle engagement over striking visual statements, allowing urban experience to merge seamlessly with daily life.
The opening of Alibaba Center·Hangzhou Future Park further embedded the exhibition into real working and living environments, transforming the city from something to be observed into something actively used.

02.2/ Exhibition & Visual Strategy | Making “Exploration” Visible
Visually, the identity of Central Axis Future Exploration Day continues the language established in Reveal the New Center. The logo forms the letter “X” through layered circles, symbolizing exploration and intersection. Elliptical shapes act as lenses that focus on the development of the Central Axis, while animated gradients convey the rhythm of urban growth, integrating technology, ecology, and visions of a sustainable future.
At the entrance, floating installations reference the notion of information projection inherent in Instant City. Through light and shadow, the logo is cast onto the ground, transforming the urban space itself into a medium of communication.
The outdoor exhibition showcases the progress rate of city development, utilizing elements that incorporate lightweight tubular structures, allowing for micro-scale interventions throughout the site. This approach translates abstract planning language into experiences that are intuitive and accessible.
Beyond the co-created “ Weave Your Dream” interactive message installation, a series of framing devices were placed both inside and outside the park—not as simple photo spots, but as invitations for visitors to “frame” moments of everyday life and construction, collectively witnessing the emergence of the new center.

03 / When the City Becomes the Stage
In an era of accelerated urban development, what we need is not only “good projects” but modes of urban expression that can be perceived by the public and engaged with through everyday life. From Reveal the New Center to Central Axis Future Exploration Day, our curatorial focus has consistently centered on one core principle: participation in process.
Rather than emphasizing outcomes, this approach foregrounds the entire dynamic journey—from rendering image to reality, from planning to realization. Through continuous public programs, experiential projects, and community-based events, the public is able to form emotional connections with new spaces at the very moment, understanding the planning strategy, feeling the place, shaping and cultivating a collective memory, and a sense of belonging within this emerging urban center.

PROJECT INFORMATION
Overall Exhibit Curation: ArchiDogs
Curators: Xi Li, Lu-Ming Chen
Design Team: Li Liu, Yibo Wang, Yanhong Chu, Yiyue Dong
Graphic Design: Jian Zhou
Clients: Hangzhou Yuhang Municipal Government, Central Axis Area Development and Construction Command
Construction Team: Hangzhou Yizhe Advertising Agency, Anhui Perdu Inflatable Co., Ltd.
Photographer: Daily Architectural Photograph, Ziqiao Zhou