The project locates on Xinhua Road in Changning District, Shanghai. As there are tall, thick Chinese parasols and historic houses shaded by the trees on both sides, the road is praised as “the No.1 Garden Road in Shanghai”. The site is a 22-metre-long alleyway between two buildings. The widest part of the site is less than 4.2m. In the past, an illegal building – a noodle restaurant was seated on the site. The site turned to be an unoccupied space after the noodle restaurant was demolished. After the discussion with our client, Xinghua Subdistrict Administration Office, we defined two functions for the 100-square-metre alleyway, a pocket park that serves the neighbouring communities, and a street gallery that meets the requirements of flexible exhibitions in a long term. We want to reactivate the forgotten space in the city and make it serve the community once again.

After the research of the site, we decided to take three design moves to intervene in the site contexts.
First of all, the mirror-finished stainless-steel system was equipped on the side walls of the alleyway, which was the core move of the design. The garden would be reflected by the side mirrors infinitely, and the space turns into an infinite natural garden. The one side of the mirrors are rotatable. Renewable exhibition boards are at the back of the mirrors. The space can be transformed into a street gallery with the rotation of the mirrors. Visitors can experience infinite exhibition space online after scanning the QR codes on exhibition boards with their phones. In terms of urban governance and safety, the space is far away from the main roads and comparatively closed. We hope to function the reflection of these mirrors as a warning, in case of the alleyway becoming an urban crime space.

Secondly, the entrance is constructed of weathering steel, where there is a permanent exhibition about the historic architecture on Xinghua Road. As we consider Xinghua Road as a live museum, the entrance would become a small-scale lobby presenting the introduction to a large number of precious historic buildings. The old visual effect of weathering steel makes the response to history, and, at the same time, can intervene in the city streetscape naturally and subtly.

The last thing is the plant system in the garden. We realize that the atmosphere of plants and the maintenance are of great significance. The plants have three different heights – under 40cm, 40-80cm, and over 80cm. The combination of floras enriches visual hierarchy and interactions between human bodies. When walking in the garden, visitors may have a strong feeling of immersing in an endless sea of flowers, as the knee-high plants would bring people the sense of closeness. Sage, baby’s breath, dwarf pampas grass, and pink muhly grass…… The combination of various plant species mimics the atmosphere of wilderness, which turns into a precious natural landscape in the city and a vivid presentation of timeliness.