Social Practice, 2026
Shanghai, China
Design: ZHANG Jie
Guest Artist: LIU Siteng
It consists of a series of pop-up spatial actions attached to the perimeter walls of gated residential communities in Shanghai, aiming to transform structures of separation into sites of encounter.
Many large housing estates built in Shanghai during the 1990s—often referred to as Khrushchyovka-style developments—are enclosed by metal or brick walls. Some are strictly access-controlled, while others remain permeable. In reality, however, residents’ everyday routes frequently pass through multiple neighboring communities. The walls persist as functional and visible boundaries, yet they quietly obstruct the casual, inevitable interactions that daily life would otherwise produce.
Each intervention within Along the Wall is proposed by an invited artist, who imagines a public activity that can take place directly on the wall. For every action, we design a corresponding pop-up structure made from a single 1200 × 2400 mm honeycomb cardboard sheet, acting as a temporary spatial container for the activity.
By working at the scale of the wall, Along the Wall focuses on the overlooked interfaces of the city—places that are neither fully public nor entirely private. Rather than confronting boundaries through demolition or grand gestures, the project operates through small, temporary interventions that subtly alter how these structures are perceived and used.
Using inexpensive, lightweight materials and a pop-up logic, the project emphasizes reversibility, informality, and participation. Each action is intentionally short-lived, allowing everyday encounters to emerge without permanently altering the site. In this way, Along the Wall treats the wall not as an object to be removed, but as a surface to be negotiated—one that can momentarily host shared activities, conversations, and forms of collective presence.
The first intervention took the form of a small, temporary New Year calligraphy structure attached to a residential wall. An artist was invited to write traditional New Year blessings for passersby. We also produced a set of stamps, allowing participants to create their own red paper squares to take home and place on their doors for the Spring Festival.
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