Blackboard Bench
Social Practice, 2026
Hangzhou, China
Design: ZHANG Jie
Special Thanks to SHI Yuxin, SU Hang
This project examines how people instinctively mark visible surfaces in public space, treating writing and drawing as everyday acts of expression. It considers whether ordinary urban infrastructure might operate not only as functional equipment, but as an accessible platform for exchange.
Rather than prescribing content, the project observes what emerges: the traces people leave, the responses they offer to one another, and the quiet conversations that unfold over time. In this sense, the accumulated marks form a loose, evolving record of community life—an archive produced through small, shared gestures.
The project takes the form of a movable bench constructed from 2 cm–thick honeycomb cardboard, its surface treated with blackboard paint. Temporarily placed across several public sites in Hangzhou’s Ding’an Community, the bench functions as an open invitation—encouraging residents to write, draw, and engage not only with the object itself, but also with the presence and marks of others.
The seating surface consists of eight interchangeable blackboard panels. As these panels gradually accumulate drawings and writings through everyday use, they are periodically removed and reconfigured through a different structural system.
In this second state, the once-fragmented surfaces are brought together and presented as a single work—revealing a collective image composed through the shared gestures of the community.
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Focus on the themes of publicness and theatricality within everyday spaces.
Architecture | Installation ｜ Social Practice
Shortlist (2026, Japan)
Yokohama Street Furniture Competition
Artist-in-Residence (2025, Japan)
Chiba City Arts Triennale
Honorable Mention (2023, Italy)
Reuse Italy Competition
Honorable Mention (2022, Estonia)
Tallinn Architecture Biennale-Vision Competition
Shortlist Nomination (2021, USA)
Ann Arbor Art Center-Alley Project
First Place (2020, UK)
Bubble Future Competition
Second Place (2019, India)
Archasm Competition
Members
ZHANG Jie / 张婕is a spatial designer and artist based in Shanghai. She trained as an architect at Huaqiao University and the University of Hong Kong from 2013 to 2020. Since relocating to Shanghai in 2020, she has focused on small-scale installations and spatial design.
YANG Chen / 杨晨 is an architectural designer and illustrator based in Florence. He studied architecture at Huaqiao University (2013-2018) and Politecnico di Torino (2019-2021), and has worked at WNA Architects in Torino and ACE Srl. in Florence.
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