Our Succulent Garden

Installation, 2026
Yokohama, Japan

Design: ZHANG Jie

Finalist, Yokohama Street Furniture Competition

This proposal introduces a piece of street furniture that gently connects plants with the people who care for them, bringing both into the everyday life of the city. It explores how public infrastructure can be felt as an extension of daily living for those who inhabit a neighborhood.

The large circular structure functions simultaneously as a table, a bench, and a writable blackboard. Distributed across its surface are holes of varying sizes, each fitted with a standardized planting container. These containers are removable and planted with succulents—plants that require minimal maintenance and infrequent watering.

All of the plants were contributed by twenty succulent enthusiasts living around the Yokohama Port area. Through a small open call, each participant selected what they considered their “most beloved” plant to contribute to this shared garden—Everyone’s Succulent Garden.

https://streetfurniture.jp/result.html








Contributors are invited to write directly on the blackboard surface, sharing notes about the plant’s personality, age, or small personal stories connected to it. Visitors, in turn, can add their own words, respond to existing notes, and freely engage in conversations sparked by these small plants that quietly represent fragments of someone else’s everyday life.







The structure measures 3.5 meters in diameter and 0.45 meters in height, and is constructed with a wooden frame finished in blackboard paint. To further reduce its environmental impact, the supporting structure at the base can also be made using recycled materials.

The arrangement of the planting containers (8 cm in depth) and the structural support units (with a cross section of 3 × 5 cm) follows a deliberately loose and flexible pattern, allowing the overall form to maintain a natural and lightweight appearance.



















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About


The Lab


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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