During the Suzhou International Design Week in December 2021, a series of artistic creations and designs with the theme of “urban renewal” were unveiled in the Suzhou Pingjiang Historic District. The installation by HOWHY Architects collected the door panels that are dismantled from the shops nearby and nowhere to be placed during the day, to form a veranda for tourists to rest. The tortuous space inside the momentary veranda resembled the fragment of Suzhou Garden. The momentary veranda, was a dynamic installation involving the participation of architects, surrounding shops and tourists.

▼顶视图 top view ©号外建筑

The project was located on a narrow site on Pingjiang Road, with a length of about 11 meters (north to south) and a depth of 2 meters only. After the surrounding shops open, the dismantled door panels will be stacked here, later become a place for passes-by to rest. Therefore, we designed two ways to reuse the panels: one is to connect them in the original way; the other is to stack horizontally to provide seats for passers-by.

▼以不同方式利用门板 two ways to reuse the panels ©薛亮