CHANGLONG VILLAGE GUARD BOOTH ART INSTALLATION
At the corner of a quiet alley, time flows gently.
This guard booth, which has accompanied the community for many years, carries memories of watchfulness and everyday life.
Through design, we respond to these memories—allowing a familiar corner to once again become a cherished part of the neighborhood landscape.
ABOUT PROJECT
Located at the entrance of Changlong Village, the guard booth once served as an important base for the community patrol team, safeguarding residents’ safety. As patterns of use changed over time, the booth gradually fell into disuse.
Rather than treating this project as a simple renovation, we approached it from the perspective of urban beautification and public space regeneration—reimagining how an aging, overlooked structure could once again become a place people are willing to approach, pause at, and connect with.
Through design thinking, the guard booth was redefined as a micro public node that integrates community memory, cultural symbolism, and sustainability values. Nestled within the everyday paths of the neighborhood, it quietly contributes to environmental beautification and social cohesion.
A Youthful Cultural Expression, A More Approachable Cityscape
In recent years, we have observed a shift in public cultural design—from traditional narrative-driven expressions toward younger, more visual and life-oriented approaches. Colors become brighter, forms more abstract, and the goal is no longer to explain, but to invite—to spark curiosity and encourage people to engage naturally.
With “urban beautification” at its core, this project allows culture to move beyond interpretation and become part of the streetscape itself, seamlessly woven into residents’ daily routes.
Coloring the City Through Culture
The design is grounded in the hues of traditional Hakka blue garments, extending into cultural elements drawn from nature and daily life—such as persimmons, oil-paper umbrellas, wild ginger flowers, and tung blossoms. These motifs are transformed into geometric, abstract, and rhythmical visual languages.
Through vibrant yet layered color compositions, the guard booth emerges from its surroundings to become a visual anchor—drawing attention, inviting pauses, and guiding interaction within the urban fabric.
Marine waste recycled panels were selected as the primary material, allowing materials originating from the ocean to return to land and re-enter community life—forming a circular narrative of “from sea to neighborhood.”
The structure combines metal frameworks with recycled marine boards, precisely cut using CNC technology to deconstruct and reassemble Hakka cultural elements. The unique textures of each recycled panel become an integral part of the form itself.
Color is applied through hand-painting in layered strokes, infusing warmth into the otherwise cool recycled material and allowing cultural impressions to gently reside within the details.
The recycled panels are made from certified marine waste—such as ocean buoys and styrofoam—combined with recycled land-based plastics, reducing the extraction of new resources and material waste. The result is a fully recyclable, zero-waste art installation that supports the goals of a circular economy.
A total of 56.7 kilograms of recycled marine materials were used in this project, ensuring that sustainability is not merely a slogan, but something tangibly present in the alleys and everyday life of the community.
65 %
Recycled Materials
25 %
Ocean Waste Materials
10 %
Elasticity Modification
Comply with the three global sustainable development goals (SDGs)
Bringing Urban Beautification into Everyday Life
By rethinking the role of the guard booth through the lens of urban beautification and community placemaking, this project responds to the site’s historical context and cultural background while integrating sustainable materials, collective memory, and contemporary visual language.
What was once an idle facility has been transformed into a recognizable, usable, and interactive public node—naturally embedded in the daily rhythms of the community.
Cultural Continuity
Reinterpreting Hakka spirit
Sustainable
Practice
Application of recycled materials
Community
Connection
Linking everyday neighborhood life
Urban
Landmark
Enhancing street identity
PROCESS
Beginning with community engagement, we conducted preliminary meetings with residents and the patrol team to gather local needs and expectations, forming the foundation of the design direction. During the transformation, residents actively participated in environmental cleanup and gardening, making the renewal process a shared experience.
The installation uses government-certified recycled marine boards as its primary material and is situated along a key community pathway. Color was created in collaboration with spiritual color energy artist Zeng Ri-Sheng, whose vibrant palette and contemporary visual language bridge culture and daily life.
Simultaneously, landscaping, wall repainting, and glass restoration were carried out to enhance safety and visual coherence—allowing the guard booth to evolve from an idle structure into a welcoming, interactive public space.
DOCUMENTARY
From early discussions and community co-creation to the completion of the space, this time-lapse documents how design gradually unfolds within a neighborhood.
Through resident participation, recycled material application, and on-site making, the process illustrates how an overlooked facility can be transformed into a public landscape that carries culture, sustainability, and everyday interaction.
This project is not merely about giving a space a new appearance—it is a process completed together with the community.
Starting from a forgotten guard booth, design weaves together daily life, cultural memory, and material regeneration, allowing sustainability to exist not as a distant concept, but as a quiet presence—at the alley corner, within color, and in every moment of pause.
As the space is once again approached and used, the city gains a gentle yet enduring force—one that continues to resonate through everyday life.