The exhibition ,“HUTONGism - Urban House in Beijing” in Rudolph Hall, Yale University, featured our research on the hutongs in Beijing. Besides photos, drawings and models, the transition of the spaces as one walks through also forms part of the experience of the exhibition. With the gallery space limited to 4.3 meters in width, we inserted a “floating house” into the centre of the space, leaving 1-meter wide “alleyways” on either side. The translucent fabric is reminiscent of the silhouette of the traditional courtyard houses (siheyuan) that are native to the hutongs. Visitors will also experience an impression of daily life in hutong as they step into the “alleyways” where they will be immersed in the series of photos and videos of the unique spaces and elements in the hutong.

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Upon entering the main exhibition space, a sense of intimacy and closeness is experienced, wrapped by translucent fabric. The translucency not only created a sense of enclosure but also maintained a connection to the space outside. Various types of activities can happen within this small space as it was reconfigured for different functions. It is an exhibition gallery with pedestals, a lecture space with chairs, and a social space with a long table at its centre. The flexibility in its space is reflective of the hutongs where the same space is used for recreation, pop-up retail and restaurant extensions at different times of the day and year.The smoothness and translucency of flex fabric is a distinct contrast to the rough texture of the brutalist architecture of Rudolph Hall. Metaphorically, it is a conversation between the formal, which is the Rudolph Building, and the informal, which is the urban house in Beijing. The materiality is the part of the concept that resonates with the exhibition contents.