people's station is an architectural retrospective of PAO's latest work

steels bars were plugged in and out of sockets, unicycles wheeled-in canopies, and tiny houses were biked around on tricycles to create the simple, foundation-less complex, ‘people’s station’. the sharp edges and moveable forms came together peacefully in the quiet kwan-yen district of yantai. the building is the accumulation of the most exemplary projects to come out of people’s architecture office over the past seven years, and forms part of a retrospective exhibition titled ‘mass interventions’.

UPDATE: this project was shortlisted in the ‘display – completed buildings’ category at the 2018 world architecture festival.

all images courtesy of people’s architecture office and zhu rui

visitors wander through large open entryways, event halls flooded with natural light, semi-outdoor areas, and sections lifted above the ground. from plugged-in balconies they can look out at the historic core of yantai, then back in for a read in the library. they can explore the old and the new. behind tessellated windows and crimson canopies, the interior houses a lounge, a bookstore, and a cinema, as well as pop-up structures made from photo-reflectors. the cultural center has been designed to invigorate the quiet kwan-yen attendants.

the station is positioned on the edge of the business district of yantai

the complex is a vibrant addition to the larger social fabric of yantai. it’s hard to believe it was conceived and built in just three months. on the ground, portable appendages attach, increasing the building’s footprint like a giant accordion. the people’s canopies and tricycle houses collapse effortlessly and detach from the people’s station to be cycled to other locations as cultural satellites, orbiting the rest of yantai.

the structure was created mostly via PAO’s prefabricated system

the inside features a gallery of the firm’s work

tricycle houses detach from structure and peddle around the city

a line of unicycles controls the people’s canopy

the retrospective, ‘mass interventions’, features PAO’s work from the last seven years

appendages increase the station’s overall size in just a few clicks

the entire structure was conceived and realized in less than three months

the structure was intended to be a cultural center for quiet residents of kwan-yen, yantai

see more work by people’s architecture office here

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project info:

client: yantai chuangyuan cultural media, ltd.
location: yantai, china
principals: he zhe, james shen, zang feng
project team: li zhenghua, feng ziqing, lin mingkai, xu xi, cui gangjian, xiang weixing, liu sixuan, hai xiao, chen ziwei
structural consultant: yu fengbo
photographers: people’s architecture office, zhu rui