The KinderKunstLabor is a one-of-a-kind building concept globally. It is neither a museum nor an indoor playground, but rather a large laboratory for children up to twelve years old, from all social and educational backgrounds. The space allows them to engage with contemporary art in a playful and sensory way through workshops and exhibitions at a high level. The challenge in planning was unique: the design had to be viewed from the perspective of children, while still maintaining a serious commitment to art.

This 376-square-meter plot was once simply a green lawn, not a space actively used so much as one appreciated from a distance, offering a restful patch of green for the eye. That changed when the son got married and started a family of his own. The land soon revealed itself as an ideal site for a new house, one that would allow the family to remain close while granting the younger household a greater sense of privacy. At the same time, the lawn was transformed into a courtyard to be shared between the new house and the original home.

Beginning in the spring of 2022, our team commenced working on the comprehensive environmental improvement and renewal project for the surrounding Caoxi Rd. Metro Station area. The overall renewal plan had completed by July of the same year. The plan aims to establish a renewal framework through a holistic urban design approach, achieving functional transformation of a blighted area in Shanghai's urban core through a phased, incremental implementation process, and realize overall regional revitalization by integrating spatial optimizations based on functional adjustments of the metro station's internal space and its adjacent plots. At the end of 2023, "Caoxi Road Pocket Park"1 designed by our team was built as the first phase of the project. The second phase, "the Happy Spot under the Light Rail", was designed by us in Dec 2023 and constructed by March 2025.

This project is the renovation of a wooden residence approaching its centennial anniversary. The house was originally built in 1931, on a plot developed through the Rakuhoku First District Land Readjustment Project, an early urban planning scheme in northern Kyoto. Several houses from that period still remain in the neighborhood, evoking the refined residential character of the time. The current owners, a couple in their seventies, have inherited the house through three generations since it was first purchased by the husband's grandfather.