The PAPER House / VIASCAPE Design

Architects: VIASCAPE design
Area: 21 m²
Year: 2023
Photographs: CreatAR Images
Project Management: Shanghai Shefapuzhong Construction Managing Co, ltd
Contractor: Shanghai Dongrong Construction Engineering Co, ltd
Lighting Consultant: OUI Light, Xu Yuefeng – OUI Light
Category: Community
Lead Designer: Sun Yijia
Design Team: Sun Yijia, Ma Li, Ji Wenshan, Gu Qinyi, Zhang Liang, Chen Lu, Ji Yuwei
LDI: Dongda Design Group
Design Time: October 2023
Landscape Area: 37 m²
Main Materials: Steel Sheet, Terracotta Brick
Clients: Hudongxincun Sub-district Office, Pudong New area, Shanghai
Article Author: Sun Yijia
Design Drawings: Ji Yuwei
Vi Design: VIASCAPE design
Fonts Support: REEJI type
Exhibition: BGC
City: Pudong
Country: China

The PAPER House community project by VIASCAPE design in Dongbo Yuan, Hudong Sub-district, China, transforms a dilapidated timber pavilion into a formalized community structure through extensive public participation, completed in 2024. Originally a spontaneously expanded shelter used for chess and card games, the unsafe structure was redesigned into a 60-square-meter installation integrated with five existing cedar trees. A modular 1.5×1.5 meter spatial grid shapes interior, exterior, and transitional spaces, encouraging flow and blending inside and outside. Rather than conventional construction, 30mm-thick steel sheets were used as the sole structural material, prefabricated and assembled onsite in two weeks to minimize disruption. The form accommodates two gender-specific rooms, with color schemes chosen by residents, enhancing emotional attachment and material continuity. A resident’s objection during construction prompted a redesign, reducing the building’s footprint while retaining functionality and reflecting a Delegated Power design process. The project proposes guided informal construction for seasonal enclosure, allowing residents to build detachable insulation to maintain warmth in winter. The PAPER House exemplifies participatory urban renewal and offers a model for integrating informal practices into community governance.

The PAPER House is a community structure situated within Dongbo Yuan, a residential compound in the Hudong Sub-district. VIASCAPE has been involved in urban regeneration efforts across this area for several years, though the PAPER House stands out as a distinctive experimental case among the studio’s projects. This pioneering initiative seeks to reconcile design regulations with site constraints through sustained public participation, enabling spatial installations and design ideas to be integrated into residents’ everyday lives. The project also explores methods of merging formal and informal construction processes to yield broader communal benefits.

Dongbo Yuan (6th phase), originally built in 2000, is a relocated residential compound primarily owned by former villagers from Zhangqiao Town, many of whom are connected through familial ties. In response to the growing demand for communal activities, residents independently began refurbishing the sole timber pavilion, which had informally served as a space for card and chess games. Discarded furniture was repurposed and attached to the pavilion’s wooden columns to create basic exterior screens. As community participation increased, the structure was gradually expanded to 20 square meters, forming a semi-enclosed room and a fully enclosed room, designated for male and female use respectively.

The way residents actively occupied and adapted the space created a vibrant communal environment. However, the structure presented several safety concerns due to years of unauthorized construction, incremental expansions, and prolonged deterioration. In mid-2023, the Hudong Sub-district Office initiated contact with VIASCAPE to undertake a renewal design for the site.

The site is highly constrained, with the combined interior and exterior area totaling just 60 square meters. Five mature cedar trees are irregularly distributed across the site, further fragmenting the available space. In response, VIASCAPE implemented a 1.5-by-1.5-meter spatial module to organize various grouped areas. Outdoor spaces, circulation paths, interior rooms, shaded areas beneath the canopy, and tree pits were all integrated to create a continuous and fluid spatial experience that merges indoor and outdoor elements. In this way, residents engage with the space through a new mode of “touring” rather than merely “using” it, where “Views Given by Chances”[1] emerge from the overall spatial structure.

The design approach departed from conventional construction methods that rely on beam-column, slab, and wall systems. Instead, a 30mm-thick steel sheet was employed as the sole structural material. The entire structure was “installed” rather than traditionally built, featuring open boundaries that integrate seamlessly with the surrounding landscape. Given the site’s limited size and the spatial constraints posed by existing tree roots, the team maximized usable space by assembling steel sheets in a manner resembling a card tower, a concept that inspired the project’s name, “the PAPER house.” All steel components were prefabricated, enabling on-site installation to be completed within two weeks and significantly minimizing disruption for nearby residents. To preserve existing spatial usage patterns, the PAPER house includes two independent yet connected functional rooms designated for different gender groups. Through a participatory process guided by the community board and VIASCAPE’s design team, residents selected two distinct interior color schemes. This collaborative approach fostered a strong emotional connection between the users and the PAPER house, allowing the project to embody the unified expression of “site”, “material”, and “emotion” as a spatial installation.[2]

The initial design proposal for the PAPER house differed significantly from the final built version. The main semi-open functional space was originally positioned north of the existing trees, while the shaded area beneath the trees was designated for recreation. This configuration aimed to balance spatial organization with tree preservation, linking indoor functions and outdoor leisure through a combined “courtyard” and “garden” concept. Following two rounds of public hearings, construction began in mid-September 2023, after completing design revisions, tender documentation, and other administrative steps. However, soon after construction commenced, a resident living on the first floor raised an objection, stating that the expanded functional area to the north obstructed the sunset view from his small bathroom window.

After the community board’s initial attempts to resolve the complaint were unsuccessful, the design team facilitated a second on-site discussion and reached a compromise that restricted the new structure to no larger a floor area than the original. This led to the abandonment of the earlier plan and the adoption of a revised approach using a low-impact, thin structure situated beneath the existing tree canopy to maximize functional space while respecting the site constraints. The final scheme for the PAPER house gained broad support from the residents and was ultimately implemented. This process exemplified how the community board and the VIASCAPE design team prioritized listening to every user’s concerns, achieving what they described as a “Delegated Power”[3] model and maximizing the “Degrees of Citizen Power.”[3] As a result, the public participation process played a defining role in making the PAPER house one of the most experimental projects in VIASCAPE’s portfolio within Hudong Sub-district.

The PAPER house opened to the public in May 2024 following the completion of signage, lighting, furniture installation, and tree care. The project was well received by residents. However, users soon proposed enclosing the structure during winter to retain indoor warmth. This request presents challenges, as the project was originally conceived and designated as a “landscape structure” rather than a formal “building.” In response, the situation raises the potential for initiating an “informal construction”[4] approach to adapt the space for seasonal needs.

Dongbo Yuan (6th phase) is characterized by close familial ties among residents, which naturally leads to shared behavioral patterns and a collective desire for functional communal space. The informal renovation and expansion of a wooden pavilion a decade ago exemplifies this tendency. In response, the design team and community board proposed a community-building strategy that involves residents directly. They suggested using safe materials to construct a detachable insulation screen with residents’ participation, enabling warmth during winter while preserving the PAPER house’s open nature. This approach aims to guide informal construction through residents’ practical needs, integrating it into broader community governance and development. The PAPER house’s opening represents not only the completion of a renewal project but also the beginning of renewed social activity, community engagement, and shared governance.

Notes

[1] For the concept of “Views Given by Chances,” refer to Ji Cheng’s classical Chinese garden design treatise Yuan Ye, which explores the spatial perception of scenery through movement.

[2] Installation art emerged in the 1970s as a dominant form of contemporary artistic expression. It is commonly defined by the integration of site, material, and emotion—a triad reflected in the PAPER House as a spatial installation.

[3] The concept of “Delegated Power” and “Degrees of Citizen Power” is drawn from Sherry Arnstein’s A Ladder of Citizen Participation, published in the Journal of the American Institute of Planners, Vol. 35, No. 4, July 1969, pp. 216–224.

[4] In contemporary Chinese urban renewal discourse, “informal construction” refers to community-led spatial interventions outside formal planning systems. Current research focuses on how these informal practices, when appropriately guided, can evolve into lawful and constructive elements of community building. In the case of the PAPER House, the design team explores how to transform informal resident-led initiatives into regulated, participatory processes aligned with broader governance strategies.