New Residents

PSA, Guowei Liu

Atelier A×PSA | “New Residents” Beneath the Ancient City Walls Atelier A — “New Residents” | GuCheng Park

• Architects

Invited by the Huangpu Main Venue of the 2026 Shanghai International Flower Festival, PSA launched the special urban art project “After you, Spring” inviting five groups of artists to showcase their work at Gucheng Park.

Atelier A was invited to present “New Residents” for this project. Through four landscape installations, the work creates a home for the city’s “new residents”—small animals—and explores the symbiosis between nature and the city through a miniature camphor tree forest installation. When the ancient city wall ruins of Shanghai’s Huangpu District meet the blossoms of spring, a dialogue about nature and symbiosis begins.

photo_credit PSA, Guowei Liu — PSA, Guowei Liu

Design Concept: “New Residents”—From Human Habitation to Living in Harmony with Nature

Located at the intersection of Renmin Road and Zhonghua Road, Ancient City Park stands on the original site of the old county town’s city walls in Shanghai, embodying the history and urban memories of the old city center. Grounded in the site’s context, the project integrates historical spaces, floral themes, and public art, bringing art into the city’s public green spaces and reawakening the emotional connection between people, the land, and nature.

Atelier A’s “New Residents” draws its inspiration from this very concept—when a former human settlement transforms into a lush park, trees, flowers, birds, animals, and cats become the “new masters” of this place. Yanwen Architecture has created four sets of landscape installations where humans step back into the role of “visitors,” observing and respecting this relay of life forms.

The Little Pink Cottage & “The Eye of the Giant”

Set against a backdrop of lush greenery and bamboo groves, four pink art installations stand out strikingly, echoing the spring floral theme while making art stand out against the natural landscape.

Each of the four installations showcases a different creative touch from Atelier A:

1. Miniature Landscape Interactive Installation: Constructed around a tree trunk base, this installation allows trees to grow from the center of the structure. The interactive installation uses built-in mirror reflections to condense an entire camphor tree grove into a one-meter-square box; viewers peer through small openings to observe the miniature model of the site, experiencing a “giant’s-eye view.” This shift in scale induces an illusion of a “God’s-eye view”: as we peer into this tiny world, might a colossal presence be looking down upon all living things? Here, time and space converge, guiding viewers to reexamine the fluid dialogue between the city, nature, and life.

2. Insect House: A small installation with holes, resembling a mailbox, providing a tiny space for insect residents to pass through and rest.

3. Bird House: Suspended from a tree, it offers a place for birds to rest and find shelter.

4. Cat House: Situated on the ground in an L-shape, it is designed for cats to rest.

Nature and the City in Harmony

As the illusion of the Giant’s Eye fades, the branches and leaves of the real camphor grove whisper in the spring breeze. The very act of building is an invitation to nature. These four clusters of pink cottages not only provide shelter for insects, birds, cats, and other creatures, but also hold up a mirror to the city, reflecting our longing for coexistence and revealing how the old town, throughout history, has always remained open to spring.