Shanghai fish Mobile Station

Jinhai Lake is an open green park in Fengxian District, Shanghai, centered on a goldfish-shaped body of water and known as the Shanghai Fish. Invited by the Fengxian District government, the Architectural Design and Research Institute of Tongji University designed a series of mobile stations evolved from timber units within the park; phase one has built 15 stations and phase two will add 12. The design concept draws on the classical poetic line of watching fish in a spring pond while songbirds sing and flowers fill the gardens, carrying activities such as viewing, strolling, and flower-viewing. The overall layout uses a sundial as its prototype, adopting a radial grid that finally unfolds around the lake center into a network of mobile stations. All completed stations are timber structures, divided into basic and variable types. The basic-type station uses the traditional Chinese Lu Ban lock as its design prototype, with a 9-by-9-by-9-meter basic unit that uses split levels, pilotis, and gray spaces to create rich, varied interiors, supplementing park amenities with vending machines, drinking water, mother-and-baby rooms, restrooms, leisure seating, children's play, studios, and viewing platforms. The variable-type stations are signature structures of varying forms, scattered as landscape follies across the park; they express the unified rhythm of timber architecture while presenting varied cadences in formal dialogue with the modular basic stations. Variability and sharing are the main attributes of the stations. Both types are flexibly designed and highly recognizable; components are partially joined by steel fittings, making them easy to build, dismantle, and transport, emulating the prefabricated production of the digital age. Each station is also a shared box, a public-space node for social exchange that creates the imagery and delight of a landscape city. The mobile stations supplement the park with urban functions and enrich spatial layers, making the Shanghai Fish a reception room for southern Shanghai; with small yet beautiful design, they become the eye that paints the fish.