ZAO / Zhang Ke Architecture Office

As one of the Chinese architects invited to the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale’s thematic exhibition “Frontline Report,” alongside Wang Shu and Liu Jiakun, Zhang Ke presented three projects from his practice on the frontline of the renovation of Beijing’s old city, titled “Hutong Micro-Updates.” Following the storyline of “Frontline Report,” Zhang Ke’s work expresses and explores the professional reflections and social responsibilities of independent architects actively intervening in the forefront of Beijing’s urban renewal.

The “Hutong Micro-Updates” exhibition is located in the Arsenal section. Zhang Ke placed three independent volumes in the nearly 170-square-meter exhibition space: a 7-meter-long solid concrete display table, and two replicas of a children’s reading room and a tree-shaded exhibition hall from his “Micro-Yuan'er” project, reproduced to the original scale. On the concrete table were background materials about the “Hutong Micro-Updates” project, as well as architectural models of three renovation projects Zhang Ke implemented in Beijing’s hutong area: “Micro-Yuan'er,” which has already been completed and is in use, and the “Micro-Hutong” and White Tower Temple projects, which are still under construction. In the exhibition background materials, the satellite map of Beijing’s old city was drawn as a battlefield map, based on the actual construction status—because in Zhang Ke’s view, the battle for urban renewal has already begun.