Art Cup Tea · Public Space Art Experience

Role
Service Designer · Design Researcher · Interaction Designer

Keywords
Service Design · Contextual Inquiry · Ethnographic Observation · Co-design · Public Space · Community Engagement

Location
ChenDu, 2020

Overview
CityHunter was developed as part of the Design Partner 2.0 – Urban Hunter Plan, initiated by the Art and Science Innovation Base of Tsinghua University. Responding to the changing conditions of public life in the post-pandemic era, the project explored how service design could contribute to reactivating public spaces and strengthening community resilience in Chengdu. Rather than introducing a new cultural venue, the proposal sought to build upon existing local social infrastructure, creating new opportunities for interaction, participation and cultural exchange within everyday urban life.

Development
Through contextual inquiry, ethnographic observation and interdisciplinary collaboration, our team identified the traditional Chengdu teahouse as a naturally active social environment where people of different generations gather to spend time, converse and participate in everyday community life. This situated understanding informed our design decision to position the teahouse as the project's primary setting. Building on this local context, I contributed to the development of a service system that connected emerging artists with community spaces through a series of cultural programmes and shared activities. By combining artistic practice with the existing social rhythms of the teahouse, the proposal transformed an everyday gathering place into an open platform for dialogue, creative exchange and community participation, demonstrating how local cultural infrastructure could be reactivated rather than replaced.