Lồng Phương Đông

In the shared yard of an old housing block, under a spreading tree, the design team placed a single oversized birdcage. Its red steel bars rise taller than a person, and its floor is filled with dried leaves gathered from the ground around it.

The piece draws on the birdcages that hang in front of homes and cafés across the city, objects tied to the slow daily habit of keeping songbirds. Enlarged and set down on the ground, the cage becomes a small pavilion that people can walk around, look through or stand close to.

A long concrete bench and scattered stones sit beside it, so the cage reads as part of the yard rather than a sculpture set apart. Over the seasons the tree drops leaves and blossom onto it, and light through the branches throws the shadows of its bars across the ground.

Photographed largely in black and white, the project shows how a simple frame can change the way a familiar place is used and seen.