The client is a renowned industrial design company, producing modern design products inspired by traditional handcrafts, such as folding screens made by traditional Embroidery technique from Suzhou and lights based on old-fashioned paper umbrella. The client planned to build up a small museum for product exhibition and its design culture in Suzhou, one of the most important cultural cities in ancient China.    

The local government provided an archaized building made of reinforced concrete near the old city wall ruins for the client’s use. Ironically, this building is exactly the opposite to the cultural concept to be exhibited by the client.  

The new scheme started with this dramatic conflict and brought visitors to rethink the old and new, tradition and modernity by using a pattern of „house in house“. Newly added parts are made of metal resin and other modern industrial materials, starkly intruding into the original building. However, many spaces resembling traditional Chinese yard were created as well.    

Although this concept was very critical of the archaizing trend, the exterior appearance of the building could do nothing but follow this style required by the urban planning. Therefore, it was a design for inward reconstruction. The northern façade was the only exception, where a full-height window was arranged on F2, indicating an old, heartbreaking story of a princess from Kingdom Qi. Allegedly, Qi Gateway was located on this site during the Spring and Autumn Period (approximately from 771 to 476 BC), where a princess from Kingdom Qi of North China, who was married to a prince of Kingdom Wu (nowadays in Suzhou) looked out every day her homeland. Directed by the spatial sequence, visitors will automatically look out North as the princess used to do. At this moment, the present behavior echoes with historic happening.