Project Team Li Han / Hu Yan / Zhang Xintong

Photography Cheng Chen

In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Western missionaries arrived in China and first introduced the automaton clock, a device capable of reporting time with mechanical precision. These clocks later became prized possessions of the emperors and were given a Chinese name: Zì Míng Zhōng—“the clock that rings automatically.” The design of The Clock House is inspired by both the magnificent architectural form of these early clocks and their internal mechanisms, where mechanical figures moved in sync to mark the hour. Using ready-made materials—corrugated sheets, metal balls, revolving gates, LED strips, and electronic alarm clocks—the house is a contemporary version of the Zì Míng Zhōng: part machine, part architecture. The visitors into “The Clock House” become the mechanical figures inside the clock, and precise mechanical motion is replaced by the random movements of visitors inside the house. To exit, they must pass through a series of revolving gates. As they push the gates in different directions, they inadvertently wind the rooftop pointers. Every 15 minutes, the alarms sound, reporting the time—just as the old clocks once did—while the house lights up in a playful display.