‘UNDER THE SAME EAVES’ ANCHORS SOCIAL ENCOUNTERS by the sea
Heimat Architects (previously Atelier Heimat) unveils Under the Same Eaves, a demountable timber pavilion designed for the 2025 Aranya Theatre Festival in Qinhuangdao, China. Completed in just 14 days — 7 days for design and 7 for construction — the project serves as the festival’s main baijiu tasting station and a key node in Migratory Birds 300, a 300-hour continuous art experiment on the beach. Both intimate and open, the pavilion becomes a social anchor amid a landscape of ephemeral installations, celebrating fleeting encounters through architecture built to vanish.
bird’s eye view of the site | all images © Lv Xiaobin, unless stated otherwise
HEIMAT ARCHITECTS CREATES TIMBER COURTYARD OF SHARED MOMENTS
Situated in the Sand City zone of the festival, Under the Same Eaves by Heimat Architects forms a quiet courtyard composed of three tasting corridors and a compact bar unit. Each corridor is made of modular timber platforms arranged under repeating eaves that suggest both rhythm and rest. Through this design, the architecture team encourages spontaneous social interaction, offering visitors a variety of ways to sit, recline, or simply linger — all under a canopy that frames the sea breeze and passing conversations.
More than just a tasting station, the pavilion acts as a spatial ritual for enjoying baijiu, China’s traditional spirit. The architecture invites visitors to move slowly: entering low eaves, stooping gently, then emerging into a central space of light and laughter. Its sculpted sections offer moments of openness for mingling and pockets of seclusion for reflection.
Under the Same Eaves: a demountable timber pavilion for the 2025 Aranya Theatre Festival
MODULAR DESIGN ENABLES ZERO-WASTE CONSTRUCTION
Simplicity and sustainability guided every decision. The entire structure uses just two sizes of locally sourced timber in a modular ‘sandwich truss’ system. These repeating units offered both structural strength and rapid assembly. The pavilion’s hipped roof shelters a service bar and storage space, while waterproof polyester fabric wraps the timber eaves, providing light shelter and visual softness against the coastal backdrop.
Part of the Migratory Birds 300 series, Heimat Architects’ pavilion is built with impermanence in mind. Like the performance art it accompanies, the structure is made to be disassembled, reused, and ultimately disappear — a poetic parallel to the transient nature of festival encounters. As the designers return ‘like migratory birds’ each year, the act of building becomes both a rehearsal and a ritual: a meditation on time, place, and the emotional weight of temporary space.
the pavilion forms a quiet courtyard composed of three corridors
each corridor is made of modular timber platforms
the entire structure uses just two sizes of locally sourced timber
waterproof polyester fabric wraps the timber eaves | image © Bai Rubing
the structure is made to be disassembled, reused, and ultimately disappear
the design offers pockets of seclusion for reflection
the pavilion is both intimate and open | image © Liu Guowei
Under the Same Eaves becomes a social anchor amid a landscape of ephemeral installations | image © Bai Rubing
the architecture team encourages spontaneous social interaction | image © Bai Rubing
project info:
name: Under the Same Eaves
architects: Heimat Architects
design team: Zhang Dong Guang, Liu Wenjuan, Ma Tianyang, Zhang Wenjing
site support: Sun Zhiwei
construction team: Yan Chuanwei, Yan Xuli, et al. Curators: Liu Chang, Zhu Sha
location: Qinhuangdao, China
client: GUOJIAO 1573, Aranya Theatre Festival
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edited by: myrto katsikopoulou | designboom
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