Opening of the Installation “Resonance”

The TAB 2026 Installation Competition “Budget Bougie” invited architects to rethink notions of luxury through the lens of limited resources. Participants were asked to propose a temporary outdoor pavilion in front of the Estonian Museum of Architecture in Tallinn’s Rotermann district. 

Held in dialogue with the Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2026 theme “How much?”, the Installation Competition addressed the questions: Can limited means produce spaces that feel refined, generous, or even indulgent? Can resourcefulness stand in for expense? 

The winning project, “Resonance”, was designed by Aru Ma- Architects, an architectural practice founded in 2021 by Cheng Hao Chung and Zhang Jie, with team members Cui Jiakai and Matteo Minnicelli. Based between Shanghai and Tokyo, the practice was selected for its reinterpretation of luxury as an intensified spatial and atmospheric experience created through ordinary materials and structural ingenuity.

Conceived as a quiet courtyard detached from the intense and noisy atmosphere of Tallinn’s traffic island setting, “Resonance” combines rebar, rope, limestone, and plywood to create a space of intimacy, acoustic sensitivity, and temporary retreat. Through a carefully balanced tensile structure anchored by a central stone core, the project transforms strict economic and material constraints into an architectural environment shaped by light, wind, sound and gravity.

“Resonance has a simple yet interesting approach to the topic of the competition, and its spatial execution is comprehensive. The pavilion uses standard construction materials in unexpected ways, elevating them into something new and distinctive. A spatially intriguing visual effect is achieved through radically simple techniques and materials, aligning the pavilion closely with the themes of TAB 2026.”
— Kertu Johanna Jõeste, TAB 2026 Curatorial Team