A bandit hideout for Shanzhai merchants (sellers of Chinese not-quite-knockoff goods), the 'Microeconomic Fortress' seeds a shifty settlement and market for the continuation of digital counterculture right in the middle of Shanghai's commercial district.

Inspired by an early experiment into the creation of a pneumatic suit to simulate the pressure of diving in conjunction with virtual reality (VR) technology, the Fortress swaps physical walls for digital defensive systems, physical presence for digital IDs. It reverse-engineers the surveillance state against the authorities.

Interactions between the shoppers and the staff are continually mediated through projection screens, apps, dumb waiter store shelves, hidden doorways, and the eye of the CCTV camera.

Shanzhai culture excels when it can use plagiarism as a basis for experimentation and expand to undercut the official brands by adding premium features and offering modular upgrades. This technique has been appropriated for the project, the design developed through the liberal borrowing and adaptation of pre-existing architecture.

The Microeconomic Fortress thrives in these grey areas, playing with formal and informal economies, layers of security and visibility, both physical and virtual. It begins with the principle that the significant boundary between legitimate and illegitimate goods is in their presentation, and runs from there.