Studio Report 2019

‘Waking up the sleeping life attitude by waking up your dark closet. Clean the dust, remove the load...’ 1

Minimal Residence An-Yue Deng Master of Interior Architecture ArtEZ University of Arts

Foldable Wardrobe, First model of minimalism.

Home is a very complicate definition, throughout this year of exploration, the meaning of Home became a very rich topic for me.

But still, I want to review my very beginning point, reflect to my word cloud, my personal definition of home. “elderly, quiet, entertaining, chopstick, lazy, midnight, sweet, stressful, curtain, mess, positive, evident, independent, washing, individual, children, clothe, parent, sleep, cook…”

while release the stress that human beings getting from those unconscious object? I think design the system of storage can be a good starting point. What kind of community can provide a better way for both subject and object?

Next stage of my assignment will be to try to create systems that can help people manage their belongings no matter big or small amount within the scale of community. And also try to encourage people to understand the benefit of minimalism life style.

Is the storage space an excuse?

The key word that I picked from my word cloud is STORAGE. The reason why I chose this is that it is the problem that modern human beings are facing. The rapid development of producing after Industrial Revolution and the life style that is promoted by capitalism letting us own much more object than we thought.

Personally, as an international student, I moved from Guangzhou, China to Taichung, Taiwan and now to Zwolle, the Netherlands. While migrating, how to sort out the stuff that I own is very difficult.

I spent a lot of time to accumulate objects that I think I need, but very soon, I threw some of them away because I cannot take everything with me and not all of them are necessary.

How to form a life style that can set us free from the control of object somehow? How to create a system that not against the development of society

After exploring a lot of storage spaces, I gradually realized that the storage space actually is a big enemy for people to develop a simply life style. We cheat ourselves from hiding the stuff we don’t want to face. An extremely simple domestic space should minimize the storage space as shown in one of the models I made, the storage space should be a frame. It should be limited to some activities that are much more dynamic. Waking up the sleeping life attitude by waking up your dark closet. Clean the dust, remove the load, from your domestic environment to your mental attitude.

Thus, my ambition for my project is to at least experience a minimal life style, and try to inspire other people by what I did.

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Model of Maximalism.

Research Through Making, Endless Possible in One Model.

Karmar of Over-Consuming, First Semster Exhibition.

Right: Storage=Vague, Left: Scale Model, Minimal Residence.

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Minimal Residence-1, Working Mode.

Minimal Residence-2, Get-together Mode.

Minimal Residence-3, Resting Mode.

‘People’s gathering will contribute knowledge to spread.’

Last semester I worked mostly in a systematic and logical way, and I found it quite difficult to transfer into a spatial work or any other touchable form. So for this semester I hope I can deliver an actual space or installation that can express my ideas.

The first step I would like to take is to experiment in daily life. First, I would try to collection information and analyze which part can be change or adjust for my experiment. Then I will try to do the experiment on myself or even with people around me. Now the possibility of the experiment is like try to wear one style only for one week or only use one pen for a whole week. I hope this kind of experiment can help me explore the possibility of developing the actual design or installation for the storage and explain more about the relationship between object and human beings.

I would love to introduce Marie Kondo, who wrote The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. In the TV show under the same name in Netflix, she inspired people to rebuild the relation between objects, that also somehow reflected to the concept Jean Baudrillard mention in “Le Système des objets”. All of this work showed me how contemporary society lead us to this unhealthy relationship between humans and objects. Over-consuming, resource waste, even the human resource are abused, sociologist and economist already working very hard for saving us from this endless sickness. As a space designer, what can spread to the public?

I build up this limited frame to and try to live in there. Putting myself in this very limited space, actually give me a deeper insight of what is the meaning of minimalism, from small details to bigger overview.

For example, I found that society didn’t give a lot of chance for a girl to develop a minimal concept. When I try to find one the most important stuff for minimal life style. There is shampoo+shower gel for female everywhere. We want girls to be beautiful, so girls get lost in the endless options for shampoo, shower gel and etc. On the other hand, there is a limited amount of 2in1 products for male customers to choose from.

To the bigger overview, this minimal life helped me to build a stronger bond with my environment. The classic form of a home is a place for people to rest and hide, a place where people can enjoy their privacy. But that cocoon might trap us in a very small perspective. My experience of living in a school studio helped me to blend in my community better. The interaction within the small space let me notice what a friendly group I am in.

The happiness of sharing and helping each other is a surprising outcome.

But I would like to state that is the most beautiful part of my project. People’s gathering and knowledge will spread.

I want everybody to experience the beauty of minimalism life style.