Chinese Whispers

AFTER STUDYING at Nanjing’s Southeast University, both Li Zhi and Xia Murong worked briefly for a large design agency in Shanghai. In 2016, they went out on their own and established Mur Mur Lab. The pair sees design and architecture as tools for improving the quality of urban life. Architecture becomes a medium for observing the relationships between spaces and people, and for offering a daily dose of surprise. Zhi and Murong’s main aim is to produce an elegantly interesting aesthetic by means of architectural geometry and experimentation.

You both began at a big design firm, working on large-scale projects. Why did you decide to start Mur Mur Lab? LI ZHI: We were searching for independence and for a chance to do our own thing throughout every phase of the design process. The employees of a typical large-scale Chinese design company are usually responsible for only a minor part of an assignment. Setting up our own office gave us a complete overview of projects, from installations to interiors. Although our work is much smaller in scale than it was

prior to founding Mur Mur Lab, we’re now able to inject our personal inspiration into everything we do. Unlike large organizations that take a top-down approach to design, we swear by a more bottom-up approach.

What’s behind the name of your company? LZ: It’s actually a link to the English word ‘murmur’. We want our projects to be small, subtle interventions, almost like whispers. In Chinese, mù mù means ‘two eyes’. This represents the relationship between my partner and me. A pair of eyes also clearly connects to ideas of observation – of looking for the interesting aspects of life. ‘Lab’ refers to our experimental character; we don’t want to be too commercial. We want to deal with spaces in a different way and to offer our clients ‘everyday’ surprises.

Why do you prefer small changes? It seems a bit modest in the Chinese context . . . LZ: Firstly, our projects are very small. And secondly, we don’t have the energy to change the entire world. Transforming Shanghai or even our district alone isn’t possible.

We do believe, though, that true change comes from individuals. Together, all the tiny individual changes and voices can have a big impact on Shanghai – and even on China. Maybe one day we might be able to change government policies on urban planning – to convince authorities to reuse and renovate, for example, instead of removing existing structures to make way for another generic city.

You both trained as architects. Why focus on installations and interiors? XIA MURONG: There aren’t many opportunities in China right now for small companies like ours.

To get architecture commissions, we have to start with interiors and smaller projects. Interior design is closely related to architecture, but it’s dangerous to do too many interiors. We don’t want to be classified as ‘decorators’, so we approach interior design from an architectural point of view.

You’re also working on a book, Architecture and Communication . . . XM: We’re both very interested in architectural theory, whose tenets we try to incorporate into our designs. The publication – a study of our basic understanding of architectural vocabulary – explores such terms as ‘ruler’, ‘scale’ and ‘broadcasting’. We explain these words based on our research for the book and link them to contemporary China – and to our projects.

‘Broadcasting’? Can you elaborate? LZ: Architecture was once a means to protect people from nature and danger. But architecture that is broadcast as news in contemporary magazines and online becomes somewhat unreal. When you Photoshop buildings, architecture becomes more about images.

On WeChat [China’s most popular social-media network], it’s normal to leave polite comments and to ‘like’ one another’s posts. New media also influences our offline behaviour. So-called politeness is replacing real critical thinking and debate. That can be dangerous. Mur Mur is our way of taking a critical stance. In fact, we’re searching for self-criticism. We want to feed the architectural discourse and to approach architecture as more than an object.

How are these aims reflected in your projects? XM: Making Architecture and Communication helps us to clear our minds when choosing projects. At the same time, practising our profession generates new ideas for the book. In our first year we did many

projects that produced beautiful images for social media and for our website. But it has to be about more than just nice images; we want to express our emotions and ideas. This year we will do some foundational work, which will include inviting a third partner to join us. We hope to create a basis for the future and, especially, to develop a kind of studio signature or identity.