延续的生命力：家具设计展场
展会在短短数天内提供可观机会的同时，往往产生大量搭建所造成的浪费。 我们在2020年末接到策展人的邀请，为参展“设计东西DESIGNEW”的13组家具作品设计存在时间为5天的展场。 策展人在提出“回归”主题的同时，对展场更大的设计诉求是可再利用。我们试图突破展期的界限，实现展场生命的延续。
我们希望使用一种生活中常见的材料，人对其有自然的亲近感，将其转化呈现不同于常规的印象，让人对它产生熟悉又陌生的新感受；并在展览结束后可以被回收再利用，具备适用性，应用于多种场所。 最终我们使用了两千余个白色半透明的pvc充气块---- 这种产品的生产周期短，可快速搭建起一定体量的空间，被广泛应用在玩具、运动器具、临时活动搭建。其随处可见的使用，和充气后的饱满形态，使之与人的关系非常亲近，在展览现场也常会看到观众主动上前触摸甚至拥抱这些充气墙。
充气块为400x400x400mm，是适宜人坐的尺度，且便于与厂家反复试验后选用了内部拉绳结构、确定了封边处理方式和连接方式。充气块之间由拉环相互绑接，形成被规则化堆叠却保有有机感的充气砖片墙，再由钢丝绳连接上下C型钢龙骨悬挂。充气块片墙相互围合错动，为13组家具作品营造暗示生活空间尺度的展示空间，彼此之间相互独立却不割裂。整体展场如同一个巨大容器，是由同一材质的大量堆叠围塑出匀质的流动空间，令观众浸入场所的氛围并在其中自然漫游。
空气被塑形，如砖墙般围塑作品展间和公共空间，并反转砖块的重力表达，以漂浮感营造空间的抽象性。空气是生存最基本最不可或缺的也是最不被感知的，充气块的堆叠也是空气的堆叠。以空气塑造空间，希望引发观展者对于生活空间和生活方式最原本的感知。
在展览现场的后两天，部分充气块作为展览纪念品被发放给观展者继续使用，以延续展览的生命力。 随着充气块被取下，展场的形态也在不断发生变化，这个过程亦是公众共同参与撤展的体验。展后工作人员将剩余充气块的气体排出回收储存，两个月后，我们根据新的展览条件设计了新的结构和布局方式，延续利用在了后续的巡展中。 充气块也提供至友谊书展2021、产品设计展览等场所延续应用。
项目信息
展场设计：即作建筑 MINOR lab
主持建筑师：刘晨
设计团队：赵丹（项目建筑师/施工指导）、赵炜、金韦希
摄影：朱迪、即作建筑
策展方：设计东西DESIGNEW
面积：400㎡
材料：pvc充气块
项目地点：中国，深圳
设计时间：2020.12-2021.01
展览时间：2021.03.17-2021.03.21
Sustaining Life: Furniture Pavilion
Exhibitions create substantial opportunities during just a few days of opening; yet usually causing a lot of construction waste. In late 2020, invited by the curator of DESIGNEW 2021, we designed the pavilion for 13 sets of furniture exhibits that lasted 5 days. Under the main theme of “ORIGINAL”, reusability was the strongest expectation of the pavilion design. Therefore, we sought to break through the length of the exhibition to expand the pavilion’s lifespan.
We hoped to find and transform an everyday material – people are naturally familiar with it, yet they can still retrieve a sense of novelty from it; after the exhibition, it could be recycled and reapplied to a great variety of venues. We eventually chose white, translucent and inflatable PVC block – widely used in toys, sports equipment and for temporary events, this product is manufacturing friendly and applicable for comparatively large spaces. Its prevalence and plumpness after being inflated offer a very amicable impression - during the exhibition, many visitors felt inspired to touch, feel and even hug these inflated walls made up of over 2,000 PVC blocks.
Each 400*400*400mm air block is suitable for people to carry and sit on; after rounds of tests with the manufacturer, we chose the pull cord internal structure, and reached the sealing and connection solutions. The inflatables were closely connected via pull rings, suspended by steel wire ropes and anchored to C-shape steel keels on both the upper and lower sides, forming a clearly outlined yet structurally organic wall of neatly stacked air blocks.
Independent yet not isolated, the inflatable walls zoned and enclosed spaces that signified specific scales of different life scenarios for the 13 sets of furniture exhibits. The entire pavilion serves as a massive container, and its interior is a flowing space shaped by stacks of a homogeneous material, attracting the audience to get immersed and roam in it carefreely.
Air, having been materialized, defined the abstractness of the space with its intangible, flowing nature. In this context, air is similar to bricks, constructing exhibition and public spaces, but overturns brick’s symbolization of gravity. Air is indispensable to survival yet nearly unperceivable; stacks of inflatables can be seen as stacks of air. By using air to construct the space, we expected visitors to feel their living spaces and lifestyles in the most authentic way.
During the last two days of the exhibition, half of the inflatables were given to visitors as souvenirs for reuse – a way to sustain the life of DESIGNEW 2021. While the inflatable walls were being disassembled, the whole space changed accordingly, and the public witnessed the finalization of the exhibition. When the exhibition was closed, its staff deflated and stored the remaining blocks. Two months later, based on specific requirements and conditions, we designed new structures and layout, and reused the same inflatable blocks for the rest of exhibition tour. These blocks were also used for Friendship Book Exhibition 2021, product design exhibitions and other venues.
Project information
Design firm： MINOR lab
Deisng Principal： LIU Chen
Design Team： ZHAO Dan (project architect), ZHAO Wei, JIN Weixi,
Photographer: Zhu Di, MINOR lab
Client： DESIGNEW
Location; Shenzhen, China
Area： 400㎡
Material: inflatable PVC block
Project Period: 2020.06-2021.02
Design Period: 2020.12-2021.01
Exhibition Period: 2021.03.17-2021.03.21