Windbreak Xintiandi Design Festival 2022, Shanghai Building, Chinese Architecture Photos
Windbreak Xintiandi Design Festival 2022 News
4 January 2023
Design: RooMoo design studio
Location: No.150, Hubin Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai, China
Photos by Wen Studio、RooMoo、Yizhu Construction
Design Shanghai @ Xin Tiandi Design Festival
Looking at the macro through the tiny
by RooMoo design studio
Windbreak Xintiandi Design Festival 2022, Shanghai
Flâneur is a French term meaning “stroller” or “loafer” used by nineteenth-century French poet Charles Baudelaire to identify an observer of modern urban life. They are no purpose, no need, well-educated and well-fed, wearing high hats and trench coats, wandering and observing and experiencing, Becoming a perceiver and witnessing urban change.
About WINDBREAK / The memory of the city is our windbreaker
WINDBREAK’s creative background develops from the phenomenon of “Flaneur” sneak observers that commonly appeared in European cities in 1970. With the continuous and rapid development of the urban structure, the relationship between people and the city has become a single and one-sided weakness, causing people to ignore the details of the changing urban environment and the impact of the environment on essential factors in people’s lives.
Sir Peter Cook mentioned in the book called Archigram (1972:20) that “architecture is only a small part of city environment in terms of real significance; the total environment is what is important, what matters. The object was to determine the total effect environment has on the human condition, the response it generates – and to capture, to express, the vitality of the city.”
Actually, in the urban space, all are important. For instance, the triviality of lighting a cigarette or the hard fact of moving two million commuters a day are both facets of the shared experience of the city. When it rains in the street, architecture is no more important than rain. The weather has more to do with the pulsation of the living city.
Therefore, the cognition and understanding of city life are far more complicated than we think.
Echoing the Design Shanghai exhibition’s theme of “micro-nature, micro-park,” the “ windbreaker” creation process records the subtle details in the environment of the entire Xintiandi block through participatory observation, walking, collection, and annotation. The whole process of creating and producing the“windbreaker” is a deliberate intention. We deliberately collect all the “micro” landscapes in Xintiandi. We focus and find urban city subtleties that people don’t usually see. Through this method of collecting urban landscape elements, collectors can experience a unique impression of the environment of the whole Xintiandi neighborhood.
Therefore, with such an opportunity, we turn ourselves into “Xintiandi sneak Flaneurs” in the way of walking and observing, like people who draw a map, to outline the micro-landscape of Xintiandi in the experimental method of material stamping.
Material & Interaction
Instamorph is a new environmentally friendly material that can be shaped by heat. High-strength, non-toxic, odorless, naturally degradable, and environmentally friendly. After use, the previous shape can be changed by thermal dissolution and taken away. It also can be used to repair, fix, and seal items and make tool accessories, molds, containers, masks, props, etc. It can also be painted, engraved, and even tooled. It can be heated and reshaped.
Therefore, we choose Instamorph as the carrier of rubbing the micro-landscape of Xintiandi, mark the latitude and longitude coordinates, display the actual processing effect of the location, and then connect all the plastic adobes into one piece, the “windbreaker” located in Xintiandi. In the actual collection process, we used sulfuric acid paper as the spacer paper during rubbing, mainly to avoid leaving and damaging the various collection surfaces of Xintiandi, and the raw material properties of the Instamorph also need to wait for the time to dry. Finally, we chose more than 20 micro-landscape locations to collect 100 coordinate points (each location 20 pieces).
The average estimated time was about 4 hours, resulting in 30 to 50 samples. A total of more than 2,000 pieces of samples were selected as the final installation of basic assembling materials. The geolocalisation coordination nodes of the collection location are recorded in
handwriting on the back of each piece.
After the process of outdoor collection, we drilled four holes for each piece, then tied four ties, weaving it into a whole windbreaker.
After testing the weight, hoisting experiments, positioning the height, and finally cutting the neckline for the interactive shuttle, a handmade “windbreaker” with the impression of the city floats formally and elegantly in front of all the visitors.
We expect that people who walk into the “windbreaker” can feel the original collector’s rubbing experience through touch and shuttle and experience the concentrated power of more than 2,000 urban “microscapes.”
Gradation of openness / Windbreaker and Topological Phenomenon of Xintiandi District
The logic of the derivation and reconstruction of space is also the same as the logic of topology construction. Topology studies the properties of geometric figures or spaces that remain unchanged after successive changes in shape. It only considers the positional relationship between objects without considering their shape and size. Our understanding of nature reflects the logic of topology – nature is coherent, gradual, and growing without clear boundaries.
Each piece of Instamorph collected is a unique picture element.
Yet, although it is different in size and shape, it is constructed of the same material, echoing the concept of topological theory. Therefore, the windbreaker integrated with each small piece forms another macro impression of the Xintiandi neighborhood. It presents each observer’s different understandings and perceptions of the area, which together become topological phenomena of the image of Xintiandi.
By collecting urban elements and using thermoplastic clay materials, “The WINDBREAK” can not only present a detailed impression of the Shanghai Xintiandi neighborhood but is more likely to extend its meaning and drive the large-scale growth of cities to be perceived and observed by us.
Windbreak Xintiandi Design Festival 2022 – Building Information
Event Name: Design Shanghai@Xintiandi Design Festival 2022
Design Company：RooMoo Design Studio
Installation Construction：Yizhu Construction
Lighting Counsultant&Supplier ：WOY Light
Text: Jasmine Yang
Event Address：No.150, Hubin Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai
Photo：Wen Studio、RooMoo、Yizhu Construction
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Windbreak Xintiandi Design Festival 2022, China images / information received 260421
Location: No.150, Hubin Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
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