Recently, MUJI held an event called "Joy City" on the 3rd floor of Shanghai.Compact Life in China"The exhibition. The objects on display include modular cabinets of Muji, and daily groceries such as acrylic storage boxes, and the three "homes" that attract the most attention — — They are all decorated and arranged by muji products from the inside out.
These "homes" are actually the result of the transformation of three ordinary homes in Shanghai by the MUJI team. Each home has experienced a change from "dirty, chaotic and poor" to neat, simple and comfortable. These changes were recorded as short videos by time-lapse photography and played circularly at the exhibition site. In addition, the finished products were restored to the scene at 1: 1.
Previously, MUJI had done similar renovations and exhibitions in Japan, Taiwan, China and Hongkong, with the aim of promoting its modular furniture through the concept of "Compact Life" — — But aside from this, the exhibition still gives a lot of inspiration about home design, especially the renovation of old houses.
"This clean and bright Japanese style, compared with the previous renovation of the husband’s room, really makes people have the desire to modify their own homes." Just finished visiting.Compact Life in ChinaThe audience of the exhibition, Chi Cheng, told the interface reporter.
When it comes to the renovation of old houses, many people may think of a variety show called Dream Renovator. More than a year ago, this program caused a heated discussion by virtue of the strong contrast before and after the house renovation and various dramatic conflicts and turning points during the renovation process. Among them, the episode of Shuhei Aoyama, a Japanese architect, transforming Beijing quadrangles was the most popular.
The reason is: firstly, the program group crowned this quadrangle transformed by Shuhei Aoyama with the title of "the smallest school district in history", which increased the audience’s expectation for the transformation, and also made the contrast between the transformed "Japanese-style residence" and the quadrangle before the transformation stronger; On the other hand, Shuhei Aoyama’s Japanese identity also makes the whole case more concerned.
"I like his style very much. I wish he were not Japanese." The netizen "dreams point to the south" said in a reply to the related post of "Dream Renovator" in Baidu Post Bar. This represents a voice: Japanese people working in China, especially those projects such as rebuilding old houses in China, will be more or less affected by some negative feelings from China people towards Japan.
But more often, Japanese designers are very popular in the market of renovation and renovation of old buildings in China — — A little search on the Internet will reveal that it is no exaggeration to describe the condition of Japanese designers’ renovation of old houses in China by "getting together".
In addition to Shuhei Aoyama and the MUJI team, world-renowned architects Kengo Kuma and Fujimoto Shosuke were invited to renovate the old quadrangle in Beijing. One of them made a Zen teahouse, and the other rebuilt the Beijing Humanities and Art Center. You may have heard of a Japanese architectural firm called odd, which renovated six or seven hutong houses in one breath in Beijing. In another program of Dream Renovater, Japanese designer Ben Shi’s attempt to renovate a husband’s house in Shanghai is estimated to have impressed many people.
These cases have one thing in common, that is, the area of the space to be renovated is not large, and it can even be said that it is cramped, crowded and messy. I don’t need to go into details about those quadrangles and hutongs. Most of the time, a room of more than ten square meters or even smaller has to accommodate at least five people and their sundries. Similarly, MUJI has also selected old houses built in the 1990s in Shanghai, with an area of about 40 to 50 square meters.
"Houses with renovation needs generally have the problem of small area, which is the same in Shanghai and Hong Kong, including Tokyo." Gu Benzhan, director of the planning and design office of MUJI’s life and groceries department, told the interface news, "Metropolis is a place where people gather. After more people gather, the natural living space and the area that can be effectively used will become smaller and smaller."
Therefore, the advantages of Japanese designers are highlighted here. In an interview with Tencent Home, Shuhei Aoyama once said that many Chinese believe that Japanese designers are better at renovation because they "think that Japanese designers can make good use of small space and design better details".
In recent ten years, the aging problem in Japan has become increasingly serious, the population has been decreasing, and there are more and more empty houses, which has prompted architects and designers to shift their attention from building new houses to transforming old ones. A good example is the group land reconstruction project of MUJI in cooperation with Japanese urban institution UR. At that time, Muji’s team of designers transformed a group of "low-rent houses" that were gradually vacant in Japan after World War II into rental houses that met the preferences of young people, making those old houses that were supposed to be eliminated by the times have the meaning of existence again.
In fact, not only architects and designers, but also Japanese people have a lot of experience on how to make effective use of small space. This is largely because Japan has a small land and a large population, and it is popular to live alone. The family size is usually small, so the area of its own house is usually small. However, after experiencing the consumption era in 1980s and 1990s, Japanese people generally have a lot of things at home, which need to be accommodated — — This is why there are all kinds of strange but brain-opening storage techniques and storage tools for sale in Japan.
The process of urbanization and aging in Japan is earlier than that in China. What Japan faced in the past two or three decades is exactly what China is experiencing now.
Since 2000, the urban commercial housing in China has been growing by spurt, which makes the old husbands’ houses that were built and distributed in a unified way and the quadrangles and foreign buildings that have been passed down instantly become anachronistic, and they no longer meet the requirements of the times in terms of apartment type and community facilities. At the same time, the continuous relocation of industrial facilities to the suburbs has also left a large number of almost abandoned old buildings in the city — — Many of these buildings have been demolished, while the remaining buildings, especially those with historical significance or cultural heritage value, are waiting for renovation.
There has been a wave of transformation in the construction industry. Ma Yansong and many other buildings have tried to rebuild the hutong houses in Beijing. In the past two years, Beijing Design Week has been actively carrying out activities around the protection and reconstruction of traditional buildings such as old factories and quadrangles. Naturally, Japanese architects living in China have also caught up with this fashion, and their advantage is the skills and experience accumulated in their hometown.
"There are a large number of old houses with cultural and historical background all over China. After a period of newly developed construction, everyone returned to pay attention to the transformation of old houses, and reappearing the splendor of old buildings is the normal national development order. " Kooo architects Xiao Yan Shen and Xiao Yan Ayaka also told the interface news.
Xiao Yan Shen and Xiao Yan Ayaka recently completed a homestay renovation project in Yuhang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang. They transformed a multi-storey residential building with China rural characteristics into a water town hotel with white walls and black tiles, making the building return to the appearance of an "ancient house" that is more compatible with the surrounding environment surrounded by green mountains and trees, but does not lose the sense of modern design.
Converting old houses into commercial public buildings is a common means to protect and reuse traditional buildings. The transformation of the whole tourist area of some blocks in Kyoto, Japan is typical. Many places in China have made similar attempts. For example, tourist areas such as Wuzhen and Xitang in Zhejiang, private restaurants in Beijing Hutong and Shanghai Alley, and creative parks in factories such as 798 and 751.
However, similar transformation can easily only stay in the building itself, protecting the formal tradition. Kyoto actually provides a more referential idea, because in addition to retaining the appearance of traditional Japanese-style buildings, the lifestyle and state of Kyoto residents can also be continued and preserved during the transformation process. This state of coexistence and interaction between people and buildings is the most attractive place in Kyoto.
"I think it is wrong to do only formal transformation. I hope that architectural transformation can preserve life itself." Shuhei Aoyama said, "And according to the demand, there are still more houses that need to be rebuilt, because many houses in China are mass-produced when they are designed, without considering the preferences of personal life. Now more and more people want to consider themselves, but they can’t find the right person."
Whether for public use or private residence, the rising demand for housing renovation in China provides more opportunities for Japanese architects and designers who are not dominant in their hometown. However, in comparison, the renovation of residential buildings like Muji and Shuhei Aoyama’s Dream Renovater needs to keep its practical use in life, and it faces greater difficulties, but the impact of the harvest is not as good as that of public projects, so there are not many people who really undertake this kind of civil housing renovation cases in their lives.
The house is for residential purposes, and the renovation will directly affect the lives of the residents, so (designers and teams) have little freedom to play. "Gu Benzhan said that this is the most difficult place in the whole Compact Life transformation.
Shuhei Aoyama’s experience in The Dreamer is the best example of this sentence of Gu Benzhan — — He first had a long and repeated communication with the owner in the program, and fully listened to the needs of the owner. In addition, because the reconstructed house is located in the quadrangle, and there are many public spaces, he also needs to communicate with his neighbors for many rounds. For example, the procedures such as opening the door and opening the window need the consent of the neighbors. However, after the renovation, the design results were still "destroyed", because the owners and neighbors still chose to use the new space in the way of "grounding gas" before the renovation.
This result is actually unexpected. In the face of the owners who have no storage habits before, the transformation of designers with "storage" as the core can only be a wishful effort in the long run. This will be a common phenomenon in China. From this perspective, Japanese designers who are good at making better use of small space through accommodation may not really meet the needs of a large part of China owners. And it is hard to say that such a transformation is good. Several Japanese designers interviewed by us all said that it is desirable to respect the lifestyle of the owners and not impose the wishes of the designers.
Many times, Japanese architects and designers will encounter obstacles from social development and ideological differences.
"Japan did not have the Internet as it does now in the early years of economic development. Therefore, I think that China’s rapid development was influenced by overseas more than that of Japan at that time. At present, the concept of Party A we contact is a very international concept. " The little couple said.
The most obvious manifestation of "internationalization" is that Chinese’s perception of "permanence" may be closer to that of western countries. In the west, a permanent building refers to a stone house that will never be demolished. What it looks like when it is built determines what it looks like later. Chinese’s pursuit of architectural renovation and indoor renovation all want to follow a pattern, just like whether in quadrangles or water towns, when it comes to public renovation of traditional buildings, he always wants to refer to a pattern of filming costume dramas.
This makes Japanese architects and designers who advocate the goal of "permanence" through continuous renovation and reconstruction somewhat uncomfortable.
"Doing the past is not a tradition, but doing what is needed now is to create a tradition, and tradition is not a copy of the past," Shuhei Aoyama explained by taking the work of Japanese temple workers as an example. "Ise Shrine is one of the most important shrines in Japan. There are two plots in the courtyard. The house on the left ground was demolished and rebuilt, so the right one was used. Twenty years later, the right one was demolished, and then the left one was used. In this way, workers can learn at the age of 18, operate at the age of 38, take the lead at the age of 58, and participate in the rebirth of a building three or four times in their lives. Such workers also have continuity. "
For Japanese or other countries’ designers, it is not a difficult problem to transform the building itself. What is difficult is how to keep the original advantages and integrate them into the thinking of China residents.
