A Collaborative Design by Chen Lin and Cui Shu丨Techsize Global Flagship Store

The mind is as deep as a valley, the friendship is as deep as water.

Being righteous and well-mannered,

If so already, take it easy!

-- Feng Zikai

Beauty is always hidden in a large environment, exists in life, and appears in all things.

In such a space, the elements of wind, fire, water, and soil change and move, where the stripes are deep and brilliant, the lights are clear and independent, the water rhythm is light, and the ink brush is vigorous and bold.

Realization of beauty

"Observing without evaluating is the only realization of beauty."

--Jiddu Krishnamurti

Originated in Spain and located in Hangzhou, the Techsize global flagship store adheres to the spirit of "feeling new beauty and exploring new trends in art and design" to convey the brand concept of "creating a beautiful living space". Breaking through the traditional display logic, the design does not focus on displaying product features, but to present the spiritual core, thus creating a space full of art and a living atmosphere.

01 Transcendence and experiment

The story started with a phone call in the summer of 2020. Chen Lin, who likes to tell stories via immersive scenes, emphasizes the concept of "being practical and beautiful", which coincides with Techsize’s vision of conveying a better way of life. In addition, he invited Cui Shu, a designer who is rebellious, individual, delicate, and rigorous to collaborate on this project.

As a design across age and city,

it is just because of the willingness to surpass,

that the practice comes into being.

Combination

As a result, the two designers from different cultural contexts complement and contrast in respective perspectives and understandings, interpreting the flexibility of spatial scale, the spirit of details, and the tension of creativity.

As a designer born in North China, Cui Shu thought that the space of 400 square meters was not large at first, so he planned to present it in a pure and complete way. On the contrary, Chen Lin, who had the subtle temperament of the people in South China, thought that the space was not small, and he proposed to bring the artistic conception of landscapes in the south of the Yangtze River into the design.

Explored, collided, reorganized, and combined, they often worked and communicated until the early morning. Gradually, their respective inspirations are overlapped in a three-dimensional way.

Creativity

Between architecture and nature, design and aesthetics, unity and change, balance and emptiness, their creation is not to design shapes but to create life.

So, eastern art and western culture collided in the interlaced time and space, in which the common beauty of good design, products, and craftsmanship is generated through the control of density and rhythm. When the visitors stepped into that hazy and implicit tension of space, the infinite possibilities of space can be felt.

02 Departure and Arrival

First and foremost, it is an aesthetic life museum.

The ink-colored building stands still in the surrounding irregular mapping waterscape, and what makes people stop and watch is the freehand brushwork revealed from the wide windows: the layers of parallel lines are the background, the flexible water ripple texture is an ornament to space, and a long case is used to bring out the theme.

Life is always between departure and arrival, the most important thing is to maintain this attitude of not knowing and have a firm grasp of yourself in the midst of wandering.

- Bei Dao

Beginning point

The window at the entrance presents a scene of a family dinner, where people can sit and share their thoughts on life. Waiting for the time to go by, have a drink, and enjoy the lush greenery outside the window.

However, people who enter cannot directly reach this space. The first thing they step into is a roundabout way made by the Techsize rampart, which is like hills, water, clouds, and fog. The vast and strong sense of mystery attracts visitors to go deeper into the stillness to explore further. When ascending step by step, the open and flat way suddenly turned into a bridge on the water, which is a long and narrow path in a pure black background with scattered white dots, as if walking in the Milky Way.

All the encounters along the circular display route come to a common destination. Such an indirect process of entering includes the visual attraction, the material display, and the atmosphere felt by the body and mind. Just like life itself, it starts from the initial appearance of everything, then to reality, and finally to the truth behind it.

 Destination

Themed with departure and arrival, the space is like a journey, from the collision of inspirations to the completion of the ideal work in the heart. It is also the starting point of an ideal life conception for visitors.

The layers of 3D carved slabs are superimposed to outline the mountain, and the irregular edges are like the aeolian monadnocks that have been eroded for thousands of years.

Taking advantage of the nonabsorbent and impermeable feature of the product material, the surrounding waterscape makes the floor a form of an island, achieving the poetic sense of mountains surrounded by lakes and the lake reflecting the green mountain.

In addition to conveying awe and praise to the landscape, the designer tries to express the restoration of the connection between man and nature. The multimedia art displayed throughout the exhibition hall showcases the changing scenery of mountains, rocks, and ravines, which turn into the silky texture, the West Lake ripples, and finally the black and white ink.

In any case, humanities are always the most outstanding embellishments in nature. The cycle in the video is exactly a dialogue, an exploration, and an experiment!

03 Construction and subtlety

Like Yayoi Kusama, who used mirrors, metals, light bulbs, wood, and water to create the installation art of Fireflies on the Water, a poetic existence often makes everyone who walks into the space forget the worldly reality but see the vastness, depth, and dream. The profound meaning is about the mind and the atmosphere.

We can't change the outline of a mountain, the flight path of a bird, and the speed of the river's flow, and we can observe it and discover its beauty.

Gorgeous canyon

Just like this dark-colored space, every time going deep inside, one will feel like being in a canyon, which is also a metaphor for the brand concept that the product comes from stone and is better than stone.

The abstract shapes of mountains are constructed vertically, which are towering and heavy, marking out the straight and staggered paths smoothly. When observed carefully, the delicate patterns on the material are like the Danxia cliffs carved by wind and rain for thousands of years, with diversified colors and changes.

When stop and look up, visitors will find out the geometric objects irregularly distributed in space. They are either suspended, inverted, or attached, sometimes reflecting the sparkling water, sometimes shining upon the changing lines, just like the cliffstone in the canyon. They are the little subtleties that exist distinctly in the great majesty.

The most awesome thing is a "flying bird" suspended in the crevice of the canyon where light penetrates. Made from superimposed metal plates and bearings, it slowly opens wings in the canyon.

"When the birds in the mountains flew over the head, a strange eye contact happened in the air. After a long period of silence and dormancy, the treasuring and love for all things in the world emerged." This flying clue is set as a foreshadowing in the space.

Ink painting

"Indoors, clean hands, burn incense, and practice calligraphy among the fragrance of ink with a calm and peaceful mind." This is the aspirational poetic life in oriental aesthetics.

「Subtle and mysterious, deep and unfathomable」

If this space is calm and stable, then the famous calligrapher Wang Dongling's writing can always stir the human mind. Wang's cursive calligraphy has a charm of rotating like a star cloud, which is sharp and gentle with restrained firmness, echoing the characteristics of slabs, that is hard with flowing texture and warm touch.

The calligraphy of Su Shi’s verse, "The rocks on the cliffs are like clouds, and the stormy waves slammed them violently, rolling up like snow." is a variation of the cursive script in the modern context, it is a clarification in the chaos, and chaos with the beauty of dance and abstraction. As it is said: that's when everything settles down during a happy journey!

Wandering in this space, visitors can not only feel the exquisite products and craftsmanship but also imagine the infinite possibilities of customized application of Techsize slabs, as well as the possibilities to explore humanities, art, and aesthetics. In such a complete space integrated with nature, humanities, and technology, a journey full of energy that travels thousands of miles in openness starts from here.