Gone with the wind

Chapter 1 The written ending

    Everything is changing, but nothing will disappear. This project is to transfer an traditional Shanghai style barbershop into a women’s life experiencing museum. The client expects some breakthrough happened here, a design that can be accepted by the trend, but that is not limited by existing aesthetics. For Mur Mur Lab, every exceeding we made is with the anticipation from various people, after keeping discovering the boundaries between architecture, construction, design and humanity. To create a new space in the existing shell will be a self-consistent design, like building a house in a room.

Chapter 2 Space as performance

The site is within a three-floor building, facing a commercial plaza. From the outside, the façade is like a face, expressing its attitude towards the surroundings. From the inside, the inner space becomes a self-sufficient system. Communication is the fastest way to gain some information, and on the other hand, introspectiveness is the best way to build up an internal order. Now space becomes the connection between those two ways, and the objectified medium between communication and introspectiveness. We hope that the final result would follow our expectation as close to as possible, and at the meantime, would construct scenarios beyond our imagination.

As what Mur Mur Lab believe, space is similar to a performance, acting a play by itself.

The space on the first floor is just like an immersive theatre. The terrazzo floor and thick walls render a steady and massive integrity, giving you a desire to look up. The slightly uplifted archesare like a dome covering the stage but touching it softly. The cold and the warm are talking.

The arches are not only covering but also defining. On the second floor, they spread towards different directions, grow and interlace. Space is cut into pieces, but those pieces overlap and make that space endless. Fabric under the arches turns the space into a fashion show. One of my female friends told me:” Gently Hugged by the mild curves, accompanied with flowers and desserts, I would love to stay here for an entire afternoon.” 

There is always a lovely side under the building’s serious face. People can find an archy showcases at each of the front corners. The reflected sky and clouds bring a soft texture to the glass blocks and curtain wall. Behind the peace hides a dramatic conflict of collaged spaces.  

Chapter 3 The future store

“In the future, a store is a museum.”

Mur Mur Lab have been focusing on this topic for some time. In this project, it’s more like a collage of many magical dreams: atmosphere created within the space, noise from the nearby airport, daily reality, fairy tales and the dark. It’s a future store displaying dreams, filled by a feeling that is unreal but fantastic.

The soul is so far away from reality, but it exists so factually. Today, maybe a lot of things are happening online, lively and strikingly, but we still keep the peace and serene offline. What else is more important than this peace at this moment?

When space is expressed in words, it turns pale. The description will always be insufficient, compared with the the color and shape you see, the aroma and ambience you notice, and the vibe and mood you feel. I can just say, I tried to express.