Changfa Residence
Travertine and Wood Create a Primitive and Natural Living Space
Year： 2020-2021
Size：105 sq.m.
Design：MANN Architects
Leader Designer：Yanjie Wang
Location：Shanghai, China
The prosperity of the physical world has inspired an unprecedented yearning for nature. In this yearning, the primitive sentiment of human beings as individuals or as a group seems to have found its due belonging. However, influenced by the development of science, technology and humanism, people's aspiration for nature has changed from primitive naturalism to modern naturalism. That means the shift from simple and brutal consumption of nature to living in harmony with nature. At the same time, it also emphasizes the integration and symbiosis of nature and human civilisation. People began to be happy to settle for false illusions when the human entered a new internet era where the real and the unreal, the legitimate and the illegitimate coexisted. In this case, the meaning of nature exists only in the conscious pursuit of human beings. But the reality is that stacked on top of this situation are countless copies or reproductions of copies of copies. However, in reality, there are countless copies or copies of duplicates stacked on top of it.
In this project, we have tried to echo this primitive sentiment of the human through the two natural materials of travertine and wood. To create a realistic and touchable natural living space for the client in Shanghai where seem to be a jungle of steel. We wanted it to be both abstract and realistic, with a strong expressionist sentiment. Meanwhile, we hope to present a spatial atmosphere like a combination of the paintings of Edward Hopper and Mark Rothko.
Changfa Residence is our abstract expression of the primordial sentiment of human beings yearning for nature. It is also an expression of our desire to keep a proper distance from the illusory and highly homogenised internet society. and continues the pursuit of a primitive, natural and poetic space atmosphere in MANN Architects.
