An installation at Milan Design Week is allowing everyone to become an architect, says Dezeen's Ben Hobson. The installation, called MINI Living – Built by All, showcases a conceptual modular system for creating tiny customizable living spaces that visitors can interact with.
Split between two former warehouses, the first part of the exhibition enabled visitors to create a model of their personalized home using a standard kit of parts. Visitors could use an assortment of colored blocks to create a central integrated furniture and storage unit – called a totem – which they could surround with various exterior shells to create a private living space.
"At the so-called Factory of Ideas, everybody is able to easily configure their own apartment in a model scale and basically design his or her own MINI Living unit," MINI Living's creative lead and architect Oke Hauser.
The second part of the installation presented four possible configurations of the capsule homes at full-scale, which were situated within a larger communal area featuring shared facilities such as a gym, kitchen and cinema. "We have four private living units with different configurations of storage, seating and working facilities," explains designer Nina Tolstrup, co-founder of Studiomama, which worked with MINI Living on the project. "It's possible to customise them for your needs. With a few simple elements, you can create extremely different experiences."
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