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LETTER no. 49 Week no.7: Voyage into my room. Sunday Design 101 MOOC, Abadir for iversity Greetings from Milan, We came back home to the Big Bag Box! The living space where most of the Design 1o1 crew sleeps at night. An open space made of ten themed “boxes”. Ten cute, customized and compact living cubes. We use them when we work up late, when we have guests and friends coming to visit. An informal housing system to make our life easier and nicer. Each of us has his own preferred one. For example, Giulia’s box is called the “Russatore” (or “Snorer”) and has 2 soundproof panels. Anne-Sophie took the “Ordinato” (or “Ordered / Tidy). Her boxe has different pockets on the inside surfaces. She can store and divide various things into various categories. Stefano sleeps in the XL (we don’t need to translate XL). His box is 50 square centimeter larger than all the other boxes. Actually, Stefano is given this luxury because he has been living in BBB for quite a few years now... If ever you come to visit us in Milan, it would be pleasure to have you sleep in BBB with us! You will have seven boxes to choose from! Then, in BBB, there is a dressing room and two bathrooms. One for the boys, one for the girls. For us, taking a shower is a hot and relaxing ritual. The idea comes from the Japanese tradition. D e s i g n 1 0 1 0 4 9 / 9 1 0 1 Week 7 Sunday
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  • LETTER no. 49Week no.7: Voyage into my room. SundayDesign 101 MOOC, Abadir for iversity

    Greetings from Milan,

    We came back home to the Big Bag Box!The living space where most of the Design 1o1 crew sleeps at night.

    An open space made of ten themed boxes. Ten cute, customized and compact living cubes. We use them when we work up late, when we have guests and friends coming to visit. An informal housing system to make our life easier and nicer.

    Each of us has his own preferred one. For example, Giulias box is called the Russatore (or Snorer) and has 2 soundproof panels.

    Anne-Sophie took the Ordinato (or Ordered / Tidy). Her boxe has different pockets on the inside surfaces. She can store and divide various things into various categories.

    Stefano sleeps in the XL (we dont need to translate XL). His box is 50 square centimeter larger than all the other boxes. Actually, Stefano is given this luxury because he has been living in BBB for quite a few years now...

    If ever you come to visit us in Milan, it would be pleasure to have you sleep in BBB with us! You will have seven boxes to choose from!

    Then, in BBB, there is a dressing room and two bathrooms. One for the boys, one for the girls.

    For us, taking a shower is a hot and relaxing ritual.The idea comes from the Japanese tradition.

    Desig

    n 101

    0 49/9 10

    1

    Week 7

    Sunday

  • This is how it goes:

    1. We undress ourselves in our own box and wrap our body into our Furoshiki (a very large cotton cloth or towel).2. Once in the bathroom, we fill up our black rubber basin with hot water. 3. This is the time to take off our Furoshiki and hang it on a hook.4. While waiting for the basin to get filled, we wash ourselves with soap.5. Once the basin is filled, once we are covered in soap, we sit down on our little stool.6. We take our little red bucket, fill it up with the hot water from our rubber basin and wash away the soap on our bodies. This is the most relaxing part of the whole experience. Hot water on our bodies... It feels so nice!7. Once we are done and choose it is time to get back to reality, we empty the remaining water from our rubber buckets and dry ourselves with our Furoshiki.8. Then, we brush our teeth and go back to our box to get dressed up and ready to work!

    By the way, if you want to see an early image gallery of BBB, you can click here (things have evolved but it gives you an overall idea).

    Question of the day: To spend less as a design tool?Now, you have seen the final result (the physical space of the Big Bag Box). How did we get there? What was the design process to reach this result?

    Very simple. When we were designing, every time we had to take a decision we went for the simplest (hence, cheapest) solution.The modular system was built upon the dimensions of the Ikea bed (simplest solution to have a bed).

  • The space was parted using a special fabric: the one used in truck business to cover the freight. We found a supplier and upon our drawings and requests he delivered 10 fantastic envelopes (with zips, pockets, windows and all kind of cute details).When we got into the bathroom we started from traditional showers. Then we asked ourselves: can we find a simpler solution? Well, the Japanese have it. The way they wash themselves it is nicer, simpler, more intelligent. And so on.A living unit where simplicity it is foremost a design tool. Make it simpler (and the result, it will be better).

    Finally, we have a very cozy environment, made of extremely conceptual parts. Very nice, very lovely, very special. To us, very natural. Or as Josef Albers said, Abstraction is real, probably more real than nature.

    Homework no. 49If you were to think about your life, the places you go and you know. Some of them are complex and elaborate. Some others are extremely simple. Think to the simple ones.

    How do they work? How come that most of the times they are invisible to our eyes?

    What could you learn from these places?

    What will I learn today? To think about simplicity. How to think simple. How to transform this quality into a design tool to be used for all the things you do. If you start simple, you cant be wrong.There is always time to make things more complex. Start simple, be simple.

    In a world where we are overwhelmed by elaborate information, to be simple is one of the few possibilities for survival (and/or escape).

  • Why do we do this? In contemporary world there are a lot of ecological, sustainable, green products and solution. You can buy them, you can use them, you can believe in them.

    To us, it is not a matter of labels. It is a matter of a certain state of mind. As soon as something is tagged as ecological, it isnt anymore.

    It is like butterflies. If you like them so much to collect them, to collect you have to kill them. For us is the same. The point is not to be sustainable or green. The point is to design intelligent things. To set up the parameters of success and to try to comply as best as we can.

    Something to remember: Design is aboutmaking things right.Design is to make right things. Each of us can have a different idea on what is right. There is no absolute righteousness. There are multiple ways to be right. And most of them contradict themselves.

    Make things right, and not being obnoxious with other people. Accepting the fact that other people can have a different understanding on a given issue.

    Further inspiration...If we compare our boxes to a form of human habitation, we could say it is similar to tents.

    Initially, tents were used as portable homes by nomadic people. Now, tents are still used by nomadic tribes but they are also used by the military, victims of natural disasters, protesters...

  • We would place ourselves in the first category (the nomadic one)... But then, if we want to force our point of view into more conceptual stuff, we could say to belong to the other categories as well... Hmmmm...

    Anyways, one other form of human habitation we like so much is the portable yurt from Central Asia. To understand how it is made, the 25 minute movie Mujaan is wonderful.

    We also love how the Bedouin live(d) in the desert. Made from goats and camels hair, they are strong and durable. And they also keep you warm in the winter. And then, in the summer, their sides can be rolled-up to allow the breeze to come in.

    Finally, one of our favourite tents on the market is the two-second one. Its quick, cheap and easy.

    If all these things about basic architectural structures to provide covers interest you, we have very special reference for you to check Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties: The Classic Guide to Building Wilderness Shelters written by one of the funders of the Boy Scouts of America. A how-to-construct more than 50 different shelters. Very precious book...

    And now, a curiosity... Archigrams mobile and modular living pods:

    Speculative proposal for a sculpted and mechanised trailer home which can exist independently or be plugged into larger structures. (David Greene)

    I am sorry for the length of my letter,but I had not the time to write a short one. (Blaise Pascal)

  • Design 101. A How-To.We know we have some late-comers, here are a few instructions on how the whole thing functions...

    A typical Design 101 day:

    We send you an email around 9 in the morning (Berlin time) with the link to our daily unit + some news, updates, cool Design 101 things we found etc.etc.

    Note: you can find all of our previous emails in the Announcements section of Design 101 on iversity.

    Once you land on the units page, you find our shipment (which consists of a video-postcard + a letter). You watch the video, read our letter, get to work and complete the assignment (or relax if its a weekend day). For even more fun, you can always refer to the Design 101 encyclopedia, which is updated every week.

    Dont forget to take part in the conversations of the Discussions forum!

    Now, going beyond the iversity platform, we have setup other places for us to meet and spread things we do.

    On Facebook:the Design 101 page: to follow whats going on (in general terms)the Design 101 Exercises page: to check out picks (things that fascinate us the most)the Design 101 Arena group: to post your pictures, share your thoughts, emotions, references, lalala (as a complement to the discussions happening on the platform).

    On Twitter,@design1o1: to follow whats going on + discuss with each other.#design1o1: to connect us all under a same hashtag.

    On YouTube:the Design 101 channel: to view + share our video postcards (which is not possible to do from the iversity platform)

  • On Instagram:#design1o1: to connect us all under a same hashtag.

    Regarding the hashtag, make sure to use #design1o1 with an o and not a 0...

    :-)

    PS Uploading your homework to the iversity platform is very important in terms of archiving. It is the only way we can collect all the things we do in one same place. Once the course ends, it might turn out to be reorganized into a wonderful book and/or exhibition

  • John Horton Conway

    Living Pod, Archigram

    Todays postcardIn the Big Bag Box