“Hun”
LOCATION
Get It Louder 2014, Beijing, China
DATE
2014
CLIENT
Modern Media
TEAM
He Zhe, James Shen, Zang Feng, Xu Xi, Chen Yixuan, Gao Tianxia
2014’s Get It Louder exhibition design by People's Architecture Office (PAO) was conceived under the art and design show's theme of “Hun” (混), a Chinese word of multiple meanings that include chaos and mixture/mixing. “Hun” also refers to a primordial state of disorder before ideas are conceived and organized. PAO's design straddles the boundary between order and disorder by creating opportunities for unexpected relationships amongst disparate elements of the show.
Instead of imitating disorder to represent chaos, PAO employs sameness to foster chaos. The design consists of two repetitive systems. First, discreet rooms made of Quick-Lock Panels serve as a standardized kit of parts. Made of proprietary pre-fabricated structural panels, the rooms are flexible to the demands of participating artists and designers. A secondary system of long parallel strips of Folded Tube Tables pierces through these rooms, creating disruptions with spontaneous shortcuts between spaces. While each room is arranged according to a single topic, the long tables host content from various fields.
The Quick Lock Panels are themselves a hybrid of material and function. They consist of an interior surface of MBO board, Polyurethane core, and an exterior of galvanized steel molded into one composite panel. Panels are structural and integrate a cam-lock that allow them to be quickly assembled using just a hex wrench. In a life after the exhibition, the panels are reassembled as low-cost classrooms in rural areas.