Mengjie Li
In my design approach, I have always been inclined to explore the relationship between humanity and architecture. I believe that spaces created through their interaction can transcend mere aesthetics. Such spaces are like wise storytellers, gently narrating the tales they hold, thus evoking emotions in people. Therefore, my projects also uphold this philosophy, aiming to recreate a strong emotional connection between the local people and the local landscape.
Drawing from my own experiences and adopting the perspective of both a participant and an observer, I have observed the phenomenon of locals in my hometown gradually abandoning their local identity. I put my attention on a restaurant run by my father that was rich in memories from several generations. By combining auto-ethnographic research methods and theoretical studies on the relationship between place identity and space, I discovered the importance of spatial experience in building a sense of place identity. In response to the widespread lack of local identity, my design aims to improve the sense of local identity in the target community by extracting elements from the study of local history, culture, space and materials, as well as experiences that resonate emotionally with the locals, and then applying them to the re-conceptualization of the chosen space, with the ultimate goal of improving the sense of local identity in the target community.
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[post_content] => The motivation for my project comes from some old photos of mine. These photos all depict a place - the first rice noodle restaurant my father opened in our hometown. It was just like any other noodle shop in the city at that time, nothing particularly special about it. However, one year, my parents went to the provincial capital city to learn experience and they found luxury hotels all decorate for Christmas.
In our remote mountainous hometown, very few people knew what Christmas was. So, during the Christmas season, everyone gathered with curiosity at the restaurant to experience the festive atmosphere with friends and family. Year after year, it accompanied generations of people as they grew up. When mentioning the concept of Christmas, the first thing that comes to people's minds is not the birth of Jesus but going to this restaurant to have a meal. And this concept is known only to the locals. In other cities, people wouldn't associate Christmas with the same idea and definition. This event, this place, is like a symbol that brings the people of this street and this city together.
I found that of all the elements that go into forming IDENTITY, this restaurant fulfilled every need when it came to hosting a Christmas event, and I think that's why people can develop such a strong collective memory of this place.
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[post_content] => Through the recollection of my childhood memories, as I projected my experiences onto the younger generation in my hometown, I realised that my hometown was fading away due to the discarding of its identity by the people in my hometown.
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[post_content] => I used two-dimensional old photographs enclosed in a three-dimensional model of the original venue, through which I tried to represent the atmosphere generated in the space during the period when the event took place. I thus found that the materials used in the space during different periods, such as canopies, decorative balloons, brick walls, wallpaper, etc. played a great role in creating the atmosphere.
The second model is an initial attempt of the transformation of the materials,object and sensory i collected from the event.
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Preliminary Research
The motivation for my project comes from some old photos of mine. These photos all depict a place – the first rice noodle restaurant my father opened in our hometown. It was just like any other noodle shop in the city at that time, nothing particularly special about it. However, one year, my parents went to the provincial capital city to learn experience and they found luxury hotels all decorate for Christmas.
In our remote mountainous hometown, very few people knew what Christmas was. So, during the Christmas season, everyone gathered with curiosity at the restaurant to experience the festive atmosphere with friends and family. Year after year, it accompanied generations of people as they grew up. When mentioning the concept of Christmas, the first thing that comes to people’s minds is not the birth of Jesus but going to this restaurant to have a meal. And this concept is known only to the locals. In other cities, people wouldn’t associate Christmas with the same idea and definition. This event, this place, is like a symbol that brings the people of this street and this city together.
I found that of all the elements that go into forming IDENTITY, this restaurant fulfilled every need when it came to hosting a Christmas event, and I think that’s why people can develop such a strong collective memory of this place.
I used two-dimensional old photographs enclosed in a three-dimensional model of the original venue, through which I tried to represent the atmosphere generated in the space during the period when the event took place. I thus found that the materials used in the space during different periods, such as canopies, decorative balloons, brick walls, wallpaper, etc. played a great role in creating the atmosphere.
The second model is an initial attempt of the transformation of the materials,object and sensory i collected from the event.
