Reflecting the sky in the city. Sky Mirror by Lacime Architects

Project description by Lacime Architects

Sky Mirror Fights “Social Isolated Island”

From May 25 to June 8, Design Shanghai @ Xintiandi Design Festival was held again. This year’s theme is “Together! - Harmony in Diversity”. This event aims to change the increasingly negative social attitude in the current society, so that each unique individual can show his/her personality and eliminate the resistance, barriers and misunderstanding to communication. As a result, everyone can get together spontaneously!

Lacime Architects interprets and reconstructs the theme of the Design Festival, thus the “Sky Mirror” emerges at the right moment. As the branding part, the Original Identity Gallery has participated in the planning and exhibition of the interactive installation at the entrance of Xintiandi.

1. Please introduce the work for this Design Festival.

With the theme of “Get Together under Blue Sky” and the derivative meaning of “Sky Mirror”, the work is actually an echo and extension of the design concept of an art hotel designed recently. It tries to guide people to “sit down and looking at the sky together” through the combination of two stainless steel art installations with different functions – the “mirror” and the “chair”, which is an unusual but extremely precious behavior in today’s city.

2. Please talk about how this work echoes with the Design Festival’s theme of “Harmony in Diversity”.

When you’re wandering around the city and suddenly you hear John Lennon singing his dream from half a century ago on a nearby street corner, will you still feel touched? “People live in harmony under the blue sky”, what a beautiful future utopia Lennon imagined! However, the change of social mechanism has made the real city more and more like an “isolated island of communication”. Even “looking up to the sky” such simple act becomes particularly precious in the increasingly indifferent and exclusive city where all walks of life live. Therefore, we hope to guide “different walks of life” to “look at the sky” in a harmoniously way through this enlightening art installation. Even if it is only for a moment, it may bring a different experience to the city and the human communication.

3. How do you use this installation to create a public cultural space? How to let the audience gain immersive and unique experience?

Shanghai Xintiandi is a popular destination for millions of people who live in Shanghai. The relationship between “Xintiandi” and “common people” is similar to that in the English novel The Moon and Sixpence. “The moon” is a metaphor for the nobility and beauty of “dreams”, while “sixpence” demonstrates the cruelty and truth of “reality”, which do not hinder your yearning for “the moon” and the pursuit of “dreams”. As far as our installation is concerned, the relationship between the “sky” and “people looking at the sky” also has this kind of “ideal and reality” relationship on a macro level. Even if only for a moment, it also reveals the right of all people to pursue “dreams”. On the micro level, this work pursues overall visual transparency and high participation. The setup of doors, holes and seats greatly enhances the participation possibility of adults and children, thus creating a free-flowing space. In addition, the circle originally has the property of “gathering”, which can enhance the sense of domain and spirituality of the place. All these measures aim to make it easier and more natural for people to “sit down and look at the sky”.

4. What enlightenment did this particular time bring to your life and work?

Internet and smart phones has changed the mechanism of social activities and made the real city more and more like an “isolated island of communication”. The isolation period caused by the epidemic has undoubtedly aggravated this situation, and the city has become more and more unfeeling and exclusive. As an architect, “gathering” and “separation” is always a topic that can’t be neglected, and this special period has strengthened our thinking on this issue. With the theme of “Get Together under Blue Sky” and the derivative meaning of “Sky Mirror”, this design work tries to guide people to “sit down and look at the sky together” through the combination of two stainless steel art installations with different functions – the “mirror” and the “chair”, which is an unusual but extremely precious behavior in today’s city. This is also an artistic response to such questions.

5. How to balance “Together” and “Social Distance” at the present stage?

Confucius said, “The superior man is affable, but not adulatory; the mean man is adulatory, but not affable.” I think “harmony” and “uniformity” are two concepts. In China’s Pre-Qin period, “harmony” was a very important concept. It mostly refers to the unity of differences and diversity, which is greatly distinct from the homogenization of “uniformity”. In terms of cooking, a good dish must mix sourness, sweetness, bitterness, spiciness and salt to achieve a perfect combination of five tastes and a moderate proportion of saltiness and acidity. As far as music is concerned, it is necessary to coordinate Do, Re, Mi, So, La, so as to achieve a beautiful and harmonious musical state, and compose a fine and wonderful piece of music. Therefore, I think “distance and difference” is the premise of “harmony”, and “harmony” becomes more diverse and unified because of “distance and difference”. Just like our work, the process of “looking at the sky” will not be complicated by the participation of “all walks of life”. Similarly, through the “Sky Mirror”, we can “harmonize” “different” individuals with the simple behavior of “looking at the sky”, which is also my understanding of and response to “harmony” and “separation”.

6. Why do you think that the Design Festival cannot be replaced?

Personally, I think it should be clear that the two concepts of “art” and “design” are not equal, but they can have an interactive relationship. “Art” is the social ideology in the superstructure, which mostly refers to the expression of ideology. “Design” refers more to the form produced by some mechanism or method to solve a particular problem. However, both of them have the same functional attribute - they are attaching to the social and historical development, and focusing on and trying to solve the social and historical development problems in a particular period. The relationship between them is not one of deciding and being decided, but one of mutual influence. In my opinion, the “Design Festival” is more like the carnival of designers who uphold the concept of “designing with artistic thinking”. In this dimension, the “art” and “design” has a harmonious relationship, and we all use different “artistic concepts” and different “design mechanisms” to inspire and solve different social problems. I think that’s the most interesting thing! Just like this work, we use the “ Sky Mirror” to inspire the increasingly indifferent city of “all walks of life”, which is our understanding of and response to the current social situation.