38

DESIGN STATEMENT

Resilience by Design:

Space Game between Hungry Artists and Dying Residential Communities

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, people's lives have been physically restricted: gated community management, alienated social distance, tedious home life... These passive factors constituted most people's lives during the epidemic. The shrinking of activity space does not bring a sense of security, but aggravates people's psychological autism and anxiety. Despite our abundance of online social tools, in the face of disasters, no one is willing to abandon the real and close social environment. The psychological bounce has been reflected in some social news: residents play musical instruments on balconies to hold song parties across the sky, and teenagers gain long-distance love through remote drones. There is always a natural desire for good, and a real and intimate social environment is something we are committed to maintaining.

The project is located in the historic residential community of Beijing. Like lots of communities in the world, it had experienced strict closure measures. It even fell into a dead silence due to its aging population and mixed residents' background. As architects, we want to reshape the original crisis-ridden social relationships in the community in a positive and healthy state by strengthening the construction of the public environment. Taking this as an example, we will explore how the social space will continue to develop under this new normal situation post COVID-19 Pandemic, hoping to gain enlightenment from it.

This will be a long process to rebuild interpersonal behavioral connections through artistic life. Perhaps this approach will encounter various difficulties and doubts, but when the epidemic enters a period of repeated and lasting normalization, nothing is more significant than strengthening psychological support. We believe that art always has the power to comfort people's hearts, no matter what the world becomes. We also support the idea that everyone is an artist if you want to.