Voices →
For IKEA & H22 City Expo
2022
“Voices” is a collaboration with IKEA and Spacon & X. The project was a group effort of 8 designers. It envisioned a community lifestyle that encourages communication with each other and nature through voices.
The project started with 2 questions - How can we boost communication between human and nature. And how to showcase our vision during the H22 city expo.
We came to the conclusion that we need to create a playful ritual so that visitor could interact with each other, and with nature.
During our research, we realized sound is a good media to work with. People love the sound of nature and people like to talk to each other. Also, we don’t need electricity or a lot of material to play with sound.
So, we centered our design around the concept of voice instrument.
We designed a structure that embraces the sound of nature and provide a gathering space for visitors. We started with a cubic-shaped space and turned it into a sound-amplifying instrument.
Due to budget and logistic issues we weren’t able to build exactly as planned. So we decided to build 2 instead of 4 shelters and built the roofs with canvas.
To compensate for the situation. We designed a off-grid microphone system to push the idea of “ritual of voice” further.
From left to right: Zahra Ghiasi, Lucien Tirou, Jason Pi, Wu Feiyu, Arati Dhakal, Emma Witt, Ou Muhui. (David Wenner)