U Design Week 2023 has come to an end, unlike previous years, VAVE not only took charge of the main venue design for the Design Week but also set up their own booth within it.

The content exhibited is derived from the project "Archigram 3.0: Immigration Guide Without Luggage." If we have previously explored the possibilities of digital nomadism in a fictional future, this time our concepts have grown to form a complete ecosystem of inhabitants in the physical world.

Our project started with a concept: in an increasingly unstable era, how can we reshape the boundaries between individuals and the world constantly, with emotions and memories as the starting point? In the residential sector, the uncertainty of work and life will lead more and more people to adopt a nomadic lifestyle. How can they maintain a sense of "home" while actively integrating into new environments?

The growth process of crystals in nature has inspired us. It involves regular self-replication while also generating different forms through external influences. If we perceive living units as crystal structures, would it be possible in the future to simply add corresponding "crystal solutes," allowing people's homes to regrow in any corner of the world? Depending on the local environment and the number of residents, these homes could form diverse "settlements" with different forms and functions.

As you can see in the exhibition, we tried to reproduce this process using 3D printing technology. Based on a core cell, we can add materials to print the corresponding modules of a living space, completing the architectural structure required for a nomadic lifestyle.

As for those meaningful objects filled with stories in the home, they will also be uploaded to a digital backpack in the cloud and printed out as carriers of memories. This allows people to truly travel without luggage but still live within their own homes.

At the venue, we also printed out familiar and significant props from works such as the rose of "The Little Prince" and the watch of “Interstellar.” When these virtual narratives enter reality, people gain a better understanding of how digital assets can be transformed into genuine emotional attachments.

We did not stop at the concept of crystal-like printing but expanded it into a lifestyle, a nomadic process, and a procedure of growth, demise, and migration.

We have detailed planning for each step in this process:
First, the user will register their digital assets and upload relevant data to the cloud. After that, they can choose their destination and customize a new living space. Then, the entire home will be 3D-printed like a crystal.

When users have new social needs, new shared modules will be printed out and integrated into the existing public space, creating an ever-changing crystalline settlement.

When a resident departs, their living space will be reclaimed, and the corresponding printing materials will be stored for future space growth. This creates a cycle of crystalline nomadism, where the materials are reused to continue the process of spatial evolution. Our experiment continues.

So far, it may seem like we have completed a successful thought experiment. However, our goal has never been to merely create an astonishing future concept; instead, it has been to provide a practical ecological model for reality. As we mentioned earlier, the question is whether there is a feasible reality in which the crystalline materials can be recycled and put into practical use.

To achieve this, we have collected leftover materials from various booths during the construction period. Our intention is to use the existing construction system as a foundation and engage with the audience in discussing the necessity and feasibility of incorporating recycled materials into it.

Beyond professionalism, how to make ideas reach the audience, so that abstract concepts can be transformed into intuitive feelings, is also what VAVE, as an experiential design company, has been focusing on. That's why, in addition to the complex and academic approach, we introduced an experiential installation.

This installation presents the regularity, variability, and diversity of crystalline growth concepts in a visual landscape, aiming to convey this ecological concept to the audience in a multidimensional way.

From a concept to a project, and then to an exhibition, our imagination about nomadic life has crystallized, slowly forming its own "ecology" and “structure."

Now that U Design Week has ended and our exhibition has been completely withdrawn, it seems that this project has come to its end. But the truth is quite the opposite. Through much exposure and many collaborations, it has generated many "shared spaces" in the realm of ideas, with more and more "nomads" participating, allowing this project to grow its own “settlement."

What grows will shape the future, what has dissolved belongs to the past, and we continue to migrate in one "moment" after another.

创意设计 Creative Design
VAVE Studio

策划 Principle
张峻榕，邵敏梓
空间设计 Spatial Design
张峻榕
平面设计 Graphic Design
杜桂芳
编辑 Editor
吴边
摄影 Photograph
VAVE Studio
公共关系 Public Relations
杨始朝

搭建 Construction
库帕（上海）设计咨询有限责任公司

合作伙伴 Partners & Sponsors
InsPUMP 直觉泵
NANOxARCH® 材料乘以设计
《LOHOS 乐活》

特别感谢 Special Acknowledgement
《IDEAT 理想家》

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