[Re]petitive

2020
Research Book
Jiafei Huang

2 3
 [Re]petitive

Abstract Table of Contents

Introduction 08

Phase_01 interior thinking

Inhabiting urban living space

through
[Re]petitive is a process-led project investigating repeated activities and actions in our daily life.
+ assemblage 12
By acknowledging these moments in living, the project questions what is new in the process
+ perception 14
of repeating, and through the process of repeating, what is the traces of actions emerge when + time 16
encountering space. + time +movement 20
+ time +perception 22

The central research question is: How can techniques of repetition in daily activities and
Phase_02 connection with space 26
actions open up interior experiences with time?
opens up connection with space
[Re]petitive focuses on urban living as a background to investigate the daily activities and through

actions. The project started with questioning how the dweller inhabits their home through design +repetitive actions 28
explorations that responded to the situation, time, movement and perception in relation to +memory 36
+repetitive moments 38
body and space. Photographs, mappings, drawings and videos were produced using repetitive
techniques aiming to bring consciousness to daily activities and to investigate the act of doing
as process, asking what is the new that opens up each time and what kind of experiences were Phase_03 ‘the ageing house’

recorded. ‘fix in time’ 48

- the clay 50
[Re]petitive looks at the traces in lived spaces, exploring them through assemblage, marks and
- the plaster 52
residues in order to embrace the process of materials ageing as a result of the passage of time, - the sand 54
and as evidence of a dweller’s connection with space. - the foam 56

‘built in change’ 60
The last phase of [Re]petitive uses speculative design situations [the ageing house] for testing
- the curtain 62
the built in change and to speculate on material changes occurring through daily repeated
- the balcony 64
actions and activities. - the chipped off paint 66
- the chopping board 70

The final project is focused around designing a house for dwellers to leave marks and prints that Conclusion 76
document a space being lived.
4 Appendix 78 5
 [Re]petitive

Research Question

How can techniques of repetition in daily activities and actions open

up interior experiences with time?

6 7
 [Re]petitive

Introduction

This body of research strives to find a better connection to the space we inhabit daily, the
domestic space.

This body of research investigate interior as relational condition of

interior and time;

mind and body, body and object, object and space;
interior and exterior;
space and movement;

activities and actions;

moment and the everyday.

The time condition with interior experiences are explored through using repetition as techniques
to investigate time in stillness, time in temporariness, time in duration, time in the past and
time in the future. With a focus of time in duration as traces of repetitive actions emerging from
encountering space.

Repetition may be seen as the generalizing, copying of the same, but in this body of research,
repetition is the collection of the similar. Through identifying the repeated similar activities and
actions in the everyday, this body of research uses repetition as techniques to bring them into
a set of collection, to investigate what is produced from repeat, and also enabling reinforcing
their differences by placing them together. Hence this research book is titled as [Re]petitive, the
use of adverbial reinforced repetition is from the repetitive process with actions, rather than the
outcome. The bracket [Re] highlights the re-doing actions in the repetitive process.

8 9
 Phase_01 interior thinking

Inhabiting urban living space

through

+ assemblage
+ perception
+ time
+ time +movement
+ time +perception
mind

body

object

|
Space, interior and time are the key words in this chapter.
space
This chapter starts with an interest in the Lefebvre’s theorize of space as a hierarchy of continuous
social dynamic between 3 different forces. The ‘conceived space’, the ‘lived space’ and the
_______________________________________________
‘perceived space’. This chapter is focusing on the “‘perceived space’: the way in which dwellers
time
actually use space.”* The ‘perceived space’ is investigated by how I inhabit space through * Notes:
assemblage, perception, time and movement. Vermeulen, Timotheus.
Space is the Place

The dynamic, complex and abstract characteristic of inhabiting space is explored though a
thread of relationships between mind and body, body and object, object and space.

A series of explorations have been taken to investigate the daily activities in relation to domestic
space. These explorations open up the boundaries of interior as relational condition rather than
spatial condition within a build form. This chapter also investigate interior experiences with time,
to open up interior relation with time rather than as a fixed form.

This chapter uses repetition as a technique to test out what does repetition do to our daily
activities, and how it can be used as a tool and strategy for the rest of the research.

10 11
 Phase_01 interior thinking | ‘Home is City’

Inhabiting urban living space

through assemblage

work
sleep
‘Home is City’ is the starting point of [Re]petitive as it is responding to the Melbourne lockdown
to stop the spread of Covid-19, and my home quarantine started from 15th March 2020. Through
photographs of documenting my daily activities within my apartment, how my perception and
experiences have changed after all activities are kept in a domestic space? How each types of
activity: work, sleep, eat, leisure are adapted to a restricted home environment rather than in
the city?

Activities that needed physical gathering are adapted to home environment through virtual
connection, and goods can be purchased from online platform and delivered to door, or re-grow
vegetables from the kitchen.

The idea of ‘Home is City’ is citing from The Arcade Project,

“so that the arcade is a city, a world in miniature, in which customers will
find everything they need.” *Notes:
Benjamin, Walter.
The Arcades Project

This is an idea of inhabiting at home not through the spatial condition but inhabiting through
objects and goods. It doesn’t matter if I am restricted in my apartment or if I am out in the city, leisure eat
it is a matter of exchanging goods and services.

12 13
 Phase_01 interior thinking | ‘Interior | Exterior’

Inhabiting urban living space

through perception

‘Interior | Exterior’ is a design responding to the perception of interior and exterior. What is interior?
What is exterior? How are they related to each other?

‘Interior | Exterior’ challenges the boundary of interior and presents its dynamic relation with the
exterior. The ideas of inside-out and outside-in are explored through using repetition as a technique.

Inside-out
Through repeated videos from projection, screen, reflection and the existing views framed by
windows, the scenery of Yarra River linked as a whole from my perception of view. With the use of
technology, is it more appropriate to say I am now in the exterior because I am in the middle of all the
view from the exterior? Or am I always in the exterior, but there are windows and walls next to me.

*Notes:
Deleuze, Gilles,
“the interior is only a selected exterior, the exterior- a projected interior”
Spinoza: Practical
Philosophy.

Outside-in
The process of framing the exterior view through window, filming and projecting on walls and
screen, reflection on glossy material, and that fact that I have chosen this particular moment is
the process of interiorization. They all appear to me as tangible assemblage that I can control
with. ‘aren’t they all light to me?’

“spatial inversion.........the flâneur promenades in his room; the world only appears to him *Notes:
Fuss, Diana. The Sense
reflected by pure inwardness ” of an Interior. Four
Writers and the Rooms
that Shaped Them.
The techniques of repetition in ‘Interior | Exterior’ linked all views together as a whole, but also
encourages ones relation with the other, and with the rest. link to video on my website

14 15
 work | sleep | eat | leisure

Phase_01 interior thinking | ‘the passage of Time’

Inhabiting urban living space

through time

Time mapping of
‘the passage of Time’ is 33 days of time mapping using Chronodex template to document my 19th March 2020
quarantine time at home starting from 19th March 2020. This exploration looks at the idea of work | sleep | get ready | leisure | transfortation
“focusing the passage of time” as a daily rituals activity.

“Rituals takes thoughts that are known but unattended and renders them active and vivid once *Notes:
de Botton, Alain. The
more in our distracted minds.”
School of Life : An
Emotional Education

How has acknowledging time in daily activities heighten moments in the everyday?

Each time when documenting the activity and duration of time, it encourages reflection of ‘what
I have done in that particular period of time?’. Therefore, bring in consciousness in focusing the
passage of time. Through the act of extracting a particular moment from the everyday, it became
a formalization of the transient, an extraction that place apart from the unconsciousness of A speculative time
everyday. * mapping of
*Notes:
a ‘normal’ go
Lefebvre, Henri.
The graphic way of visually presenting the duration of time gather repetition into a unity, while “The Theory of to university day
Moments” in Critique
still able to extract each particular moment apart from the rest. This presents the relation of how of Everyday Life. before quarantine.
series of repetitive activities and duration of time is different from one action and moment.

Repetition allows a collection of the similar into a unity, but also reinforced it is form by the
different individuals.

“To repeat is to behave in a certain manner, but in relation to something unique or singular which *Notes:
Deleuze, Gilles. *What is Chronodex?
has no equal or equivalent.” Difference and
link to reference
Repetition.
Chronodex is a graphic way of

tracking where your time goes. It link to video on my

was invented by Patrick Ng, and it website
has many variations.
16 17
 Phase_01 interior thinking | ‘the passage of Time’

18 19
33 days of time mapping
 Phase_01 interior thinking | ‘Home Routes’

Inhabiting urban living space

through time and movement

TIME MAPPINGS
19 THU 20 FRI 21 SAT

ROUTE MAPPINGS

22 SUN 23 MON 24 TUE

‘Home Routes’ is 7 days of movement and duration mapping in relation to my daily activities
within my apartment.

This series of movement mapping is responding to the relationship between mind and body,
body and object from Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy on body in relation to space. He explains the
‘unconscious human behaviour’, such as body movements in space are continuous conscious
body movement with intension, that’s how our mind is using body to connect with the world.

25 WED
*Notes:
“I have bodily habits through which my whole relationship with the world is played out.” Morris, David. ‘Body’
in “Merleau-Ponty Key
Concepts.”
The daily activities within home might seem unconscious, but each movement and duration of
stay within space present continues conscious of how I am inhabiting space through my body
interaction with objects.

Repetition as a technique reinforced my 7 days of activities into a series of duration, so being

able to graphically document the intangible quality of time.
20 21
 Phase_01 interior thinking | ‘Water Marks’

Inhabiting urban living space

through time and perception

‘Water Marks’ documents the temporal water surface movement through a subjective lens of
perception, drawings.

The interest of documenting water surfaces came from my previous drawing on site, Maribyrong
River. When light hits the water surface, it sparkles from the continuous movement of the current.
I am began interested in how I can document this temporal quality of the constant changing
marks, but also of how all of these transients come together, into a duration of movement.

This series of drawings document 15 times of water marks makings present my perception
of water surface from my bedroom window at different times of different days. Each drawing What I hope for from it, in effect, is nothing other than the
*Notes:
is a duplicate of a moment, a particular moment when I am looking at the water surface and Perec, Georges, and record of a threefold experience of ageing: of the places
Sturrock, John. Species
documenting through marks making. of Spaces and Other
themselves, of my memories, and of my writing.
Pieces : Georges Places(Notes on a Work in Progress)//1974 - Georges Perec
Perec.
When 15 drawings come together, using repetition as a technique allows collective of moments
into a longer duration.
22 23
 Phase_01 interior thinking

Conclusion for Phase_01 interior thinking

+ forward to Phase_02 connection with space

Phase_01 of [Re]petitive builds the knowledge in interior thinking and testing repetition as
techniques and strategies for the rest of the research.

Phase_01 of [Re]petitive investigates interior experiences in inhabiting urban living space through
a series of exploration in assemblage, perception, time and movement.

Repetition is used as an interiorization technique to build relationships between my body and

mind to the space I inhabit.

Repetition of assemblage is the trace of how I inhabit space through everyday usage of objects.

Repetition in perception is the duplicate of interior experiences of me observing and documenting

water surface marks.

Repetition in time is the duplicate of moments of my consciousness of focusing on the passage

of time.

Repetition in movement is body inhabitation in space of my continuous intension to use my body

to connect with space.

Using repetition as a technique allows similarity into unity but also reinforced it is formed by the
different individuals.
Repetition links parts as a whole but encourages one’s relation with the other, and with the rest.
Repetition also allows duration to present the intangible quality of time.

In phase_01 [Re]petitive investigates from documentation of repeated activities, phase_02 is

moving into how can actions and moments open up new interior experiences?

24 25
 action action action action

Phase_02 connection with space

action action action action

opens up connection with space through

+repetitive actions
action action action action
+memory
+repetitive moments action action action action

_______________________________________________
moment moment moment moment

Repetition of actions turns into an activity.

Repetition of moments turns into the everyday.

Therefore, in phase_02 of [Re]petitive investigates how can repeated actions and moments open
up new interior experiences?

26 27
 Phase_02 connection with space | ‘Chopping’

connection with space

through repetitive actions

Chopping on timber bookshelf with ruler

‘chopping’

‘Chopping’ is situating the daily actions of chopping carrots from the kitchen into new contexts,
only repeating the chopping actions in the bedroom, and chopping oil pastel on paper. To test
out what is new in the process of repeating, and through the process of repeating, what is the
trace of actions emerges from encountering space. Chopping on foam pillow with ruler

When chopping carrots in the kitchen, the actions of chopping is focusing on the outcome from
chopping, chopping a carrot into smaller pieces.

However, when only doing the chopping actions in the bedroom, each repetitive action opens up
a constant reflection of how my tool is interacting with materials, and how my action can improve
from the previous move. Situating daily actions into a new context turns habits into new sets of
relations with consciousness in how my body is relating to the environment.

Chopping oil pastel on paper documents the trace of actions from my tool’s interaction with
paper. It visualized my body connection with space through objects and presents the duration of
my actions into a set of collections.

Chopping on notebook with ruler

“Repetition can always be ‘represented’ as extreme resemblance or perfect equivalence, but *Notes:
Deleuze, Gilles.
the fact that one can pass by degrees from one thing to another does not prevent their being Difference and
different in kind.” Repetition.

link to video on my website

28 29
Mark-making
30 of chopping oil pastel on paper 31
 Phase_02 connection with space | ‘Pressing’

connection with space

through repetitive actions

‘pressing’ castings of forehead and both hands pressing on clay

Pressing is when applying forces or weight to something. Pressing is usually associates with
pausing or applying pressure to turn on and off a button.
‘Pressing’ is inspired by nendo: forms of movement by Sato Oki (image ref.01), with a focus on
the relationship between body and object. This exhibition questions how object may convey a
feeling of movement in daily actions.

“Objects can physically move in reaction to our motion, or can encourage us to move in reaction *Notes:
to them. For example, a chair can be interpreted as an object that urges us to sit.” Oki Sato ,nendo: forms
of movement.

‘Pressing’ placed castings from my head and both hands pressing on clay on window. These
apparatuses allow my body to lean on them and fixed to a position of looking from a certain
viewpoint.
Through the action of my forehead and hands pressing against the window, my body begins to
interact with the exterior view from my bedroom.
By repeating this everyday, I begin to make personal connections with the exterior view, seeing
clay castings on window
the growth of a particular plant, or the constantly changing view on the far right that I don’t
normally pay too much attention on.

These clay apparatuses on windows are prompts that urge me to lean on, and therefore building
32 connections with the space around me. link to video on my website 33
Mark-making
34 of pressing oil pastel on paper
35
 Phase_02 connection with space | ‘the Bedroom’

there are:

bed
bed sheets
blanket
pillows
plush toy
comics
lip balm

connection with space lamp

side table
through memory books
more plush toy
ac controller
receipt

wardrobe
clothing
my painting
tools - brushes, paint
bags - handbags, tote bags

curtains
shelf
magazines
‘the Bedroom’ is inspired from reading “The Bedroom” in Species of Spaces and other Pieces by books
Georges Perec of how he describes space through writing. *Notes: souvenirs
Perec, Georges, and
Sturrock, John. Species
perfumes
In ‘the Bedroom’, I am recalling my bedroom in my hometown from memory, is the bedroom a of Spaces and Other more displays
Pieces : Georges
space or become an assemblage of objects? Perec. skincare products
soap
In my bedroom (space) in memory,
papers
I recalled them in the order of:
notebooks
cash from different countries
bed ID card
passport
what is inside left bed side table metro cards
right bed side table what is inside coupon cards
more cards
charger
to the left to the right

stuck, begin to look around what’s in my bedroom now...look around and observe.... then
recall what else in my bedroom in memory
a window a wardrobe

candles
diffuser
a desk next to the wardrobe
earphones
pens- fountain pen, felt pen, ball pen, highlighter......
palette
sponge
in between paper cups
there is a bookshelf accessories

36 37
 Phase_02 connection with space | ‘Sensing the White’

connection with space

through repetitive moments

‘Sensing the white’ is responding to how objects’ relation with time through daily usage from 3
series of photographs, Objects in temporariness, Objects in stillness and Objects from the past.

These photographs of collective moments are traces of my everyday connections with space
through the use of objects.

Objects in temporariness

The first series of photographs are moments of how light activate different materials within my
apartment. Sunlight is a temporal object that is constantly changing, and light became tangible
when encountering different surfaces. The amount of light hitting material surfaces are never the

38 same.
39
 Phase_02 connection with space | ‘Sensing the White’

Objects in stillness

The second series of photographs are assemblage of objects from my daily activities.
A stone on a plate,
a bowl on a mat,
a box under sofa,
slippers on the floor,
a collection of paper and crafts materials,
a pack of cotton buds with the lid opens… .

These are tracing of personal usage of objects with intension, and with purposes. These objects
40 remain in stillness until new actions are made. 41
 Phase_02 connection with space | ‘Sensing the White’

Objects in the past

The third series of photographs are the marks and residues from objects being used, what I call
the process of ageing.

In this series of photographs, the evidence of objects ageing from repeated human interactions
are shown, such as:
oil on kitchen towel or stiches that are pull out from the fabric;
dirt and marks on paper box from scratches;
tissues being crumpled
more wrinkles of pillowcase when the fabric is adjusting to the forces from my head;
leftovers on the plate from breakfast;
nail scratches on leather notebook case,
tilted paper edge from peeling off a sticky note;
and dusts that are accumulated over a period of time when other parts are clean.

All these evidences in objects preserve the history in the past, of my usage overtime. And the

42 process of ageing, is the process of my repetitive interaction with these objects.

43
 Conclusion for Phase_02 connection with space
+ forward to Phase_03 ‘the ageing house’

In Phase_02 connection with space opens up thinking in what is new in the process of repeating,
and through the process of repeating, what are the traces emerges from encountering space.

In Phase_02 identifies that repetition is never the same, each repeated action is with constant
reflection in the re-doing process. Evidences of the repeated actions from encountering space
gather into a collection of tracing that preserve the interior experiences.

In Phase_02 also investigates designing prompts to urges repeated actions and activities, to
build connection with space over time.

In Phase_02 identifies objects in relation to space, and objects in time, objects in temporariness;
objects in stillness and objects in the past. Objects in time open up thinking in designing interior
experiences with time, to seek for design outcome that put consideration in its whole lifespan.
Using repetition as techniques allows duration in designing prompts for the future, in order to
bring new set of relations between human interactions and space.

Therefore the term ageing is introduced as the process of objects and materials ageing from
repeated human interactions with space. This brought to Phase_03 of [Re]petitive, ‘the ageing
house’, design in speculating ageing that occurs in the future. Through specifying repeated
daily activities and actions, how objects and materials respond and embrace to the process of
ageing?

44 45
 Phase_03 ‘the ageing house’

‘fix in time’

- the clay
- the plaster
- the sand
- the foam

‘built in change’

- the curtain
- the balcony
- the chipped off paint
- the chopping board
Mark-making of chopping oil pastel on paper

In [RE]petitive , Ageing refers to the outcomes occurred from repeated human interaction with
space. The process of objects and materials ageing is the process of repetitive human interaction
with objects and material surfaces over time. The evidence of ageing preserves history in the
past, of personal/multiple interior experiences within space.

‘the ageing house’ is designed to be in a domestic space that we inhabit daily, which have a
more similar and regular pattern of personal activities and actions in comparison to public space.

In phase_03, I used ‘the ageing house’ as a testing site to record the traces of spaces being Illustration of moving a dinning chair and the track of legs scratching the floor

lived through assemblage, marks and residues with the aim to embrace the process of materials
ageing.

46 47
 Phase_03 ‘the ageing house’ | ‘fix in time’

‘fix in time’

- the clay
- the plaster
- the sand
- the foam

‘fix in time’ is a series of physical model makings in testing repetitive actions on 4 different
materials, clay, plaster, sand and foam. from top to bottom: ‘the foam’, ‘the sand’, ‘the clay’, ‘the plaster’.

48 49
 Phase_03 ‘the ageing house’ | ‘fix in time’

- the clay

pressing and adding

1:1 devices on the wall

‘the clay’ is inspired by Bioscleave House by Arakawa and Gins (image ref.02) and my previous *Notes:
Arakawa, Shusaku. Gins,
‘pressing’ intervention on the window in Phase_02,. This clay unit is looking at suggestion in
Madeline. Bioscleave
pause of action and slowing down. House (Lifespan
Extending Villa).
The nature of clay being able to cast body position on the walls as the trace from usage. This unit
is testing in adding dwellers’ body casting to the space to add in specific function they need. For
example, the clay castings on windows for pause of action and looking at a certain viewpoint.

The nature of clay in this unit allows dwellers to continue adding new organic shapes in space,
but inflexible in not able to move around the built. Clay is also a fragile material which prompts
for slowing down when being interacted with. 1:100

50 51
 Phase_03 ‘the ageing house’ | ‘fix in time’

- the plaster

digging and removing

1:1 digging

‘the plaster’ is embracing the scratch marks on material (plaster) as traces of induvial altering
space. This speculative design is suggesting to open up spaces from digging until no more
structures are left (walls for example), and gradually becoming an ‘empty’ space as a result of
ageing (outcomes occur from repeated human interaction with space).

The fragility of plaster also encourages a slow-down of actions with care and caution. 1:100

52 53
 Phase_03 ‘the ageing house’ | ‘fix in time’

- the sand

pressing to build structure, chopping to remove the build

1:1 testing
‘the sand’ is portraying a temporary structure that is flexible to build and remove with the given
materials and tools, a shovel for example.

Dwellers are able to build temporal structure to meet their function needs and remove it when
they need that space for another function.

Sand allows organic in structure, and the flexibility in building. By removing and building a new
structure again gives a sense of flow to space. The flexibility and fragileness of a sand structure
only allows ageing (outcomes occur from repeated human interaction with space) in memory,
rather than physically preserving traces from accumulative of usage, like ‘the clay’ and ‘the
plaster’.
54 55
1:100
 Phase_03 ‘the ageing house’ | ‘fix in time’

- the foam

moving (object)

‘the foam’ is looking at assemblage of light weighted cubic foam as a flexible way to build
structure for functional and privacy needs. Similar to ‘the sand’, this unit also unable to preserve
ageing from the lifespan of usage.
1:100

56 57
 Phase_03 ‘the ageing house’ | ‘fix in time’

Conclusion for ‘fix in time’

+ forward to ‘built in change’

‘fix in time’ speculates ideas on how the build environment can be changed from repeated
human interactions, and the space itself document the trace of these interactions itself, which is
referring as the process of ageing.

However, these actions are more related to building the structure for function needs through
specific materials. Once the actions of pressing, digging, chopping and moving are paused, all
structures are set in stillness. They don’t allow changes in how dwellers actually interact with
space from everyday activities. Moreover, does the ageing of a domestic space have to be a
house? Or is it less about the spatial condition but more about a series of situation that may
occur from everyday living experiences? How can designs activate interior relation with space
that prompt for changes in the future though repeated activities and actions?

58 59
 Phase_03 ‘the ageing house’ | ‘built in change’

‘built in change’

- the curtain
- the balcony
- the chipped off paint
- the chopping board

‘built in change’ is a series of design responding to 4 kinds of situation in different scales, ‘the
curtain’, ‘the balcony’, ‘the chipped of paint’ and ‘the chopping board’. These 4 designs look
into different scales of body interaction in space, and testing in changes through everyday
activities and actions.

60 61
 Phase_03 ‘the ageing house’ | ‘built in change’

the curtain

opening and closing curtain

‘the curtain’ is inspired by open house by Coop Himmelb(l)au Architecture (image ref.03) of
*Notes:
giving a flow of energy to the house, that is less about the details in the space, but “the moment Coop Himmelb(l)au
architecture. Open
of light and shadow, brightness and darkness, whiteness and vaulting, the view and the air.” House.
Open house has no predetermined division of the living area. *

This bring to questioning in a private domestic space, do we need walls to divide rooms for
different functionality?

‘the curtain’ is proposing using curtains to provide flexible space for dwellers.
All existing walls are removed (except bearing walls) and replaced by curtains as temporal
partitions that allow open and close of space. The flexibility of curtains gives a sense of flow
to the space rather than fixed walls. The flexibility of curtains also allows space to respond to
dweller’s daily activities and actions.
link to images in gif format for better viewing experience

62 63
 Phase_03 ‘the ageing house’ | ‘built in change’

1 year

the balcony

watering plants everyday

5 years

10 years

link to images in gif format for better viewing experience

How can materials grow with dwellers?

‘the balcony’ is inspired from watering plants everyday and allow plants to grow with dwellers.
Designing frames for plants climb over and slowly covers the walls, as the evidence of ageing.

The material and structure of the frames is inspired from the existing steel window frame on
balcony.
64 65
 Phase_03 ‘the ageing house’ | ‘built in change’

the chipped off paint

moving a chair in and out under the dining table

100 times of nail scratches paint on the wall

50 times of moving step stool on the floor

using different colour background to reinforce the scratches

‘chipped off paint’ is inspired by Tensta Konsthall project by front design (image ref.04) of using *Notes:
2 coats of paint in different colour on flooring, to embrace the scratch marks from moving tables. Lagerkvist, Sofia.
Lindgren, Anna. Tensta
Konsthall Project

This brings to questioning how materials start to embrace the fact that it is ageing by repetitive
human interaction?

acrylic paint on wax paper

The chipped off paint is ‘ageing’ through preserving the trace of repetition interaction (the action link to video: process of 50 times of moving step stool on the floor
of moving a chair) with space itself, but also act as nudges that prompt for these actions to
66 happen. 67
 Phase_03 ‘the ageing house’ | ‘the chipped off paint’

scratches marks coloured in yellow of 100 times of nail scratches paint on the wall scratch marks coloured in yellow made from 50 times of moving step stool on the floor

speculating when using nail to remove tapes on the walls 100 times, the scratches marks above document the speculating if moving a chair in and out of dining table, 3 times a day, (breakfast, lunch, dinner),
repetitive physical engagement of body with walls. 12 marks is made in a day. The scratch marks above show 4 days of scratches on the floor.

68 69
 Phase_03 ‘the ageing house’ | ‘built in change’

the chopping board

chopping with a knife

5 years

25 years

50 years

‘the chopping board’ is inspired by the chopping mark-making in phase_02, this design is
speculating a chopping board made out of timber, through 50 years of usage, the thickness of
the chopping board decreases.

This chopping board is responding to the throw-away culture of short life span of an object, this
chopping board is proposing for life-long uses and renewing through sanding off the scratched
surface.

Mango wood is a sustainable timber source that naturally repels water, its core and visual
characteristics are similar to the popular timber teak. However mango wood dust can caused
mango wood, all dimensions in millimetre
70 skin irritation, so protection is needed while sanding of the surface. (woodassistant.com)
71
 Phase_03 ‘the ageing house’ | ‘built in change’

Conclusion for ‘built in change’

+ forward ............

‘built in change’ speculates designs in responding to 4 kinds of situation within domestic living.

These designs document their history of usage from repetitive human interaction itself, which
10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 80s
open up interior experiences with time into a duration of body and space engagement.

These designs also act as nudges that prompts for specific activities and actions that could
happen in the future, to allow space to grow with dwellers.

However, there is limitation in this body of research because it is impossible to predict specific
activities and actions that may occur in the future, so having a client and site is crucial for further
design. Moreover, technology and the virtual online world is slowly distorting our daily activities
and actions. As an example, pressing may no longer associate with pause on surface, but a
switch to turn on a digital interface with whole new experiences.

Therefore, what I hope for in this body of research is to embrace some of the ‘hands-on’,
physical interaction with space that we may lose in the future. This also brings forward to the
thought of how repetition of activities and actions may play a role in future living? the world that
may seem distorted now but ‘normal’ in the future.

72 73
 ‘the new...is produced from the very matter of the world
...[with] repetition, but with difference.’

* Simon O’Sullivan and Stephe Zepke,

Deleuze, Guattari and the Production of the New

74 75
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Conclusion

In conclusion, interior experiences with time are presented from traces of repetitive actions
emerged from encountering space. This body of research identifies interior as relational condition
that only activates when actions are made to build connection with spaces.

Using repetition as a technique bring daily activities and actions within domestic space into a set
of collection that respond to time. This opens up design thinking in duration that responsive to
its whole lifespan of usage.

This body of research builds strategies for further exploration in designing prompts for the future,
to bring new set of relations in interaction with space that allows space to grow with inhabitant.

76 77
 Bibliography

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 Thank you Nicholas Rebstadt, Philippa Murray, for your insightful guidance and encouragement.

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