In this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan, a former factory was turned into a daring, colorful and innovative exhibition of a socially relevant search for personal space in the overpopulated urban areas. MINI Living in collaboration with London based Studiomama had created the Built By All project featuring four characteristic and compact living spaces based on a modular system, which allows the different premises to be tailored towards different lifestyles, turning uninhabited larger spaces like abundant malls, former factories, and other unused urban structures into trendy personal homes.
The flexibility and creative ingenuity of this system very colorfully proves our research on the global tendencies for modern living trends – 50 Small Studio Apartment Design Ideas. As we have stated before – the limited living space in urban areas, the accommodation of untypical premises for residential needs, only provokes the creative minds of renowned international designers to create an innovative, ingenious and memorable solution for small living premises.
Aiming to showcase how, thanks to this dynamic and creative modular system, even the most unadaptable premise can flexibly suit its owner’s personal needs and taste the team by MINI Living and Studiomama had composed original and contemporary structural solution to the restrained living conditions in an urban setting. Based on the belief that the quality of living space is determined by how well the residents identify with their home the designers offer the possibility to the owners to become active creators of their own home configuration.
Introducing reconfigurable integrated furniture units called “totems”- this type of setup could be created inside large unused buildings, to help alleviate the housing crisis affecting many of the world’s cities. Using specific color combinations – a signature approach of the designers the exhibition offers four colorful units, enclosed by transparent glass shells and equipped with layers of fabric curtains, which can be opened or closed to create different levels of transparency and privacy, offering dynamic compositions suitable for different lifestyles.
Telling different personal stories the undulated smooth curves, elegant metal structures, and design pieces compose colorful ambiance in a lemon yellow unit, simple shelves system hosts decorative objects and an assortment of plants, – a space designed to suit a botanical illustrator. The pink unit accommodates a studio for a tailor, including ample storage for textiles and a functional workstation. The blue unit is designed for a music lover, so it features a sound-proof recording room and shelves that are perfectly sized to hold records. And the final unit, which is green, is adapted to accommodate a pottery collector. A communal dining and kitchen area in mint green features undulated Kitchen Island bar and a possibility for large company gatherings.
