Wild design that grows like vines

I can start a discussion on wild design in China with a photo.

The usual seating for grandparents.

This is a “seat” made by residents in a public area of a typical residential community in Huajiadi, China. This photo is included in Luo Sen’s book Huajiadi 2014-2017.

Luo Sen is my teacher, and in 2021, he gave me this book, which became the starting point for my thinking about public space, public space design, and the identity of designers. Who has the right to design? Who has the authority to define what design is effective? What is the relationship between life experience and design norms? In every corner of China, you can certainly find these self-made items by residents and their spontaneous transformations of public spaces.

I will continue to share more photos, but we can start with this simple one of the seat. Such seats are very common—some are made from cooling mats or cotton pads brought from home, others are from discarded furniture found near garbage piles, and some are simply stacked old bricks, resembling building blocks, which can also become seats. These are designs based entirely on the daily materials used by the residents.

Coincidentally, when I returned to Zhuhai, China this January, I saw a show by my alumni and artist Bill Aitchison at The Moment Art Space titled China Quick-Fix. This exhibition featured the artist's observations of self-made designs and repairs by residents in Zhuhai, such as using bike locks as door locks or poking holes in beverage bottles and hanging them on trees to be used as pesticide dispensers. Some even turned snack tin boxes into makeshift mailboxes by cutting a small opening and hanging them next to the mailbox area with a paper note bearing their house number.

Door lock ，Captured at the exhibition "China Quick-Fix." Photographs by Yuxi.

Pesticide bottle. Captured at the exhibition "China Quick-Fix." Photographs by Yuxi.

In the exhibition talk, Bill Aitchison explained: “Quick-fix refers to a temporary solution. It is not designed for long-term use, but uses existing resources to address an immediate need. However, sometimes one quick-fix will be replaced by a new one, and over time, it gradually evolves into a way of life, which challenges the traditional view that 'permanent solutions are better than temporary fixes.' That’s why I am deeply interested in it.”

Whether it is the seats in Huajiadi or these quick-fix items from Zhuhai, they represent a form of self-running life. When we examine the designs in daily life, whether it’s a simple cup, book, pen, shoes to wear out, or a mobility tool moving from one building to another, most of the items we encounter are purchasable goods that have gone through strict design standards from creation to delivery. These are top-down designs that come layer by layer to us. But the wild designs I’ve just listed fall under Rosen's concept of “crawling growth”—designs that emerge spontaneously, like vines, and cannot be completely controlled even with regulation.

Luo Sen said：“These two forces, intertwined with each other, create a vacuum in reality… leading to a gray area where a tacit understanding or collaborative governance between community residents and administrators can occur.”

These wild designs also inspire me to reconsider the role of designers and rethink whether public space and its design process require the participation of all users. But when I think about this again, I realize there must be an answer, a set of norms that need to be followed, which still repeats the top-down design thinking logic. Perhaps the inspiration we should gain is not about unification but about accepting that there will be both standardized designs and wild designs, and accepting that in certain spaces, the boundary between designer and user becomes blurred. This leads us to accept these seemingly crude, laughable resident-made seats as life wisdom, as solutions to real-life needs, and to see them carrying the understanding and emotions people have for space, objects, design, and life.

References

1. Luo, Sen. (2017). Huajiadi 2014-2017.

2. Luo, Sen. (2024). "Huajiadi": My Field and the People Around Me. Interview. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/vWU_Yu0QE4GShB1Zg64urA.

3. Aitchison, B. (2024). China Quick-Fix. Artist's self-published book.

4. Aitchison, B. (2024). China Quick-Fix Exhibition. The Moment Art Space. Opening Reception: December 15, 2024. Exhibition dates: December 15, 2024 - January 15, 2025. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Pn87tx-EaitS2yZoSNgknw.