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Idea by

Yuchen Mei

http://www.presidentsmedals.com/Entry-39951

1 Watson Street, Manchester, United Kingdom
Yuchen is a young architect and currently working at Stephenson Studio in the UK, extremely passionate about design, models and photography. She born in China and gained bachelor degree in the University of Liverpool this summer. She is interested in how modern technical structural systems and traditional materials come together and create spaces with different kinds of atmospheres. Her final year housing project got the nomination of RIBA President’s Bronze Medal in 2016.

Call for ideas 2017

Mister Miyazaki’s Forest Homes


Mister Miyazaki’s Forest Homes


A living forest community within the suburban context of Liverpool replaces the isolating terrace housing scheme and encourages human interaction.
File under

Hayao Miyazaki’s cartoon My Neighbor Totoro creates a strangely believable universe of supernatural creatures coexisting with modernity. Two girls live with the keeper of the forest, a friendly pet named Totoro - which was the inspiration for the forest homes.

In my imagination, Totoro visits the site and removes the walls between the homes, and in turn creates a space with a stronger social engagement. Totoro emphasises the fundamental role of architecture as a tool for social scenarios, replacing a strongly divisive existing terrace housing scheme into an 'edgeless' forest so as to encourage human interaction. In the project I tried to critically investigate the architectural structure, which is not only understood in its ‘utilitarian’ form, but also encompasses a wider tension of how the human body interacts with the spaces through repetition. Alongside, plants grow between the gaps of the cluster beams, creating a quiet atmosphere.


Following World War Two, returning soldiers compounded with rising working class expectations caused the housing shortage in Britain. A utilitarian solution via the rapid procurement of highly dense terraced housing was ideal. Nowadays these homes are sub-standard, and the signs of a struggling community are prevalent.

Miyazaki is a great engineer of dreams. He said, “the ‘animated’ life is somewhere in my head, I am thinking we should have made it more accessible.” I proposed that the ‘animated’ life is some where in Mayazaki’s films and in my head, and it could be built in reality.

Prefabricated units and modular living spaces.

I tried to critically investigate the architectural structure, which is not only understood in its ‘utilitarian’ form, but also encompasses a wider tension of how the human body interacts with the spaces through repetition. Therefore, timber framed structures and trees highlight the feeling of a ‘forest’, where people inhabit the floating prefabricated units within the ‘trees’.

Alongside, plants grow between the gaps of the cluster beams, creating a quiet atmosphere in which people are surrounded and connected through the greenery, making Totoro’s metaphor a possible reality.

Mister Miyazaki’s Forest Homes


Mister Miyazaki’s Forest Homes


A living forest community within the suburban context of Liverpool replaces the isolating terrace housing scheme and encourages human interaction.
File under

Hayao Miyazaki’s cartoon My Neighbor Totoro creates a strangely believable universe of supernatural creatures coexisting with modernity. Two girls live with the keeper of the forest, a friendly pet named Totoro - which was the inspiration for the forest homes.

In my imagination, Totoro visits the site and removes the walls between the homes, and in turn creates a space with a stronger social engagement. Totoro emphasises the fundamental role of architecture as a tool for social scenarios, replacing a strongly divisive existing terrace housing scheme into an 'edgeless' forest so as to encourage human interaction. In the project I tried to critically investigate the architectural structure, which is not only understood in its ‘utilitarian’ form, but also encompasses a wider tension of how the human body interacts with the spaces through repetition. Alongside, plants grow between the gaps of the cluster beams, creating a quiet atmosphere.


Following World War Two, returning soldiers compounded with rising working class expectations caused the housing shortage in Britain. A utilitarian solution via the rapid procurement of highly dense terraced housing was ideal. Nowadays these homes are sub-standard, and the signs of a struggling community are prevalent.

Miyazaki is a great engineer of dreams. He said, “the ‘animated’ life is somewhere in my head, I am thinking we should have made it more accessible.” I proposed that the ‘animated’ life is some where in Mayazaki’s films and in my head, and it could be built in reality.

Prefabricated units and modular living spaces.

I tried to critically investigate the architectural structure, which is not only understood in its ‘utilitarian’ form, but also encompasses a wider tension of how the human body interacts with the spaces through repetition. Therefore, timber framed structures and trees highlight the feeling of a ‘forest’, where people inhabit the floating prefabricated units within the ‘trees’.

Alongside, plants grow between the gaps of the cluster beams, creating a quiet atmosphere in which people are surrounded and connected through the greenery, making Totoro’s metaphor a possible reality.


Idea by

Yuchen Mei
1 Watson Street
Manchester
United Kingdom
Yuchen is a young architect and currently working at Stephenson Studio in the UK, extremely passionate about design, models and photography. She born in China and gained bachelor degree in the University of Liverpool this summer. She is interested in how modern technical structural systems and traditional materials come together and create spaces with different kinds of atmospheres. Her final year housing project got the nomination of RIBA President’s Bronze Medal in 2016.