Attractive and Sustainable

During our class time, we try to pick which is more important to us thinking of sustainable design, restraint or aesthetic?  This is a difficult choice. Sustainable design must consider the long-term value. People always prefer to use things that look better, even if they are not the best one to use. Just like women wearing high heels not because of the shoes are more comfortable, but because of their designs are more elegant. The attractive product will encourage us to continue using it. If we like the product, we will not waste it or abandon it. And if an object is more apt to use, it’s more likely to continue being used.  If people don’t like something, it will not last long, no matter how practical it is. Then the attractive product is more functional than the product that is easier to use but not been used at all. It is the same in the architecture industry. An aesthetic design will let people happy and enjoy it.

The Zhuhai Huafa Contemporary Art Museum is considered the local residential house “Huo er House” as an inspiration for the form but with a lot of different.

There are some design competitions nowadays taking sustainable or ecological as a consideration. A lot of those project are superstructures that will not be built. I see the tree canopies in Huafa museum as a project that takes an action from those drawings in computers to the real buildable things. That’s a big step, even though it is not perfect functional in some part. I will not judge the design before it completed since I don’t know how it really works.