Kuala Lumpur Design Festival 2023
Domestic culture, as used in architecture and design, is the collection of beliefs, practices, and routine preferences that have an impact on the layout and design of domestic areas. It includes how people behave, their beliefs, customs, and needs as they relate to their dwellings. Domestic culture can evolve through time because of societal changes, and cultural influences. Common areas within the domestic spaces are often overlooked, however these spaces are also considered as an integral part of the dwelling. It connects different nodes within different perpetual areas and serves as it veins. The installation refers to this notion of multi-used domesticity. A space that can be transformed into different needs, at different times according to different narratives. It showcases how people adapt to the surroundings in the most ordinary ways, to live their lives at a specific juncture.
It also shows that these domestic spaces can also be moved to a common banal area, with minimum adjustment of the everyday objects, a 3m x 3m space could be owned, viewed and experience differently.
The showcased space is a 980 sqft Soho unit located in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. It features a double volume space, and a mezzanine floor, with two bathrooms.
The unit has been firstly used as an ad-hoc movie screening and book launching space, before turning into a secret pop-up café for 3 months and finally a home / studio office. The adjacent units consist of short stay rental units, students’ accommodation, offices, workers hostels, massage parlour, photography studio, among others, and the demographics of nationalities of people living within the elevated units also varies. The intriguing part of the space is how an ordinary double volume, single floor space could be turned into variety of elevated spatial typology without the need of any major interventions. The installation features an experiential cuboid space where users could observe the behavioural elements of a generic domestic space surrounded by curated everyday objects, sounds and a visuals.
This is the Generic Domestic.
