Capstone Proposal

Introduction

 ‘Dwelling Narrowness’ defined as humble abode, a nutshell of a house. It comes from a Chinese TV drama. Also it is a hot issue in China now.

As graduated student just start to work, most of them could not afford houses. Based on research, there are 160,000 young people in Beijing living in tiny spaces, which are smaller than 10m2. These people do not get much pay from work, as monthly average would be 4000RMB. We call this group of young people as ‘Ant tribe’. Ant tribe is a vivid metaphor of the groups of low-income college graduates who settle in a compact community. Next to farmer, rural migrant workers and laid-off workers, ant tribe is the fourth disadvantaged group in China. Around 70% of ant tribes are living under 10m2 space. Also, most of these rental spaces are separated from a big room, decorated with humble furniture. To ant tribe, these are really bad living environment and they could not even have their own private space. What’s more, as living in such ‘Dwelling Narrowness’ and living with groups of people, safety concerns are becoming another issue. In addition, sanitation, noise and security problems also need to be concerned.

Small living space, low-income groups and group of young people, these are the main focus factors within this proposal. Therefore, low-income young people would benefit from this proposal. For what they needs, problem solving is the first step providing security private living space, and then to raise living condition within small space.

Mine concepts were focused on multifunctional to save spacing in small living room.

Approach  

In personal, as an international studio studying aboard, housing and expenditure are two concerns for me. Although this is different between my situation and ant tribe’s problem, but I still have desire to help these people. The main reason is I can see good characteristics on these people. We have same age, we have same education level, but just because of money then our living conditions are complete different. I think this is unfair, ant tribe can work, can earn money, and they are smart, but they just become the forth disadvantage groups in China.

I think the method to ensure that I can deeply understand my problem topic and my user may be ‘A Day in the Life’. It means catalog the activities and contexts that users experience throughout an entire day. Because this is a useful way to reveal unanticipated issues inherent in the routines and circumstances people experience daily. Being one of the users, experience ant tribe’s life.

Reflection

I think what I did for my chosen topic were not really good as my mind map, I didn't think to much opportunities to splash my ideas and also my concepts seems like furniture design not too much relate to the solution.