BUILDING MUTUALISM
By Mutualism Group
Chenxu(Mario) Zhang / Yiran Jin / Mary Bond / Weizheng Chen / Yingqiao Xiao
天人合一 (tian-ren-he-yi) is a Daoist philosophy that emphasises the oneness of man and nature. For our project, we dreamed of reimagining contemporary architecture as a practice that centers not the comfort of humanity, but peaceful coexistence with living creatures. We looked to the swallow, which has been under threat of extinction, and use it to imagine a new conception of homes where the consideration of other beings are given equal importance in construction techniques.
Our desire to combine Chinese and Western perspectives came from the composition of our group: four Chinese students and one American. We were all migrants, like the swallow, and found that while we were brought up in very different relationships with nature, we all felt strongly it must be respected.