DEYI LIVING
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
DEYI LIVING SPACE is a multidisciplinary place that proposes regenerative design experiences that weave a journey through the Chinese ethnic and humanist tradition, with the aim of co-creating a new dimension of being in spaces, objects and people, in a continuous search of fullness and well-being after observing Nature. We work hand in hand with indigenous communities in China to ensure the preservation of their textile heritage through contemporary design.
Geographical Scope
Project Region
Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
EU Programme or fund
Which funds
Description of the project
Summary
Multidisciplinary space that presents Chinese culture from various perspectives, with the aim of
apply in our current society and lifestyle, his theories closer to nature. Crafts and traditions play a fundamental role in the configuration of services and products offered in our space. We seek to generate well-being and a sense of belonging through tradition, thought and crafts.
The proposed services and products are designed around the concept of "travel". A trip to the heart of China
through three clearly differentiated stages. Each perspective seeks to work on an area of people's lives, including the mental, the spiritual or the material.
The three stages are:
THINK CHINA: A program of courses and activities that generate a place for reflection and meeting in which different profiles share experiences of personal growth together. We work experiences of meditation, Chinese thought and culture that enrich the daily life of the people who live in our neighborhood, and in Madrid in general. Through our experiences we are creating a community of individuals who share the same values for the care of nature, the acquisition of slower rhythms of life as well as the conservation of crafts and culture.
FEEL CHINA: At this stage, the objective is to experience Chinese craftsmanship and know-how through its products, textile raw materials, ceramics, incense and teas. In addition, as a design studio, we co-create products for our clients, made by order.
LIVE CHINA: Interior design is key in the configuration of a harmonious and full life, therefore, spaces are also created and designed to dwell in a harmonious way.
Everything we do in this project seeks to preserve the textile heritage of the Dong ethnic group in China, while generating in the heart of Madrid a space of people united in values that seek to share different collective learning in the same place.
Key objectives for sustainability
We understand sustainability as the combination of responsible production methods and materials, responsible consumption and, above all, the generation of well-being at all stages of the process for the people who participate in our project, whether they are clients or producers. We believe that sustainability is created from the generation of a community that shares values and that is what we do.
We work from a methodology that puts people's true needs first instead of creating new ones. We work from the following needs to ensure that we meet our sustainability goals:
Subsistence need: We promote care and respect for the environment in order to have healthy spaces in which to live. Our products induce, on the one hand, the reduction of material consumption, to the benefit of the immaterial consumption of knowledge and experiences, at the same time that what we produce is made in compliance with a series of eco-design strategies that guarantee us to obtain respectful and responsible products from various prisms.
Affection need:The entire project establishes ties between producers, designers, artisans, tea masters and all those collaborators who make this trip possible. These relationships are based and founded on care, admiration and respect for each other, generating bonds of trust that raise our spirit to another level.
Belonging need: We believe that it is necessary to work on belonging to this planet. We are all immersed in the same reality, on the same Earth with the same limits. It is important to understand that as a society we are together and united, that we are not separate towns, cities or cultures. We are fragments of life in the same place and with the same essence. We must begin to share higher values and goals.
Creation need: From our studio we provide different solutions and support to those companies or people who want to create a personal project.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Although the functionality of things is key for it to be sustainable, since we are a design studio, aesthetics is important. We know that aesthetics is fundamental for people to feel attracted to new ways of doing things.
As you can see in the attached photos, we have an aesthetic that celebrates the value of craftsmanship, the natural world, and the importance of impermanence.
We work with natural materials, which can be easily recyclable and at the same time are timeless.
In addition, we do not only take care of the products and the space itself; the experiences are designed to make the people who come travel to another place. We try to make aesthetics feed their senses and unite them in the same place.
The quality is evident since we work from craftsmanship, whose values are intrinsic in terms of quality. We make all products with the aim of being durable, timeless and valid for various occasions.
Key objectives for inclusion
Our space is a meeting place, all people are welcome and participate in the development of activities. One of the main goals is to create a safe point for people, where they can learn and enjoy different cultures and ideas together.
To guarantee that everyone can participate, we have different price levels so that it can be affordable for all audiences. In addition, monthly, we do some free talk sessions so that if someone has not been able to attend one of the other courses, they can also be included in our community. Anyone with an interest in learning and participating in our space is welcome.
Textile products are valid for all types of genres, so they do not exclude anyone either.
One of our key principles is the idea of co-creation, we believe that things are more valuable if they have been created by several agents collaborating together. For this reason, we have services in which we can carry out projects in collaboration with our clients.
In addition, we give the possibility to people with similar values to carry out their own activities for our public in our space. DEYI LIVING SPACE is a place to share experiences, wisdom and ideas.
Results in relation to category
Since we have opened our space, the community of our project has not stopped growing. The people who come feel satisfied with the treatment and with the experiences and knowledge that are offered to them.
We are creating a group of friends who share values, ideas and dreams. Every time they enjoy an activity in our space they feel welcomed, calm, while they are part of something within their city.
In addition, thanks to this project we are able to educate our customers in responsible consumption, while taking care of crafts, a fundamental element for a more adequate development in our future society.
Thanks to the sale of textiles we can guarantee that Guizhou's textile heritage is not lost, in addition to guaranteeing a living wage for a group of women in the area.
How Citizens benefit
All citizens participate in the activities that we create from Deyi Living or they themselves can propose activities that we carry out and host.
In addition, as we have mentioned before, we do not want to create closed products, we give people the opportunity to co-create their products with us.
Everything is a task of building together: building a space that makes us grow together, whether in a material or immaterial way.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
We believe that design is an element that has absolute transformative power. Therefore, far from being passive designers who simply create new products, we have created a project in which we take part as educators, since we transform complex messages into something easy for the public to understand; activists in the sense that we advocate changing patterns of consumption and spending that are not beneficial; facilitators, since we change ways of producing and creating that others will be able to apply following our example.
Also, we don't want to have the conventional authority that other design projects wield. For us it is important that everyone participates in our project, that they feel it is theirs and that they participate. It is key in the development as a society that we join in things that we believe in with the aim of establishing improvements.
Currently in Madrid, there is no design studio that encourages continued participation and mutual exchange between citizens and the project itself.
Learning transferred to other parties
The exchange or transference is complete since, in the same way that we have done, we could establish the methodology and share it with other people so that they can find handicrafts that are being forgotten in their region. These handicrafts can be used later to create a narrative that acts as a meeting point in which people learn about different issues, share experiences and free time while they can buy handcrafted products.
