Telling the truth about the thoughts and sources of design is far more meaningful and important than writing a design description.

Many deployment plans, from a big city to a small house or a garden, are the answers to our life and thoughts, which are worth our reflections.. We have our own traditional habits and interests, from family organization, lifestyles, work, leisure, cooking, sewing, indoor painting and calligraphy furnishings to outdoor garden flowers and trees, are not the same as the Westerners. The total expression of the above materials was once presented our architecture. Now we do not have to cut our feet to suit the shoes or live our lives according to the ways that Europeans and Americans lead or confuse ourselves and reverse the role of European and American architecture. We have to create the architecture that suits us. -- From Liang Sicheng‘s The History of Chinese Architecture.

Garden building has always been a very traditional Chinese literati affair. About gardening, in the past two years, I often start with the painting of Rongxizhai painted by Ni Zan, a painter in the Yuan Dynasty. It is a typical landscape painting, the upper part of the distant mountains, a cold forest; in the middle of the pool, Ni always leaves it blank, and a few old trees near it, under which stands a pavilion with four simple pillars, very thin and almost weightless, topped with thatched grass. This is also a typical pattern of a Chinese garden. If the border of the painting is viewed as a wall, there is a pavilion near the painting, and the pool in the center, something in front of the pool like a stone and a tree. However, that's not what I'm talking about, and attitude is my key point . The meaning of "Rong Qi Zhai Tu" is that if people can live in the scene within the picturesque boundary, the painter would rather make the house so small that they can only put down they knees, from “Building a House" by Wang Shu. 

When I firstly stood in front of the gates of the Architecture Institute in Venice, I immediately understood the question that has been plaguing me for a long time: What is the nature of the place? I spent several days traveling around central and southern parts in Italy, visiting almost all of Scapa's architecture. During the last trip to the cemetery of the couple of Brion (Tomba Brion), I took the wrong bus, and walked for nearly an hour on the rural road of SAN Vito, Italy. When I almost walked to the site by picking corn fields, and stood in front of this building, I was almost in tears. In the small Brion cemetery, it took me nearly 6 hours travel around and stayed until the evening.

What is earthiness? It is traceability and origin.  In popular terms, it means to be rooted.

The iconic zigzag cascade of Brion's tomb and the stackable staircase of the Quinini Stamparia Foundation's Watergate, are automatically linked to the ebb and flow of the Venetian tide. The Quillini Stamparia Foundation hides the zigzag columns of radiators and the zigzag transparent doors and Windows under the famous staircase in the Olivberti exhibition room, which are not the corner stones that can be found everywhere in Venice. The striking red steel beams of the Vicenza apartments are probably a contemporary expression of ancient Roman or Byzantine stone columns... It is very classical and futuristic.

Looking at the interior of our buildings today, where are their "roots"? This is a question worth pondering. Mr. Liang Sicheng says that the root is in the organic structure of our old architectural framework, in our traditional habits and interests of family organization, living styles, work and leisure, as well as in cooking, sewing, indoor painting and calligraphy displays, outdoor garden flowers and trees. Wang Shu mentions that it is in the garden landscape paintings of Chinese literati, and in the Rong Xizhai Painting of Ni Zan in the Yuan Dynasty. It refers to people's spiritual world in the fields, mountains and rivers, and the nature, rather than the house itself. Human beings are with the nature, who come and go, enjoying the nature and leaving much blank space.

No longer confined to the field itself, it has a vast world and mobility.

This is also in line with the core of the MAO BY MAO brand: natural, contemporary and humanistic concepts. In short, we also create a small world for her, inject the brand spirit into it, and build its own aesthetic language system.

Chinese independent designer clothing brand MAO BY MAO has opened its first independent offline store at Eslite Center in Suzhou. From the perspective of brand philosophy and visual language, ALTERNABILITY DESIGN may integrate the expression of cultural localism and Oriental spirituality into the space. 

A thin eave in the doorway overhangs a thin column, with two steps forward, and two pieces are stacked.

The expression of this language is not only a contemporary translation of "eaves" and "columns" in traditional Chinese architectural space, but also aims to create a gentle and moderate sense of enclosure in the commercial space.

The deliberately controlled dark light at the entrance, unlike the harsh light guidance of 90% of stores, evokes a psychological feeling of being taken care of by customers.

The design of the front desk area covers many details. The first lies in the material. The background wall is made of stainless steel, but on top of the smooth and reflective metal texture, ALTERNABILITY DESIGN finally get the natural and time-filled texture effect today through multiple surface chemical corrosion tests. The raw material of the island comes from the old wood in Yunnan. Parts with holes and cracks are specially chosen to use in the design. In addition to the square and stiff shape, the small details bring natural experience.

The island is also like a piece of land or an island in a garden, rooted in the space. The exterior shape is simple, and the interior has another world. Integrated cashier, storage, storage and other functions, in the table and the base part is also accompanied by the design of transparent stone. On the one hand, the space atmosphere is adjusted by lighting, and on the other hand, it can better assist customers to view the material and texture of clothing on the transparent stone, helping customers understand the brand characteristics.

When comes to wall and background wall design, the top of the ceiling appears the brand LOGO formed by the "square corner circle".

The restrained language contains rich details, and the wrought iron candy box also takes the form of a "square corner circle".

From the painting into the scene, ALTERNABILITY DESIGN may build an intentional "pavilion" in the space for fitting and rest zone for customers.

The structural frame adopts the "clothes pole", which is most frequently used in clothing furnishings. Through repeated reconstruction and combination of this simple element, a small world which belongs to MAO BY MAO is built abstractly.

Here, we imagine that it is a random natural forest land, which is an "inner garden" that can carry the spirit.

The slender poles are combined with each other to reconstitute the "garden" intention in the space.

French artist Pierre Sernet once traveled around the world. In his "One" series of photographs, the artist randomly selects guests from different cultural backgrounds and invites them to sip a cup of tea in a portable "cube" made of 12 sticks.

 The 12 sticks also create an "illusion of space" with minimal intervention: it seems that any cultural, spiritual, religious or philosophical value can be contained within the cube's field, and the human mind is scattered between the heaven and the earth. From garden to the nature, ALTERNABILITY DESIGN may also try to construct a similar "spiritual freedom" in the language of design.

The "screen" used to enclose the pavilion in Wen Zhengming's Twelve Pictures of Humble Administrator's Garden can be very low in scale, and the distance between people and natural plants and trees can be easily reached at any time. Inspired by this, ALTERNABILITY DESIGN uses simple and contemporary language to add a "painting screen" on the side of the pavilion.

Corresponding to the light painting screen under the command of Oriental aesthetics, is the heavy screen appearing in the Scapa Castle museum. In the extremely high space of the castle, the height of the screen is the modulus size, and the height of people standing to reach out their hands. A background color with memory is formed in the space.

In addition, ALTERNABILITY DESIGN juxtaposes and contrasts the different understandings and treatments of Eastern and Western elements of the screen in the same space, with the dark green towering screen slightly in front, the warm yellow screen scattered backward, and the black backplane. Three panels with four faces, form a natural flow of space, and also complete the shelter and smart response to the rear fire escape in the turn of color, advance and retreat. 

Stones are one of the necessary elements of garden landscaping. In this design, the designer recycled, cut and designed the original or abandoned stone, and recombined it into an art installation with contemporary characteristics and a new landscape visual language.

The installation of three white jade stones interlocking with each other is a contemporary translation of the "Taihu Stone".

The furniture in the space is also specially designed and customized by ALTERNABILITY DESIGN.  The "stone slab bridge" in the garden of art garden is the prototype, and the shape is with twists and turns, which can be used as furniture for customers to rest. It can also be used as a display stand for exhibitions.

The furniture within the reach of the light can be moved in the store at any time. This flexible design follows the brand concept of sustainability and environmental protection, and also responds to the plan of "Art curated store". That means, all the furnishings in the space can be moved and detachable. In the future, under the cooperation between MAO BY MAO and artists, this space will also become an art exhibition space, more than a display of clothing.

The theme of MAO BY MAO 2024 Spring "Glade in the Woods," is from philosopher Heidegger's Being and Time. Clarity. Shinning into the glade, it is the opening situation of all, including people who are present and those who are not.

ALTERNABILITY DESIGN, in the corner of the window, with the old Eastern beam dialogue being abandoned by the Western marble, response to this theme. The pedestal is the place where they meet, and they are "attracted" together by the weight of the earth.

In the original proposal for the space, or in the conceptual renderings of ALTERNABILITY DESIGN, there was a white steed. The designer mentions that it was a tool used by the ancients to measure the world, and the horse is essential. Plus, in the case of space shooting, the designer team actually has realized the original concept idea. That night at 5 o 'clock in the morning in Suzhou City, the moment of chasing wind (Ma's name) running in the city road, a long roaring of Freedom and Sounds of Nature -- at that moment, we seem to witness the eastern spirit appearing and lingering in the city.