Gaojie Chen

A person’s socialisation plays a key part in their physical wellbeing. People are social beings who need the company of others in order to evolve. Following investigation of the situations that arise in the vicinity of a door, particular emphasis was laid on grasping doors as elements of socialisation and probing to the grass-roots like Otl Aicher.

I used the fact that I am participating in an Erasmus scheme to take up my notebook and start observing people round about me. I lay particular store by interaction. A notable feature of the cafeteria to which I go is that it is run by schoolchildren, meaning that every time you order anything a little conversation gets going.

I can imagine that the cafeteria window is used as a door at this point and how it improves the interaction between people.

I conversely ask myself where one has to exist in order that people can meet up and, again, I come to the conclusion that a place at which one can pause for thought is more than enough. I lay particular store by grasping doors as social elements. Based on my own experiences as a student, I would like to design a door for halls of residence as a means of enhancing social interactions within them.

The first ideas turn on a corridor in which there are windows and in which people can converse, very much as in the aforementioned cafeteria. I accordingly produced a model as a means of representing the idea.

The blueprint comprises a door divided in two which can be moved along the x and y axes. Dividing the door in two engenders a half-open state that fulfils various functions: it is conducive to ventilation and socialisation whilst also allowing a table to be set up in order to drink coffee with friends.

The door's ability to move along both axes enables it to influence the space it serves or rather inhabits. Elements on the door are far easier to see and the access to information Is simplified.

Otl Aicher is scathing about the art business in his numerous writings, Die Signatur being a case in point, and in Der unnütze Gegenstand he re-emphasizes the difference between art and design.

Things are not normally black and white, but rather something in between. I do not wholly agree with Aicher’s thesis that form must follow function and that the beauty of a design is submerged by its functionality.

Form ought, in my opinion, to accompany the narrative, to be created in an interesting or iconic way that nevertheless does not lead to any functional sacrifices being made.