MINI LIVING – Do Disturb. MINI presents installation during Salone del Mobile 2016.

Munich/Milan
. “Creative use of space” has always been at the core
of the MINI brand. Now, with the “MINI LIVING” installation, MINI is
demonstrating during the Salone del Mobile 2016 in Milan how this
principle can also be applied to urban living space. MINI LIVING
addresses one of the most pressing challenges of urban living – the
shortage of attractive, affordable housing – and offers a potential
solution in the form of a modern shared-living concept. “MINI has
always been a quintessentially urban brand, a brand for the city, and
this is also where a lot of our customers live,” says Esther Bahne,
Head of Brand Strategy and Business Innovation at MINI. “We have to
take a holistic approach to the city and think about solutions that
are relevant to the needs of the people who live there. This is what
the MINI LIVING installation is all about.”

 

Sharing means more for everybody.

The installation centres on a 30-square-metre apartment that forms
part of a micro-neighbourhood of similar apartments (the other
apartments are only suggested in the installation). Fold-out shelving
modules form the apartment’s walls. Integrated in these modules are a
variety of features and systems such as a kitchen unit, a workbench
and a music system. The shelves can be opened out to give access to
the various objects and functions. By opening out different shelves,
the apartment’s interior space can be combined and reconfigured in
many different ways, providing the appropriate backdrop for all sorts
of spontaneous activities and unique experiences. Folding out the
kitchenette and a music system for example creates the perfect set up
for a spur-of-the-moment kitchen party. MINI LIVING turns “sharing”
into an adventure in its own right. Occupants who make their
individual living space and functions sharable with the wider
community can quite literally “open up” to interaction and experiences
that would not be possible in a conventional private space. “With the
MINI LIVING installation, we’re looking to be part of a debate about
future forms of shared living. In the city, more and more people have
to share space which is increasingly scarce and finite. We see a lot
of potential in this situation for making urban living more communal
and reciprocal. The installation combines both sides of the equation
within a compact footprint – it is both a haven of privacy and also an
interface to the wider community,” says MINI LIVING project manager
Oke Hauser.

 

Privacy vs. community.

As a closed space, MINI LIVING provides its occupants with all the
security of living in their own four walls. But since those walls are
flexible, the installation blurs the normal boundaries between the
private and the communal. When and to what extent occupants actually
want to share their space and time with the community around them is
entirely up to them. However, as the overall motto of the MINI LIVING
installation, “Do Disturb”, already implies, this concept has been
designed specifically to encourage interaction and to provide an
alternative to urban anonymity. Visitors can experiment with the
flexible elements of the installation to discover for themselves all
the different possibilities that are achievable in the spectrum
between an “open” and a “closed” living space.

 

Shared knowledge – the cooperative concept behind MINI LIVING.

At the MINI LIVING concept and design stage, MINI was already able to
put into practice the central principle behind this installation –
that “sharing means more for everyone”. In giving shape to its vision
of future urban living, MINI sought the support of two partners who
enriched this project with their many years of experience and their
own perspective on the topic of urban living. The Japanese architects
from ON design in Yokohama contributed their expertise from a variety
of projects relating to micro-housing and collaborative living, while
the Berlin office of international engineering consultancy Arup
provided support on the technical side. Through this shared approach,
MINI LIVING has delivered a cutting-edge interpretation of a vision of
urban habitation that none of the participants would have achieved on
their own.

 

MINI – helping to define urban living.

MINI LIVING takes to the next logical stage what was always the
mission behind the MINI brand right from day one: the mission to
improve the quality of urban life. Back in 1959, MINI already offered
a clever solution to one of the most relevant problems of that time,
by offering urban mobility at an affordable price. The solution took
the form of a vehicle that combined high functionality and maximum
driving excitement with minimal road space requirements. Even back
then, by offering “creative use of space”, MINI proved that even a
small car can be extremely exciting. And over the generations that
followed it continued to set the agenda for personalised urban
mobility. Today, finding attractive, affordable living space is one of
the biggest challenges of urban life, and not only for young people
and families just starting out in life. Here too, the answer lies in
creative use of space. MINI LIVING applies the brand’s essence to
further areas of urban life unconnected with the automobile. Again,
the accent is on squeezing maximum potential from the smallest
possible physical footprint.

 

Visitors can experience the MINI LIVING installation from April 12 to
April 17, 2016 at 18 Via Vigevano, Milan, Italy during the Salone del Mobile.