Reprinted from WeChat public account: Design AB side
Original article title: "Design AB Face丨Li Youyou: Minimalism and blank space is the creed of life"
A little trivia, do you know which design company has the highest altitude in Guangzhou?
The answer is: Li Youyou Design Studio.
Li Youyou Design Studio is located on the 52nd floor of IFC International Financial Center, in the CBD area of Guangzhou where land is scarce and has the best view overlooking the entire Guangzhou. Six years ago, the studio could only live in a windowless office of 20 square meters in Huangpu District, Guangzhou. It was unknown and had not received any projects for a whole year since its establishment.
In just a few years, Yo-Yo Lee went from being unknown to becoming famous. His life seemed to have been fast-forwarded, turning other people's endings into a new journey in his life. Since starting his business, he has created countless simple, architectural and spatial designs, and has won multiple local and international awards.
In addition to private residential clients, Li's design scope mainly focuses on residences, model houses, and fine decoration design. In recent years, he has also begun to focus on participating in new real estate development projects in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, designing various model houses, public spaces, clubs, and hotels. and large sales centers.
He said with a smile that his success does not have the luck buff bonus in other people's eyes, but only the persistence of not forgetting his original intention.
From being unable to receive a project for a whole year in the early days of starting a business, to now being the prestigious "Outstanding Young Designer of Guangdong Province" in the industry, what are the stories of Li Youyou, a well-known domestic home decoration designer, in his cheating life?
Sina Home × Wrigley Composite Light Pattern Brick "Design AB" talks face-to-face with Li Youyou and explores his double life.
01
Side A: minimalism·blank space, a testing ground for intimate relationships
From fluid space to intimacy
Housing itself originates from the most fundamental human desires.
Li Youyou is a loyal practitioner of the "flowing space" concept of the minimalist architect Mies van der Rohe. Of course, this is not just to pay tribute to this great modernist architect, but the flowing space has the ability to activate the emotions of the residents. Superpower, as long as you use design, you can make space, sight, sound, behavior and human emotions closely connected.
▲"New Ideal House" by Li Youyou
Usually, residences are composed of private + public spaces, but Li Youyou believes that there should be more places for staying and conversation in residences. In Li Youyou's space, he envisions a space that can be stacked at will, and the internal spaces can be connected with each other.
When the thick walls disappear, the absolute partitions in the space become blurred, and the corridor becomes the most subtle place in the room, which is both a link to the space and can be transformed into an internal function.
▲ "Guangzhou Yunshan Poetic Painting House" by Li Youyou
Li Youyou dispels forms and paradigms in residential design, emphasizing emotion, temperature and flow. In addition to being influenced by Mies van der Rohe, this may be inseparable from his own growth. His parents were absent from his most important stage of growth. Fortunately, his eldest brother was like his father. His brother took care of him in his life and also shaped him invisibly.
Perhaps it was out of the desire for intergenerational relationships when he was young. One day, when this child who longed for the love of his parents also became a father, he began to realize more deeply that the house he designed must reflect the occupants. of vitality and building close relationships.
▲"New Ideal House" by Li Youyou
As a father of two children, he spends a lot of time with his children every day, feeding them, changing diapers, taking them to school... and never lets anyone do it for him.
In the process of becoming a father, he began to study parent-child relationships and intimacy. He believed that the warmth of a home is not through materials and colors, but through planar movement lines, quietly connecting his family members, making the closed space like the wind. Flow naturally like light.
When we were walking at home, we accidentally saw the children playing in the mud and the wife cooking in the kitchen.To produce more natural communication behaviors, this "link" can be called temperature.
Li Youyou uses a deliberate design to create unconscious companionship and uses "flow" to guide the occurrence of intimate relationships.
▲"New Ideal House" by Li Youyou
Interview selection: Sina Home Furnishing: What do you think is the core thing in residential design? Li Youyou: The core of residential design must be people, because this house is for people to live in. If you want to live comfortably, you must change the traditional living model. The most important thing is to open the space. Once it is opened, you will be free to walk inside.
We can enter from one door and go out from another. When the movement line is flowing, it means that natural light and wind are also flowing. When nature can form convection, the line of sight can also form convection. Then when walking around the home, not only Seeing different people, such as parents, wives, and children, can increase the emotional viscosity and experience between family members.
Leave blank space and let family members become works of art at home
Speaking of private home designers who focus on "minimalism", I believe everyone's first reaction is Li Youyou. This is his label and what he insists on doing.
So what exactly is minimalism? What is this life creed that Li Youyou has always adhered to?
On search engines, there are countless interpretations and answers about minimalism.
▲ "Guangzhou Yunshan Poetic Painting House" by Li Youyou
Li Youyou’s answer is very simple and direct: to return the space to its most essential state, the shape, walls, ceiling, and ground must consciously retreat, making people the sole focus.
He believes that in a residence, when parents, wives, and children are walking around wearing colorful clothes, they can become the visual focus. At this time, the family members are the artworks of the space.
▲Wrigley Composite Light Pattern BrickHeadquarters Exhibition Hall
At this time, white space is particularly important. White space is very tolerant of space, people, and colors. Just like an art gallery, only a clean base can set off the artwork itself.
When we are in the space labeled "Li Youyou", it is not difficult to find the commonality. No matter what kind of materials are used, the walls, floor and ceiling are mainly made of plain colors in large areas. The state of low saturation, no noise and concession, is willing to become a supporting role in the space. This supporting role can disappear in the space at any time, but it also plays the greatest role in shaping the minimalist space with the greatest tolerance.
▲ "Guangzhou Yunshan Poetic Painting House" by Li Youyou
In addition, to create a good space, in addition to having an aesthetic that can withstand the test of time, design, materials, and craftsmanship must also complement each other. Just like Jay Chou and Fang Wenshan, the designer’s knowledge of materials and The application also affects the spatial experience. Take rock slab as an example. Its texture is restrained and delicate. When there is no light, it is quiet. Under the light, it expresses the spatial atmosphere with concave and convex texture and mottled layers.
Li Youyou strengthens the importance of people by simplifying space. As a creator, he not only builds a pleasant and comfortable space, but also obtains spiritual sublimation, that is, emotional experience, from modern materials and resources.
▲Li Youyou visitedWrigley Composite Light Grain BrickHeadquarters Exhibition Hall, I strongly agree with the composite light texture B-C-T research and development concept (texture brightness difference-color saturation-texture three-dimensionality)
Interview selection: Sina Home: What impact will low-saturation colors have on people living in this space in the future? Li Youyou: Let’s take the model house as an example. The model house brings a sense of surprise to people, thereby stimulating the desire to buy. The home is just the opposite. The first feeling after opening the door is that it is transparent and quiet, with natural light flowing in the wind, and at the same time it is beautiful. Why is there such a contrast? Because home is a real living space, while model apartments are just a temporary stay.
We usually live in a home for 8-10 years. How can we ensure that we are still comfortable for such a long time? First of all, we need to ensure that the low-saturation walls and ceilings will not change. So what will change? Daily necessities, toys, children's daily necessities, and even furniture that breaks down after three or five years will need to be replaced. If it is a simple and elegant, low-saturation hard decoration, any object placed there will not feel out of place.
Sina Home Furnishing: What new materials have you used in space? Li Youyou: In the R&F Plaza project, large areas of bathroom and kitchen walls are made of slate. These slates are all pure white. They look static and smooth from a distance, but when you look up close and turn on the lights, they have a very delicate texture. texture. How to make artworks more expressive? It is used to show the texture of materials, such as rock slabs and lighting systems.
02
Side B: racing driver, golf, super dad...
It’s a label and it’s also about living how you like
"Everything I do, I do from the bottom of my heart, not to be someone others look up to. If I keep paying attention to the eyes of the outside world, I feel it will be very tiring." Everyone's life path is different. "Like" is the basis of all hobbies. Li Youyou focuses more on the areas he likes and is good at.
In that office in the cloud, there is a golf practice area under the glass curtain wall with excellent views, and he will practice his swing when he has nothing to do. Many people play golf because of the social nature of the sport, but Li Youyou does not do it for socializing, but prefers to be alone. The dappled tree shadows, the fragrance of reeds and the changing seasons that he saw on the golf course were all real images that further influenced his understanding of life and space.
▲Li Youyou Office
He loves this sport because what he perceives is not only the changes in the body, but also the cycle of life.
In addition to golf, there is another sport that allows him to face life more realistically.
Driving a racing car is one of the joys of his life. He can be absolutely distracted on the track, because at a speed of 280 miles per hour, everything in the world is no longer clear, only the blur in front and the roar behind the car.
▲Li Youyou participates in the Porsche Sports Cup< /p>
If sports cars and golf balls both focus too much on individuals and themselves, then his "personality" as a super dad can better explain his understanding and practice of parent-child relationships.
Li Youyou, who talks endlessly about parenting, is definitely an anomaly among designers. Being an anomaly does not mean he is wrong. The reason for being an anomaly is that he spends all the time he should have socializing on parenting. It is also because of his Only when you are deeply involved in parenting can you realize the complementarity of flow space and intimacy.
Cultivating a good parent-child relationship is not an innate talent, but an acquired talent. It is transformed through learning, time, and space. Only by truly loving your children and your family can you create a loving space.
Conclusion:
Since he went south to Guangzhou in 2008 with 300 yuan in his arms, a kind of perseverance still flows in Li Youyou's life. He is like a self-disciplined, patient and goal-oriented climber. He only stops briefly when he reaches the top and then continues on. Climbing to another peak, when he reaches the top of the mountain, everyone sees success, but few people ask about the difficulties and obstacles at each step.
He also has a natural ability to quickly get closer to you. In fact, this ability is "sincerity" and "kindness". He is willing to take off his adult defensive mask and show his truest self. , this reality is also reflected in his space, his understanding of home, his flow space, his life creed...all of them are Li Youyou.
Mu Xin said that there is only enough time to love one person in a lifetime. So Li Youyou only does three things in his life: minimalism, minimalism, minimalism. Nowadays, "minimalism" has become Li Youyou's biggest label, and he does not want to tear off this label. He will continue to practice "minimalism" in the past, present, and future, and continue to create more intimate and loving spaces.
