Encounter Meaningless - Space design
During a four-day workshop at USC Roski with designer Jessica Kao, I rapidly conceptualized and created a 2.5D meaningless corner at Roski’s back entrance—a narrow, unfriendly passage that students and staff pass through daily. As an entry point, it immediately evoked the image of a 玄关 (xuán guan)—the Chinese term for a foyer or entrance hall. In traditional East Asian architecture, the 玄关 symbolizes transition and concealment, serving as a threshold between the chaotic exterior and the tranquil interior. It blends movement with stillness, forming a space for both passage and pause.
By placing a nonsensical 玄关 at this functional spot, I challenge the authority of signage and wayfinding systems. The space appears to offer direction but instead creates disorientation, questioning whether design must always serve a purpose. As designers, we are often bound by practicality, catering to clients' needs like a service industry. Yet, within Roski—as an art school—I wanted to claim a space for purposeless,
self-explanatory design, free from conventional constraints.
This meaningless玄关 becomes a reflection on the freedom to design without reason.
As an extension of this concept, I further explored the authority of wayfinding systems by creating realistic signage and placing them in unexpected, nonsensical locations, deliberately disrupting spatial logic. By scattering familiar symbols—such as directional arrows, exit signs, or room labels—in places where they offer no practical guidance, I aimed to dismantle our trust in visual order, transforming functional signs into sources of confusion.
During a four-day workshop at USC Roski with designer Jessica Kao, I rapidly conceptualized and created a 2.5D meaningless corner at Roski’s back entrance—a narrow, unfriendly passage that students and staff pass through daily. As an entry point, it immediately evoked the image of a 玄关 (xuán guan)—the Chinese term for a foyer or entrance hall. In traditional East Asian architecture, the 玄关 symbolizes transition and concealment, serving as a threshold between the chaotic exterior and the tranquil interior. It blends movement with stillness, forming a space for both passage and pause.
By placing a nonsensical 玄关 at this functional spot, I challenge the authority of signage and wayfinding systems. The space appears to offer direction but instead creates disorientation, questioning whether design must always serve a purpose. As designers, we are often bound by practicality, catering to clients' needs like a service industry. Yet, within Roski—as an art school—I wanted to claim a space for purposeless,
self-explanatory design, free from conventional constraints.
This meaningless玄关 becomes a reflection on the freedom to design without reason.
As an extension of this concept, I further explored the authority of wayfinding systems by creating realistic signage and placing them in unexpected, nonsensical locations, deliberately disrupting spatial logic. By scattering familiar symbols—such as directional arrows, exit signs, or room labels—in places where they offer no practical guidance, I aimed to dismantle our trust in visual order, transforming functional signs into sources of confusion.