This article is part of our Design special section about creating space with the look and feel for one person.
Public space, by definition, is meant to be shared. So why are architects throughout the world designing parks, airport lounges, museums, shops and other communal areas to accommodate the lone individual?
Americans are spending an increasing amount of time alone, and we do not need political candidates to remind us that single-person households are rising throughout the world. Last year, the World Health Organization deemed loneliness a “global health threat.”
With more of us flying solo, more spaces are catering to visitors who may or may not be in the company of others. Urban planners and architects are recognizing a paradox: Public spaces designed to increase opportunities for social interaction may have the unintended consequence of making isolated people feel marginalized, whereas spaces that support solitary experiences in the midst of a crowd may encourage a feeling of belonging.
Wutopia Lab, an architectural studio in Shanghai, used this paradox as a springboard for its design of the Monologue Art Museum, a cultural center for visitors to explore in collective solitude. Opened in 2022, in Qinhuangdao, a popular seaside resort in northeast China, the center fosters “the peaceful solitude that emerges only when you’re experiencing it in public,” said Yu Ting, the co-founder of Wutopia Lab.
The museum is laid out as a sequence of locations, including a tearoom, a yoga room, an art gallery and a water garden with six trees. (The arboreal arrangement pays homage to “Six Gentlemen,” a 14th-century painting that is a representation of seclusion.)
Share
Print
