Michael Asante

Michael is a London-based designer working between the UK and Japan. His interests are disparate, covering fine art, architecture, performance, and music to name a few. During his time at the RCA, Michael has collaborated internationally, notably with designer, writer, and curator Nowk Choe on the spatial design of the exhibition Instead of an Afterwards for the Korean Cultural Centre in Hong Kong.

His graduate project takes Minimalism as a starting point, exploring through various media its latent links to Monasticism, Austerity and Minimum Dwelling. His essay titled White on White through analysing the work of Israeli-French artist Absalon, reveals an emerging form of minimum dwelling which combines the image of Minimalism with shrinking space standards in order to extract more profit.

Prior to studying at the RCA, Michael completed his undergraduate degree at the Leicester School of Architecture. Following this, he worked on various cultural, residential, and infrastructural projects at Grimshaw, MATA and Reed Watts Architects respectively.

Through understanding Minimalism as a surface condition, an image, this project considers how we can truly live together minimally. Notions of comfort are expanded as the boundaries between the communal and individual are blurred, walls thinned, and objects shared.

Utilising an existing warehouse in Camden, the façade is retained and reappropriated; coated in black, as if the grime of the city became stuck to its surface. Internally, demolition forms a new terrain for occupation, a landscape formed from the urban fabric itself. That which remains is whitewashed, unifying that which is new and old. A new raised floor, containing electricals, heating and storage becomes the primary apparatus for a new form of Existenzminimum.

Tai-an Tea House – Designed by the tea master Sen no Rikyū in 1582, the tea house seeks to construct the “pure and spotless ideal world of Buddhist meditation”.

Punk Tea Ceremony – The tea ceremony is the performance of an ideal life within the construction of ideal space. Removed from this condition however, performance is rendered spectacle. The intimate ritual performed by two people shared with the public questions the role of privacy in the construction of the ideal self.

St James' Room, Downside Abbey – My home for a week during my time at the Downside Abbey.

Photographs from Downside Abbey in Stratton-on-the-Fosse and Convent Sainte-Marie de La Tourette, Éveux, Rhône-Alpes

As part of the KonMari method, folding clothes has been lifted to the level of ritual. Contemporary minimalism becomes psuedo-religious as self-help gurus attempt to streamline every facet of daily life.

Creating marble from dust challenges our ideas of value. Faux materials project the image of a material separate from its architectonic properties.

The existing façade is maintained; former rooflines, disused satellite dishes, vents, pipes and alarms become ornament. Its surface is rendered black, as if the grime of the city became stuck to its surface.

The ground floor operates as the infrastructure that allows for life on the first floor to be possible. Minimum dwelling for the individual becomes possible within the expanse of maximum space for the collective.

Temperature Plans – Spaces are heated locally during certain times in the day, reinforcing habit, and routine.

Proposed First Floor – Daily rituals of sleep,

Time between the act of resting and eating is elongated, as from the cell to the refectory in the Monastery where meals are shared communally. Burrowed holes act as islands for the daily rituals of cooking and eating. Rubble becomes a landscape in which wandering is encouraged, akin to the Japanese garden.

Demolition forms an artificial garden within the city. Its space is expansive, creating a new environment in which wild animals may attempt to occupy. Insulative curtains wrap around the sunken areas, conserving the heat generated through cooking and from the heated tables.

Drawing open the cell, privacy and autonomy fade as minimum dwelling becomes connected to maximum space. The cell is symbolic of the primacy of individual life within this process, a room of one’s own in which personal ideals are constructed through daily practice.

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Garment Design by Shino Murakami, Michael Asante

Photography by Dennis Eluyefa

Michael Asante

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Royal College of Art

Michael Asante

Karakusevic Carson

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Royal College of Art