Business Cooperation
project 1
blanco collaboration
This project aims to explore more possibilities for the kitchen.
BLANCO is a premium kitchen solutions manufacturer headquartered in Germany, founded in 1925. The company initially focused on metal fabrication before evolving into a world-leading supplier of kitchen sinks, faucets, waste disposal systems, and storage solutions.
The kitchen I envision for Blanco isn't found in every home, but rather serves entire communities. This fosters connections between people within each neighborhood.
Blanco's core business is converting tap water into pure water
Applying this keyword to the community kitchen can transform natural energy for public use.
At the same time, this community kitchen serves to transform nodding acquaintances or strangers into familiar acquaintances. In this era of atomized individualism, where traditional neighborhood bonds no longer exist—especially in large cities—people consequently feel increasingly isolated.
The Brand key word - “Transfrom”
Create a space for social icebreakers
Transform Station – A Community Gathering by Blanco
Transform Station is a series of spontaneous neighborhood dinners hosted across residential communities in Milan. Randomly selected households receive invitations to join, turning ordinary neighbors—often strangers—into collaborators in cooking, eating, and conversation.
Blanco provides the kitchen equipment and support, but the essence of the project lies in the residents themselves: how a simple act of cooking together can momentarily transform an isolated housing block into a place of connection.
Each gathering is unique, leaving behind not only shared meals but also an archive of menus, stories, and encounters—small traces of how a brand’s promise of a “better life” might extend beyond the kitchen into the social fabric of the city.
Hosting events not just in one neighborhood but across multiple communities enhances the narrative.
Using the methods of art’s social intervention as a way for commerce to engage with society.
What are the methods of art?
• Employ “defamiliarization” → Transform routine gatherings into deliberate events.
• Employ “archiving” → Convert one-off activities into traces that can be viewed and discussed.
However —— Risks if Defined as an Art Project！
If the project is presented as a pure artwork, several risks may arise. It could face academic criticism for being perceived as superficial—“just a dinner”—or as an instrumentalized gesture of commerce, lacking artistic independence and resembling corporate social responsibility (CSR) disguised as art. Instead of elevating Blanco, such framing may undermine the brand, making it appear opportunistic, as though it is merely piggybacking on contemporary art without genuine depth. The art world, highly sensitive to the tension between capital and creativity, might reject the project as inauthentic or even accuse it of greenwashing if the brand’s role is too visible. At the same time, misaligned expectations could emerge: while critics may anticipate a radical artistic critique, the brand is more likely seeking positive publicity, leading to potential confusion, frustration, or negative press. Finally, labeling the initiative as art risks alienating the very residents it seeks to engage; the everyday warmth of a neighborhood dinner might be overshadowed by an “artistic” framing that feels distant or elitist.
So we can publicly present this as a brand-led community experiment, without calling it an artwork.
Exhibition Concept
1. Mapping the Project
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At the entrance, display a large map of Milan, marking the residential communities where the gatherings took place.
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Each point on the map corresponds to a set of materials (photos, menus, interview excerpts), allowing visitors to see the “network of expansion.”
2. Archive Wall
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Display materials from each community:
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Invitations (framed or pinned to the wall)
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Daily menus (handwritten or printed)
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Residents’ handwritten notes or reflections
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Visitors read these like entries from the city’s collective diary.
3. Video Documentation
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Each gathering is recorded as a short film (1–2 minutes), shown in a continuous loop.
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Screens or projections include the “real sounds” of the events—conversations, laughter, background noise—bringing the atmosphere into the gallery.
4. Objects and Traces
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Used tableware (cleaned), fragments of tablecloths, and food packaging are displayed as “evidence.”
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Ordinary objects, once placed in the gallery, are transformed into archives.
5. Interviews and Stories
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Present excerpts from residents’ voices: short texts, quotes, or audio recordings.
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These testimonies give the project a human dimension, emphasizing that the gatherings are not only meals but also encounters and transformations.
Positioning
We will publicly frame Transform Station not as an artwork, but as a brand-led community experiment. This positioning avoids unnecessary academic criticism while preserving the project’s exploratory and cultural value.
Exhibition Approach
Rather than placing the documentation in a traditional art gallery, we propose presenting it in cross-disciplinary spaces—venues that naturally sit between art, design, and community practice. This choice reinforces the ambiguity of the project, encouraging audiences to reflect on whether it belongs to the realm of art, social practice, or brand activation.
Potential Spaces in Milan
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Spazio Maiocchi – a hub for art, design, and fashion collaborations.
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Base Milano – a cultural center integrating art, design, and social innovation.
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Triennale Milano (community or design program spaces) – already known for design week events.
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Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli – focusing on culture, society, and civic engagement.
This exhibition strategy highlights the project’s dual identity: a concrete act of community connection and an open field of interpretation.
Establish a new category of community kitchens
Looking ahead, Transform Station can serve as the starting point for a broader brand evolution. By developing the idea of the community kitchen into a long-term initiative, Blanco can gradually shift its brand image—from being only a provider of kitchen equipment to becoming a facilitator of connection, hospitality, and social transformation. This sustained direction will allow the brand to resonate not only with individual customers, but also with communities and public life.
“An April Rain in Milan, from Blanco”
A Romantic Marketing Collaboration
Sunlight ➕ Human Activation
Rainwater Harvesting System
In ancient China, tea brewed with rainwater was considered the finest delicacy, praised as “a gift from heaven.” Yet today, this most generous offering of nature must be collected, filtered, and commodified before it can be safely consumed. Capital strips nature of its purity, while paradoxically becoming the only mechanism that guarantees its safety. This work confronts that contradiction: we critique the logic of capitalist domination, yet cannot deny our dependence on its filtering systems. Capitalism is inescapable—it has already permeated the most basic layers of everyday life. The simulated rainfall installation is not a display of technology, but an invitation for audiences to rediscover the scarcity and preciousness of nature through direct experience. It does not claim that technology can change nature; rather, it acts as a medium, reminding us that so-called “pure nature” can no longer be regained. We can only search for new ways of living within the entanglement of nature, technology, and capital. At the same time, it allows visitors to “drink water” in a unique way, turning an ordinary daily act into a defamiliarized experience—one that highlights the value of breaking routine and, above all, the irreplaceable preciousness of personal experience.
Location Selection
• Mountain Villages
• Lakes
• Vineyards
• Alpine foothills
Placing rainwater collectors in these locations transcends mere functionality—it becomes a romantic journey evoking Italy's diverse scenery and culture. Rainwater ultimately converging in Milan embodies a year's worth of nature's bounty, carrying memories from mountains, lakes, and vineyards.
collection device and place it in mountain villages lakes and some of italy scenery However, the rainy seasons vary across Italy, so we need a year to collect the rainwater, which will be waited for until it falls in April in Milan Design Week.
Let people from all over the world who come to Milan Design Week drink the rainwater that comes down in Italy throughout a year.
A personal weather record card
Sample examples can be used for postcards.
The personal weather card is more than a keepsake—it embodies the logic and warmth of the entire installation. The rain only falls when sunlight and a visitor are both present; without a token, this unique encounter would vanish in an instant. The weather card materializes that fleeting moment as proof, allowing each visitor to feel, “this rain was mine.” At the same time, it conveys Blanco’s sensitivity and care, showing that the brand treats every individual with a gentle, human touch. While artificial rain is by nature a brief sensory experience, a card inscribed with time, location, and weather data transforms it into a “personal archive” that is both scientific and poetic—something that can be kept, revisited, and shared. Thus the audience’s experience becomes a complete ritual: triggering the rain, tasting the water, and finally taking home its record. More importantly, each card continues the brand’s narrative: it documents the time, place, and origin of the rainwater, becoming an object that visitors proudly bring home, display, or share online. In this way, the audience themselves become agents of dissemination, extending the life of the project far beyond the exhibition, and giving it a lasting impact greater than a temporary installation.
The whole presentation
Commercial brands offer people convenience, comfort, and a better life. But can this better life be expanded to encompass a broader vision—a better social environment and a better ecological environment?
project 2
Explain collaboration
Explain is a charitable organization based in Karlsruhe, Germany. This time, they aim to focus on children who have been abused and neglected by their parents since birth.
True Fruit Rebranding-Projekt
In the course of our research, we found several cases indicating that society’s prevailing understanding of family is often confined to blood ties. This notion has, to some extent, hindered individuals lacking supportive relationships in their families of origin from establishing new intimate bonds within society. Based on these findings, we aim to challenge and reconstruct this entrenched perception, fostering a more open and inclusive social environment
Our core philosophy is this: There are no failed children, only failed systems.
In today's society, “blood ties” are still widely regarded as the sole legitimate source of family relationships. Yet for many children, it is precisely their biological families that become the source of harm. If we can break through this passive boundary, children will have the opportunity to form intimate relationships with new individuals in society, thereby achieving the most fundamental healing.
To advance this vision, we aim to leverage commercial influence to reach broader public spheres. We found German juice brand True Fruits aligns perfectly with our principles:
• True Fruits uses packaging as a medium for socially conscious public awareness campaigns;
• Each bottle blends multiple fruits, symbolizing our core concept of “reconstructing family”—different DNA can coalesce into a new whole, a new family.
For our collaboration, we envision an interactive campaign featuring DIY bracelet kits. Participants can mix and match beads of different colors and materials to create unique bracelets, much like blending juice, symbolizing the breaking of blood ties to forge new bonds of intimacy. This format is both engaging and shareable, infusing our concept with an emotional and participatory dimension.
Through this collaboration, we aim to spark public reflection on the “essence of family”: it should not be confined by blood ties alone, but rather an open network built on love, support, and the shared desire to live together.
collecting stories of non-blood-related families from the public and printing them on our packaging.
Let people know more about their stories
Photo on location
