Dezeen Magazine

Asif Khan and MINI to install "forests" across east London

London Design Festival 2016: London architect Asif Khan will install three plant-filled rooms across Shoreditch for this year's London Design Festival.

Khan's Forests installation for MINI Living is intended to create places for people to meet up on their way to and from work.

The MINI installation features three themed rooms named Connect, Create and Relax – all located in busy areas in Shoreditch.

Each of the plant-filled spaces are underpinned by the Japanese idea of shinrin-yoku, which translates to forest bathing.

Asif Khan Mini Living installation

"It means every sense switches to absorb the forest atmosphere – what you hear, what you smell, even the feeling underfoot," explained Khan.

"At another scale, plants are used as a tool to assert personal space at its boundary with public space, whether on one's desk at the office or at the perimeter of one's home."

The Connect Space is designed as a meet-up space and will feature a large communal table in the centre of the room.

Inside the Create Space, which is intended to provide a place to focus on work, furniture can be rearranged as the visitors wish.

Asif Khan Mini Living installation

The Relax Space simply invites visitors to take a moment of calm on their journey to work.

Forests is a continuation of MINI Living, a project from the car company based on predictions for future city living. The project began with an installation during this year's Milan design week.

The MINI Living Forests is open to the public during the London Design Festival, which takes place from 17 to 25 September 2016.

Other events taking place across the capital throughout the duration of the event include a giant curving "wooden smile" installation, and an exhibition of aluminium slabs sculpted to look like pools of water.

Asif Khan is one of a generation of emerging young British architects that is attracting international attention. He recently made the shortlist for the Guggenheim Helsinki, and is one of the architects behind this year's Serpentine Summer Houses.

His other projects include an installation in Melbourne's Federation Square, and an elevated wooden play area at an east London primary school.