Minima Moralia is a pop up studio by architects Tomaso Boano and Jonas Prišmontas that calls attention to how the high cost of rent and education in London is negatively affecting creative industries. The two have serious doubts that the city will remain a capital of art and design in 10 years’ time due to the prohibitive cost of studio rents for businesses and individuals.
As a potential solution, they’ve created a simple, boxy structure that represents the architects’ idea of what an affordable studio could look like in the future. First exhibited on Dalston Roof Park at the London Festival of Architecture, which wrapped today, Minima Moralia (named after a text by German theorist Theodor Adorno) is a compact, steel-frame stand-alone room featuring ridged translucent plastic walls that are foldable. Particle boards make up the ceiling, a desk, and minimal shelving and storage units.
Boano and Prišmontas hope to give artists, designers, and musicians a replicable model that can be set up on wasteland and abandoned yards throughout the city. This would allow them to test out the space in an affordable way.
Take a look at the prototype below. Do you think it’s a realistic replacement for a proper studio? And given Brexit, maybe the cost of rent will begin to come down. Or maybe that means that the duo’s project couldn’t have come at a better time.