THE TRAVELLING WAREHOUSE

China’s furniture brand CAMERICH works with SEMESTER studio again to create “The Travelling Warehouse” pavilion during the 54th China International Furniture Fair (Shanghai) in 2024.

With a backend perspective of the furniture industry, the pavilion uses a dynamic display designed for a life in motion. Continuing the “Zero-waste” concept of “the Temporary Storage Garden”, all the materials will be sent back to CAMERICH campuses and be used again after the fair.

The pavilion is designed into a public space where visitors are free to linger and rest, or start a conversation, or even encounter the unexpected.

CURATORIAL TEAM

SEMESTER is a research and design studio, working across scales from everyday objects to buildings and cities. It was founded by Manus Leung, Wenting Guo, and Yun Fu during their student days at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. 

SEMESTER has collaborated with CAMERICH across several projects since 2020, including the series of zero-waste pavilions at the 2023 and 2024 China International Furniture Fair (Shanghai), and a water tower for CAMERICH (Jiaxing) Mega Factory, as well as the TOASTER sofa series at the furniture fair this year.

1

ZERO WASTE

Over 98% of the materials used in the pavilion will be cycled and returned to the production lines and storage spaces for further use. 

As a sequel to “the Temporary Storage Garden”, “the Travelling Warehouse” continues the “Zero-waste” design and the commitment to sustainable development, and borrows all the materials from CAMERICH’s R&D workshop - from the industrial shelves and factory lights to the fabric and timber panels used in prototypes, to construct a warehouse space. 

1/Industrial shelves

Inspired from the product shelves in CAMERICH (Beijing) R&D campus, the pavilion uses warehouse as the background and builds a story of products manufacturing. The shelves provide a new perspective to showcase products details that are usually ignored on the fairs.

2/Factory lights

In the center of the pavilion are eight “stages”, over which hangs a light to light up the products below. When there’s a new box on the stage, the light will be turned to the brightest. These are the common lights used in the factory, but are reconfigured with adjustable light sources for this fair.

3/Sofa fabric

Like a “theater”, the center of the pavilion is enclosed by stacked fabrics which are used CAMERICH sofa base. They are draped in a folded manner, only 1.4 meters above the ground, to block most of the view and create a relatively independent space inside. When you sit on the benches aside, you can fully enjoy simultaneously about everything about furniture in the theater.

2

DYNAMIC THEATER

The boxes on the shelves are opened one after another, and the products are presented onto the shelves during the 4 days of the fair. The constant changes fill the pavilion with novelty and fun.

Stating from 10:00 am of Sept. 11th and Sept. 12th, CAMERICH colleagues will take a box from the shelves and unbox it in the theater every ten minutes, and then put the previously displayed product onto the shelves, giving visitors constant surprises in the pavilion.

The program guide of “the Travelling Warehouse” continues the same size of the newspaper at “the Temporary Storage Garden” in 2023. The unboxing timeline is printed on the one-meter-long folded paper. The kraft paper and silver ink, echoing with the boxes and shelves, deliver the sustainability concept it embodies.

3

RETURN TO THE ORIGIN OF FURNITURE

The new pieces at the exhibition share a focus on the pursuit of structural clarity and in-use human experience.

ZK SERIES

ZK series is a furniture design collection created by the mutual effort of Zhang Ke and CAMERICH. Since 2011, they have collaborated on various architectural and exhibition projects. In the recent years, this collaboration has extended into the realm of furniture design. 

ZK series represents a continuation of Zhang Ke's architectural approach on a smaller scale, which emphasizes on how furniture could arouse intimacy and togetherness, while explores new possibilities of traditional wood structure within furniture.

CAMERICH (BEIJING) R&D CAMPUS

CAMERICH (Beijing) R&D Campus was transformed from the site of JINGTONG, a state-owned textile factory that was originally established in the 1980s. The revitalized campus will serve as a dynamic design hub, which integrates innovation, product development, as well as branding and cultural creation. It also echoes CAMERICH’s commitment to sustainable development.

CAMERICH (JIAXING) MEGA FACTORY

The CAMERICH (Jiaxing) Mega Factory is located in the Nanhu District of Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province. CAMERICH and ZAO/standardarchitecture have collaboratively explored and planned a visionary new furniture industry campus. The first phase, nearing completion, will accommodate the full production lines of CAMERICH furniture. The campus aims not only for manufacturing efficiency and quality but also for a human-centric manufacturing environment that promotes sustainability.

TANGO

Innovation is never easy within the realm of classical furniture. As a starting point of ZK series, TANGO chair tries to challenge the limit of traditional wood structure, exploring a subtle equilibrium which stands on the edge of danger.

JUMPER

JUMPER lounge chair tries to explore a co-living of furniture and space, minimizing the scale of the lounge chair to allow best visual clearance of the space.

EERO

EERO tries to explore a well-proportioned and slim look of a lounge chair, while prioritizing on the maximum comfort that a lounge chair could bring to people. EERO lounge chair originates in the Grasshopper chair by American architect Eero Saarinen, which dates back to 1950s.

M.E. 

M.E., which stands for mobile Eileen, aims to give tribute to female architect Eileen Gray, who designed several small-scale and lightweight coffee tables in early 20th century. 

DINO

DINO was created in the reflection of lounge chair. A perfect lounge chair experience could be always accompanied by a lamp and a coffee table, which could be both presented by DINO.

VENICE

VENICE table tries to explore a contemporary expression of traditional wood structure: by introducing a pre-fabricated metal joints and bolts system, rather than traditional mortise and tenon connection, to connect multiple wood pieces. The recessed structural system frees the edges of the tabletop, allowing for unobstructed circulation around the table's perimeter. This design is adaptable to various tabletops, including square, rectangular, and extra-long formats.

ISLAND

Is there a possibility for the bed to escape from being put against the wall and become the centerpiece in the bedroom? To give response to this thinking, ISLAND bed tries to activate the space behind the back panel by combining it with a desk.

SEM SERIES

SEM series is the first furniture collaboration between SEMESTER and CAMERICH, extending the studio’s ongoing exploration of more playful and sustainable ways of living to the object scale. The TOASTER series’ material modularity and practical washability free users to embrace the spontaneity and messiness of everyday life. The design utilizes CAMERICH’s expertise in carpentry and upholstery to meet contemporary users’ search for practical yet refined details that support more flexible and mobile lifestyles.

Temporary Storage Garden

The Temporary Storage Garden of 2023 showcased the brand’s newly upgraded North-South Campuses plan and provides a more comprehensive display of the implementation of the layout. The pavilion was committed to realize “Zero-Waste” and most of the materials used were from different departments of CAMERICH through maximizing the recycling of every device and every link.

Rain Rain Go Away

Rain Rain Go Away is a part of fire safety infrastructure to provide pressurized water for the sprinkler system for CAMERICH (Jiaxing) Factory. As the tallest structure on campus, it quietly links the campus to the more open natural landscape. It also presents an alluring destination for those adventurous enough to climb the service stairs to the top.

TOASTER

It is a special feeling of freedom to drink black coffee on a white fabric sofa without worry and to welcome a fuzzy cat onto the couch instead of shooing it away. To share this small everyday happiness, TOASTER sofa is easy to clean regularly and renew infinitely - freeing users to embrace the spontaneity and messiness of daily life. 

4

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE EVERYDAY

The mission of "packaging" is not only to escort furniture to meet people, but also to consider where it comes from and where it returns to.

The exhibition brought the packaging issue, which is easily overlooked from the perspective of the industrial backend, to the forefront, and CAMERICH responded positively to this in "the Travelling Warehouse". On the premise of ensuring product safety, packaging materials and printing methods have been optimized from a sustainable perspective, making them more conducive to recycling.

THE TRAVELLING WAREHOUSE

“The Traveling Warehouse” is both a place and an action. It proposes a humble approach to design where architecture recedes into the background, supporting interactions between people and their environment. It also shares an inside view of CAMERICH’s creative process and presents a vision for high-end manufacturing spaces as CAMERICH (Jiaxing) Mega Factory is soon put into production.