Care / Ring
Tonkin Liu
Home is where the heart is – but hearts go beyond the confines of our homes.
At the core of co-living lies the spirit of co-care. Care / Ring is a clarion call to acts of care inspired by sonic urban rituals: the daily call to prayer, church bells, the weekly ‘clap for carers’ during the Pandemic.
Human beings need to be needed. Data shows that people who do things for others are much more likely to have better mental health than those who don’t. Mental health issues are endemic in modern society, with mental and physical isolation leading to lethargy, loneliness and despair – and creating a collectively depressed and disempowered society.
Care / Ring responds by proposing a scalable kit of care infrastructure: a Care Hub; Kit of Care and Carer-a-Whiles that pop in, out and up from under-used urban rooms and co-living buildings. The kit includes furniture designed with Studio Mama made from Saunders Seasonings’ felled trees, bells designed with master bellfounders fabricated in the AB Fine Art Foundry, care minibuses, and care tasks developed with Goodgym. When the Care / Ring bell sounds, it signals time to care, connect and unify the city.
The result will be a future where people will live longer and fuller lives through a continuum of the giving and receiving of care: I care, therefore I am.
Tonkin Liu
Anna Liu, Architect/Concept
Studio Mama
Nina Tolstrup, Furniture, Brand, and Graphic Design
Jack Mama, Furniture, Brand, and Graphic Design
Saunders Seasoning
Patrick Welsh, Timber Supplier and Timber Fabricator
Meighs & Westley
Alan Hughes, Master Bellfounder, Bell and Bell Tone Design
AB Fine Art Foundry
Jerry Hughes, Bell Fabrication
Peel Engineering
Mini bus engineer, Electric Mini Bus Design
Good Gym
Olivia Wicks, Community Mission Network