Snail Baby Growth Center

  • area / size 1,453 sqft
  • Completed 2020
  • Location Shanghai, China,
  • TOWOdesign Studio was tasked with creating a multi-functional space for the Snail Baby Growth Center in Shanghai, China.

    Snail Baby Growth Center is a special non-profit leisure and experience space. Located in Songjiang District, Shanghai, it is a public welfare and exchange platform which provides learning, communication, rehabilitation, and employment opportunities for mentally disabled people.

    Because of the public welfare nature of the project, the whole process from design to production and construction was completed with donations. Therefore, we tried our best to reduce the cost. Paper, a material that can be seen everywhere in our life, was applied to the furniture and decorations. It is transformed into environmentally friendly paper tubes with improved robustness. Meanwhile, thanks to the lightness and mobility, the paper tubes can be transformed to better meet different functional needs of the space.

    The three main snails in the space, serving as the public welfare symbol in this design, represent “slow life”, mainly for the disadvantaged groups to be cared for in the practice of public welfare. It is hoped that they can feel the care from the society in the slow time. The 3D snail lamps and the suspended snail-shaped planters also echo the public welfare symbol.

    In terms of color, the use of substantial paper tubes introduces ​​yellow in a large area and blue in a supplementary role. The two colors are balanced with each other, bringing warmth and soothing the sensitively fluctuating moods of the mentally disabled.

    What we provide for the mentally handicapped groups is a warm and loving space that helps them grow and better integrate into the society.

    Design: TOWOdesign Studio
    Photography: courtesy of TOWOdesign