BE Magazine 2018 EN

LOW BUDGET EQUALS SMALL LIVING. YES.
This is something that Hans Vandendriessche,
Director of Medal Up-
2date, is well qualified to discuss.
“Last year we launched our first ‘City
Living’ collection: and it turned out to
be a brilliant move. The tubular steel
bar frame makes the pieces airy and
light. Visually, they take up less space.
They are easy to move around. And
they are highly affordable.”
SMALL LIVING – LOW BUDGET?
UP2DATE – CITY LIVING: LONDON
4
This is a contentious
issue. Does small living
means a small budget
for furniture? This
association has been
confirmed, nuanced,
and even disproved.
Someone with a small income is
obliged to live small, with a limited
budget for furniture. In this case, small
living does indeed mean opting for
discounted or second-hand furniture.
This is something of which the designers,
as hands-on experts, are only too
well aware. But small living does not
come to an end when people graduate.
So the ‘small living equals lowbudget’
reasoning does not always
stack up.
Designer Reinaart Vandersloten
agrees. “As a student, I already craved
beautiful things, design, art. One way
or another, I managed to cobble that
all together. I’d buy some things second
hand in order to be able to afford
that one dream object.”
Designer Toon Aerts continues. “The
city is exerting an huge pull on more
and more people. Cities are where
it’s all happening. They are lively,
bursting with energy. Individual living
space is becoming more and more
limited, and everyone is living closer
and closer together. At the same time,
life is becoming steadily more expensive.
This evolution makes smaller living
unavoidable. In the first instance,
that begins with cheap furniture, but in
the long term it doesn’t stay that way.
Then personality and quality of life become
increasingly important, so it’s no
longer about cheap things.”
FRAGMENTURE – KNOT BLOCK SYSTEM
DESIGN: LIES VAN KERCKHOVE