Architecture need do nothing more than assist man's homecoming.

　　Edited by CYNTHIA

　　The Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy in China, the China Millenium Monument and the Beijing Industrial Design Promotion Organization announced the opening of the Hometime exhibition in Beijing on 27 October 2003. Hometime is a touring exhibition of innovative British interior design with eight rooms devoted to the possibilities of contemporary living. The main sponsor for this event is B&Q China.

　　Eight leading British designers have each been invited to create one room for a personality type or character from history, fiction or contemporary culture. These figures are: a celebrity couple; an ambassador; a latterday Sherlock Holmes; a visually impaired teenager; an elderly person; Li Tie (a Chinese footballer playing for Everton); and the archetypical glamorous, modern woman. Each figure presents a unique design challenge and results in a striking and thought-provoking domestic space.

　　Boudoir

　　The 18th-century boudoir, from the French verbsulk? provided space away from family and servants in which a woman could pursue traditionally female activities like sewing, reading, letter writing and drinking tea. Traditionally decorated in a highly feminine style, it is also strongly associated with the sensuality and privacy of the bedroom or dressing room - spaces for experimentation with intensely personal items like clothes and cosmetics. In the early 20th century the boudoir concept was when the British writer Virginia Woolf novel Room of One Own?described a space for intellectual and spiritual development.

　　Tord Boontje and Ilse Crawford have conceived a boudoir for a contemporary woman whose desires combine the sensual appeal of the traditionally feminine with a love of technology and modernity.

　　Dutch-born Tord Boontje trained at the Design Academy Eindhoven and the Royal College of Art, London. The glassware, furniture and lighting for which he is known marry advanced techniques of laser-cutting, etching and lithography with the idiosyncrasy of his own hand and low-tech production. As well as producing his own work, Tord has designed for manufacturers like Swarovski and Dartington Crystal.

　　Design consultant Ilse Crawford launched Elle Decoration in 1989, a very influential magazine that brought interior design to a wide audience for the first time. Since then she has worked as creative consultant on a wide range of projects, from Donna Karan Home to Nike. One of her most recent projects has been the creative direction of a hotel in New York.

　　Den

　　Visually-impaired people are no longer isolated from society. Public buildings and amenities are now designed - or adapted - to meet the needs of all potential users, whatever their physical requirements. Is domestic space any different? And what if you a student living in a small apartment with your parents? How can the space be comfortable, enjoyable and functional for you and your family? How can design for a disabled person be equally desirable to an able-bodied or sighted person?

　　With Zhang Ping, a student from the Shanghai School for the Blind as a model, Ben Kelly Design propose a design that provides a sleeping, working and relaxation area for a visually-impaired young person that can also be used by other members of his family. It offers a means of making limited space flexible and demonstrates how design for visually-impaired need not isolate them from the rest of their family.

　　Their design is a free-standing unit for a bedroom. One side houses a folding bed for Zhang Ping with adjacent storage for his clothes, books and general belongings. Contrasting colours and textures and incised signage create an information grid to help him locate his things. The other side houses a spare fold-down bed for visitors and doubles as a work area with a fold-down desk and computer.

　　Ben Kelly Design is one of the UK most respected interior design practices. Their projects range from highly personalised apartments for private clients, to large projects like the Hacienda nightclub in Manchester - an icon of 1980s pop music culture, the children basement at the Science Museum and London annual interior design trade fair 100% Design. BKD are currently collaborating with fellow Hometime designers Digit on an interactive art gallery for a new community centre C/plex in West Bromwich, a city in central England.

　　Drawing Room

　　Traditionally guests in a large private house are received and entertained in the drawing room. The name derives from withdrawing-room because guests ithdraw?to this reception room to relax and continue conversation after dinner. It is a slightly archaic designation which in many social situations is no longer relevant but still obtains in certain formal contexts.

　　In the past, senior British civil servants have been cautious in exploiting native interior and furniture design talent when furnishing their rooms. But the modern day statesman is far removed from the traditional image of a conservative, ceremonial and remote individual. Today ambassadors are as likely to be seen in the company of designers, athletes, pop stars or entrepreneurs as politicians, and as likely to be serving fashionable modern cuisine as the roast beef of England. Accordingly, Tom Dixon investigates how a room for a statesman today could truly reflect contemporary British design. He presents contemporary achievements by Jasper Morrison, Pearson Lloyd and Shin & Tomoko Azumi alongside triumphs from the last century by Fred Scott and Robin Day. Tom Dixon room emphasises how Britain, once the workshop of the world, now develops designers whose talents are deployed by manufacturers everywhere - including China - demonstrating the part design plays in the vital political process of cultural exchange.

　　Tom Dixon is one of Europe most innovative product designers. He was born in Tunisia in 1959 and moved to the UK at the age of four. He spent the early eighties working in nightclub promotion and event organisation, but, badly injured in a motorcycle accident in 19XX and unable to perform in his band, he started instead to use reclaimed materials to create unique pieces of furniture and lighting. He has since designed several iconic pieces of British design including the S-chair for Cappellini and the Jack light for his own company, Eurolounge. Dixon is currently Creative Director at Habitat UK and is a visiting tutor at many European design colleges including the Royal College of Art, The Architectural Association and Vitra Design Museum.

　　Front Room

　　The front room faces the street and is the first room you come to when you enter a house. It is a simple and lower-class designation than the Ambassador rawing room?opposite, but equally a placeswheresvisitors are received and entertained. It a spaceswheresgenerations come together; a shared space for relaxing, contemplation and informal conversation. In this room the Arcola Collective have invited a number of people over 60 to share their knowledge and experience and engage us in a conversation about British design. They were asked about their attitudes to design and whether their views have changed over time; what they personally enjoy about good design in their own home and which objects they find indispensable; and what piece of great design would change their lives. The resulting conversation illustrates how good design is appreciated by people regardless of age and that there is an ongoing challenge for designers working today to improve and refine everyday objects to suit all ages.

　　The Arcola Collective were all research fellows at the Royal College of Art Helen Hamlyn Research Centre (HHRC). The HHRC is dedicated to inclusive design, exploring the design implications of social factors such as ageing populations, disability, work-life balance and public transportation. The Arcola Collective user-centred approach to research yields fresh insightsintoshow people live their lives and how they interact with products and environments. Their aim is to break away from hat is?to hat might be? Four members of the Collective are working on Hometime: Jo Taylor, Edward Goodwin and Richard Hartshorn and Tim Parsons.

　　A century after Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle stories first appeared in the Strand Magazine, Sherlock Holmes remains one of the most popular figures in English literature. For Holmes, the minute observation of quotidian detail was crucial to his methods of detection and deduction. Chemistry, gossip columns and disguise were just some of the esoteric interests he developed insgroupsto solve crime. He was also a pioneer of working from home, a practice now central to many of us living and working in today overcrowded cities.

　　Block Architecture have designed a live-work space for Holmes as if he were alive today. The room itself is an instrument of surveillance and examination. Design often reveals its true ingenuity only under close scrutiny, so the encouragement of acute observation will draw visitors close to the intimate features of some products that a Holmes of today might use.

　　Because Holmes?methods were rooted in science, his home-workroom is more like a forensic laboratory than a sitting-room. The furniture we have chosen is sparse and utilitarian but still comfortable enough for the detective to spend hours in intense contemplation.

　　Block Architecture work is noted for its innovative and experimental use of design and materials and its references to the surrounding city.

　　Workshop

　　One of the most popular activities in Britain is gardening. Many British houses have their own private gardens, in which it is common to find a shed or small shelter for storing garden tools and plant pots. These small structures are the subject of British jokes and gossip because they are the location for the very private hobbies (or perhaps passions) of their owners.

　　Michael Marriott has designed a workshop for an engineer, with echoes of the British potting shed. Britain engineering heritage is epitomised by the work of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, whose designs for suspension bridges, railways and steam ships were among the most important successes of the industrial revolution in the 19th century. Using industrial shelving and materials from both domestic and factory environments, Marriott has created a space for Brunel if he were alive today.

　　Michael Marriott trained at the Royal College of Art in London, graduating in 1993, and immediately began work as a furniture designer. He is one of a smallsgroupsof designers working with the London-based furniture maker SCP, which produces many of his designs. He has also produced a range of children1s furniture for the British company Oreka Kids. Marriott is an internationally respected teacher of design and has recently curated a product design exhibition in London which, like his workshop for Brunel, celebrates the excellent utilitarian design which surrounds us, but which is rarely noticed. Marriott was awarded the Jerwood Prize for Furniture in 1997.

　　Celebrities live their life in the harsh light of the press photographer flashbulb. For British superstars today, it is almost impossible to escape the attention of the media, as newspapers and magazines all over the world thrive on ever-greater access to their private homes and private lives.

　　Amid this increasing intrusion, the bathroom remains perhaps the last haven of privacy. Fashion Architecture Taste (FAT) have designed a sanctuary for a couple of which both partners are international celebrities. This bathroom is designed as a place in which they can be alone together at last.

　　FAT fantastical installation uses two bathtubs, two washbasins and two WCs which are modified and fused together. Like Siamese twins, these customised items of everyday sanitaryware are welded togethersintosa strangely beautiful object. By doing this, FAT ask us to consider the ways in which we can create and manipulate space for ourselves in the domestic environment.

　　FAT is an architecture and art collective which has produced a series of iconoclastic installations and commissions including an advertising agency in Amsterdam, an outdoor shelter for a park in Northern England, and a highly-acclaimed residential home in East London.

　　Since he joined Everton Football Club in 2002, young Chinese star Li Tie has become one of the most popular footballers anywhere in the world. For one recent game, an audience of over 300 million viewers tuned in to watch him play. Yet in Britain, Li Tie lives thousands of miles away from his home and his family. This interactive room explores the striking contrast between Li Tie profile in Britain - well-known only among his fans in Liverpool, and his status as an international superstar which is recognised throughout China.

　　Using specially-developed computer programming linked to a camera, this room is a game in which you can take part. Two different sets of teacups are placed on the table, and when a camera eye moves over them, each teacup generates a message from Li Tie on the table. The blue teacups represent Li Tie life in Britain, and the red ones represent his life in China. By moving the cups around on the table, you can watch Li Tie own thoughts and memories of each country as the interactive game allows them to unfold.

　　Digit is a London-based company specialising in digital interactive. Partners Daljit Singh and Andy Chambers - both ex-employees of the multinational computer giant IBM with backgrounds in graphic design - have built one of Britain most successful interactive design studios. Their clients include Sony, Universal Pictures and Channel 4. Digit are collaborating with fellow Hometime designers Ben Kelly Design on an interactive art gallery for the C/plex community centre in central England.