time to clean（2025）

Cleanliness is both an instinctive behavior rooted in animal survival and a human practice continually shaped by cultural norms and social evolution. As an act, a system, and a symbolic structure, it is embedded in nearly every aspect of daily life. From the micro-movements of the hand to the collective rituals of a community, from invisible labor to public performance, cleaning reflects the subtle yet powerful dynamics between body, space, and society.

Rather than glorify cleaning, our aim is to return it to its everyday context—to see it anew, to question its assumptions, and to sense its presence. To support this reflection, we have created five tools that explore the relationship between humans and cleanliness through gesture, movement, the body, and social interaction. These tools are not definitive answers, but invitations to pause, notice, and engage with a practice that is often dismissed, yet deeply revealing.

清洁既是一种源于动物生存的本能行为，也是一种由文化规范和社会进化不断塑造的人类习俗。作为一种行为、一种制度和一种象征性结构，它几乎融入了日常生活的方方面面。从手部的微小动作到社区的集体仪式，从无形的劳动到公开的表演，清洁反映了身体、空间和社会之间微妙而强大的动态关系。

我们的目的不是美化清洁工作，而是让它回归日常环境--重新审视它，质疑它的假设，感受它的存在。为了支持这种反思，我们创造了五种工具，通过手势、动作、身体和社会互动来探索人类与清洁之间的关系。这些工具并不是明确的答案，而是邀请人们停下来，注意并参与到这一经常被忽视却又深刻揭示的实践中来。

Award
2025 GDC Awards short list

Media Coverage

Divide ISSUE 16

this vedio show how to use our broom
(Promotional video)

Part 1.0-Design Process

This project originates from our focus on the act of cleaning. At the beginning, we each carried out a thorough cleaning in our own homes, and through this process we discovered that cleaning is not merely a daily chore. It embodies movements, paths, tools, and the relationship between people and space. From this, several questions arose: What exactly is “cleanliness”? Why has cleaning always persisted as a necessary practice? And what does contemporary society’s understanding of cleanliness signify?

In response to these questions, I studied a wide range of literature on cleaning across different contexts—social, domestic, and cultural—and sought to reframe it as a multi-layered practice. We aim to challenge the stereotype of cleaning as “repetitive, tedious, and solitary,” and to transform it into an engaging, participatory collective experience. Through this transformation, the kinds of labor that have long been overlooked in society may be seen and reconsidered in a lighter and more open way.

Part 2.0-Design Development

Based on our research, we developed different types of brooms and continuously refined their forms and modes of use through iterative testing, in order to make the interaction more fluid for participants.

Part 3.0-Time to Clean

This book explores the often overlooked labor of cleaning—its invisibility, repetition, and quiet power. Through images, interviews, and reflections, it reveals how cleaning shapes our daily lives, spaces, and social roles.