Wunian Collective
(vun-ee-ahn) Collective or Uni for our close friends (You)
What is Wunian?
Wunian Collective is a spatial and sensory platform operating at the intersection of architecture, perception, and underground culture.
We explore how space can be experienced, not just occupied — how it can evoke emotion, memory, and altered states.
The origin of “Wunian”
Wunian began not as an invented name, but as a citation.
In Heidegger’s “Building Dwelling Thinking”, he writes:
“The old word for bauen, namely the Gothic wunian, means to remain, to stay in a place.But the Gothic wunian says more distinctly how this remaining is experienced.
Wunian means: to be at peace, to be brought to peace, to remain in peace.”
This idea of dwelling as peace — not productivity, not permanence, but being held by space — became the foundation of this project.
Only later did I realize that in Chinese, 无念 (wú niàn) could quietly join the name.
Not as translation, but as resonance.
Wunian, then, is an accident of convergence — where my Chinese roots and German influences collided without warning.
It means:
- to dwell
- to dissolve thought
- to be in peace
- to return without needing to name the return
Our Method
We create temporary spatial systems using:
- architecture (installations, loops, disorienting enclosures)
- sound (playlists, sonic fog, deep-body bass)
- bodies (movement, tension, rituals of stillness)
- materials (textile, air, darkness, softness, reflection)
Each project is a study in how we build affect, atmosphere, and shared sensation.
Who we are
Wunian Collective is not a company.
It is a practice.
We are an evolving structure for spatial experiments, sensorial collaborations, and obsessive unbuilding.
We operate like a system — modular, immersive, low-frequency.
Wunian Collective was founded by Leslie W. Sheng, and remains multidisciplinary.