Project Description

Designing Out of the Box | 天馬行空的設計

Description:
In many of the hyper densified cities such as Hong Kong, contentious issues of housing affordability, land availability and quality of construction have led to the emergence of ‘Nano-Living’, which means living in apartments smaller than 18.5 sqm (200 sqft). Such circumstances have posed a great challenge to interior and furniture designers. How do we furnish a living environment with limited space and budget while still providing a pleasing and affordable solution for the home owners?

In response to the growing need for space saving solutions in Hong Kong, product design freshmasonry Mike Sung has developed a brand new clothes drying product concept – Dryer³. The product features a collapsible and expandable solution that fits into different living scenarios. The accordian style housing allows a complete coverage of the clothing during the process of drying, forming a ‘hot box’ within the compartment to foster quicker drying.

With the notion to create an innovative and ‘out of the box’ solution, S&C Furniture Limited looked into researching and developing a smart and customisable furniture system for this ‘nano apartment’ demographic. The solution includes a digital platform to allow the users to take part in the process of customisation.

With a similar focus in demography, Mike and S&C Furniture Limited have teamed up to integrate Mike’s Dryer³ into one of the ‘modules’ of S&C Furniture Limited’s customisable furniture solution. Part of the solution is an elevated bed that houses multiple necessary ‘modules’ underneath the sleeping area, including tables, chairs and storage compartments. S&C Furniture Limited’s original design did not include a dedicated drying module. Through this collaboration, such possibility has been achieved through conceptual design and presented through precise computer rendering.

The final solution maintains a clean and decluttered space even under the limited circumstances of living inside a nano-apartment. It is not hard to imagine the end product being deployed in the market, as micro apartments have become the prevailing solution for the younger generations in Hong Kong.

在香港、及許多類似的高密度城市中，在住房負擔、可建設土地、和建築質量上的持續性爭議，導致出現了“納米生活”，也就是生活在小於18.5平方米（200平方英尺）的公寓中。 這對室內和家具設計師提出了巨大的挑戰， 我們如何在有限的空間和預算内配置生活環境，而且解決方案既宜人又讓業主負擔得起？

為了滿足香港對節省空間的解決方案日益增長的需求，專攻產品設計的設計新鮮人宋文駿開發了一種全新的衣物烘乾產品概念－－Dryer³。該產品擁有可折疊和可擴展的方案，適用於不同的生活場景。手風琴式的外殼允許它在烘乾過程中完全覆蓋衣物，在隔間內形成「熱箱」，帶來更快的乾燥效果。

方圓家俱有限公司一直堅持創造創新而且「跳出框框」的解決方案這一理念，致力為居於「納米公寓」的人們研究和開發智能及可定制的家具系統。方案包括一個數碼化平台，允許用戶參與定制過程。

宋同學和方圓家俱有限公司對居住在「納米公寓」內的這一群人尤感關注，於是他們將宋同學的Dryer³融入在方圓家俱有限公司可定制家具方案的「模塊」中。方案的一部分是一張高架床，在睡眠區域下方設有多個必要的「模塊」，包括桌子、椅子和儲物箱。方圓家俱有限公司的原始設計不包括專用的干燥模塊。在這次合作中，概念設計實現了這種可能性，並通過精確的電腦彩現技術呈現出來。

即使生活在納米公寓的有限空間中，最終的方案仍能保持乾淨整潔的空間。我們不難想像最終成品有朝一日會出現在市場上，皆因微型公寓已成為香港年輕一代的主流方案。

Design Graduate:
SUNG Man Chun, Mike

Collaborator:
S&C Furniture Limited | 方圓家俱有限公司

Email:
mike19435@yahoo.com.hk

School:
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 香港理工大學