The adventure to Hong Kong was the one and only study trip i went on in my three years as a bachelor. But it was amazing. The trip lasted almost a month and god damn - we were overwhelmed by new impressions. It’s such a different culture…bigger, faster and of course more compact.
Our task for the collaboration with the Hong Kong Design Institute students was to design kitchens for the small apartments seen in Hong Kong. We designed for the company German Pool which makes kitchens and kitchen aid’s in a very big number in Hong Kong. By visiting show rooms and their fabric in mainland China across the border, we were almost ready to start drawing.
One of the most valuable experiences for understanding this task but most importantly understanding the lives of the inhabitants - we were so fortunate to be invited into the homes of some of the student. It’s very important to understand how valuable this was. Even the students who were very best friends didn’t visit each others homes - it’s just not what they do. So we were very thankful being welcomed into such tiny and very personal homes.
I was to design two kitchens with Rasmus Degn from my class and Iiva Li from HKDI. And it was very clear how different the Hong Kong students worked. They had difficulties understanding our abstract and free mind in terms of how shapes and materials felt. Iiva was very practical, and we understood the importance of the kitchens being easy to clean, easy to handle, fastening the process in the kitchen. The kitchens were not for hanging out and have conversations with the family. They were simply too small for that.
For the project our main task was to make the most of the tiny space as well as letting the clean aesthetics from the Scandinavian design (of which the student were very fond of) meeting the technologically developed and urban culture of Hong Kong.
The first kitchen “Urban and Dynamic” is very much inspired by the urban life in Hong Kong. The cabinets containing a mellow light in the leanly displaces doors indicating where to grab. The dark materials of concrete looking but very smooth surfaces imitating the builings. We build up the kitchen in levels making it possible to make the most of the space. With storage ind the floor as well as up under the ceiling. This was a solution which had the height of the Hong Kong’ers in mind. As the average inhabitant was approximately 1.60. This was the ultimate kitchen to master as a not that tall person.
The “Minimalistic and Futuristic” kitchen we were very focused on cultivating a mix of the Danish modern kitchens and the Hong Kong very technologically development which is ahead of time. The kitchen was inspired by airplanes cabinets which exploits the space above the head. But knowing the inhabitants weren’t that tall, we designed the cabinets so they could easily be dragged down towards the user.
The surfaces in the kitchen from the cupboard up the wall to under the upper cabinet were fused into one avoiding sliths and making it easy to clean. Each cabinet would have specialized drawers and dividers making it possible to store away kitchenaids and other tools.
The kitchens were received with joy and happiness and Rasmus, Iiva and I were so fortunate to win the competition of the best solution with compatible kitchens which both had very innovative ideas of great potential.