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Issue 59 - The Life Outside Issue

Issue 59

The Life Outside Issue

Introducing the Life Outside issue of Habitus magazine. With life increasingly being absorbed into a digital space, there is never a more important moment to hold something tangible. In this context, the power of nature to have a physiological impact on our sense of wellbeing has never been more important. So how can we cultivate the benefits of the our natural environment in the most intimate of places – our homes? This was the question that helped to bring this issue of Habitus to life.

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The Transformer Apartment by Sim-Plex Design Studio
ApartmentsDavid Congram

The Transformer Apartment by Sim-Plex Design Studio

Hong Kong

See how the designers from Sim-Plex Design Studio have maximised a small apartment with bespoke, ‘transformable’ furniture.


Hong Kong apartments are infamously tiny, but such challenging living conditions have an upside – it spurs interior designers (homeowners, too) to innovate and think outside the box for ways to make these spaces more liveable.

Located in Tsung Kwun O, Hong Kong, the aptly named Bay House is a case in point. The designers from Sim-Plex Design Studio have maximised this two-bedroom apartment’s limited space of 503sqft by wrapping the existing bay window with adjustable wooden cabinetry and furniture.

“In Hong Kong, local real estate moguls often chose to enlarge the bay window as much as possible as they were exempted from gross floor area [calculations]. This apartment is one of the products of that period,” says Patrick Lam, founder and creative director of Sim-Plex Design Studio.

“However, this unique phenomenon has been on the decline since 2012 with the update to the area exemption regulation,” he adds. “The supreme large bay window has become a monument in Hong Kong, [and so we asked], was there anything our studio could do for it? ”

In the living room , the TV, long bench, book shelf, display glass cabinet, and lighting have all been integrated into the bay window; and next to it, a full height cabinet and shoes cabinet hides an adjustable dining table, a sliding bar table and two movable benches. Multiple living scenarios are thus created among this transformable furniture.

According to Patrick, the clients, a young couple, wanted to bring the surrounding scenery into the home, and asked for a flexible spatial arrangement that would fully utilise the bay window without obstructing the view. Says Patrick: “The featured bay window thus becomes the spine of the apartment, reinterpreted as a multi-functional picture frame that connects the scenery with the interior harmoniously.

This same approach is reflected in the guest room, where the bay window is transformed into a wooden resting platform and frames the mountainside scenery outside.

Sim-Plex Design Studio
sim-plex-design.com

Bay House Sim-Plex Design Studio Storage units
Bay House Sim-Plex Design Studio Storage unit view
Bay House Sim-Plex Design Studio Dining
Bay House Sim-Plex Design Studio Storage
Bay House Sim-Plex Design Studio Bedroom view

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About the Author

David Congram

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hong kongjanice seowSim-Plex Design Studio


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Issue 59 - The Life Outside Issue

Issue 59

The Life Outside Issue

Introducing the Life Outside issue of Habitus magazine. With life increasingly being absorbed into a digital space, there is never a more important moment to hold something tangible. In this context, the power of nature to have a physiological impact on our sense of wellbeing has never been more important. So how can we cultivate the benefits of the our natural environment in the most intimate of places – our homes? This was the question that helped to bring this issue of Habitus to life.

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