Project

Hyfen-Projects

Tri-Circle

Collaborated with Keene State College, the Tri-Circle proposal envisions three semi-connected social circles built on the school’s most beloved grass field, designed as inviting spaces for students to gather, meet, sit, and lean on. The lowest and middle circles are made of plywood surfaces for seating, and the highest circle will be constructed from conduit pipes to provide support for leaning and arm resting. This project is part of the study on public furniture design, aiming to enhance social interaction by creating objects that encourage students to engage in intentional and meaningful social formations.

Material: Conduit, Laminate Okoume hardwood, Concrete

Time Tile

The project Time Tile is a public timepiece installation that explores the harmony between time and space through unique tile patterns. Featuring two primary modules — triangular and fan-shaped anodized aluminum tiles — the system allows it to configure the pieces into a wide variety of figures and surface patterns that function as architectural backdrops for terminal clocks. Originally commissioned as an installation for a private commercial space, the project later evolved into an independent home clock product.

Harvest Pavilion

Harvest Pavilion is an architectural design project located in Zhenze County, Jiangsu, China. Conceived as a spatial response to the surrounding agricultural landscape, the pavilion’s overall form was carefully oriented toward the five boundary lines of the field, creating a strong visual and physical connection between the structure and its environment. The geometry of the pavilion guides visitors inward toward a centrally positioned seating area, forming an intimate communal space for gathering, resting, and observing the landscape.

The project emphasizes the relationship between architecture, nature, and human interaction by framing views of the surrounding farmland while creating a sheltered and contemplative atmosphere within the structure. Through its open configuration and directional layout, the pavilion encourages movement, social engagement, and seasonal interaction with the site. The construction of the pavilion was completed in 2020.

Split Lamp

Split Lamp explores the relationship between light and reflection by combining a pendant lamp with a double-sided stainless steel mirror. Intersecting through the center of the hand-blown glass shade, the mirror divides and reflects the light while creating unique perspectives of the surrounding space. The floating reflective surface transforms the lamp into an interactive spatial experience that changes depending on the viewer’s angle.

The project was inspired by the shared functionality of mirrors and lamps — one reflecting light and the other producing it — and investigates the potential of merging these two familiar objects into a single design. Finalized in late 2015, the project was first exhibited in Fusion Power at the West Bund Art Center in Shanghai and later debuted at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York in May 2016. Since then, Split Lamp has been customized and installed in luxury residential and commercial interiors.

Note Furniture Series

The aesthetic of the Note Series is defined by a pursuit of clarity, where form and material are distilled and integrated into a cohesive visual language. The design emphasizes reduction without loss of character, allowing each element to express both its function and its inherent material qualities. Minimal white oak legs provide a warm, natural foundation, carefully shaped to interlock with the folded, cutout sheet-metal components that form the arms and seatback. This connection is both structural and visual, creating a clear dialogue between soft, organic wood and precise, industrial metal. The result is a balanced composition where contrast becomes a defining design feature.

All components are designed for durability and ease of assembly, ensuring practicality without compromising the integrity of the form. The metal arms and seatback elements are offered in a range of colors and finishes, allowing for customization across different interior contexts and applications. Through this modular flexibility, the series adapts to varied environments while maintaining a consistent design identity rooted in simplicity, precision, and material harmony.

Bent Bench

A bench design initially came from the observation of handrail. People sit on the handrail subconsciously, sometimes an often-sat spot starts bending by human weight. Eventually, a curved handrail will encourage more people to sit on which leads to more bending. The height of BENT BENCH is designed for comfortable chatting with some people leaning/sitting and some people standing. The curvature also encourages people to sit closer. Inspired by handrail, Bent Bench mimics the scenario of people sitting on iron/steel handrail which is eventually bent by human weight cumulatively and this encourages more leaning and sitting activities closely. This natural field is recreated carefully, engineered with elegant structure and intuitively triggers interaction and intimacy by bringing in warm solid wood.

Material : Ash Wood or Walnut

Brick Lamp

A minimal and portable interior LED lamp, is activated when raised(on) or laid flat(off). It is designed to mimic the moment when one reveals light and conceals light as the mechanism of switching light on and off. The side facets a natural handle which also directs the light when the brick sits on it’s side. The Brick Lamp is powered by LED panel lights and a rechargeable built-in lithium battery with a USB charging port. It can be easily connected to almost any power source. Brick Lamp as a bedside night lamp, provide a solution for people to access lighting easily and intuitively even in complete dark without any glowing part. All bottom or switch are eliminated, and the light simply react to the movement of the object itself. A product that disolve user’s hand gesture into the mechanism of tunning light on and off. In 2015, we finalized the design and put it on Kickstarter to raising fund and to test the market. We’ve succussfully raised two times the fund we asked and deliver the products in six months. Since then,

HCWD Studio has been selling this product in MoMA Store, Toch of Modern, DesignBoom store and many other online and offline channels world wide. In 2016, Brick Lamp has granted the US Design patent # D774683S.

Materials : walnut wood, concrete, aluminum

Hyfen-Projects before 2015

Solar Panel

By peeling up the original turf from the ground, we created a cozy platform on which people could step, sit, and lie down. The turf surface does not only direct the ground towards the sunlight, but it also shifts the natural material, grass, to become furniture, sculpture and landscape.

Everyday is beautiful. It never slips away.

- In Memory of Every Transient Fall in Bloomfield Hills

Souvenir

We were impressed by the momentary and gorgeous fall in Michigan. We know, it was getting cold but summer was not just slipping away constantly and spontaneously with no trace. It is hard to collaborate with someone you never met. but with nature, which has a thorough understanding of everything on the earth, it is different. I have been learning from it and we work in coordination. It tells me so much.

In this project, we marked the boundary between shade and exposed areas at 4:30 p.m. with no marker pens. Nature helped us to create this “artificial-natural facade”. Lives are prone to developing yellow leaves, which can result from a number of issues: too much water, too little water, insufficient sunlight, insect infestation and nutrient deficiencies. It seems that the sunlight is the most uncontrollable issue. But this is what I was starting with. The timing is critical too. I covered the ivy leaves on the exterior walls with thin and pliant aluminum foil for 31 days (from September 25 to October 26). It kept the leaves in the shade without losing normal air and humidity. The fading of shady leaves was slowing down, even stopped. Compared with the ones facing the sun which turned red as always, they remained yellow/green.

Twist Door

Twist Door is an exploration of spatial interconnectedness, inspired by the adaptive properties of the membrane. This project redefines the door not merely as a binary barrier for entry or exit, but as a dynamic tool for environmental filtering. Moving beyond the traditional "open" or "closed" status, the design utilizes a specialized twisting mechanism to modulate the threshold. This movement transforms the door’s surface into a series of apertures, effectively turning a solid partition into a functional window. I define this transitional state as the “semi-open” or “semi-closed” position—a hybrid condition where privacy and transparency coexist. By mimicking the elasticity of biological membranes, the Twist Door allows for the fluid regulation of light, air, and sightlines, challenging the rigid boundaries of conventional interior design and creating a more responsive relationship between adjacent spaces.