Industrial Minimalist

HAY, this Danish brand—I have a love-hate relationship with it. The designs are truly beautiful; I bought six pieces of the About A Chair series for my own studio. But the prices have always been inflated. A single AAC22 chair costs ¥4,200 at domestic stores. The same chair at Copenhagen Airport duty-free is €189, which converts to about fourteen hundred yuan. Who's pocketing the difference? I don't need to say it, everyone knows.

After HAY was acquired by Herman Miller in 2023, the China pricing strategy changed. The AAC22 is now ¥2,680 on the official website—a drop of more than one-third. In June, I purchased twelve chairs for a client's office through the corporate wholesale channel at ¥2,100 per unit. I think this price is reasonable. The chair itself hasn't changed—still the same polypropylene shell and oak legs, with average sitting comfort. Suitable for meeting rooms, dining rooms, and other scenarios that don't require prolonged sitting. As a work chair? Forget it—the lumbar support is practically non-existent.

This year I must mention Ziyin. I first encountered this brand in 2018 and thought they were just Taobao quality, didn't pay much attention. They've improved tremendously over the past few years.

In August I visited their offline store in Shanghai, on Yuyuan Road. Three floors, with a product line richer than I imagined. Some of their steel-wood combined shelving units are clearly inspired by USM, but at one-tenth the price. A 900mm wide three-tier shelf costs ¥1,280. I bought one for my studio and after four months of use, the structure is stable and the welding points are handled reasonably well. Up close you can see some burrs, but it doesn't affect use.

2023 saw an explosion of cement home products. Open Xiaohongshu and the screen is filled with cement planters, cement trays, cement clocks. They look nice, but many people don't know how heavy these things are.

Last year I ordered a washbasin set from the local brand "Su Shuini" for a client. The countertop dimensions were 1200×500mm with a thickness of 50mm. It wasn't until installation that we discovered this thing weighed over 130 kilograms. The client's home was in an old building—the floor load capacity was never designed for this. We ended up returning it, with the client paying shipping costs—over two thousand yuan down the drain.

Industrial style lighting was a disaster zone for counterfeits this year.

Flos's IC Lights, the spherical lamp designed by Michael Anastassiades—there are way too many knockoff versions in China. The authentic T1 size table lamp has an official price of ¥6,800. Search "IC lamp lookalike" on Taobao and the cheapest is ¥89. Out of curiosity, I bought one. Unboxing inspection: the brass rod is hollow, the globe is ordinary glass instead of milky white acrylic, and the base is so flimsy it tips over with a touch. Just these three points alone show that it's nine yuan worth of materials in an eighty-nine yuan shell.

Authentic vs. Counterfeit

Whether to buy authentic or knockoff—I don't make this choice for clients. But I will clearly explain the differences between the two. The counterweight, materials, and softness of light in authentic products are genuinely things knockoffs can't achieve. If you're willing to pay fifty times the price for these differences, go ahead. If you don't think it's worth it, that's also fine. I just resent those sellers who pass off counterfeits as authentic.

I used to really like the Muuto brand. Their early 2010s designs, like the Unfold pendant lamp and Stacked shelving system, had both Nordic simplicity and an industrial feel, with reasonable prices. The Unfold pendant launched at around €100, and later Chinese agents brought it to about ¥900—acceptable.

In recent years, Muuto was acquired by Knoll, which then merged into the MillerKnoll group. Their product line started moving in a commercial direction, with new products becoming increasingly boring. The office furniture they released this year—you can't even tell it's Muuto. That young, somewhat playful character is gone.

Industrial style is inseparable from hardware. Iron pieces, brass pieces, stainless steel pieces—these things determine the final texture of a space.

This year I mainly use two suppliers. One is a factory in Foshan that's been doing export for over a decade—stable quality but high minimum order requirements, at least 500 units per SKU. Suitable for large projects. The other is a small factory in Ningbo with low minimums—50 units will do—but quality control fluctuates more, with about 10% defect rate within the same batch. I usually have them ship 15% extra and sort through them myself.

Brass hardware prices went up this year. A 32mm brass pull handle I frequently use had a purchase price of ¥18 in 2022; this year the same item quoted at ¥27. A 50% increase. Copper raw material prices went up some, but not by that much. Middlemen added markup.

This year I did three projects using microcement flooring and encountered some pitfalls. Let me explain.

Microcement is not cement. This needs to be understood first. It's a cement-based polymer coating with a thickness of only 2-3mm—it can't level out floor height differences like traditional self-leveling can. If the substrate is uneven, it'll still be uneven after application. My first project had exactly this problem—the masonry work the owner had done previously was too rough, and after the microcement was applied it had a wavy pattern that was especially obvious when light hit it. Rework and redo, costing an extra twenty thousand plus.

Is there a difference in results? Yes, but not as big as the price difference. I personally lean toward using domestic products—the savings can be spent elsewhere.

Lastly, let's talk about steel plate furniture. This category gained heat this year, but the market is chaotic.

Jean Prouvé's vintage furniture has been speculated to astronomical prices—a Standard Chair can fetch €3,000-5,000 at auction. New reproductions are made by Vitra, selling for ¥12,800 per chair in China. Personally, I don't think it's worth it. The essence of Prouvé's design was industrial mass production, reducing costs, making good furniture accessible to ordinary people. Selling his chairs for over ten thousand now completely betrays the original design intent.

Domestic Alternatives

There are several studios in China making similar style steel plate furniture. In Guangzhou there's one called "Zaowuji" (Creation Collective), and in Beijing there's one called "Heitie" (Black Iron). Prices are about one-fifth to one-quarter of Vitra reproductions. The craftsmanship is rougher, but the style is actually closer to what Prouvé's work looked like back in the day. I've recommended them to clients several times with good feedback.