Shared and small space living in Beijing with MINI Living’s latest Urban Cabin.
I may have missed London Design Festival this year, but I saw plenty of amazing design in Beijing, China.
After seeing the MINI LIVING Urban Cabins in London and LA, I was so excited to see their new concept for a habitable space in Beijing.
The image above is the MINI Urban cabin from London Design Festival. You can see more images here.
This is the beautiful MINI Living Cabin showcased at L.A Design week.
Here’s MINI Living’s Urban Cabin in Beijing, a collaboration with local architect Sun Dayong from Penda.
Urbanisation and the lack of housing space is becoming a huge issue. As you can imagine with China’s fast growing population, this issue is ever more pressing.
The aim of the MINI LIVING Urban Cabin projects were to address this problem by developing concepts for small space living.
According to Sun Dayong, Beijing’s population had grown to 18,777 million in 2017.
The theme for this Urban Cabin was “Reflect”, a design inspired by China’s ‘Hutong’ courtyard living format.
A Hutong combines private and public living spaces. 
The MINI LIVING Urban Cabin can connect with the outside world in its open format and close off when privacy is needed. 
The bed can also be pushed out as an inviting day bed.
A table can rotate outwards for a shared meal.
I love how the space further plays on the word “reflect” in its design.
One of my favourite features was the mirrored surfaces used in both its exterior and interior.
Sun Dayong used the principle of a periscope to design the “courtyard like experience” room at the centre of the Urban Cabin.
Whilst sitting on a swing, you get to experience the perspectives of people who once lived in the Hutong, seeing the public go about their daily activities from their private residences. 
Looking up at the mirrors you see the changing patterns of the outdoors being reflected back.
Small space living can’t be easy, but MINI LIVING seem to have perfected the art of doing so.
Using the concepts of ‘Pull, Fold, Rotate and Stick’, they seem to have been able to create multi-purpose use furniture and fittings for flexible living in a space just 15 square meters in size. 
An example here is the wall peg board and shelving that allow adaptation and storage in a space.Walking around the inhabitable space has made me reflect on how I see myself living in the next 10 years.
Would space be still an important issue for me or would I embrace social mobility and shared space living?
What sort of accommodation do you think you’ll be living in, in 10 years’ time? Is small space living for you?
Finally, I have some exciting news. MINI LIVING will be revealing the first MINI LIVING building in Shanghai early next year. I can’t wait to see it and hopefully get to show you.
( All photography are by Little Big Bell. This is a paid partnership post with MINI Living but all opinions are my own. AD ).