Exclusive Interview with Ben Halde: The Mind Behind HYNGE

At www.box15.co.uk, we’re always on the lookout for groundbreaking innovations, and today we’re thrilled to introduce HYNGE – the first of its kind, multi-use furniture solutions designed to maximise space like never before. Our Digital Marketing Executive, Bridey, interviewed the inventor behind the brand to find out more.

Q: Can you introduce yourself and share a bit about your background?

Hi, my name is Ben, creator and founder of the HYNGE products and brand, which has now been on the market for just over 7 years. My passion for finding solutions to day-to-day challenges led me to initially train as an engineer. For many years, I worked as an engineer for a large engineering firm, which allowed me to live in various cities all over the world. Then one day HYNGE came along…

Q: What inspired you to create HYNGE?

Working as an engineer in Munich in 2010, I had a space problem in my apartment. Between my balcony door and bed, I only had enough space for a desk or sideboard, but I needed both. I realised the solution would need to be a combined furniture piece, where the work desk could be stowed away over the sideboard when not in use. At the time, for this specific requirement, I could not find such a furniture component or hinge off the shelf, which is why I began the development of the first HYNGE product: Swivel Top.

Q: The HYNGE Swivel Top is the first of its kind. What makes it truly unique?

Like all our products, the Swivel Top allows space saving through multi-functionality, but with one unique element: enabling an impossible 90-degree rotation in a restricted corner space. With the underlying pull-turn-push movement, the pivot point of the rotation is first moved away from surrounding walls and corners to create a sufficient gap to the restricting walls. Now, the rectangular furniture element, like a desk or bench, can be rotated outwards for temporary use. We also hold a patent in several countries for this specific movement.

Q: How does the mechanism work? Can you walk us through its functionality?

All our products can be installed for right or left rotation, but either way, at first, the user pulls the movable furniture element diagonally away from the restricting wall all the way. Then, the user turns the furniture element 90 degrees, and finally, after the rotation, the user pushes the furniture element along the diagonal, which is when your desk or bench can be used. Hence, we call this our unique pull-turn-push movement.

Q: What were the biggest challenges in bringing this idea to life?

When I started working with hardware and furniture component distributors to get my products into the market, we all realised that the products are functionally rather unique and do not really fit with the well-established furniture component categories. Therefore, making customers aware of the products within the world of furniture components had initially been a challenge. Some distributors created completely new categories to place our products in.

Q: Who do you see benefiting the most from this product?

New trends such as micro- and co-living have been coming up in the UK, Germany and the Scandinavian countries due to the constantly growing population of cities, therefore, I see the biggest benefit in the residential sector. City dwellers are faced with huge price increases per square meter and generally will be offered apartments with reduced size in the future, which is where multi-functionality is key to enhance living quality. But also, outside the residential sector, our products are beneficial where space flexibility is required. For example, retail display areas ought to be kept interesting to constantly attract customers and therefore, multi-functionality might be utilised to change appearance regularly.

Q: Sustainability is a huge topic in design today. How does HYNGE align with eco-friendly practices?

At HYNGE, high quality is a core value, and all products are designed for longevity and endurance. We’ve eliminated the need for frequent replacements, like you might see with other products. In this way, we believe we can limit unnecessary waste of material, which has got us approved and listed as a sustainable supplier on the Tiny Eco portal in the UK.

Q: Looking to the future, do you see this innovation leading a new trend in multi-functional furniture?

In the past, rotations of furniture elements in restricted areas such as corners or near walls were either not possible or required complicated design amendments, like rounding of edges or leaving gaps. With our core pull – turn – push movement, multi-functionality can now simply be applied to rectangular furniture shapes and forms, without ‘design-headaches’.

Q: What has been the most rewarding part of this journey for you so far?

Helping customers to enhance their living quality with our products! I get personally most excited when customers reach out to discuss their concepts, and we can work out in a few minutes the best way to apply Hynge products to improve the living or space situation. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing a happy customer.

Q: Finally, do you have plans to expand this concept or develop new versions?

In the first seven years of business operation, we have developed 5 product categories. These were all based on the underlying pull – turn – push moving principle, of which most were a response to customer needs and requests. All those solutions have been focusing on horizontal movements and applications. We are currently exploring movements and applications in vertical settings based on the underlying pull-turn-push movement. This is the start of a new and exciting journey for us.

We can’t wait for you to experience HYNGE for yourself. Check out HYNGE here, and stay tuned for more exciting innovations!