Among the best-known works of photographer and architect Hiroshi Sugimoto, Seascapes, begun in 1980, is a series of contemplative black-and-white images of the sea, identically sized and formatted. They are taken in various locations around the world using a large-format camera with exposures that can last hours.

Patrick Lam Kwai-pui, founder and creative director of Hong Kong architecture and interior design firm Sim-Plex Design Studio, explains how it changed his life.

I studied for a bachelor’s and a master’s of architecture degrees at Chinese University and worked for many years as an architect. I knew that design was my passion when I was at school, but the routine, rational design education and working life slowed down my mind and [made me lose] inspiration, so I decided to return to school and study for a master of fine arts at CUHK.

The mindset and education in fine arts is totally different to that of architecture. I had a hard time during the learning procedure because of its emotional, mindful and sometimes irrational creative process. I felt pressure from professors and even classmates, who mostly came from the field of fine arts. The pressure of studying, combined with the uncertainty of my path in architecture, took me to the brink of collapse.

Then, when I was doing research for my MFA graduation project, I came across the work of Sugimoto and was deeply inspired, especially by Seascapes. I hadn’t even heard of him before that. When I discovered the work I looked at a single piece for more than an hour. I was touched by it. The magic of it is that a magnificent, timeless sea is captured in a small picture frame within a moment. To me, the fossilisation of time in Seascapes and the stillness evoke a feeling of timelessness.

I have lived in a tiny tenement apartment in Kowloon City for many years, so small, compact spaces are familiar to me. A family of four is squeezed into a flat of about 200 sq ft, but that’s actually a typical way of living in Hong Kong and other high-density cities. This long-term experience has driven me to keep investigating the possibilities of expanding a limited space.

Sugimoto’s work recalls my childhood memories. I remember our old flat had only a small window in the bedroom and faced a noisy street with cars. As a little child, I often imagined if any interesting things were happening within the small window frame. In Seascapes, the sea is sacred and independently frozen at that tiny scale. Everyone can have a seascape, whether the space is tiny or not. The sea will appear when you believe in it, even in a tiny old window frame.


The kind of Zen spirit in Sugimoto’s work inspires our studio’s design work today. Sim-Plex Design Studio often deals with projects with difficult contexts or limited space, but we believe that there will be a “sea”, as long as we try hard to develop and design the space.