Very few choose to interpret the New York loft aesthetic in Hong Kong, a city that has a long-standing affection for luxury. But it was partly the time, partly the location that led designer Philip Liao to give new extended stay hotel, the Yin, an industrial sensibility. "I think this more raw more honest kind of living is more in fashion…even very well-paid young execs don’t necessarily want to live in a palace anymore," says the founder of Philip Liao and Partners Ltd. "Plus I think each building needs to take its surroundings into consideration—not pretend to be what you’re not—to have resonance."

Liao is referring to the potent slice of Hong Kong life found outside the door of the building, which is on the fringes of the Central business district where a well-known wet market spills out over the streets. The 42 rooms reference it with exposed copper piping in bathrooms, brick walls lightly white washed, and ceiling pipes only partially concealed with suspended wooden slats.

Yet though light and a little bare there’s no gritty edge to the décor. Marketed at single business travelers (mostly men) in Hong Kong for a few weeks or months, the Yin rooms are masculine but light with Asian accents, and the hard-edged, low-lying furniture and dark base colors appear more chic than industrial. The star of each room is a curvaceous freestanding tub, easily visible through glass partitions. Each was hand chiseled out of a single block of Perla Grey stone from Japan and complements other Asian features: beds that are low to the ground and lit from below for a floating effect; lamps and blinds that resemble traditional shoji paper products.

Brightly colored cushions and sofas give the scheme a little zest, as do punky graphic images of vegetables piled in baskets, hanging paper lanterns, and subjects that, on closer inspection, appear to be the hanging parts of animals. If anything they elevate the hotel into the industrial loft aesthetic, or rather, take it down to the street.