Home
News
In Focus
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Restaurants get off to a quick start thanks to game-changing policies
High service charges on event ticket refunds call for further regulation
Sunday
- Subscribe
His HK flat is small, but it's got it all
By James Pomfret |
February 9, 2010, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
As a youngster living in a tiny flat with six others in one of the world's most densely populated cities, Hong Kong architect Gary Chang has been obsessed by living space, or rather a chronic lack of it.
After three decades in the same boxy, 32-square-meter dwelling he grew up in, Chang has come up with an innovative answer to the increasingly cramped lives of many urban dwellers - the science fiction-like "domestic transformer."
"The idea is everything is moving. This is my laundry space," Chang told Reuters, sliding away a wall filled with CDs to reveal a washing machine and dryer.
By sliding another track-mounted metal wall that bears a plasma TV, a kitchen materialized. Beside that, there is a luxurious 1.9-meter bathtub that itself turns into a guest bed.
While people in other teeming cities such as Tokyo resort to drop-down beds and foldable futons, the award-winning Chang has taken the concept of space-saving to the extreme.
His tiny rectangular apartment, tucked into the bowels of an old, nondescript tenement building, has polished chrome walls that bear 24 configurations.
The space becomes a home theater, spa, kitchen, bedroom or chill-out zone rigged up with a hammock, depending on what Chang needs at any moment.
"The high intensity of use makes (it) more like a large home appliance than a dwelling," Chang has written.
Chang, who runs his own design and architectural firm, describes an empty space as a "luxury" and once built a "Suitcase House" in Beijing blurring the lines between public and private space.
"The only enclosed space is the toilet, and again, it's bigger than usual," said Chang, whose flat is surrounded by the highways and skyscrapers that embody Hong Kong's rampant urban development that have made spacious flats a pipe dream for many.
At a cost of HK$1.8 million (US$231,700), Chang hopes his dwelling offers a viable, life-enhancing alternative for Hong Kongers who can't afford anything bigger.
"The idea is to tune your home closer to what you really want instead of being dictated by the market or by the space allocated," said the designer who says he's now in talks with property developers to replicate his flat in other space-starved, costly cities across Asia and Europe, including Paris.
After three decades in the same boxy, 32-square-meter dwelling he grew up in, Chang has come up with an innovative answer to the increasingly cramped lives of many urban dwellers - the science fiction-like "domestic transformer."
"The idea is everything is moving. This is my laundry space," Chang told Reuters, sliding away a wall filled with CDs to reveal a washing machine and dryer.
By sliding another track-mounted metal wall that bears a plasma TV, a kitchen materialized. Beside that, there is a luxurious 1.9-meter bathtub that itself turns into a guest bed.
While people in other teeming cities such as Tokyo resort to drop-down beds and foldable futons, the award-winning Chang has taken the concept of space-saving to the extreme.
His tiny rectangular apartment, tucked into the bowels of an old, nondescript tenement building, has polished chrome walls that bear 24 configurations.
The space becomes a home theater, spa, kitchen, bedroom or chill-out zone rigged up with a hammock, depending on what Chang needs at any moment.
"The high intensity of use makes (it) more like a large home appliance than a dwelling," Chang has written.
Chang, who runs his own design and architectural firm, describes an empty space as a "luxury" and once built a "Suitcase House" in Beijing blurring the lines between public and private space.
"The only enclosed space is the toilet, and again, it's bigger than usual," said Chang, whose flat is surrounded by the highways and skyscrapers that embody Hong Kong's rampant urban development that have made spacious flats a pipe dream for many.
At a cost of HK$1.8 million (US$231,700), Chang hopes his dwelling offers a viable, life-enhancing alternative for Hong Kongers who can't afford anything bigger.
"The idea is to tune your home closer to what you really want instead of being dictated by the market or by the space allocated," said the designer who says he's now in talks with property developers to replicate his flat in other space-starved, costly cities across Asia and Europe, including Paris.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
