IF A HOME IS A reflection of your character, then by extension, a home should also be a reflection of your profession. In which case, one glance at Eva Mak's wild Whampoa Garden home, and you would be forgiven for assuming she was a fashion designer, pop star, stylist or such like. Civil servant would rank far down the guess list.
But civil servant she is - a government engineer to be exact - and unsurprisingly, Mak's colleagues can't quite get their left-hemisphere leaning heads round her funky new pad. 'They've never seen anything like it and think it looks like a bar,' laughs the amiable 29-year-old. 'They say it's not welcoming as there are no comfortable chairs to sit on and it's ka kong say bik [a Cantonese proverb meaning 'so poor you only have four walls'].'
But the padded-cell effect was intentional: 'I wanted a minimal, modern-retro look,' explains Mak. 'Kind of Space Odyssey 2001 meets Marc Newson. I like it because it's not a common look but it's easy to merge into a modern interior.'
As well as futuristic aesthetics, Mak wanted her 788-square-foot flat to feel as spacious and to house as much storage space as possible. 'I'm not a tidy person but I wanted a clean look, so I needed doors to hide everything behind.'
Although Mak had no problem in visualising exactly what she wanted, she needed a professional who could transform her unorthodox ideas into reality. Finding that person proved harder than expected: 'I went to see lots of designers, telling them I wanted modern retro, but when some of them actually asked me to explain what modern retro was, I knew they weren't for me.
'I didn't want retro which is all brown and ancient but modern retro which is more space age and pop art.