Ready to join the space race? Used creatively, glass can help make your home a light and airy oasis.
SLOWLY BUT SURELY, developers are realising domestic bliss does not necessarily thrive in compartmentalised units with pinhole windows. John and Theresa Yeung and their two teenage sons knew this when they found their new home in Kowloon East. Rather than choose from the limited menu of fixtures and finishes on offer from the developer, they decided to leave their designer with an unadulterated shell in which to run wild.
Architect William Lim and his home interiors team at Living in Central were remarkably restrained, however. The 2,550-square-foot space was divided into practical spaces: a living/dining room, kitchen, study/guestroom and three bedrooms. Natural light bathes every area except the passageway, where one non-structural wall was replaced by semi-transparent frosted glass, double-leaf sliding doors and partitions opening to the study/guestroom. This allows daylight to percolate into the hallway, while creating an impression of extra width accentuated by floor-to-ceiling mirrored glass panels on the other side of the corridor.
With a property business on the mainland, the Yeungs were already familiar with Lim's crisp, clean approach, having worked together on an office tower in Shanghai a few years earlier. However, when it came to their domestic space, John felt more reserved. 'My husband likes his surroundings to feel homely and not too progres-sive,' says Theresa. John finally relented and agreed modern and minimalist was the way forward, but Lim turned the design process on its head to focus on his clients' needs. He escorted Theresa round Hong Kong's upmarket furniture boutiques, helping her pick out key items and accessories to shape the home.
She was captivated by luxuriously crafted furniture from Armani Casa and Ligne Roset, so to create the right backdrop Lim devised a setting subtle in palette but not devoid of texture, including a near-seamless floor laid from rectangular sandstone tiles.
'I like to look at walls as planes rather than things that simply wrap round a space,' says Lim. Vertical panels of glass clad the living room, graduating towards champagne-tinted aluminium (from Jeb Asia, tel: 2520 2839) around the dining area. The same material has been used to wrap the widescreen television-set housing, which creates a focal point without causing the oversized appliance to dominate the room.
