LACK OF OUTSIDE SPACE is a blight of life in Hong Kong. But if you're living in the heart of the city and yearn for a garden, why not bring the outdoors inside? British-born sports marketer Tom Hall and his Filipina flight attendant wife, Chai, have done just that with their 972-square-foot SoHo apartment.
Hall, who has lived in the 35-year-old building for the past eight years, inherited some innovative design ideas from its former owners. 'When I bought it, it was a series of rooms comprising a shop, garden and apartment,' he explains. He reconfigured the space, turning what was the shop into the living room; retaining the garden space with its vaulted glass ceiling and adding an oversized bathtub; and turning the apartment area into a dining room and kitchen.
Today, the interior comprises a series of distinctive spaces that flow into one another. The living room receives no natural light so is more of a night-time entertaining area. The 'garden' benefits from lots of light from the glass ceiling so is used not only for bathing, but also reading and relaxing. And the dining room has a tropical air, with views through a large glass picture window onto the garden/bathroom.
A centrepiece is the white brick moongate, which leads from the living-room into the garden/bathroom. 'The moongate was designed by a French guy before I got here,' Hall admits.
Moongates (so named because of their circular shape) have their roots in classical Chinese architecture. Often used in traditional gardens, the trend for employing them in contemporary interiors is on the rise, owing to aesthetic and practical reasons: their shape is pleasing to the eye and, used in place of doors, they are effective room dividers and space savers. In the Halls' home, the moongate frames the garden/bathroom vista and allows daylight to flow into the dark living-room.
Hall says the reason for placing the bath in the centre of the living space was also practical: the 'garden' was the only place big enough to accommodate the bath. Hall, a keen rugby player standing 1.9 metres tall, needed a large tub in which to collapse after matches. 'When I was trying out baths it was the only one I could fit into. I think it was designed as a romantic bath for two but for me it was perfect,' he says with a laugh.
The same self-confessed 'haphazard design approach' came into play in the living-room. Most of the wooden furniture was sourced from trips to Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam, but the focal point of the room is two comfortable Flexform chaise longues, which face a flat-screen TV. 'When I come home from the office I want to relax, so the chairs were bought with the purpose of being able to watch TV,' he says.