ZARA WONG IS NOT particularly diminutive, but standing in her living-room with its seven-metre high ceiling, she appears almost Lilliputian.
The home she shares with her husband John, a mainland businessman, and their young son and daughter, is perhaps as close to loft living as Hong Kong allows. Light, space and industrial materials are the key elements of a true loft, and here, light and space are in abundance. The two-storey, floor-to-ceiling windows are so expansive that roller-shutters had to be installed on the exterior for use during high winds. And an uncluttered 3,100 square feet surely qualifies as spacious. The only loft-style elements absent are the warehouse fixtures and industrial-wasteland setting of so many lofts in big cities around the world, for this sleek Repulse Bay apartment looks out over a sprawling vista of sea and sky.
Zara, a housewife, benefited from her friendship with designer/architect couple Hannah Lee and Clarence Chiang of Team HC (tel: 2581 2011). 'Our previous home was quite ordinary and Clarence would come over and suggest ways to make it look nicer,' she recalls. 'Sometimes he would frown and tell us to throw things away. So when we bought this place, it was obvious Hannah and Clarence should design it ... although we had to throw away 90 per cent of our stuff.'
Rather than industrial undertones, Lee chose a warm ambience suited to family life. Huge, cherry-stained, solid rosewood screens compete in height with the windows opposite. Lee says: 'They enhance the space, accentuating the height, adding warmth and giving an otherwise drab wall some interest.'
The Wongs told Lee and Chiang of their basic needs (including large closets and a doll display area for their daughter's room), gave them a budget and Team HC did the rest. The result is an unfussy space peppered with their design signatures.
'The opening and closing of doors is a waste of space,' says Lee, 'and doesn't look nice'. Therefore, doors throughout this home slide on exposed tracks that run the length of the walls. Every wall has been painted matt white and is void of skirting along the wooden floors.