Karl Shiu's most recent renovation project also highlights the shortcomings in local preservation laws.
A three-storey Kennedy Town building, which once housed Hong Kong's last free school, has been turned into a family home. Free schools were set up by philanthropists to provide education for the children of mainlanders fleeing to Hong Kong following the second world war.
The building, flanked by the local charm of noodle shops, stationery printers and the like, is now home to an American couple and their four young children. For Shiu, this 3,800 sqft town house with its roof space of 1,100 sqft and similar buildings from the '40s and '50s should be on the conservation list. But it does not fall under the government's classification.
'The story is so rich. It represents a very important part of local history: what happened in Hong Kong in the 1940s and 1950s,' Shiu says. 'Yet the building is not old enough to qualify for inclusion on the Antiquities and Monuments Office list.'
It's a far cry from the expatriate enclave in Tai Tam where the family used to live. Highlights of their new home include exposed beam ceilings, ceiling heights of 9.5 feet, extended windows, an enlarged kitchen and dining and master bedroom areas. The core feature of the home, says Shiu, is that the school's original staircase is preserved.
Shiu says individuals, architects and academics have made great efforts on behalf of building preservation in Hong Kong, but much remains to be done, such as recognising structures that deserve to be preserved as part of more recent local history.