Going with the flow: curvy designs for Hong Kong homes

Why build a straight wall when a curved one is more interesting? Hong Kong architects are having a hard time persuading clients to waive conventional space delineation when remodelling their city flats; those who succeed believe their ideas are vindicated. They say that interior curves can soften a space and, in the case of smaller flats, can give a feeling of spaciousness.

London-based star architect Thomas Heatherwick, of Heatherwick studio, is known for using the technique in interiors - notably in Seed Cathedral, for the UK pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010 and, more recently, within the round towers of the Learning Hub at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University. The centre, completed March, is his first major new building in Asia.

Its tall and tapered design won in a competition, and implemented in collaboration with local firm CPG Consultants, has been variously likened to "giant parsnips", a beehive, and stacked dim sum baskets. Heatherwick studio counters that by doing away with "unappealing places with endless corridors", the curvaceous design fosters togetherness and sociability, making a better learning environment. Angular classrooms, on the other hand, create "social separation and isolation".

Instead of the traditional format of an educational building "with miles of corridors linking box-like lecture rooms", students can gain 360-degree access into a large central space that links the towers together. The corner-less architecture also allows teachers and students to mix on a more equal basis, the studio says.

Hong Kong has curved wall examples of its own - including Opus on Stubbs Road, a Frank Gehry-designed helical structure housing 12 luxury flats flowing around a central core. AB Concept embraced curves for Argenta, a premium residential development in Mid-Levels, each storey marked by protruding curved ribbons that hug the contours and envelop the building.