Hong Kong designer Alan Chan isn't sitting on his laurels despite 40-year career

Visiting Alan Chan Yau-kin's office in Wan Chai is a bit like making a trip to a museum: everywhere you look there are items vying for attention, from the serious (art and photography) to the curious (big-eyed, chubby-cheeked Kewpie dolls) to ephemera picked up during his travels and prototype designs created during his more than 40-year design career.

In fact, Chan has collected so many items that he is planning a book that catalogues his favourites, including photographs and anecdotes about them. One that may be included is a photograph Chan took in the US of Andy Warhol in the 1980s, although now, in an age of celebrity selfies, he regrets not having had a picture taken of himself with the pop artist.

The multifaceted designer is also busy with commercial projects across the border and the opening next month in Hong Kong of Space 27, a 7,000 sq ft venue in Quarry Bay, featuring furniture and equipment from Miele, Schiffini and Dedon, that will accommodate private functions and exhibitions for local artists.

Around the same time, in Shanghai's Jing'an district near Plaza 66, he will open a lifestyle store called Garden 27. His shop is named for its floral theme: customers can pick up homeware and choose their favourite blossoms.

Chan has also been venturing into new territory. At the recent International Design Furniture Fair Hong Kong, he unveiled the Silkroad collection, his inaugural furniture series. The first design in that collection is the S chair, a walnut-and-steel number with a serpentine shape that allows two people to sit facing each other or, if they wish, to be seated in close proximity.

This style of chair dates to the mid-17th century Europe, according to Chan, and is also known as a lovers' seat, a conversation chair or so-called tête-à-tête.