Interior designer Axel Vervoordt wants to throw dirt at our walls

It's hard to imagine anyone scooping up handfuls of Hong Kong soil and flinging them at the walls of their city flat. Where would you find the dirt? And why would you want to?

Yet Axel Vervoordt has done this before, at home, in his 50-room medieval castle outside Antwerp in Belgium, and more recently for Robert De Niro's New York penthouse. What's more, he wouldn't mind repeating it here.

For the designer dubbed as one of the world's most influential tastemakers (by Elle Décor) and among the "most inspirational designers of our time" ( House Beautiful), reclaiming materials from the surrounding area gives a building authenticity.

There's a method, of course, to his use of local earth mixed with plaster as a wall treatment, which is an old-fashioned process of layered hard finish that used to be known as "scratch" plaster.

Vervoordt, who is also partial to peeling paint and weathered patinas, sees "beauty in imperfection", "elegance in natural materials" and "nobility without sophistication" as integral to creating a peaceful sanctuary within the chaos of the city.

Speaking by phone from his castle, which the 67-year-old shares with his wife May, he tells of his fondness for Hong Kong, where his elder son, Boris, this year opened the Axel Vervoordt Gallery of contemporary art. It is the family business' second art gallery - an extension of their Antwerp gallery, established in 2011.