Make The Most of Your Space in Hong Kong's Small Flats and Businesses

Dare Koslow has made a name for himself buying up flats in old tong laus and Andrew Bell is the creative force that decorates them in a style reminiscent of New York’s airy, industrial lofts—even if they’re only 400 square feet.

On Wa Lane, next to a cha chaan teng and across from a metalworker down an alley in Sheung Wan, one of their refurbished apartments epitomizes their philosophy of modern, functional urban design jazzed up with a bit of Hong Kong quirkiness.

The walls are textured, finished with raw gray concrete, while pipes and conduits are exposed and painted metallic silver. Bell eschews direct lighting in favor of subtle fixtures aimed at the ceilings, which he paints white to reflect the light and to make the small space seem bigger. Opting for iron-framed glass doors unites its two rooms and makes the apartment feel more open. And don’t miss the closets’ and cabinets’ seashell-shaped brass handles, and the oversized, old-fashioned clock in the living room that wouldn’t look out of place in a train station—it all comes from nearby Cat Street.

“I try to give an expat [tenant] a touch of the exotic, old Hong Kong,” Bell says. “They feel like they are here, not in any cookie-cutter city all over the world.” The design of the flat prioritizes the practical, too. An executive director at a bank moved from a 1,200-square-foot apartment in Causeway Bay to this one, and she’s impressed by how seamlessly everything fits, from the wardrobe’s capacity to hold the large suitcases that never seem to fit anywhere else to the garbage can built into the countertop. The mounted flat-screen TV’s assorted cords are hidden behind the wall; the fridge is tucked into a closet. But the flat feels far from squished—even her 65-pound dog Winston fits comfortably.

“I lived in Brooklyn when I was in New York. You want to feel like you live in a house with character, not in a high-rise,” she says. “You don’t feel like you’re moving into a sterile rental… I feel like I’m in another country instead of feeling like I’m in a mall.”

Another endearing detail is the ironwork pattern on the windows, which Bell saw on Shelley Street on a decades-old building. Foreigners, he says, assume it’s an Art Deco pattern, but it’s really a nod to vintage Hong Kong design.

Bell sees his design work as an attempt to update spaces for modern-day residents that might otherwise be written off as old and cramped. “My raison d’etre is to improve the tong lau,” he says. “For a return, and also, it makes it worthwhile for people to save them instead of tearing them down.”

The younger sister of hip boutique Konzepp (which is just around the corner, incidentally), Kouch is a lifestyle concept store with a focus on wine—specifically French and American wines—and champagne. Former sommelier and Kouch’s present “wine guy” David Baudrie points out that the shop sets out to stock exclusive wines and wines new to the city, some of which aren’t available at other restaurants and wine shops elsewhere in Hong Kong. In addition to the wines, items like P.A.P. leather and canvas bags and Ecoya beauty and bath products are also on offer.

Kouch has an au naturel thing going on, with wooden walls and shelving, and a fake-grass floor that spreads out onto the pavement. The couch (hence the shop’s name) is the focal point of the space, creating an inviting place for people to come and chill. No space is left unutilized: the steps behind the counter lead to a tiny wine cellar, with the walls painted in Konzepp’s signature bright yellow; a stylish wooden trunk in the center of the shop doubles up as both a table and—when the top is opened up—a jewelry display case.

The shop isn’t all about selling products, though, as founder Geoffrey Kwan points out: “The point is not really to make a lot of money, but to provide a space for people to hang out.” Kouch hosts film screenings, chocolate nights, champagne nights and occasional block parties together with Konzepp. Kwan admits that they’d love a bigger venue, but since the project is supposed to be a “living room for the public,” having too large a space would destroy the intimate vibe as well as make logistics more difficult to manage.

Limited space, though, doesn’t limit Kouch’s ambitions. “We had 400-500 people at [Konzepp’s] anniversary party,” Kwan recalls.”They didn’t mind hanging around the street all the way down to the end of Tung Street.”