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HK Magazine

I grew up in Kowloon City and studied in Munsang College.
The police had no control of the Kowloon Walled City then, but I still hung around in there all the time. There used to be a street full of unlicensed but popular dentists who came from the mainland.
The street smelt awful, because of the chemicals dentists used. There were also a lot of fake teeth on display. It was quite gory.
Drug addicts were everywhere. No one was bothered by that.
I attended primary school when I was four years old, two years short of the usual age. I told my mom I was bored with kindergarten and so she enrolled me.
I was so set on getting on an architecture course at university that I wasn’t eligible for any other majors, due to the way I picked my secondary school electives.
My nickname during my college years was “boss,” because I was giving out name cards in my first year. I set up my own renovation and interior design business.
I asked my friends if they needed an interior designer, and a friend’s uncle wanted to renovate his new office. My friend and I bravely took on the task—neither of us had any experience.
I made around $100,000 from that job. I immediately spent it all on a red Toyota sports car, to help get girls.
I’ve carefully planned my entire career from the start, and it has been executed just how I wanted. My goal had always been to open my own company.
My first job was at an architecture practice, but I quit immediately after I received my license, to join the Buildings Department.
If I understood more about the inner workings of the government, it would help with my future business a lot: so that’s what I did.
I quit after the contract ended. I was eager to begin the next phase of my plan. I joined a private developer as project manager, to gain another perspective.
I finally started my company in 1987.
I’m very proud of how my one-man practice has evolved into a company with 350 employees 26 years later. For a company with only one boss, the scale is quite rare in the industry.
Text gives me a headache. I have never finished an article in a magazine. When this interview is published, I don’t think I’ll finish reading it—I think I’ll just flip through it.
Design is not pure art, but a confrontation between rationality and sensibility. Too rational and you become an engineer. Too sensitive, and you become an artist.
A lot of designers are disconnected from the real world. It’s not always practical to aim for the highest standard for every project. If I was just building a toilet for my home, I’d happily try out different designs and materials until I was happy.
But when you’re building 1,000 toilets, you cannot afford that luxury. You have to adopt a more practical set of standards.
Good design should be closely tied to the modern life. It has to be about what the people are doing and thinking right now.
Interior design stays the same for only a few years, and at most, several decades. Unlike architecture, which can stand for hundreds and thousands of years.
I refuse to do classical designs. They do not belong in the contemporary world. A hotel or a restaurant shouldn’t be like a palace.
I don’t think that Queen Elizabeth is very comfortable at Buckingham Palace. Even Kate Middleton is not living there now.
I made a big management change this year. I announced to my designers that I won’t be proofreading their sketches.
Some of the projects would have been better if I was still monitoring every detail. But small mistakes are okay in exchange for the personal growth of my employees.
My family emigrated to Australia during the early 90s, because of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. I decided to stay while my wife and daughter relocated, to develop my practice.
Whenever I traveled to Australia to visit them, I got sick, because it was so boring.
I like Hong Kong’s efficiency best. When I come up with a plan, I want it done the next day. This city allows that.
Hongkongers have smarts and the city’s firms are still leading in that aspect.
Learn more about Leung and his firm at www.steveleung.com.


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Steve Leung

Magazines

Leading Hong Kong interior designer Steve Leung has spent more than 20 years designing restaurants, shops, hotels and shopping malls around the world. The 56-year-old’s firm Steve Leung Designers has won more than 100 regional and international awards. He talks to Yannie Chan about his contemporary style, his dislike for classical design and his meticulously planned career.
