Mansions or micro homes? Hong Kong designer reveals which are more challenging

Tell us about The Playhouse, a 6,000 sq ft, two-storey home you designed in Tin Wan? “The client wanted to turn the place into a New York industrial-style loft, with different zones for entertain­ment on the lower level and a holiday home upstairs. But Hong Kong industrial buildings are different from what they have in New York. In New York they have old brick walls, and we tried to source similar types of brick in Hong Kong, but it was a pain. So we chose tiles from Italy because their texture and proportion give the feeling of real brick.

“After we installed the walls we thought, ‘Is there a way to age them?’ We wanted it to feel like it had been there for years. We tried some chemical treatments. It’s what they use for ageing bricks in London, so we ordered different finishes from there.”

There are a lot of materials in the space. What were you trying to do? “The whole place is an experiment to try to see how we could fuse different materials together. I’ve always been enthusiastic about retro Italian style, so [in the bath­room] I used brass water pipes as the base for the vanity counter. The custom marble vanity counter was inspired by 1950s Italian washbasins. The marble was chosen because I wanted something that looked aged.”