A pet-friendly Hong Kong home where everyone is happy
Despite the flat’s small size – just 453 square feet – clever design and careful planning mean every member of a family of five, including Pa the parrot and Meow the cat, get their own space
Co-living is touted as a new trend, but in Chinese culture a multigenerational household has long been considered ideal, even in small flats. The design of this Yuen Long home shows how it was possible for one “blended” family to live harmoniously under the same roof: the 453 sq ft apartment is home to a young professional couple, their parrot, the wife’s mother and her cat.
“The couple treat their pets like family members,” says Patrick Lam Kwai-pui, founder of Sim-Plex Design Studio, in Sheung Wan. “The pets have their own personality and need their own space. The owners chose to live with the mother so they could take care of each other. They were eager for a layout that would give each of them a partly private, partly communal co-living arrangement.”
Packaging everyone’s requirements into such a small space required creative thinking. Because the flat was open plan, Lam had free rein over the layout. He began by situating the two bedrooms on opposite sides of the flat, with one opening into the living space and the other into the dining area, allowing convenient access for both to the sole bathroom.
The rest of the space is flexible. A frosted-glass-and-melamine foldaway divider between the living and dining zones allows the owners, Ken Chu and Teri Wong, to expand the space when entertaining. The living room, which is used mostly by the couple, is on a 45cm-high platform, with lift-up panels concealing storage compartments beneath.
In lieu of a sofa, there are just cushions on the raised floor because, Lam says, his clients, who work in education and IT, like to sit “tatami style”. In fact, apart from the dining-room seating, there is no other loose furniture in the flat, the owners having opted for customised, built-in pieces to optimise space and storage.