Feng shui and hi-tech work in perfect harmony in 492 sq ft flat that accommodates five
Peacefulness meets practicality in this carefully considered apartment with storage solutions that include platforms to accommodate smart-home gadgetry
Living in a flat before you renovate it means you know exactly what needs to be done.
Originally from Taiwan, Eric Lin Sin-han and Lory Chen Li-wen had been in their two-bedroom, one-bathroom Tung Chung apartment for six years when they decided it was crying out not only for an update but some serious rearranging, too.
More storageand accommodation for two extra people were top of their list. The sticking point? They had only 492 sq ft to play with.
“The design phase took six months because even the smallest details have to be carefully planned in an apartment this size. There is no room for error,” says architect Patrick Lam Kwai-pui, founder of Sim-Plex Design Studio, who the couple drafted in to help.
“There were a lot of structural walls so I mostly stuck with the original layout. I moved only the bathroom door, to install a larger shower stall, and also reconfigured the kitchen.”
The couple’s son, Kai Kai, six, had been sharing his parents’ bedroom because the other one was devoted to storage, so their first requirement was to give him a space of his own. Allowing the boy to reclaim his room, Lam designed and built wooden platforms throughout the apartment, with easy-lift trapdoors and abundant space for the family’s belongings.