Inside a young Chinese couple’s Shenzhen apartment – Zen-like, functional and future-proof
Renovating the flat might have been a rocky experience for both the designer and homeowners, but the result made it all worth it
Design is about solving problems. It may not sound glamorous, but designers are tasked with finding solutions to a range of technical, formal and budgetary challenges – not to mention flaring tempers.
Belying the polished lustre of this flat in Shenzhen’s Fragrance Hill estate was a strained relationship between the designer and client that simmered throughout the year-long renovation.
“Near the end of the project we had a fight and almost terminated the contract,” says Wesley Liu Yik-kuen, of PplusP Designers, who completed the renovation last November.
The main issue, according to Liu, was construction. In Hong Kong, one main contractor would have handled the project, he says, but in Shenzhen the process was fragmented.
Armed with more than 150 pages of the studio’s complex design drawings, the clients – a young Chinese couple – struggled to find contractors willing to follow the directives. All the while, the wife, a marketing technician at Chinese internet giant Tencent, managed the project meticulously, calculating costs down to the yuan.
“She went a little mad,” says Liu. “All of the contractors were telling her a different story.”