Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Story gives meaning to any design.

  • And I thought when it's located next to the forest we should create a tree house because it's something that is quite dreamy and at the same time very cozy.

  • The apartment is located in the middle of Hong Kong.

  • There's not much of greenery area especially in the center of the city.

  • So we actually really treasured a moment when we actually have an opportunity to build an apartment next to the hillside.

  • This apartment is 33 square meters for the interior.

  • Four square meters for the balcony.

  • I live in the apartment with my dog and we each have our own corners.

  • The apartment is bought three years ago.

  • At that time it was a one-bedroom apartment and what I've done here is I demolished the partitioning wall and built a tree house.

  • After you kind of break the wall, it created like a panoramic view that frames the outside.

  • I think a lot of the challenges comes in to like working with the existing built that is being provided by the apartment that when I purchased.

  • For the kitchen, they made it out of brass and wood.

  • And that's why I want to keep it, because there's a already a very nice kitchen.

  • We only have like a simple dark blue color to echo the kitchen.

  • To highlight the gold, and not have it overtly too bling.

  • And at the same time, put in a few elements which is custom that is gold also like the Tom Dixon light adjacent to the sofa.

  • A lot of people saying that in a small apartment, you shouldn't be using very dark colors.

  • It really kind of depends on what kind of situation you are in.

  • If you're trying to frame the view of the outside, so the outside should take precedence as opposed to the inside.

  • It actually helps you connect yourself to the outside.

  • I brought in the Patricia Urquiola terracotta tiles and clad the outskirt of it, and it worked perfectly with the timber frame.

  • Also, the dark and the light is about creating sequences.

  • Downstairs of the treehouse is only six foot and upstairs is four foot.

  • It actually allows me to host dinner parties below the tree house.

  • When you get up to the tree house, all side of the walls including the ceiling is all clad in pinewood.

  • And when you're inside the space, you have a really tiny slit of window that kind of looks out into the forest, feels really cozy.

  • One side of the wall was part of the closets.

  • So what I did to the closet is the lower part I clad it in paints that matched the dark blue paint downstairs.

  • So when you're in the lower level, you feel like you're in one space.

  • But when you actually get to the upper level, it's all kinda in timber, so you already feel like you're in another space.

  • Because they want to minimize any vertical element in the kitchen, they've divided it into two under counter fridge.

  • So one side is the freezer and the other one is just a normal fridge.

  • It is very quiet living next to the forest, and it's very convenient because it's in the middle of Hong Kong.

  • And it is nice to actually be able to look into something other than concrete in Hong Kong.

  • So we really want to treasure this--that kind of view when you're in here.

Story gives meaning to any design.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it