This ‘one of a kind’ Hong Kong home was a dad’s labour of love for his daughter, redesigned with recycled wood and made for entertaining family and friends
- Steve Leung turned two village houses on Lamma Island into a beautiful, functional home, finished with salvaged boat timber, for his daughter
- What he thought would be a four-month project turned into a two-year labour of love hindered by typhoons, flooding and limited access to utilities
For one of Asia’s most experienced architects and interior designers, who has worked on numerous commercial and residential developments, the renovation of a humble weekend getaway should have been a simple affair.
But what Steve Leung thought would be a four-month project turned into a two-year labour of love that saw budget blowouts, typhoons, flooding and limited access to utilities.
The property’s prize asset, its isolated setting on Lamma Island, in Hong Kong’s south, also became its Achilles’ heel. The quickest and easiest way to reach it is by a 15-minute boat trip from Aberdeen, past an armada of trawlers and across a shipping channel to a cove full of bobbing fish farms.
A private jetty leads to the house, a blocky glare of white concrete and timber ringed by jungle and the deep blue of the South China Sea.
For Leung, the founder of Steve Leung Design Group, it was love at first sight after he had spent months looking for a property to gift his daughter, Stefanie.
Stefanie Leung had left a career in law to train as a chef. Following stints at the family’s restaurants (a separate business), she turned to cooking privately at home. Her father, whose book Steve Leung: Designing Asia and Beyond, by Christina Ko, is out this month, wanted to surprise her with a unique venue where she could entertain family, friends and associates, and OOAK Lamma was born.
