How designers engineered flow in a young family’s home
Craft of Both revamps a Discovery Bay, Hong Kong, apartment around one key feature: curves
It is possible to see every corner of this multi-room Discovery Bay apartment if you stand by the dining table. That the flat feels so well connected, however, is even more remarkable when you consider that the building itself is unusually angular.
“Everything inside was weirdly oblique, with narrow corridors and walls protruding at 45 degrees,” says Jay Jordan, co-founder, with Christina Standaloft, of design studio Craft of Both. Equally perplexing were the windows framing the rolling hills that were obstructed in some rooms by retrofitted furniture.
For the two designers, partners in work and life, resolving the challenges while maximising views and light presented a creative opportunity.
Originally two separate units joined in a previous renovation, the now 1,800 sq ft apartment is home to Michael Carlisle, a Cathay Pacific captain, Gemma Lau, a business development professional, and their three-year-old daughter, Alina. Engaging Craft of Both on a friend’s recommendation, the family wanted “a lovely, comfortable, light and airy home with space to just be”, says Lau.
Prerequisites were four bedrooms (one doubling as a home gym, one a guest room), a study (later carved out of the living area), two family bathrooms, plus a helper’s quarters and storage, storage, storage.