Designer Turns Studio Apartment into 24 Rooms
By Ike Edeani
While living in San Diego a few years back I had a 400-square-foot studio apartment in the University Heights district. In an effort to conserve space I bought a sofa bed from IKEA, a cleverly designed piece with wheels that locked into place, making it easy to fold and unfold. I soon realized that I was usually either too busy or too tired to make the change (or to replace the upholstery with bed clothes), and would end up either sleeping on the ‘sofa’, or entertaining on the ‘bed’.
Gary Chang would no doubt be disgusted by my inefficient use of space. In 1988 Chang, a Hong Kong architect, paid $45,000 for a 344-square-foot apartment in Hong Kong’s Sai Wan Ho district. It was the same apartment he had lived in with his entire family (6 people in all, including 1 tenant) since he was 14 years old. What followed over the years was a series of transformations, all with the same goal of maximizing space and creating more flexibility of use
The latest iteration, completed in 2006 and dubbed “Domestic Transformer” by Chang, has 24 possible configurations, allowing for a variety of uses – living room, library, kitchen, laundry, lounge, spa, dining area, wet bar, and a screening room complete with a hammock – achieved with a series of sliding wall units on overhead tracks that shift to create and reveal completely different rooms.
Chang, who operates the architecture firm EDGE Design Institute out of Hong Kong, hopes his creation will inspire others, particularly developers, to be more creative in their approach to space planning, helping to alleviate the overcrowding and space shortage problems prevalent in many Hong Kong homes.