Space-saving furniture transforms to make the most of a Hong Kong micro-apartment

Hong Kong’s astronomical housing prices and tiny living spaces have made multifunctional furniture a necessity for many of the city’s homes.

Hong Kong’s astronomical housing prices and tiny living spaces have made multifunctional furniture a necessity for many of the city’s homes. Local firm Design Eight Five Two maximizes the footprint of one such micro-apartment with the addition of space-saving furniture. The Kowloon Bay apartment, called Flat 27A, was completely redesigned and customized for the owner, a photographer, and his cat.

Flat 27A was formerly subdivided into five rooms, two of which were used as bedrooms. Design Eight Five Two knocked down most of the internal walls to create a single bedroom and a large open-plan living area with sliding doors to delineate the private quarters from the communal area. Custom-made hidden storage minimizes clutter and conceals the owner’s extensive library as well as a variety of objects, from camera equipment to a coffee machine. The cat’s bed is even hidden away behind a hole carved in a cabinet of a storage unit.

“Flat 27A was an opportunity to bring a kind of subtle magic to our client’s home,” write the architects. “A powerful sense of pleasure and comfort that would set it apart – for its simplicity, ease, and efficiency.” With the removal of the internal walls, the apartment has a more spacious feel and has greater access to natural light. In addition to hidden storage and sliding partitions, the architects added a custom-built dining table that folds out to accommodate ten people.