Located at a prominent corner site in one of Hong Kong’s most prestigious property areas, it would seem difficult for this exclusive 3-storey above basement residence to not make a bold statement with its presence. The challenge for the architect was however, to design a cozy family home with subtle elegance yet expressive in personality to reflect the lifestyle of the owner.

The orientation and overall massing of the building was carefully designed with respect to the streetscape and surrounding tranquil environment. The result is a building form expressed as a 2 -storey fair face concrete volume containing the bedroom accommodation ‘floating’ above the ground floor living space below. This opposing tension is felt most at the entrance with the weight of the volume above providing a deep covered area.

Green building design is the prime driving mechanism behind this project. Passive energy, natural ventilation, large balconies, green roofs, solar collectors, rainwater harvesting for recycling, energy efficient installations and eco-friendly materials have all been strategically introduced with a goal to achieving a sustainable home which would minimize its impact to the environment. The large openable skylight on the roof not only brings warm daylight right down to the ground floor level of the house through void openings on every floor but also promotes natural ventilation throughout the whole building by stack effect once the skylight is opened.

Living accommodation on ground level is a series of spacious open interiors free-flowing seamlessly into each other. Space is defined with the use of furniture which could be easily moved around to suit the family’s changing lifestyle. Such open planning offers unlimited flexibility in the use of space and allows the remodeling of interior layout without the need for any major renovation works thereby saving costs and reduce construction wastage. The living space spills out into a lush green lawn through large sliding glass doors to enhance the continuous flow of internal and external space.