People in Hong Kong are used toliving in small spaces.
But I have learned to adapt.
The city is always transforming.
I am always transforming.
And so I have made my home
transform as well.
I call my home the Domestic Transformer.
Officially, it is 344 square feet.
But for me
it is infinite.
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I always challengepeople's conception of a home
because my home is not about
a collection of rooms.
My home is organized around
little thingsthat you have to do every day
and you treasure or enjoy,
like makingcoffee in the so-called kitchen,
even though it doesn't look quite likea kitchen in the normal sense.
One of the most unusual featuresin my home is
the area of each amenity could vary
depending on what I do, what I need.
A lot of places still define a homeby how many rooms you've got.
If you are still stuck on this definition, it's just really limiting.
As long as you are in a city center,
from London, New York, or Hong Kong,
you're bound to realize that your homeis getting smaller and smaller.
That's why I want to explorethe positive effect of compact living.
Every moment I'm using the entire space.
I don't utilize just one room only.
As a result my home feelsmuch bigger than it should.
Gary Chang isthe quintessential Hong Kong architect.
Not in the sensethat his work is typical, by any means...
but more in terms of his story.
He was born, raised and trainedin Hong Kong,
and I think you see that in his work.
The fact that he was trained heregives him a very special perspective
for designing, for really nurturing his own imagination.
Hong Kong has always been his lens.
As a city state,
Hong Kong certainly has one ofthe highest urban densities in the world.
The total population of Hong Kong nowis 7.35 million people.
And it's a strange city to describe,
because you get a great feelingof overcrowdedness.
The entire city is a complex network
that moves at a pace of its own.
You can stand stilland let the city move around you.
Because space is so tight in Hong Kong, and because homes are generally so small,
the city becomes everyone's living room.
And in some ways, there's somethingwonderfully almost civic
or democratic about that.
The public realmdoes become a shared space,
and I think that contributes a lotto the dynamism of Hong Kong.
The streets are always packed,
and yet somehow we all manageto get along and make it work.
Only 24% of Hong Kong islandis actually built on.
The places we live, the places we workare all fitted into that 24%.
You inhabitthe most unlikely spaces here
because it is the only space you can go.
Gary is not a delirious architect.
He is, in a way, the opposite.
He appreciates delirium.
He likes all the madnessthat goes around him.
And that gives him energyto create his work.
My office EDGEhas been around for 25 years.
My office is really a laboratory for meand my colleagues to explore
the notion of flexible homeand compact living.
Gary is a very unique Hong Kong architect.
And by that, I mean he has in hima very pragmatic streak.
Gary accepts a certain framework, certain order:
the urban density and order of Hong Kong.
And in working within this framework,
he does completely imaginativeand dreaming things.
To me, getting involved in architectureis totally not accidental.
I have been studying architecturelong before school.
My home molded me to become an architect.
My family moved to this apartment40 years ago,
but it didn't look like this.
It was the year 1976.
We didn't own it.
We rent the space only.
There used to bea kitchen and bathroom here
and one, two, three bedrooms.
The one for my young sisters,
my parents' room,
and then we had the third room.
My parents were rather poor
and striving very hard to earn money.
And so the third bedroom in our apartment
my parents sublet to an outsider.
All together it's seven peoplein the same place.
So I don't have my own room.
My bed is actually in the living room.
Every night, I had to transforma six-foot long bench
into my temporary bed.
I had to wait for everyone elseto go to bed
before I was able to.
I definitely think not having a permanentbed affected my way of life at the time.
I didn't want to complain,
but my so-called room, it doesn't entirely look like a bedroom
because it'sthe living room of the family.
And I think this really changed me a lot
in how I perceive a space.
A lot of my friends always questionwhy I have this Murphy bed.
Maybe because I have been practicingmaking my bed since childhood
this is no big deal.
I have this memory, but I was very youngat the time, so it's kind of blurry.
My father began working in Oregon
and then gradually spendingmost of the time in Boston
for, cumulatively, more than seven years.
My family needed me to support them.
So I sent them money backto Hong Kong every month.
Around 700 U.S. dollars.
Plus 100 dollars for my parents.
So actually I didn't have much for my own.
Not having my father aroundwas hard for all of us.
It definitely changed the family dynamic.
My mother,
she had to behave both as a mother
and function also as a father.
I still remember our childhoodas pretty much focused on studying.
As a result, we are extremely quiet
and obedient.
We had very, very little time
to play.
You remember when you're in primary schoolor secondary school?
It's always the same old question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
I remember every time I said, "I want to be an architect."
Hey.
How have you been?
Good. How are you? Good to see you.
Still surviving?
Yeah. Yeah. It's all good.
Walking into Gary's apartment, it's like walking into a toy.
What's underneath?
It's luggage.
And that has a lot to dowith Gary's personality.
There's such a childlike quality to him.
This is one ofthe earliest details I designed
because I realized thatif I don't have a nice handle
I don't want to pull the wall.
So this is rather comfortable.
-That's very---Be careful.
Don't lean on the walls.
You know Hong Kong is hotmost of the time
so it's nice to touch metal surfaces.
It's cool.
Oh, by the way, this is the kitchen.
And I deliberately put a scalein front of the fridge
to warn myself not to open it too often.
Especially after going to bed.
It's, in many ways, almost designed for a spaceship.
In a spaceship, you have to be very compact.
Every square inch countsand is accounted for,
and that's very much what Gary has done.
So it becomes balcony space.
And also, the place is just so shiny.
See it in action now, finally.
In a normal home, you movefrom the living room to the bedroom.
For me, I don't have these terminologies.
The environment changes for you, for different purposes.
I think you've said that this waythe rooms come to you,
instead of you going to the rooms, right?
Simply by reorganizing things
or your mind-set
the use is totally different
and your spatial experienceis totally different.
So how does this table work?
This works pretty muchlike a Swiss Army knife.
So you can swing out
on a pivot.
Here, I want to show you something.
Oh, great.
This is my home in miniature.
This shows the ten most significantscenarios of limitless permutations.
When you see the model,
you get an even better senseof how small the space actually is.
These days people explain your homein terms of the area.
To me, it's totally irrelevant because
it's really about the distancebetween the family
and between the furniture that ismore important to realize.
How many versions of the apartmenthave you done here?
Since the last 40 years? Five.
Five in 40 years?
And this last modeas the Domestic Transformer
was pretty much, 10 years.
Since 2007.
My mother suggested to buy the apartmentaround the year 1988,
one year afterl graduated from university.
Thirty years ago, this apartment cost350,000 Hong Kong dollars.
That means it should bearound 40,000 U.S. dollars.
Since I graduatedfrom architecture school,
I try to use my home as a labto transform once every several years,
every time for a different concept.
In one of the first versionsof this apartment,
he was quite young then,
and he decided thathe wants to put everything--
his books, his collection, his CDs, all his junk on shelves along the wall,
and he had a white curtainthat draws around them.
Depending on which part you open, Itransform my home for a different purpose.
I was influenced by Philippe Starck.
First time I was there, I just said, "Gary, this is a hospital."
I don't think he was very pleased.
But at the same time, I was, in a way, joking with him.
It's not a hospital.
It is one of the most ethereal spacesl've ever been.
In the very beginning, he just simply negated everything.
Making pure space by hiding everythingin an orderly manner.
I think that becomes part of the artthat he is pursuing.
The last transformation is actually 2007.
I have a business trip to Shanghaiand then when I'm back
I saw water leaking outfrom the apartment.
The water is actually the sea water.
We use the sea water as flushing water.
It's really nasty.
The place was completely destroyed.
I was so angry, but for a very short time.
Because I started to feelvery excited and inspired
because this is such a good excuseto redo my home again.
I really took it seriously and spent
an abnormally long period of time, one year, doing changes.
I had to start over and lookto my surroundings to be inspired.
In Hong Kong, people are so creativein using limited resources.
That really inspired the ideaof transformation and flexibility.
Also, I was very much inspiredby the building next door to my home.
They have a lot of stallsinside the building
that are always so narrow,
less than three feet wide,
but they haveso many kinds of activities inside.
They open it in the morning
and then put it back every day and night.
It's a daily ritual.
That really inspired me.
I decided to make transformationthe main idea behind my home.
He's basically sort of realized the dream
of the ultimate flexibilityand adaptability of space.
The apartment is small, about the sizeof a typical American living room.
But it's a very complex designbased on very simple moves.
Instead of me movingfrom one room to the other,
I practically don't move.
It depends on what I do.
I transform the homefor that particular purpose.
One of the most popular scenarios
I have a home theater
for four to six friends.
In another scenario
I could pull these two walls out
and then reveal the bathtub.
The entire space could be a spa.
The laundry spacecould also expand and contract
depending on whetheryou are using it or not.
I want everything insidebigger than usual.
So, I'm able to havea desk which is seven feet long.
One of the main challengesof living in this apartment is
how to organize yourself around the home.
Something very significant about
organizing a spacein a very tight environment
is the bed.
You can imagine if I have a permanent bed,
it would occupya significant portion of the space.
So, to me, the most important thingis to let the bed disappear.
There's no fixed configuration becauseall the walls are moving.
Mathematically, it's pretty much limitless.
His home is this kind of mood ringin some senses,
because it changes with Gary's moodand depending on what he feels like.
All the walls that can move,
they are actually hung on the ceiling.
It depends on the width of the wall.
The minimum is two tracks,
or in some places it's three
for this big wallcontaining 3,000 compact discs.
There are also wheels,
but in the end I found outit leaves marks on the floor so
I raised it so that now it's entirelyhung on the ceiling.
I wanted to make it functional, as well as beautiful.
Another very prominent feature of my home,
in terms of materials, is the mirror.
My idea is not just for the reflection,
it's a way to conceal the tracks.
You can imagine ifit's a normal white ceiling,
it would be extremely busy.
The floor is actually made of
over seven-foot long
granite slabs, which are polished.
So that it givesanother dimension to the space.
Material-wise, it's predominantly dominated by metals.
I picked the metalmore because of this durability,
but when the sun hits my apartment, it gives a very warm glow.
The metal could become suddenlyso cozy and intimate.
One important consideration, if yourcompact home has too much furniture,
it will definitely look messy.
So my way of organizing things isl try to make it monotone
so that you almost don't differentiatewhich part is the furniture
and which partsare elements of construction.
The walls, floor, and ceilings--they all look alike.
I try to explore the ideaof multipurpose furniture as well.
A small table can be a chair.
Several chairs can be a bench.
Ultimately, you have to look beyondtraditional definitions.
During the parties, we need some spacefor a private moment, like making a call.
So, at that time, my shower willbecome the telephone booth.
Did the transformer apartmentget you any new clients,
doing any new stuff?
There's a big developer in Hong Kongwho invited us to do research--
-Careful.-Thanks.
That developer in Hong Konginvited us to do research
into nano units, which are roughly about
180 square feet to 200 square feet.
That's like the size of a parking space.
That seems likeyour apartment is too big now.
Yeah, I could set the bar.
All of these apartments around hereare about the same size as yours,
300 square feet, more or less.
Curiously enough, so many developers have launched
these nano units, but actually nobody really
is seriously looking intohow people's lives
could be done within this area.
The world density is increasing. The urban densities are increasing.
Globally, 50% of peoplenow live in cities.
And the smaller unitsare now a fact of life.
Especially in Hong Kong,
where most people don't have a choiceabout the size of their home,
Gary was way ahead of the curve in termsof this whole micro housing issue
that has become such a big one,
with housing becomingincreasingly unaffordable
for an increasing number of people.
And I think, in that sense, Gary hit on something
that has attracted a lot of attentionin a way that is increasingly important,
relevant and applicableto cities all over the world.
For example, he has designed
one of the very thinnest pencil towersin a city full of thin pencil towers,
the Rednaxela.
We did the architecture, interior, and furniture all together, in one go.
And the site is really tiny, no more than 1,000 square feet.
Nineteen stories high, not too tall, with one unit per floor.
It's essentiallyan elevator and service stair core
with little rooms attached to the side.
In New York, the average size ofa studio flat is probably 500 square feet,
maybe a little bit lower in London.
But here in Hong Kong, for the last five to ten years,
we've been increasinglybuilding smaller units.
The area you could useinside the apartment
is about 260 square feet.
The main idea is we do a triangulation.
We are able to create a more thantwelve-foot-long table and window.
The footprint is not too big, but you are able to look out all the time
so you feel not jammed and cramped.
It's quite different from my home.
The Rednaxela is even smaller
but still built on the idea of
flexibility
and transformable spaces.
To open this, a fingerprint is needed.
Keys are useless.
You haven't been here for quite long.
Right.
I've almost forgotten this place, after one or two years.
This used to be the kitchen.
A total difference.
It is much bigger now.
Do you still remember?
Yes.
Have the windows been replaced?
Yes. Previously, peoplecould look through the glass at night.
So I have replaced the old glass.
Oh, there is a dishwasher.
Wow, you've got a lot of dishware.
All for yourself?
This way I don't have to washall of them every time.
Because of the upbringing from my parents
my childhood taught me
how to cope with change and instability.
And it taught me that
I was able to do anything.
This cup looks different.
Quite fancy.
What a cup.
This is more than just my home.
This space is extremely emotional.
It's actually connected to me.
How time flies! In just the blinkof an eye, so many years have passed.
Not only did I transform my home,
it totally transformed me.
Before our discussion
I'd like to show yousome of the key projects we have done.
One of the most importantis still my home,
the Domestic Transformer.
Have you done any renovationon your apartment?
After Domestic Transformer?
I changed the window.
Before it was tinted yellow, which of course was fantastic...
The Hong Kong Design Trustis a foundation in Hong Kong
that fosters creativityfor the young professionals in design.
Maybe we should walk upstairsand talk about your projects.
Twenty-something years ago,
I was the one that actually offered Garyhis first teaching job.
In conjunction with the EDGE Institute, his firm, he has the idea
that he wants to work with young peoplein a collaborative manner
to bring out the best in them.
You have to see how things are related, and how things co-exist
in a tight footprint.
It's important for me to be a mentorto the younger architects
because in our profession
I still believe thatwhat you learned and experienced
should be passed onto the younger generation.
Your life is not about runningfrom one bedroom to the kitchen.
To me, it's more about what you doat your home, and what you like most,
and how to make it better.
Gary actually is vital as a catalystfor the young architects in the future.
He is always interested in the next step,
always interested in going beyond.
I think about what's kept me hereinstead of moving to a bigger space.
It is because I have chosento make my life, and my home,
a radical experiment in transformation.
And I want to helpother people transform too.
Everything points to one thing,
and that is, we should question how we live.
Gary's solution is not the only way.
You just need tohave the willingness to try.
And then I think we'd makea much more creative
and, let's say, happier society.
Livability is keyto living at high density.
And Gary, quite correctly,
has made smaller units more habitable, more interesting, more enjoyable.
Homes are places that we entertain in, that we retreat to,
that we hide in or that we show off.
And I have this image of Gary redefiningconstantly his relationship with his home.
Most of us only have one hometo have a relationship with.
He has 20.
He sees things differently. He approaches things differently.
And I think that's whathis contribution is.
I hope people can learnfrom the Domestic Transformer
that you don't need a large hometo live luxuriously,
that luxury is in the details of your homeand the way you use it.
I hope one day that I will be rememberedfor teaching people
that small is beautiful.
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