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In a Hong Kong Flat, Customized Design and Storage
HONG KONG
Just minutes from the bustle of Hong Kong’s central business district, in a quiet hillside neighborhood of residential towers, Joanne Ooi is enjoying the first residence she has ever owned.
Ms. Ooi, who grew up in Cincinnati, moved to Hong Kong in 1994, fresh out of the University of Pennsylvania law school. What was meant to be a short-term stint in Asia turned into a career: Since 2001 she has been creative director of Shanghai Tang, a Hong Kong-based retail chain, and in May she opened OoiBotos, Hong Kong’s first art gallery featuring contemporary Chinese photography.
Two years ago, acknowledging that Hong Kong had become more than just a stop on her regular business travels, Ms. Ooi bought a 1,400-square-foot apartment, paying six million Hong Kong dollars, or about $772,000 at the time. Recently, similar units in the 37-year-old building have been priced at 10.5 million Hong Kong dollars ($1.35 million).
Ms. Ooi spent more than $100,000 renovating the two-bedroom two-bath apartment. A self-described “detail freak,” she designed the interiors with the help of Johnny Wong, an architect at FAK3 (pronounced fake), the Hong Kong architectural firm. The living room is dominated by a custom-built unit of dark wood and industrial steel that rotates 360 degrees. Depending on how it is positioned and which panels are opened, the piece can serve as a desk, entertainment center or storage. “Because of this insane, rotating thing,” Ms. Ooi said, “and since I had everything custom made, renovations alone took six months.” It was early 2007 by the time she and her son, Sam, now 9, finally moved in.
Among the items that were made to her specifications are the dining room table, which has a black and white marble top to evoke yin and yang, and a colorful tiered lamp that hangs over the table. In the green marble guest bathroom is a shower curtain inspired by a Song dynasty painting.
One advantage of her built-in cabinets, Ms. Ooi said, is the abundance of storage space. “I have a lot of stuff,” she said, referring not only to her art and clothing, but also to objects from her job and the remaining inventory from a boutique she operated before joining Shanghai Tang.
Aside from sturdy shelves and cabinets, her architect installed many hidden cupboards. Out-of-season clothing and other items can be found behind the living room sofa; cabinets are hidden under the dining room banquettes and there is storage behind the headboard in the master bedroom.
It is easy to see a small boy lives here. A small balcony provides parking for his bike, while the rotating cabinet in the living room stores stacks of DVDs of animated films and his an electronic keyboard. His bedroom was designed with a loft sleeping area, leaving the floor free for play and drawing.
The apartment also reflects Ms. Ooi’s passion for art. Because Hong Kong’s subtropical climate can be hard on artwork, Ms. Ooi relies on air conditioning and dehumidifiers — and quality framing, she said — to maintain her collection.
She has a few small works by the late T’ang Heywen, a master of Chinese ink painting, but contemporary photography fascinates her right now. Ms. Ooi owns several prints by the French photographer Bettina Rheims, but the apartment’s prime wall space is taken up with works by Liu Ren, Chen Zhuo and Huang Keyi, three Chinese photographers represented by her gallery. Ms. Ooi runs the business side of the gallery; her partner, Lisa Botos, a former picture editor at Time magazine, handles its artistic direction. “I have worked a lot in the world of the image,” Ms. Ooi said, “and I think photography is in ascendancy as a form of human expression.”
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