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Wood may just be the next ‘quiet luxury’ trend for Hong Kong homes

Whether it’s a colonial touch or traditional Chinese-style architecture you seek, ever-versatile timber’s your answer

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Professional musician Kelvin Leung’s Tai Wai flat was inspired by his alma mater, King’s College, and designed by Win Key Workshop. Photo: courtesy Win Key Workshop
Peta Tomlinson

Building with wood is as much about feelings as aesthetics. Upcycled trees are warm to the touch, pleasant on the nose and, as a biophilic material, psychologically soothing.

Hong Kong might be bucking a global movement back to timber construction, but inside their concrete towers, some residents are finding that designing with wood transports them to a place of calm.

Professional musician Kelvin Leung became so attached to his alma mater, King’s College, in Sai Ying Pun, that he had his wedding photos shot there. Not only that but the wooden walls inside the boys’ school, a classical declared monument built in 1926, informed the design of his Tai Wai home.
Like the rest of Leung’s apartment, the bedroom favours rich timber hues for a British colonial touch. Photo: courtesy Win Key Workshop
Like the rest of Leung’s apartment, the bedroom favours rich timber hues for a British colonial touch. Photo: courtesy Win Key Workshop

“In my first year of secondary school, when teachers taught us about the architecture of the building, I was not very interested,” says Leung, a chromatic harmonica player. “Over time, I started to enjoy the atmosphere around me, which felt warm and cosy. I thought those vintage interior elements would be nice to have in my own apartment.”

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In his client’s preferences, Vincent Leung Tsz-chun, Win Key Workshop’s interior designer and project manager, detected a British gentleman’s club sensibility. Although this design genre called for dark wood, rather than the lighter, Nordic-style timbers dominant in Hong Kong, Win Key’s design made it work. It might even herald a trend, says Leung, who senses a shift back to the depth of classic timbers such as mahogany and walnut, alongside a growing appetite for “quiet luxury” and appreciation of heritage.

In the two-bedroom, two-bathroom 840 sq ft flat, vintage-inspired patterned floor tiles are complemented by walnut wainscoting and a walnut ceiling, the deep chocolate wood tones and ruby ceramics imbuing, Leung says, “warmth and character with a colonial touch”.

“The colour of this timber also works well with the sunlight coming into the apartment’s windows from different directions,” says Studio Adjective’s Wilson Lee of this Parkview home. Photo: courtesy Studio Adjective
“The colour of this timber also works well with the sunlight coming into the apartment’s windows from different directions,” says Studio Adjective’s Wilson Lee of this Parkview home. Photo: courtesy Studio Adjective

The use of veneer, rather than solid wood, balances sustainability with sensibility, he continues, and avoids vulnerability to expansion and contraction as humidity levels rise and fall. “Wanting the visitor to feel the richness of the decor, but without the heaviness, we layered the entranceway with floor and ceiling lighting,” he says.

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