House Grey

The House Grey project is private residence located on the ground floor of a low rise residential complex.

Being the architect’s own residence, it is inevitably and undeniably a project seeks to critique and explore architecture, personality and decades of collective influences and interest. It is Kahn’s influenced, distilled, deliberately curated and recomposed to respond and interrogate all fundamental requirement of a living space, an abode and ultimately a personal sanctuary. An epiphany from living the fast paced rhythms of city life that inevitably succumbed to the pressure of life, resistance, opposition and struggle, that life deserves a spiritual, physical and mental sanctuary. A sequel to the House White project, it is an introvert version of the antidote.

The project’s spatial arrangement is a curated journey through three major zones - the wedge-shaped private garden, the rectilinear internal living spaces, and the courtyard.

The journey begins by an inconspicuous recessed entry on the narrowest end of the wedge-shape garden. Upon entry, the garden is deliberately interrupted by a pair of concrete walls like an informal gateway, like sculptural tree stumps, not only denying the linear visual assumption of the odd shape outdoor space, but simultaneously creating a transitional space to the main garden forming a small courtyard to the master bedroom tucked on the side. Through the sculptural stumps, the main garden is presented together with volumes of the entry and the main internal living space of the residence.

The entry is once again recessed into the main volume of the internal space, blurring the definition of inside and outside. It is here the material used starts to distinguish from grey to warm plywood lined storage space with with meticulously designed details. Upon entry, the foyer is once again another transitional space before transpires into a series of more private and intimate internal living spaces. It is a waiting area, a chill-out space, almost a green room with skylights.

Sequentially the journey continues to be greeted by a family room with dining space diagonally connected to the living room. Walls are lined in similar plywood of those at entry, contrasting the greyed ceiling and grey wood-grained floor boards throughout the entire residence. Framed paintings and prints collections are wall hung with suspended wires like in art galleries, respecting the plywood lined walls, of impermanence, changeable.

The kitchen and the rest of the ancillary facilities are considered operational, they are tucked away behind walls, where the rest of the bedrooms are arranged on both sides of the linear corridor. The spaces from inside the living area through to master bedroom are visually and physically connected by oversized pivoted doors. When weather permits, these pivot doors open out to the garden, allowing direct access to the garden, the indoor spaces incidentally become covered outdoor area. The rest of the other two children’s bedrooms are arranged on the other side of the corridor, both have direct access to a light filled courtyard space. The music room at the end of the corridor is deliberately made into a sanctuary, acoustically lined and shield.

The furniture is a collection of functional art pieces, some are deliberately oversized but uncluttered and ordered that compliment each of their space. Air conditioning vents are associated with the wall panels together with the wall arts, as if they are part of decorative elements.

Private Residence

150 Sqm

Kowloon, Hong Kong

Completed 2022