Gary Chang’s Apartment

Gary Chang’s Apartment

Hong Kong architect and technophile Gary Chang has the most amazing apartment. His 344-square-foot space can be shifted into at least 24 different layouts, using a funhouse’s worth of sliding walls and detachable shelving.

Chang has lived in this apartment since he was 14, moving in with his parents and three younger sisters. Back then, he used to sleep in the hallway. Now, he uses a hydraulic Murphy bed that he designed himself, which is usually hidden behind a sofa during the day. Turning his apartment into what he’s named a “Domestic Transformer” hasn’t been cheap. It only cost $45,000 to buy, but his latest design efforts came with a $218,000 price tag.

“using shifting wall units suspended from steel tracks bolted into the ceiling, the apartment becomes all manner of spaces — kitchen, library, laundry room, dressing room, a lounge with a hammock, an enclosed dining area and a wet bar.” (nytimes.com)

his apartment is decorated with alessi dishes, arne jacobsen cutlery, or what mr. chang calls an “altar of muji accessories”. quotation from interactivearchitecture.org: “ultimate spatial flexibility is created through the multiple operations of the partitions. lighting. and mobile furniture. all the mundane necessities of bachelor life – books. cds. clothing, pictures. stereo, videos are stacked on a chrome factory shelving system and hidden discreetly behind floating white curtains. the central space becomes the actual space for living, working, eating, sleeping, chatting, dressing and reading. blue fluorescent tubes are carefully placed to wash the floor with an unearthly glow, while bright up-lighting articulates structural members. the main aperture of the front window offers views to the world beyond whether the actual view out of the window, or through the large scale movie screen to the fantasy world of hollywood, the real world of news, or the electronic world of internet.” and his own arguement for staying there instead of moving into a bigger apartment: “but why do that? i see my place as an ongoing experiment.”