The Transforming Apartment: 24 Rooms In One

When viewing architect Gary Chang’s Hong Kong dwelling in any of it’s stationary modes, it looks like an ordinary modern studio apartment. But hidden behind the surface of the current room is a whole house worth of spaces. Compressed into a mere 344 square feet, Chang’s “domestic transformer” living space holds 24 possible configurations. Move a wall, pull out a table and the room’s now a kitchen – or pull out the hidden Murphy bed, and it’s a bedroom. Sliding wall units and fold down furniture come together in various formations to create a kitchen, library, laundry room, dressing room, a lounge with a hammock and an enclosed dining area and a wet bar.

Chang (who’s 46) has lived in this small space since he was 14, at one point sharing it with his parents, three younger sisters and one tenant. This kind of compressed living is common in Hong Kong, where a rapidly growing population necessitates cramped living arrangements.

The New York Times reports:

Mr. Chang hopes that some of his home’s innovations might be replicated to help improve domestic life in Hong Kong, which has been troubled in recent years. The population grew by nearly a half-million in just the last 10 years, and between 2003 and 2007, reports of new cases of child, spousal and elder abuse nearly doubled, something social workers attribute in part to new social pressures caused by the city’s ongoing shortage of space.

“It’s a big problem,” Mr. Chang said. “Killing each other is not uncommon.”

“People feel trapped,” he said. “We have to find ways to live together in very small spaces.”

The New York Times: “24 Rooms Tucked Into One”

[via Apartment Therapy]