Residential

The Elm Tree Project

Elm Tree, Hong Kong

Bespoke joinery throughout, family apartment

Photography Pending

A family apartment carried by its joinery. Rather than treat storage as cupboards added to finished rooms, we drew the cabinetry first and let it define how each space reads, so that the things a busy household actually owns have somewhere to go before the furniture arrives.

The living room is a single full-height wall in dark timber, fluted and caned, that gives nothing away when it is closed. Sliding panels draw back to uncover the television; a flap above lifts to a display shelf; and the bays at either end swing open to a bicycle hung vertically on each side with the tennis rackets stood below. A family that cycles and plays gets to keep its equipment in the main room without the room ever looking like a garage.

The entry answers in the opposite register. Deep green shaker joinery runs beneath a walnut bench top, with open cubbies below for woven baskets and a bank of drawers above, while a botanical paper climbs the upper wall and carries across the ceiling. Brass hooks take coats at adult and child height, and a black marble floor absorbs everything Hong Kong weather brings in through the door.

Two pieces show the same thinking at smaller scale. A Montessori wardrobe was drawn to a child's reach, 1580 by 580 millimetres with its hanging rail low enough that a young child dresses themselves, finished to match the existing cabinetry so it never reads as furniture bought separately. The hallway door was redrawn as a timber panel with a mitred plank pattern and a narrow vertical light slot, so a door that is only ever passed through still earns its detail.

Dark timber veneer with fluted and caned panels, deep green lacquered joinery, walnut counters, brushed brass hooks and pulls, black marble flooring.

Full-height living room joinery wall in dark timber with fluted and caned panels — Closed, the living room wall is one uninterrupted run of dark timber, alternating fluted panels with caned inserts above a stone bench top and a low bank of drawers. Designing the whole wall as a single composition, and letting the cane and fluting carry the interest instead of open shelving, is what allows a room to hold this much storage and still read as calm.

The same wall with its centre panels slid back to reveal a television — The centre panels slide apart to uncover the television, which sits recessed in a timber-lined niche rather than hung on the face of the joinery. Recessing the screen so it sits flush inside the cabinetry is what lets it disappear when the panels close, and it means the wall reads as joinery first and a media unit second.

Upper cabinet flap lifted above the television to reveal a display shelf — Above the screen, a flap lifts and stays up on a stay hinge to open a shelf that runs the width of the niche. A lift-up door needs no side clearance at all, which is why it works directly above a television where a hinged door would swing into the sightline.

End bays opened to show two bicycles hung vertically with tennis rackets below — The bays at either end open to full-height compartments with a bicycle hung vertically from a wall hook and tennis bags stood on the base below. Hanging a bicycle by its front wheel turns a two-metre object into a half-metre one, and giving that compartment a door in the same timber as the rest is what keeps sports equipment in the living room without it being on display.

Entry mudroom in deep green joinery with botanical wallpaper and woven baskets — The entry runs deep green joinery under a walnut bench top, with drawers above and open cubbies below sized for woven baskets, beneath a botanical paper that climbs the wall and carries across the ceiling. Taking the pattern over the ceiling instead of stopping it at the cornice is what makes a narrow entry feel like a room you have arrived in rather than a corridor you pass through.

The entry seen through its green-framed opening, looking down the hallway — Seen from the hall, the entry sits inside a deep green frame that wraps the opening on all four sides, with brass hooks set at both adult and child height and black marble underfoot. Framing the opening in the same colour as the joinery is what turns a doorway into a threshold, and setting a second row of hooks low is the difference between children hanging their own coats and dropping them.

Drawings

Fig. 01Elevation of the Montessori wardrobe: 1580mm long, 580mm high, 300mm deep, with a central hanging rail

Fig. 02Axonometric of the Montessori wardrobe carcass, showing the hanging rail and the shelved bays either side

Fig. 03Hallway door drawing, 1100mm by 2150mm, drawn with and without its frame, showing a mitred plank pattern and a vertical light slot

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