It's in Sheung Wan in central Hong Kong.

It's a historic neighbourhood with a rich mix of density, of people, of different cultures and different building types.

The building dates from the 1960s.

It's very typical of that era.

It doesn't have an elevator.

At that time, there was just a few punched windows.

It was in a state of real disrepair.

It was coming to what seemed like the end of its natural lifespan.

We really saw an opportunity for adaptive reuse.

We could create a modern one-bedroom apartment per level, so give five apartments, and then a really generous retail or F&B unit with a great relationship to the street at ground level.

Several elements that we reused from the original structure.

So this includes, for example, the balustrades in the central stair course.

So they were cleaned up, they were reused.

So with the very small footprint per floor of only 25 square metres, this was a real challenge.

One of the key insights we had was analysing that existing post and beam structure and how that would let us really open up the window all the way along the façade.

By creating this single piece of service furniture at the centre of the apartment and structuring the kitchen and the other rooms around this, it allowed us to provide a full modern kitchen.

It's set along the side of this service core, and this beautiful curved window from the existing building.

And it really leads you in to the main spaces of the apartment.

In the main living area, bringing in these horner windows really opens up the space.

It brings in light and air.

Even though the actual dimensions are quite confined, you really feel like you're in a big room in the heart of the city.

The TV unit can be moved in and moved out, allowing for different flexible uses of the main living space.

The glass wall to the bedroom is another flexible element.

It allows you to close the door, but while also bringing light into the bedroom.

By bringing in this central piece of furniture at the heart of the apartment, you have generous modern levels of storage.

In the kitchen, we combine natural materials such as marble and lime-washed oak, where you have a full-size fridge, even though it's fully concealed.

You have a full oven, a ton of storage, counter space.

It's part of this concept that we provide a real full one-bedroom apartment.

There's also no compromises with the bathroom.

It's a generous space.

And it's a beautifully detailed bathroom.

It relates back to the heritage of the building, whilst being unmistakably modern.

But at the same time, we also integrate a flexible element, such as the full washer dryer underneath the sink.

There's been more of a focus in recent years in Hong Kong on adaptive reuse and heritage architecture, but it's generally been very landmark projects.

What we hope with this project, and there's several others like it in the neighborhood, they show the potential for the adaptive reuse of just common buildings.

And we think this is very essential for retaining the character of neighborhoods, but it's also very sustainable, and it's economically sustainable.

It saves on resources, saves on wastage.

Thanks for watching.

Subscribe to our Never Too Small channel by clicking on the logo and the notification bell to receive updates on our latest episode.