Gary Chang has lived in a tiny space all his life. While some may think that living in a 344 square-foot apartment is unreasonably tight, Chang now sees it as a luxury.
This is because he once shared that very same space with his parents, three younger sisters, and a tenant they rented a room to.
This is probably what inspired Chang’s career as an architect for Edge Design which focuses on micro-apartments. These micro-apartments have become the norm for many Hong Kong residents.
According to CNBC, Hong Kong was named the most expensive housing market for the 7th year in-a-row and is tightly controlled by the government and developers causing housing prices to be unreasonably high. So, if you make $50,000 per year, the cost of your home would be $900,000.
Because of these insanely high costs, many of Hong Kong’s poorest residents are forced to live in coffin-sized spaces while their middle class has to squeeze into ultra modest-sized units. The Atlantic tells the story of a single mother who pays almost half of her monthly salary, about $580, for a 120-square foot space she shares with her 6-year-old and 8-year-old.
So, you could imagine how profitable the micro-apartment business is.
Chang himself purchased his family’s home which he has lived in for almost 40 years for $45,000 after his family moved out in 1988.
He decided to renovate the entire space and remove the separate rooms by creating a single pace that transforms the one room into 24 using sliding partitions.
“Instead of me moving from one room to another the home moves for me,” he says.
By pulling on a handle that slides a wall across steel tracks, he can turn the studio apartment into a giant kitchen, a guest bedroom, library, dining room, laundry room, walk-in closet, TV room, large movie screen area, and spa room.
“My trouble is that I have too much storage,” he says laughing. “They are still empty some of them.”
All of his appliances and belongings are hidden in between each of the sliding walls.
“It would be interesting to play hide and seek in my home because everything is moving,” he explains. “The kids would love it!”
His ingenious space-saving design allows him to have many more amenities than the average home in Hong Kong. You can get the full tour of Chang’s home below.
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