The Timothy Oulton sofa stays: Hong Kong home makeover kept minimal – just as well, given design was done long-distance via Zoom and WhatsApp
- A professional show jumper’s 1,000 sq ft flat in Hong Kong’s Mid-Levels needed renovating before she came back from Europe – but then the pandemic hit
- A long-distance design project commenced between England, Germany and Hong Kong over Zoom and WhatsApp, with the physical changes kept to a minimum
In early 2020, preparing for her homecoming to Hong Kong after years of living in Europe, professional show jumper Raena Leung Hou-ling trusted only one designer with the renovation of the 1,000 sq ft (93 square metre) Mid-Levels flat she had bought years earlier: Darius Woo Ching-fung, a friend since high school.
But there were hurdles.
Hong Kong-born Woo and partner Kyriaki Kasabalis had founded their design practice, Kasawoo, in London, in 2020, and Leung was based in Germany. This would be Kasawoo’s first Hong Kong project.
Then, as the trio began planning how to make a long-distance design relationship work, Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, closing borders and rendering site visits all but impossible. The project was put on hold.
“We waited for about a year for the situation to change, but nothing did, so we decided to just get on with it,” Woo says.
Thus began a process the design team admits they would have considered “crazy” pre-pandemic.
