STANLEY BEACH HOUSE

davidclovers (now plusClover) (Hong Kong, 2012)

Courtesy Margot Errante Photography

Set along the coast of Stanley Bay, Beach House takes the idea of alteration to new lengths. The project is both a gut renovation of four apartment units and a restoration of the exterior.  Re-working the edges, top and underbelly of the building, the design includes three alteration systems that unfurl into the garden, wrap the roof patio and interweave through the existing stair core. With an extended canopy the stair core “Insert”  ties the four units together, where the wood ceilings and floors (a mixture of restored and new woods, prefabricated and traditional construction) “leak” into the entries of each unit, transforming into the cabinets of  reconfigured open kitchens and/or living rooms. 

The “edging,” consisting of reconstituted stone tiles and existing, re-used pavers fastened onto prefabricated enclosure and flooring assemblies, tracks the perimeter of the building altering and introducing balconies, awnings and small additions. Directly underneath the structural core of the building, the ceiling in the lowest unit, adjacent to the garden was jumbled with beam networks and infrastructure.The underside of the building is re-organized using a prefabricated coffered ceiling forming a new, inverted ground that is in dynamic conversation with the garden and terraces of surrounding the unit. 

Together the three systems ground, weave and lace through the structure producing a series of parenthetical formations and dialogues which pressurize the space in the existing units, enrich indoor/outdoor exchanges, heighten co-living/shared configurations between semi-public and private spaces and reinscribe new domestic/public and semi-public rituals and practices that deviate from the original design. 

Project credits: David Erdman and Clover Lee, co-founding principals davidclovers (now plusClover), Jason Dembski, Damien Hannigan, Jody Luk, Spencer Mak, Marcin Mesjak, Fuk Man Mui

Courtesy Margot Errante Photography
Courtesy Margot Errante Photography
Courtesy Margot Errante Photography
Courtesy Margot Errante Photography