Silver A' Design Award Winner 2025
Ray Cheng's The Leighton Hill Residential Apartment exemplifies contemporary residential design philosophy where spatial fluidity, material authenticity, and refined restraint converge to create environments that elevate daily living into aesthetic experience. The design demonstrates mastery of the open-plan paradigm, employing architectural elements and carefully positioned furniture groupings to suggest discrete functional zones while maintaining generous visual connectivity throughout the living areas. Particularly noteworthy is the deployment of semi-transparent bronze mesh screens as permeable boundaries, a solution that acknowledges contemporary desires for flexible, multipurpose spaces while honoring the human need for intimacy and enclosure. The chromatic strategy reveals sophisticated understanding of material-driven palette development, allowing natural wood grains, leather patinas, and textile weaves to generate color rather than imposing arbitrary hues upon surfaces. The deep green leather armchairs emerge as considered chromatic accents that ground the warm wood tones while suggesting connection to the natural world visible through expansive glazing. Ceiling architecture demonstrates how contemporary practice has evolved beyond the simple plane, with curvilinear dropped elements that choreograph movement, define territories, and integrate technical systems within sculptural forms. The chevron flooring pattern provides subtle dynamism underfoot, its directional energy guiding circulation while establishing visual rhythm that resonates with the vertical ribbing of wall surfaces. Material selection throughout evidences commitment to tactile richness, from the anticipated smoothness of lacquered table surfaces to the dimensional texture of fluted wood panels and the implied suppleness of leather upholstery. The inclusion of living plants and natural floral arrangements reflects biophilic design principles, acknowledging research demonstrating the psychological benefits of nature connection within interior environments. Viewers might contemplate how such spaces propose models for contemporary dwelling that honor both aesthetic aspiration and human comfort, suggesting that beauty and livability exist not in tension but in productive alliance.
The house is located in Happy Valley, Hong Kong, a place rich in historical value. In the same place, in the same house, several generations live together. New and old cultures gather in the same space. A harmonious space is the solution to connect each other. Mahjong which is an enduring game, is added to build this kind of multi functional space to connect these generations, increase interaction and communication, use simple design techniques, pay attention to craft skills details, and create a comfortable living environment.