Monday, February 6th, 2012

A 330-Square Foot, 24-Room Apartment Called The Domestic Transformer

No, you didn’t read the title wrong. 330 square feet hasn’t stopped Hong Kong architect Gary Chang from expanding his tiny apartment into a shocking 24-room space. How is that possible? Are the individual rooms less than 14 square feet each? The strange answer is…sort of.

Gary decided to make the most of his space by implementing a sliding panel system that makes his apartment pretty much whatever he wants it to be. Journalists and home enthusiasts have called the apartment “The Domestic Transformer” and the home was featured in The New York Times.

Check out the video:

Chang is obviously some sort of mad genius – the fact that he was able to design this setup and execute it speaks to his ingenuity and industry. There are many, many tiny apartments in Hong Kong – and Chang is the first to think of this sort of solution to the problem of limited space.

The home is also considered ecologically friendly. Chang has come up with a way to save on heating and cooling, and because his apartment gets pretty constant natural light he barely ever turns on the lights.

If we’re going to get technical about it, Chang’s apartment isn’t really 24 rooms – it’s really just an apartment with 24 possible configurations.

Chang has lived in this particular space since he was a young man. The building was built in the 1960′s and when Chang first lived there he lived there with his mother and three sisters. His father was a waiter in the United States. Amazingly enough, during those days they also rented the third tiny partitioned bedroom to a tenant to help with the rent payment.

When Chang took possession of the apartment he began a lengthy four-renovation project that cost more than $200,000 and resulted in the remarkable apartment he lives in today. It’s guys like this that make it so fun to write for this website!