Projects: Loft

Annie Block -- Interior Design, 12/1/2011 2:00:00 AM

Winner: CL3 Architects and OpenUU
Location: Hong Kong

The Wong Chuk Hang neighborhood was known, until recently,  only for grotty factories and warehouses. The fact that it's now attracting designers and art dealers is a change epitomized by the industrial unit that CL3 Architects managing director William Lim, also a prominent artist and cultural patron, bought to transform into a private studio and gallery. To inject the 5,300-square-foot space with what he calls a "playful character," he brought in his son. Kevin Lim-who operates OpenUU as a "virtual design studio" with two fellow Cornell University architecture grads, working from their homes in the U.S.-soon realized it would require one major move to cope with the loft's variations in programming. Placing an open library on a platform in the center of the floor would inform a visitor how to navigate between the multiple zones. They include a sitting area with a well-worn sofa, a traditional Chinese bench, and a cocktail table that William Lim constructed from two trolleys.

Merit: Johnson Chou
Location: Toronto

A former candy factory houses a duplex where a stair encircled by lacquered MDF slats spirals up to a frosted-glass enclosure in the­ marble-floored master bathroom.

Merit: VMCF Atelier
Location: Paris

Attic maid's rooms became this apartment's top level, notable for its steel structural elements and seating by Gerrit Rietveld, Gaetano Pesce, and Zaha Hadid.

Merit: Kris Lin Interior Design
Location: Shanghai

The gently rounded cutouts and corners and the seamless oak envelope­ are intended to evoke peacefully flowing water.