Residential Renovation: 葵涌葵星中心

Once the age of a residential building increases, not only will the appearance become dilapidated, but there may also be safety issues such as peeling concrete and exposed steel bars. In this residential renovation project in Kwai Star Center, in addition to interior design modifications to improve the appearance and space utilization of the residence, the interior designer also solved the safety hazards of this old residence from the exterior wall.

Kwai Star Center is an older residential building that was occupied in 1981. In 2016, a customer purchased a unit of about 300 square feet. However, due to the age of the building, the units at that time were very dilapidated and had many problems. For example, half of the lights in the house didn't work, half of the sockets had no power, and some exterior walls had serious water seepage problems and tiles were peeling off.

The unit area of ​​Kwai Star Center is relatively small, and the living room space is limited, which can barely accommodate a two-seater sofa and a 47-inch TV. The guest is a person who lives alone and likes the style of black, white and gray, and hopes to have a curved sofa in the living room to provide space to stretch out.

In order to meet the guests' preferences, the designer decided to use only three colors of black, white and gray in the living room as a whole, and customized furniture for the guests, using different shades of gray to create a sense of hierarchy. In order to make better use of the space in the living room, the designer decided to turn the direction of the sofa and TV 90 degrees, and at the same time extend the wall of the bathroom to install a wall-mounted TV on the wall. At the same time, the extended wall can also cover the black refrigerator in the open kitchen, making the living room feel tidier without an obtrusive refrigerator.

In the bedroom, due to limited space, after placing the wardrobe and the 4.5-foot bed, only a 1.5-foot passage is left. In order to solve this problem, the designer moved the walls of the bedroom and living room outwards by two and a half feet so that the guest could place a 4 and a half foot bed and realize his wish for a three-sided drop bed.

In addition to space issues, units at Kwai Sing Center also have water seepage issues. The designers spent half a month dealing with the problem of peeling concrete and exposed steel bars. Scaffolds were also built to repair cracks and holes in the unit's exterior walls, and all aluminum windows were replaced to completely solve the unit's water seepage problem.

Designers will use some inspection tools to find problems by tapping on the wall. They imagined the wall as a checkerboard and struck at the cross-shaped junctions of each grid to assess how much of the wall had been eroded to the point of hollowing out. When more than one-tenth of a wall is hollow, the wall is no longer safe. Although this method is relatively simple, it takes a lot of time and requires experienced professionals to accurately identify the problem.

This residential renovation project in Kwai Star Center has successfully solved the problem of space constraints and deterioration inside the unit through the renovation of interior and exterior walls, making the living room and bedrooms more in line with the needs of the residents. At the same time, the exterior wall repair work carried out, including crack repair, spalling of concrete and exposed steel bars, has brought greater safety and durability to the unit.