Remodelling This 44-year-old Marine Parade Flat Required No Hacking

When he collected the keys to this 44-year-old flat in January 2019, home owner Christian Lam had an old and dark flat to work with. Standing at a mere 700 square feet, the walls and flooring of this Marine Parade unit were still in its 1975 condition.

As a former oil trader who went back to school and made the career change to become an architect, it was natural for Christian to take on the interior design himself. “I knew what I wanted, and it was easier to communicate my ideas directly with the contractors,” he says.

With a clear design intent, it took him just a week to come up with the interior design, which involved mainly material sourcing. Working with a firm budget and a team of experienced and honest contractors, the renovation took just over a month, with a slight delay due to the Lunar New Year public holiday and was completed in March 2019.

For Christian, the advantage of designing his own home was that he had almost absolute control and clarity over what he wanted and there was little disparity between his original design intent and the final outcome.