STEVE Leung is known as one of the architects behind the minimalist trend in interior decoration. He started it in Hong Kong and now wants to introduce the concept on a national scale.

The 46-year-old Hong Kong architect and designer explained his ideas in an exclusive interview with the Shanghai Star in his new semi-circular office on Hunan Lu.

"Finding a designer for your house is like looking for a wife," Leung said, referring to the relationship between designers and home owners. The owner has to share a common aestheticism and judgment with the designer but even so, it is difficult to achieve a happy match. Sometimes the owners are dissatisfied with the complete project and sometimes, designers complain that their work has been damaged by the owners with their choice of furniture which doesn't match the design.

"I don't like to work with incompatible clients, neither do I like those without their own ideas," Leung said. To design a private home, the designer has to consider in minute detail the needs of those who live there, sometimes sacrificing creative space.

"Decoration takes space," Leung explained. "You lose storage space if you want to achieve good decorative effect."

A comparison

That is why he seldom undertakes private residential projects but chooses to focus on designing show apartments, clubs, restaurants and hotels. "You can have a creative motif to work on for each project."

Before 1997, show apartments in Hong Kong mainly adopted classical styles, but Leung successfully moved living trees into sitting rooms and stuck real butterflies stuck on walls, bringing luxurious and artistic taste in a very simple-looking minimalist style. In a project with Symphony Bay, a Hong Kong estate, he installed musical instruments, such as the double bass, to combine a musical motif with natural themes.

Leung has won the Asia Pacific Interior Design Awards for two consecutive years. He also won the Andrew Martin International Awards for three consecutive years.

Leung has been involved in Chinese mainland projects - as an architect and in interior and furniture design - as early as 1997, when the company worked as consultants. "Mainland houses are bigger than Hong Kong ones," Leung said, "because there is still a gap between housing prices in Hong Kong and the domestic market."

The larger area offered larger designing space but because of the price gap, domestic clients had a smaller budget for interior design. The average cost for interior decoration is around 2,000 yuan ($240) per square metre in Shanghai but in Hong Kong, it rises to around 5,000 yuan ($600). A reduced budget may result in compromises on quality and on the materials chosen for domestic home design.

Stupid mistakes

From an architect's point of view, Leung found some problems in domestic construction. "There seems to be a lack of design experience and some builders make 'stupid' mistakes like placing a girder 10 or 20 centimetres away from the central line, adding to the design difficulties." In order to hide such a badly placed girder, the designer often has to lower the ceiling, causing a depressing effect, as the roofs of domestic apartments are not high enough ro absorb such changes.

For young people who want to design their own homes, Leung suggested that they first decide on the style or effect they like and then consider their priorities. "You may want to have a guest bedroom because some relative will stay for a few weeks every year," Leung said. "Think about it, do you really want to give up a whole room's space just for a two-week visitor?"

A problem with Hong Kong residential buildings is their maintenance. There are strict laws regulating building standards and once there was a case where a whole building was demolished when it was discovered that the pilings had not gone as deep as they were supposed to.

"Maintenance will also be a problem in domestic cities like Shanghai in the near future," Leung said.

In the SARS crisis, the virus spread through a Hong Kong apartment building - Amoy Garden - and led to disastrous consequences, mainly due to faulty maintenance, according to Leung. "The plumbing system was old," he said. He drew a picture to illustrate the problem: leakages in toilets not only caused bad smells but allowed bacteria and viruses to contaminate the air inside the apartments.

Leung admitted to having little knowledge of fengshui and said he found it difficult to believe in some practices of fengshui but he found some rules in fengshui were important to follow. Such as, there should not be a girders above a bed and there should be no pointed angles in front of any seating. "You will feel oppressed sleeping under a girder or faced with a sharp point when you sit," Leung said. "These facts are common elements of human psychology."

Leung respects clients' request for fengshui arrangements, but personally, he doesn't believe placing certain things in certain positions brings extra good luck.

New concept

Leung believes Minimalism reflects the character of modern people and their lifestyle and helps their search for direct communication. The concept is widely used and continues evolving, adding new elements, so it is not likely to be outdated in the near future.

Earlier this year, Leung started collaborating with a Japanese designer, Yasumichi Morita. Leung compared the difference between Chinese and Japanese culture to explain the collaboration. "My design has been rational, and proper, not too bold, like the implicitness of Chinese culture. But if you look at the street scene in Tokyo, you see very extravagantly dressed young people and you find the bold and unrestrained side of Japanese culture."

Morita is known for his creative use of light and reflection in design. Leung hopes the two can co-operate on additional restaurants or hotel projects, building on their work for the City Gate Hotel.

Mainland projects now make up more than half of Leung's business and most of these are in Shanghai. But Leung doesn't want his company to expand too quickly. He wants gradual growth. His dream project in Shanghai, would be a boutique hotel with only 30 to 50 rooms, like those in Europe.

"I want to design one and own it," Leung said. "I can design each room in a different style and choose different furniture for each." The present barrier to the realization of his dream project, is that he can't find a satisfactory location. It took him years to find the present site of his office. Maybe in a few years time, the boutique hotel concept that he wants to see in Shanghai will have become a leading trend.