They acknowledge they were looking for something different in the way of living space, in a city where most residents inhabit boxy, largely interchangeable high-rise apartments. Above all, they wanted space where Mr. Foley, co-founder of the interior design practice PDM International, could experiment. Ms. Capriz, owner of the vintage furniture store Casa Capriz, also wanted a place to exhibit some of her favorite items. Many of them are oversize pieces, like the 1.8-meter-tall, or 6-foot, folding steamship wardrobes that the couple salvaged from Europe, still displaying the shelf markers for a gentleman’s hard collars, dress shirts and black ties. Mr. Foley and Ms. Capriz rented an apartment for 18 months to allow them to investigate the Chai Wan area, a concrete landscape of hulking “go-downs,” or warehouses. The bulky structures are underused now that the city’s manufacturing base has relocated to the less expensive environs of neighboring Guangdong Province, so after their rental experiment, they started to buy. The couple gradually acquired three adjoining units in a high-rise warehouse, eventually knocking them together to create a 446-square-meter, or 4,800-square-foot, apartment that doubles as a showroom for both of their businesses. Though the apartment is liberally decorated with modern Chinese art, it is also family-friendly enough to provide space for the latest addition, a new baby. Their neighbors in surrounding buildings are a mix of photographers, fashion designers and people in search of similar loft-style apartments, amid the odd industrial holdout. There’s even a popular cafe, Chaiwanese, serving salmon-and-cream-cheese bagels, Mumbai chicken on rye and chicken-pesto salad. Residents say they feel a sense of kinship in their industrial refuge, which is walking distance from the MTR subway station and several sprawling public-housing estates. “Most of the people who live here are more on the creative side,” said Mr. Foley, who has spent 20 years in Asia, moving between Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong after leaving his native Australia. “They live, work in and use the space, and respect the community. You don’t want people just coming out here and going nuts.” Ms. Capriz, who speaks with an Italian accent passed down from her father and who has a Malaysian-Chinese mother, is protective of the community that is developing in Chai Wan, and is often torn as to whether to promote the interesting way that the neighborhood is evolving or to keep it a secret. “We are really trying to develop something that is more than just living in Hong Kong,” Ms. Capriz said. As far as the gentrification of Chai Wan goes, she said: “It is a question of stages. It has to go at a natural pace.” The couple installed oversize windows that make the most of the natural light and give them expansive views of a working harbor, a boat basin that serves as a typhoon shelter and the Lei Yue Mun Strait beyond. Black hawks swirl in the sky and occasionally drop down to scavenge from the sea. The couple even enjoys the sight of the 18-wheeler-size garbage bins below their windows, where recyclers deposit cardboard, paper and a jumble of metal bars, window panes and air-conditioning fixtures, the residue of Hong Kong’s constant renovation and reinvention of itself. “It does feel like you’ve got space,” Mr. Foley said, noting that it is possible to hike over Hong Kong island’s hilly interior to Wong Chuk Hang, another warehouse district on the south side that also is being gentrified through the development of luxury housing and several high-end hotels.
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