Hong Kong Inspired Kitchen

Our client has fond memories of his grandmother making ‘Field Chicken’ dish in her small apartment in Hong Kong. This has influenced his cooking style and we designed a kitchen to pay homage to his cultural heritage and practical needs of today. 

The design brief had two main parameters:

1) To specifically design around the practicalities and efficiencies of mise en place (food prepping) and kitchen utensil retrieval. Most kitchens in Hong Kong have to make the most out of their small footprint. Utensils tend to be exposed, and very little travel is needed to retrieve one tool to the next. This was translated through the overall planning of the kitchen, through the design and placement of the handles, rails to hang utensils and open shelves for ease of reach of sauces and spices.

2) To celebrate the client’s cultural heritage. Hong Kong’s ubiquitous ‘jade green’ was transcribed into the colour of the steel cabinetry. The design of the splashback is inspired by the homogeneous and rectangular tile work found at different metro stations in Hong Kong and it pays homage to the red and white checkered pattern from his grandmother's flooring. This pattern is also commonly found in Hong Kong restaurants, dating from the early 1900s. Lastly, the benchtops adjacent to the hob were made out of raw steel plates that have been blackened through a heat treatment as a nod to the colour and texture of the seasoned wok, the client’s favourite cooking tool.

Materials: Powder-coated steel, blackened steel & salvaged rimu.  

• Year Built: 2020

• Type: Residential Kitchen

• Country: New Zealand

• Photographer: Samuel Hartnett