In a city with more than seven million residents, space is a very precious commodity. So when you have nowhere to go and your options are limited, creativity is born.

Hong Kong architect Gary Chang has literally turned a shoebox apartment of only 340 sq ft into 24 different rooms using of a series of sliding walls.

This ingenious use of space allows rooms to quickly transform. Each futuristic sliding wall after being moved reveals, or should I say creates another room and yet another.  And so on. Each newly minted room is designed to already include in the walls a built in TV, couch, fold down guest bed and even a bath tub. Every inch of available space has been used – more than once.

Large windows bathe the apartment in a warm light reducing the use of electricity while mirrors on the ceiling create the illusion of space and hide the wall tracks.

Chang has named his home the ‘Domestic Transformer’. This brainchild is as a result of he himself growing up in the corridor of a tiny apartment with six other family members and a tenant.

Necessity is the mother of invention, right? So try and visualize the space. 18 feet X 18 feet. That’s the entire apartment. All 24 rooms! Incredible!

So is this a linen closet or a brilliant, practical, eco friendly home of the future?

About the Author

Nineteen-time author Stefan Swanepoel publishes the annual Swanepoel TRENDS Report and the annual Swanepoel SOCIAL MEDIA Report. His Reports are widely regarded as the leading research on the most important business and technology trends impacting the real estate industry. For more information visit www.RETrends.com