In a 680 sq ft apartment in Futian, a church-like foyer, factory-made cabinetry and a handmade dining table come together in an exercise in romantic eclecticism.
For architects and designers working on their own homes, the question is rarely just how much can fit into a floor plan. It is also what deserves to be seen, what should disappear into the background, and how a highly specified interior can retain a sense of ease.
The 680 sq ft apartment in Shenzhen’s Futian district belongs to Manfred Yuen, chairman and architect at Groundwork Design Group(GDG), and Fiona Bao Jing, GDG partner, interior design director and founder of JING Studio. More than a decade after buying the property, the couple decided to renovate it as an experiment in materials, making and domestic life.
Led by Bao through JING Studio, the year-long project brings together Italian stone, engineered timber veneer, whole-home custom cabinetry, hand-painted wallpaper and vintage furniture. A dining table made by Bao adds a handmade element to an interior shaped largely through bespoke production.
A church-like foyer
“The highlight is the foyer,” Yuen says. “It is reminiscent of a church. It is an entrance with a sense of ceremony, leading to the living room, bathroom, kitchen and walk-in closet.”
The foyer establishes the apartment’s visual language from the outset. A circular ceiling sits above a square floor, referencing the traditional Chinese idea of round heaven and square earth. Mirrored stainless steel reflects light and movement, adding depth to an area that also connects several of the home’s key spaces.
The entrance leads towards the living room, bathroom, kitchen and walk-in closet. Rather than functioning simply as a passage, it brings the plan together and gives the apartment a defined starting point.
Returning to a home after a decade
The renovation came about 10 years after Yuen and Bao bought the property. Their brief was not to pursue a single style, but to explore how different materials might work alongside one another.
Italian stone provides natural pattern and weight. Engineered timber veneer introduces a more consistent wood finish, while hand-painted wallpaper offers a contrasting surface treatment. Whole-home cabinetry provides an integrated framework for the interior, allowing the material palette to move between natural, manufactured and handmade elements.
The living room continues that mix. Vintage cabinets sit alongside sofas with cleaner lines, placing furniture from different periods in the same setting. The dining table, made by Bao, adds another layer. Its DIY construction contrasts with the precision of the apartment’s custom joinery, without being treated as a separate decorative feature.
Factory precision, handmade detail
Whole-home customisation was one of the more challenging parts of the year-long project. The approach, now common in mainland China, brings cabinetry, storage and related interior components into a coordinated manufacturing process, with much of the work completed in a factory before installation.
“Whole-home customisation is very popular in China now,” Yuen says. “The advantage is that it is much faster, and labour is much cheaper, because much of the craftsmanship is done in the factory.”
The system helped manage the apartment’s cabinetry and interior components, but it also required the various materials and details to be coordinated as part of a single process. Stone, timber veneer and other finishes needed to sit within a bespoke framework that could be manufactured and installed as planned.
The final interior does not treat factory-made components as its main visual statement. Instead, the cabinetry works alongside stone, wallpaper and furniture, while the handmade dining table introduces a more individual note.
Stillness and setting
The bathroom takes a more colour-focused approach. It has a fully separated layout, with hand-fired wall tiles that shift from warm orange to dusk blue. The tiles add texture and colour to a home otherwise defined by muted earth tones and more restrained contrasts.
The project was designed by JING Studio, whose name refers to both “stillness” and “realm”. The studio frames its work around Joy, Identity, Nature and Grace, connecting personal expression, natural materials and a balance between Eastern ritual and Western elegance.
In this apartment, those ideas are most visible in the relationship between the spaces and materials — a foyer designed with ceremony in mind; Italian stone alongside engineered veneer; custom-made cabinetry offset by hand-painted wallpaper; and a dining table made by one of the homeowners. The home’s character comes not from one dominant look, but from the way these elements are brought together.
Photo courtesy of Zhang Nian, Ouyang Yun, GDG Hong Kong
