Macau CLOSER was fortunate to be invited recently to visit a lovely 2,600 square foot apartment, designed and decorated for the most part by its owner, creating a unique and stylish home in the heart of the city.
The apartment is situated on Avenida da Amizade, the main artery road running from the Macau Ferry Terminal to the roundabout in front of Wynn Macau and Hotel Lisboa, which once a year is transformed into part of the Macau Grand Prix race track. For those of us who remember the Macau of 20 years ago, pre-NAPE, when the ‘old Mandarin’, now Grand Lapa Hotel, stood on the waterfront, Avenida da Amizade was the ‘Cotai’ of its day, lined with hotels, restaurants, and other major landmarks.
Today, the home, on this historic avenue, is within walking distance of StarWorld Hotel, Royal Arc, Wynn Macau, and MGM, and the many office buildings that are there now.
Located on the second floor of the building, from its large picture windows, the apartment has an abundance of light, with a bright and sunny outlook on to the Avenue’s centre tree line. And it seems that the low floor, together with the double-glazed windows, aids in the apartment’s sound proofing – visitors gain a distinct ‘zen-like’ sense of peace and tranquility and are surprised by how quiet it is given its very down-town location.
The property is made up of four double bedrooms, two with ensuite bathrooms, and one guest bathroom, and a very good sized kitchen with walk-in storeroom.
“Originally we had three bedrooms. And the living and dining room was a long space that ran from the front of the apartment to the back,” explains the owner.
As this was felt to be wasted space and out of scale with the rest of the layout of rooms, the decision was made to add a fourth bedroom towards the back. A floor-to-ceiling bookcase along the dividing wall between the new room and the dining room accommodates some of the family’s ever-increasing library of books.
In the living room, to the left of the windows, are three white sculptures, the top one, a woman by renowned Portuguese sculptor João Cutileiro, then a Song Dynasty lady and a young revolutionary face in plaster from the 1960s, sitting atop tall white display stands. White Roman blinds, white walls, and several black and white hanging photographs, set in expansive white mountings and thin black frames, add to the peacefulness and quietness of the home and underline the refined tastes of the decorator.
The stark whiteness of the room is warmed with the soft glow of teak wood parquet flooring, laid throughout the main living and sleeping areas. The coziness of two sink-in grey sofas and a Chinese-style bow-legged coffee table is contrasted with the modern look of steel framed Marcel Breuer’s Bauhaus leather armchairs. A Tibetan pale pink rug, lightly patterned in grey, lies underfoot. The glass-topped dining table is teamed with Chinese-style wood chairs.
Most of the furniture has been designed by the owner – the entrance hall table and low cabinetry in the living room is of beech wood, a blend of European-Chinese elegance; modern, simple lines, practical and functional.
Thoughtfully laid out and designed with plentiful storage, the immaculately tidy kitchen is a spacious and inviting area with lots of light flooding in from the windows running the length of the space. The colour palate is muted; taupe wall tiles, pale grey floor tiles and cabinetry, grey-flecked counter-tops and stainless steel appliances.
Since it was built 35 years ago, this apartment has seen a great deal of Macau’s recent history unfolding in front of it; from the return of Macau to China in 1999, and the liberalization of the gaming industry to include foreign investors, to expansive land reclamation projects and the Historic Centre of Macau achieving UNESCO’s World Heritage recognition. And of course, 35 years of Grand Prix hopefuls racing past!
Compared with many of the flimsy new-builds of today, the building’s construction is sound and solid and no doubt the building will continue to keep a watchful eye over life along the Avenida da Amizade in the years to come.
