Brussels

Designer Michael Young's voluminous loft is his home away from Hong Kong, and a home for his portfolio and galleryworthy collection

As an internationally renowned industrial designer, Michael Young spends a lot of his time trotting around the globe. Perhaps it's fitting, then, that his loft in Brussels includes a tent. More than just a cheeky acknowledgement that he belongs to a tribe of global nomads, it also serves a practical purpose for when Young's Hong Kong-based team members need to travel to Europe.

‘There was one year in Milan when I decided we should go to Belgium for the month and stay there,' he says. He was already geared up to hike Mount Everest, so he pitched tents for his staff to sleep in, one of which remains in place today, sitting beneath a row of Tibetan prayer flags strung across the back of the room.

It's hardly roughing it though — the loft is filled with a gallery-worthy collection of furniture, art and design objects that Young has collected over the years, along with whatever projects his studio happens to be working on at the time. ‘It's a very peaceful space,' he says. ‘It's also become a place where we store all of our samples from China, or anything from exhibitions in Europe. It's a bit of a library, a legacy place, really. It's like a studio away from Hong Kong, where we keep valuable products. When we do museum shows, the organisers can borrow pieces from the loft.'

Young bought the space nearly 20 years ago, when he was still based in the UK. ‘I'd been in London for ten years and fancied a change,' he says. To be more specific, he bought a percentage of the building from an art collector friend who'd acquired it with the hope of fixing it up. ‘I completely rebuilt it,' says Young. ‘It hadn't been renovated since it was built in 1886. We had to strip it down to the bare bones. We kept as much of the old brick, beams and metal pillars as we could, but we replaced all of the door frames, knocked half the building down and put in underground parking. We did a lot — the process took about four years.'

When the work was finished, Young began to furnish it. He avoided his own products — ‘I'm a fan of other people's work,' he says — except for a minimalist kitchen he designed for Italian brand Scavolini. Young's acquisition of the loft coincided with increasing commissions from Asia, so he stocked the space with objects from his travels as well as some of his favourite designers. ‘I'm a bit of a magpie,' he says. ‘There's some Carl Hansen, samurai armour, idée furniture from Japan, pieces from Lane Crawford, and others from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. It's weird but it all kind of works together.'

What ties it all together is a tactile quality, from the weathered timber ceiling beams to the carefully considered feathers of a Lakota headdress. ‘I think I have a level of connection with the materials — materials that seem to have a soul,' Young muses. ‘The Japanese say if you stow an object long enough, it'll give you life back. It's the history of the wood, the maker, the way the product has been put together and the love with which it was made.'

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Young’s deep affinity for materials is reflected in the open-plan kitchen, where the high-gloss cabinets and Bianco Carrara marble island of the designer’s modular Tetrix kitchen, designed for Scavolini, contrast with the oak and leather of the Hans Wegner-designed Elbow chairs and CH327 dining table from Carl Hansen & Søn. Further contrast comes in the form of the organic sculptures and textured rug

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Given Young’s international lifestyle and tendency toward the unconventional, it’s perhaps unsurprising that a tent and prayer flags are permanent fixtures in his home. On the floor in front of an iconic Sibley tent is a Globe-Trotter trunk and hide rug, while a graffiti piece is taped to the wall, creating a space that is at once worldly and rebellious

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Young’s steel 4a chair for Hong Kong furniture brand eoq sits to the left of an antique Samurai suit from Galerie Cecile Kerner in Brussels. The myriad items throughout the home are tied together by tactility — here, steel, leather and wood are echoed in wall, chair and antique

This page An original Lakota headdress shares space with a speaker system, commuter bicycle and selection of design references — a scene that accurately reflects Young’s lifestyle

This page, right Behind the bed is a pared-back bath area, decorated with a kendo mask, artwork from Pearl Lam Galleries and a robe from Bali