Bobby's World

HAVING BEEN IMMERSED IN THE WORLD OF CRAFTSMANSHIP FOR ALL HIS LIFE, BOBBY CHENG PERSONIFIES WHAT IT MEANS TO BE BORN AND BRED IN THE REALM OF DESIGN.

- Germaine Cheong

As a child, he would clamber onto the chaise then jump on it, as any seven-year-old would on a soft surface. Those playful moments are now a fond memory, though it’s 34 years later.

“Even after all that rough use, the leather is still supple,” says Bobby Cheng, running his slender fingers along the edge of the gray Cassina chair that belonged to his father and was placed in their family home, but which now resides in his Brewin Design Office (BDO), which he set up in 2012. “I keep it here for sentimental reasons.”

This vintage piece is not the only familial inspiration in Cheng’s Henderson Road office, which Brewin moved into eight months ago. He came up with the idea of dedicating spaces to art in his work place, having been inspired by the art gallery on the first floor of his old home.

The name of his architecture and interior design firm is an ode to the street, Brewin Path, which is the location of the home where his grandfather Cheng Yik Hung raised his children in Hong Kong’s Mid-Levels. The garment manufacturing company he founded in the 1950s eventually became retail and real estate conglomerate Wing Tai Holdings. Cheng’s father is Edmund, Wing Tai’s deputy chairman.

References to his roots continually manifest in his work and you wonder if the intention, even if subliminal, is to keep himself more connected and grounded, especially since he has lived nearly half his life away from family. He says: “I left for boarding school at the age of 12 and grew up too quickly. By 15, I was very independent and living alone in London. You pretend you’re an adult. Then you realise you’re 33 and your parents are in their 60s. You’re tired of traversing city to city and living in shoeboxes. That romance, fascination with living in another city in your 20s may be charming. But then you’re in your 30s, and you’re like, I miss home.”