PEOPLE TALK ABOUT having a family doctor or a family accountant, a tried and tested as well as trusted professional who is relied upon to handle the entire household's affairs. For the Gouws, this relationship also applies to their interior designer.
After Simon Jackson of Simon Jackson and Associates created Alex and Mary Gouw's sprawling 6,000-square-feet residence in Jardine's Lookout, the family were so enamored with the Australian's work they commissioned him again, and again . . . and again. First came the corporate office of the family firm, Gouw Assets Group. Then, for eldest daughter and stylish girl-around-town, Elizabeth Gouw, her Anya Hindmarch and Paula Ka boutiques in The Landmark. And most recently, modish restaurant Camargue on Hollywood Road for youngest son Carl Gouw (who also runs food and beverage portal, food4hongkong.com and is an investor in the Web site, icered).
'All I can do now for the Gouws is their yacht or aeroplane,' jokes Jackson, whose high-profile clients include Richard Li, Sir Po-shing Woo (founder of Hong Kong's biggest law firm, Woo Kwan Lee & Lo), Henry Cheng (managing director of New World Development) and Alasdair Morrison (former managing director of Jardine Matheson).
But it was with the Gouws' four-storey family home, split over seven levels, that Jackson first stamped his inimitable style. 'The children had grown up so their needs were changing,' says Jackson of the home he describes as classically European in style. 'This home had to move with them to suit their present and future lifestyle.'
'As there are so many generations under one roof, we were looking for that kind of long-lasting, classic, Grand Hyatt style,' adds Mary. 'Simon really knew what we wanted and I'm still not tired of looking at it.'
Recently refurbished, the original refit is unmistakably opulent but not oppressively so. Wherever you look there are antiques, paintings and tellingly valuable objets d'art, but this is also a home where you feel you could slap a mug down on the coffee table - uncoastered (though you might choose the vitreous marble, rather than a wood one) - or put your feet up on the furniture.
