Although externally the building’s façades have been meticulously refurbished to their original charm, inside, a brand new spatial composition has been adopted to cater for the hostel’s functional requirements as well as accommodate a new structural design that the dilapidated state of the building demanded. The interior layout is governed by a three-by-three grid - at the centre of which is a vertical core that contains a staircase connecting the basement level to the ground and first floors as well as incorporating all the building’s vertical services. Internally painted a vivid yellow, glimpses of which can be caught by various openings and doors on all three levels, the stairwell injects the all-white interiors with a subtle playfulness while the skylights on top allow daylight to further enhance its exuberant glow.

Most of the ground floor is taken up by the hostel’s public spaces that include a reception, a communal kitchen, a dining room and a shared living room. Partitioned by light-weight latticed structures and a free-standing cabinet unit, the spaces can be easily reconfigured in the future should the building be transformed into a family house. The same logic also applies to the configuration of the first floor which has been divided into four bedrooms, each one containing a free-standing block that houses a bathroom. Painted green, the bathroom blocks can be conveniently removed to create larger bedrooms. Three more bunk bed-filled bedrooms can be found in the hostel, two on the basement level, serviced by a row of bathrooms and lavatories in between, and a larger one on the ground floor.

On the back of the building, a paved patio provides an outdoor lounge space, where guests can relax under the shade of two tall trees that dominate the space. The patio is connected to the front yard through an underground passage that cuts through the building. Painted blue, the tunnel-like passage, which also serves a parking space, provides access to the basement level where visitors entering the building are greeted by the yellow staircase, a joyous awakening after the cool blue of the passageway.

On the ground floor, the vivacious blue hue is cheerfully picked up by several interior features such as storage cabinets, stools and window niches, which along with splashes of yellow, courtesy of the central stairwell and certain furniture pieces, delectably enrich the neutral interior palette of white walls and the cement screed floor. Blue dashes are also present on the exterior in the form of doorways, window frames and steps, while the yellow core glows through the windows, bestowing upon the historic building a sophisticated cheekiness that underlies its new use.