Interviews with Yanlai Xiao

Yanlai Xiao, designer of Chongqing Gucang Decoration Design Engineering Co., Ltd., has engaged in interior design for about 12 years. In each stage of her career, she develops more deep understanding toward design. She holds the view that design is no longer obsessed with exaggerated means of expression. Now, she shows fantastic love for a more artistic way of expression and she is more willing to explore each client's preferences and habits to plan the entire space in an all-round way to really achieve the standard of customarized design.

The quality of the design is not only judged from an aesthetic point of view, I will evaluate it from the structural design to ensure that the design meets the owner's functional needs and performance needs. There is no absolute good or bad design. This is judged according to everyone's preferences. Good design can satisfy the owner's living habits and improve the quality of life.

The young couple, owners of the villa, love nature and sunshine, hoping to create a living room in a garden. The designer unifies planning of the living room and the rear garden, connects the living room with three walls, and sets up two recreational areas in the garden, which makes the garden and living room fully integrates in space and function, creating a natural living environment in a city.

The design focuses on solving problems such as spatial planning of the street architecture. The design idea is to help users integrate with the natural environment as much as possible in a state of sufficient privacy to create a sunny and natural living environment, including: Firstly, reasonable spatial planning: the designer moves the interior staircase to the street frontage, and the living room and bedroom are adjusted to the landscape facing the interior garden, thus minimizing the impact of the outdoor environment on the living space. Secondly, improvement of interior lighting: the exterior walls along the staircase is transformed into soundproof glass. The living room on the first floor adopts large floor-to-ceiling glass door, which greatly increases indoor space lighting on the plane and facade. Thirdly, interaction between human and nature: unified planning is made on the garden and interior space. The living room and the garden are connected in multiple places, and even some living room functions are moved into the garden, making the living space fully integrate with the outdoor natural environment.

The new design changed the original position of the staircase, removed all internal walls, and the entire space layout was reconstructed.

The building faces the street with noisy outdoor environment, so the privacy and living comfort in the house are greatly affected. However, the structure of the building cannot be changed, which requires the designer to reconstruct the spatial layout through interior transformation. By relocating the stairs, the designer changes the spatial plan and adjusts all the main living space to face the backyard, therefore the function layout becomes more reasonable, even enhance the value of the villa.The owner approached us as the New Year approached, and the time was more urgent. At the same time, they also found another design company. Under the balance of all aspects of the owners, although the other party promised to produce the drawings within a week, they still chose us more confidently. At that time, we gave four sets of plans, each of which had a relatively good effect. The owners and family members also gave great support, and chose the one with the most changes, which is of course the best. The biggest change means increased construction difficulty and time, so time is tight and tasks are heavy.

The factors that make the design successful can be roughly divided into three aspects: one, the owner's support and economic foundation and the fit with the designer's ideas; second, the designer's understanding and thinking of the design project, the designer's intention and creativity. 3. Combination of various materials and superb construction technology.

As far as private house design is concerned, the quality of the design is not only judged from an aesthetic point of view, I will evaluate it from the structural design to ensure that the design meets the owner's functional and performance needs. There is no absolute good or bad design. This is judged according to everyone's preferences. Good design can satisfy the owner's living habits and improve the quality of life.