I have a PhD in urban planning from the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, a masters in architecture and urbanism from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, and a Bachelor of Architecture (1st class honors) from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. I’ve wanted to become an architect since high school. It’s a profession that combines my interests in art and design, as well as the logic of science and structure.
My company is called WZWX architecture group. We have offices in Taipei, Taiwan, as well as in Shanghai, and Huai’an in China. We provide professional services in master planning, architectural design, interior design, and project management.
Speaking from the perspective of spatial design, I think it must involve form, function and comfort. The space itself must have a unique ambience that has character and soul.
We love designing anything that is challenging. They could be museums, art galleries, schools, hotels, and commercial spaces… so many things. We just love to design.
When I’ve delivered clients design solutions which they haven’t thought of before. Also when a good project has been well realized, and it not only looks good but feels good to be in it.
The nature of our work presents us many opportunities to evaluate things in its status quo. We have responsibilities to use these opportunities to find ways to improve it.
With the web and flourishing of websites like ArchDaily, Dezeen, Pinterest etc, designs are being inseminated around quicker and farther than ever before. Designers can grab references off the web easily, which helps the design process. But it also makes copying easier, and harder to make original designs because we can be easily influenced by what’s available out there. I think three lines of design approach will prevail. One using technology like AI and 3D printing, the second keeping in line with traditional craftsmanship and materials, and lastly, the approach based on the use of innovative and recycled materials.
Our last exhibitions were award winning entries like the Red Dot Award and iF award being exhibited in their group exhibitions. We haven’t done a solo exhibition of our company’s work yet. We may organize one in a year or two.
We are sympathetic to client’s needs, not bounded to any aesthetic language or materials, sensitive to budget and time frame, and it must be comfortable.
We always try to be very honest about our approach, and try to establish an open communication with them, so that we can really get to understand their needs.
We always set clear criteria in the beginning of our design. Things like performance needs, budget constraint, time constraint, availability of material etc. Then our team will brain storm and come up with a number of possible proposals. Then we will discuss with clients, and shape our initial proposals by elimination and adaptation, until we get a solution that can satisfy all or most of the initial criteria.
Our dining chair: Danish No.42 mahogany dining chairs by Kai KristiansenA French porcelain casserole dish we bought in ParisPens from Japanese stationary store ItoyaGrohe Freehander adjustable wall fixed shower headTOTO smart toilet
I travel frequently for work, for teaching commitments, and for sightseeing. When I’m at the office, I would split my time between designing, delegate work to staff, mark works from staff, organize team discussions, attend client meetings, socialize, and work on management tasks.
I have three advices. 1.Put the client’s needs as the design priority. They are paying for the project, and they will be the eventual users. 2.Work hard and study hard. Try to always keep in touch with what’s happening in your design field. 3.Be nice to people.
I think the important skills include communication, observation, the ability to analyse problems, and the ability to unlearn the current ways so that one can see things with a fresh set of eyes.
I always keep a list of works to be done. I priorities the items on the list and cross them out as I complete them. I try to work as efficiently as possible.
It depends on the nature and scale of the project. For an interior design work, it may take from 6 months to more than a year. For a piece of architecture, I may take from a year to many years.
The most important work experience was when I was working as the project manager of The Building on the Water: Shihlien Chemical designed by Alvaro Siza and his partner Carlos Castanheira. This building is the first and largest application of white fair-faced concrete construction in China to date. During the project, I was working very closely with Carlos, and reading all the construction documents from Siza and Carlos’ team. The experience thought me how to put a piece of architecture together.
We work with some of the largest companies in Taiwan. T-HAM is the largest and oldest company in meat processing. Taiwan Glass is the world’s third largest glass producer by volume. Shihlien Chemical group possess the world’s largest single soda ash plant in China.
Yes we work as a team. Sometimes I give the team ideas. Sometimes the team proposes ideas and we have a design discussion session to device the next step of approach.
We are currently designing a visitor factory and guest houses for a pu’er tea company in a very remote area of China near Xishuangbanna. The local township looks like it’s been frozen in time for centuries, and the buildings there are constructed of very traditional materials like earth, stone, wood and bamboo. Our site is very hard to access, and we are thinking very hard on how to utilize these traditional materials to construct our buildings. It’s very challenging and just the way we like it.