Jian'an Zhou

Specialized in Landscape Design Design.

Jian'an Zhou

About Jian'an Zhou

Jian’an Zhou, Chief Designer of Nine-Court Mansion, Founder of INLab Design and Conslutancy with 17 years of design and management experience. The Kids Dream Kids Enjoy system is created by Jian’an Zhou as a guideline for children activity yard in Chinese residential area, which provide a safer and integrated playground for children and their guardians. Jian’an Zhou delicates to improve the enjoyment and quality of residential area.

  • Winner of the A' Design Award.
  • Specialized in Landscape Design Design.
  • Original Design.
  • Creative, Diligent and Innovative.
  • All Designs
  • Landscape Design
Nine Court Mansion Residential Landscape

Nine Court Mansion Residential Landscape

Landscape Design Design

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Interview with Jian'an Zhou

Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
I graduated from Guilin University of Technology, majoring in environmental design. After graduation, I worked as a landscape designer first in a real estate company and afterwards in a design company. During my 17-year career I participated in many good projects.
Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
IN Lab is a landscape design firm specialized in small-sized high-end projects. With its quality services in landscape design, it aims to show the uniqueness and maximize the social values of every piece of land in order to improve people’s quality of life and well-being.
What is "design" for you?
I think design refers to the orderly arrangements of the elements of life. By taking apart our living environment into sperate parts and reorganizing them in a certain way, it aims for optimizing our living space and quality of life.
What kinds of works do you like designing most?
I am attracted to residential landscape design, which brings people a better living environment.
What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
The HOSHINOYA Luxury Hotels in Karuizawa is a hot spring resort in a valley, with its landscape design conducted by Hiroki Hasegawa based on Japan’s traditional culture.
What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
Pervious concrete is extremely environmental-friendly, which is helpful for building sponge cities.
Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
I attach great importance to the problems design aims to address and seek solutions.
What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
Feel very excited and look forward to the future of the project.
What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
Feel more tranquil than excited and would give a sensible analysis of the gains and losses of the project and using the experience learned to guide the next project.
What makes a design successful?
In my opinion, a successful project can address the function and artistic values of the project at the same time.
When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
Whether it actually resolves the problems existing in the project?
From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
Designers need to address the practical issues surrounding people’s living environment, be inspirational to people and play a positive role in the society on the spiritual level.
How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
Design is an interdisciplinary major. Nowadays, with various fields of study being interconnected, the design field would keep improving and making progress.
When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
I am a landscape designer so it’s impossible for me to hold my own exhibitions, but I hope more people could see my works.
Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
The most important thing is to be a keen observer. Your continual observation of life and reflections make you aware of the problems in life and would inspire you to find solutions.
How would you describe your design style? What made you explore more this style and what are the main characteristics of your style? What's your approach to design?
As a landscape designer, I’ve developed a liking for the minimalist style. Observation has always been my source of inspiration. Through observation, problems can be found and eventually resolved.
Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?
I live in China and traditional Chinese culture has a big impact on my design so I focus more on building oriental landscape. That’s why I have a lot to do in my understanding of the western style.
How do you work with companies?
I would lead my colleagues to conduct careful pre-stage analyses and through brainstorming, collect as many ideas as possible and find the most proper solutions thereof.
What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?
This is a process requiring constant cooperation. Companies and their designers need to understand each other and find common grounds to ensure everything go smoothly.
Can you talk a little about your design process?
Careful pre-stage analyses and brainstorming with colleagues to find solutions working best and then continue to make improvement according to the specific situations of a project.
Can you describe a day in your life?
Wake up by my alarm clock and my passion for work; go to work and stick to the plan made yesterday; do a lot of reading at night; realize the need to do more exercises until it’s time to sleep.
Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
Keep working out and a keen observation and spent more time thinking about the ideas behind outstanding projects.
From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?
Designers have greater passion for life and keener ability to find beauty in life. But most of the time, they sit behind a desk, so they need to go outside and do exercises to stay healthy and keep a sharp mind.
What is your "golden rule" in design?
Use the simplest way to address the fundamental issues of a project.
Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
Focusing on the fundamental issues and spent the most time finding solutions working best. In addition, we have standardized many operations, which can improve efficiency significantly.
How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
It depends on the difficulty of a project. Generally, it takes three months to a year.
What was your most important job experience?
The design of Chongqi No.1 Central Mansion gave me a deeper understanding of the exquisite effects designers pursue and the ideas behind them.
What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
I prefer to do landscape design of residential areas as I have always hoped to develop a design system to improve people’s living environment within a limited space.
What are your future plans? What is next for you?
I would continue to devote to working on sophisticated and high-quality landscape design projects. My next project is a hanging garden project, which is a challenge I’m very looking forward to.
Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
We work together as a team to produce more high-quality projects.
Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
Currently I am working on a hanging garden project, which is very high-end and futuristic. I hope we could achieve a satisfactory result.
How can people contact you?
I would love to contacted through my email zhangguowei@y-anstudio.com.
Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
Any suggestions would be welcomed and we are committed to do our next project better.

Extended Interview with Jian'an Zhou

Could you please tell us about your experience as a designer, artist, architect or creator?
I graduated from Guilin University of Technology, majoring in environmental design. After graduation, I worked as a landscape designer first in a real estate company and afterwards in a design company. During my 17-year career I participated in many good projects.
How did you become a designer?
Privately, I am very quiet. I like to observe the details of our everyday life and find out the rules and problems of our living environment, which enables me to become a capable designer and to find solutions to these problems.
Which emotions do you feel when designing?
I have participated in many commercial, municipal and residential landscape design projects. Currently, I mainly work on residential landscape design projects.
What particular aspects of your background shaped you as a designer?
The essence of design should focus on people so we need to spent a great deal of time observing and studying their lives.
What is your growth path? What are your future plans? What is your dream design project?
Your observation of life, understanding of a project and approaches to address issues encountered in the project are essential for you to become a good designer.
What are your advices to designers who are at the beginning of their career?
Actually resolves the essential problems through our design, inspirational and have certain aesthetic values.
You are truly successful as a designer, what do you suggest to fellow designers, artists and architects?
Good design is able to improve people’s quality of life and resolve many problems they encounter in life. If I were an investor, I would think it is worthwhile to invest in a design proposal that can actually address people’s needs.
What is your day to day look like?
I hope I could have the opportunity to devote to landscape projects that preserve our traditional culture and improve the sustainable development of cities and work with environmentalists and preservationist to improve our living environment.
How do you keep up with latest design trends? To what extent do design trends matter?
BIOPHILIC urban design; I believe that staying close to nature could to a large extent improve people’s physical and mental health and the urban environment. If time allows I hope I could have the opportunity to work on this type of project.
How do you know if a product or project is well designed? How do you define good design?
Design should focus on the needs of people. We must find out ways to understand users’ actual needs. What kind of lifestyle do they prefer and what kind of environment they prefer to conduct social interactivity.
How do you decide if your design is ready?
Landscape designer guru Zhu Yufan and architecture expert Wang Shu have been inspirational to me in terms of space layout and oriental landscape design.
What is your biggest design work?
The HOSHINOYA Luxury Hotels in Karuizawa is a hot spring resort in a valley, with its landscape designed by Hiroki Hasegawa based on Japan’s traditional culture.
Who is your favourite designer?
Currently I feel satisfied with the design effects of Guobin No. 1 Central Mansion. It aims to create a unique and serene place among the bustling city.
Would you tell us a bit about your lifestyle and culture?
Firstly, you have to be interested in design; and you should be a keen observer in life and lastly it’s your reflections on the problems you have detected.
Would you tell us more about your work culture and business philosophy?
I might become a concept artist because I once had deep interest in painting.
What are your philanthropic contributions to society as a designer, artist and architect?
I think design refers to the orderly arrangements of the elements of life. By taking apart our living environment into sperate parts and reorganizing them in a certain way, it aims for optimizing our living space and quality of life.
What positive experiences you had when you attend the A’ Design Award?
In fact, my family, colleagues and clients have given me great support and we are also willing to work together to produce exquisite landscape design.

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