About being
Who we are
We are a design studio founded in Hong Kong, in 1999 by architect Terence Ngan and interior designer Ed Ng. Over twenty years we have built a global portfolio of commercial and residential interiors, bringing the values of our clients to life in physical space with soul. We work as creative partners with many of the world’s leading hospitality brands to create compelling interior environments that make people feel present in the moment. We design furniture, lighting and textiles that are charming of character and easy to use. We believe in the power of good design to shape our human experience and leave a positive imprint on the mind. Design is a craft to enhance our quality of life; it allows us to be ourselves, to be together, to be present, to be moved and inspired. Ultimately, design is about being.
What we do
After more than twenty years of professional practice, our pedigree allows us confidence and quiet authority. We combine rigour with warmth. We go beyond providing solutions to design emotional journeys within our projects, taking care that rational responses are always combined with attention to feeling, alongside function and form. We describe our mission as translating intangible emotions into tangible realities. We design for experience and memory together. In every project we ask ourselves two questions: How do we want people to feel? What will be remembered from this experience an hour, a day, a week and a year later?
Our projects
We balance architecture, interiors and creative direction. We understand people and space, and how to bring the two together to capture a feeling in any spatial experience. Our designs explore the interplay of contrasting elements: craft and industry, scale and intimacy, big impression and small detail. We like our interiors to be expressive of time and place, to celebrate time-honoured skills, cultural nuances and local traditions. We enjoy textural richness, engaging people on a sensual and sensory level for emotional impact. We speak a material language that goes beyond decoration to create spaces that are robust and splendid in feeling and function.
Our approach
Our projects have a shared approach more than a shared aesthetic. We bring our ideas to life in layout, materials, furnishing and detail, with acute attention to how spaces work optimally and feel special, simultaneously. We take touchpoints seriously; this is where people feel good design. Attention to every detail, seen and unseen, brings integrity to our practice and projects. It matters to us that we design memorable impressions, from first encounter to lasting memory. We use the analogy of cooking to describe our approach. Like a chef, we explore different ingredients in combination to create an experience more powerful than the sum of its parts. As with cooking, design is a passionate pursuit and an expression of love; it can awaken our senses in a moment, and can leave an imprint on our minds forever.
Why we do it
We describe design as a lens for the human experience, at all scales and across cultures. We say that design is a window to the world: it can shape how we feel and behave, what we think and remember, about people and place, culture and time. We are interested by what design can do, not only what it looks like. For us, design is a valuable and evolving tool, a science and a craft combined. It helps us to understand who we are, to reflect how we live and to shape how we come together.
