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January 12, 2020

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Creative design vision that is practical and modern

Source: Shanghai Daily | 00:00 UTC+8 January 12, 2020 | Print Edition

WHO is she?

Celia Chu is principal designer of Celia Chu Design & Associates. She has built a reputation creating elegantly contemporary hospitality and upscale residential projects with a flair of sophistication and layered richness. In 2007, after launching her namesake interior design firm in Taipei, Chu has been leading a team of talented design professionals to collaborate with a roster of domestic and international clients on many prestigious design assignments.

Tell us some of your works, and name the one you are most proud of.

We are really lucky to have had chances to honor and experience so many projects around the world, so we get to explore different cultures and their way of life. For each and every project is unique to us. We have a project from the Grand Hyatt Japan. I designed the blooming White Rose Wedding Chapel.

We have three free-standing projects from the Hyatt Regency Resort in Vietnam, including their Pool House, Green House and Beach House design. We also have some local Taiwan projects and we help businesses converting their brand image, like ‘A Cut Steakhouse’ from the Ambassador Hotel.

Almost every project I designed took a lot of effort. But if I need to pick out one it would be the Rosewood Bangkok in Thailand.

This project was particularly close to my heart while fully expressing my thoughts through the design. Elaborating a Thai home intimacy and narrating it into each interior detail makes it a piece of art that shows the passionate and friendly character of their nation. I’m proud and satisfied that Rosewood Bangkok is a great accomplishment among all the projects I have done so far.

Are you currently involved with any project?

I’m currently working on projects with a different brand standard, such as Hyatt Centric. The design DNA is different from Grand Hyatt and Rosewood, which allows me to extend and challenge myself with a new design approach. While focusing on international hospitality design for years, I’m also starting resorts and high-end private residence design in Taiwan these days.

One is because the market is here and two is that I am a female Taiwan designer. While going around the world, experiencing different projects from different countries, different cultures, I would really like to free my mind and build places I can see myself when I am here on a weekend — it is to extend that beauty of design rooting back to the land where I grew up and stayed.

Describe your design style.

Rather than setting myself with a particular design style, I treat each project not just fitting a ‘style box’ into it, but it is more about designing an experience and an individual story. Of course, for those who know me a little bit more still can tell the elegance and style I try to integrate throughout all projects I do. My goal is to bring a unique and creative vision of life for my design that is practical, modern and memorable.

What do you collect?

Memories. I like to travel and it becomes something I cannot live without in my life anymore. Different from years before, now I would like to collect not just object pieces but that experience that will last forever. That is what I like to collect in my life and create for people in my design as well.

Where would you like to go most in Shanghai?

There’s somewhere meaningful to me in Shanghai — that is the Park Hyatt Hotel. I participated in the design of it while I was working in New York with Tony Chi. After the year passed, the design is a mixture of Western modern and traditional Chinese elements. It is a design landmark with the elegancy.

What will be the next big design trend?

For a better future and for our latter generation, I want to encourage the next design trend myself to put more effort in going “design green.”

This is now a trend throughout the world and I also encourage my team in our daily office bases. Yet this effort really needs to get everyone on board, from the client/owner and all contractors to make it happen and build this dream together. I believe this will improve the overall health and design of a happier life for people and our children in the future.

Other than that, for ‘design’ itself, I think it is to create a new style while honoring the culture we have.

What I like to emphasize the most is to design with a truthful heart. Design should not be just a set of principles or styles but something that deeply influences people’s emotion, behavior and even invites memories of their past and future while visiting the space that has been designed. Those will be the trends I’d like to focus and lead on in my next step.

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