Cui Shu
Founder of architecture and interior designer firm Cun Design in Beijing
In 2017, Cui Shu decided to build his design studio in a decades-old factory in Beijing’s Chaoyang District that had been transformed into a creative industrial park. The building is divided into zones with distinct functions, where workers can focus on specific tasks. The central “image area,” with is dramatic book displays, a mirrored ceiling and even a motorcycle, was designed to represent the company’s brand image to its clients, while “the main brain area of self space” was created as a bright, quiet, art-filled location for designers to contemplate.
“Considering my office style, on one hand, I think it suits well with my personal temperament and personality, and on the other hand, it matches with the space itself,” Cui says.
On the ceiling of a conference room, he placed a transparent fish pool that, in daylight, casts a beam of variegated light to make the space seem more lively. A staircase with a panoramic mirror connecting the second and first floors forms a V shape, above which hangs a model of a tyrannosaurus together with a flock of birds, creating a dreamy scenario. He also built a bar on the first floor that is equipped with removable tables, where colleagues have added their favourite personal items to make the place seem closer to them. In his own office, Cui installed a separate stairway that leads to a tearoom, a treat he designed for himself for receptions and personal reflection.
“In addition we hung a big tree divided into two at the top of the building and placed lighting on the back of the tree, so that the light reflected to the top will solve the overall lighting problem more gently,” he says. “Meanwhile, it also represents a design contradiction between rationality and sensibility. I definitely believe this idea fully reflects my own temperament and personality.”