Ben Yeung: design and life cannot be aparted
Resource: Jumping
Ben Yeung, a celebrated architectural designer, Class 1 Registered Architect in China, the founder of ben yeung & associates ltd.
“The happiest thing within the past 30 year is I have learned what I intended to, which became a part of my career.” Graduated from the University of Hong Kong with major in architect, Ben Yeung’s passion towards architect brought success, triumph and victory. With the belief of "attitude changes life", he made great efforts to reach his goal— to start an architectural firm, laying a solid foundation for the future.
ben yeung & associates ltd. has been set up its branch office in Guangzhou in 2002, which is supposed to be over 10 years. The branch office started as a team with 5-6 people, now as large-scale firm with over 135 employees. The firm including plenty of outstanding projects, for instance, Le Meridien Shimei Bay Beach Resort & Spa Hotel and the Spring Legend. Le Meridien Shimei Bay Beach Resort & Spa Hotel is well known for being the filming location of season two ofIf You Are The One (one of the most popular TV dating show in China).
Ben and I first met at the byal office located at Liwan Original Element Creative Industry Design Center in Guangzhou. Designed by himself, the firm oozing an atmosphere of soothing and calm, which is different from those companies located in downtown. It was original an old factory of Guangzhou Brewery. Ben obsessed with the charm of it and decided to preserve its historic details. He only utilized steel bars as the premier solution to structural problems rather than removing all the historic moldings and hardware. He also kept the roof windows to allow light to filter through, in order to reduce energy consumption in the office and boot the health of everyone who works here.
The atmosphere in Ben’s office is quite free and easy. The left side is the conference area comprising a round table and a sofa, while the other side is the leisure area including various types of pipe, wine and vinyl record, and there is no partition wall between these two areas. "Everything I need for daily life is here." It is obvious that Ben is a man of great taste rather than a dull workaholic.
Ben states design, fashion and life is connected. He says, no matter what project you are working on, restaurant, club house, apartment or hotel, it is still related to life. Moreover, it is hard to make a successful design if you are lack of life experience. “I like to visit interesting places, and I also love experiencing life in different ways.” says Ben.
Ben sleeps only a few hours per day, so he can live the life he wants. He works hard in the day time. At night, he loves to hang out with friends until 1 or 2 am. He even holds a pipe club with friends. “I never be used to oversleep, and that is why I am with too much grey hair,” he jokes, “I enjoy every second of my life, observing different things and get ideas from them.” In other word, he is not a typical design nerd, who sits at a desk all day and focuses on designing only. He is an extraordinary designer, who has a good grounding in design, preferring experience and thinking while reading.
Ben’s life experience makes him a multi-disciplinary designer. He is not into only one discipline, “People tend to consider designers must have an artistic temperament, but I think designer is different from artist. One cannot have everything on his/her own way. Instead, a designer needs to identify to a market trend and be responsible to it somehow. For these reasons, Ben likes to spend time cogitating on balancing the design and objective circumstances, including the surroundings, other buildings around the project, and the interior functions of it. Eventually, he will add something extraordinary to the project.
CR Shimei Bay International Marina Club is one of the best designs for showing the way he works, which he has made several versions of the architectural design. Originally, Ben made the design relate to sea, and therefore, the scheme consisted of two gold fish. There was nothing between them, and a swimming pool would be placed on the top of them. “Swimming Fish” was the concept if the design. However, the cost of the scheme would overrun hugely, the client suggested halving the floor area of the project. Ben did not take the suggestion, because he thought it would cause the design become off-balance. Finally, Ben modified the scheme, simplifying the two fish and making them abstract. It perfectly conveyed the design concept and satisfied the functional requirements of the architecture.
A finished project is not as easy as we think. It takes a lot of time and effort. More than ten years ago, Ben joined Crosswaters Ecolodge & SPA Project before starting his own design firm. Design program was as advanced as today, which could not make the design process efficient and productive. Architects had to go on a site visit to Nankun Mountain, climb up the mountain, use sickle to cut some trees down and hammer bamboo nails, finally study the location of each house. “If you visit Nankun Mountain, you will find out those buildings are diverting. If you look closely, you can discover all landscapes are well connected and the connection among them is regular.” he says. Ben Yeung still considers it is fairy fun to make design in such a way until now.
Ben defines his concept of being fun, it is completely unrestricted when you making design. A few years ago, Ben decided to expand his business to Mainland China, because the architectural market in Hong Kong is small, and interior and signage of a building are designed by different firms. “It seems like you have a baby, but you two do not look actually alike,” he states.
Ben Yeung deemed if he was in charge of the whole project, he would be more responsible to it. “If you truly like design, you will take pleasure in doing it.” he insists.
Ben has designed diverse types of project these years, but he is not satisfied enough. He hopes to do some hospital and educational projects. In his mind, an ideal hospital/school does not have to be fancy, but must be creative and fun. “I think toady’s schools are bored and uncreative, the corridor is like the rigid barrack.” He deems it should be fun when you are in school, no matter where you go, classroom, bathroom, playground or staircase, you are always pleased. “This feeling definitely makes the project valuable, better than any luxurious decoration,” says Ben.
