Interview with Justin Bridgland, Jaycee Chui

MDO is an award winning architecture and interior design practice based in Shanghai dedicated to creating innovative and beautiful bespoke solutions. Our approach is highly spatial, exploring scale and proportion, and creating journeys and stories rich in detail, material and light.MDO was founded by Jaycee Chui in 2014.

Everything. All things have the potential to be well designed, to create and emotional response. If not, it’s a missed opportunity.

Ones where the client is engaged and where we can experiment with space.

I don’t like favorites things as they are limiting by definition. I am always happy when I find new things.

A boathouse for a rowing club in Bray, London. It was my first architectural job in London and my boss gave me a great opportunity.

Light. Without light there is no space.

In the shower. I keep my phone close to record ideas

We are architects working on mostly interior design, so we are interested in the relationship between the two. We treat our designs as journeys.

A mixture of anxiety and pleasure. You need to go down before you can come up.

See question 10!

A good team with a trusting client.

Does it move me?

To make our surroundings better then when we received them should be a common goal.

It’s a little too big a subject, but I believe some design will try to solve our current problems, whilst others will just make it worse.

We haven’t had time yet to put on a physical exhibition, but our work is exhibited digitally.

We love to travel as much as possible. Inspiration can hit anytime.

We try not to have a style, more an approach or methodology to out work.

Shanghai, China. It’s a city with lots of energy which is very influential. The speed of China is both positive and negative. Our designs welcome this energy, but also try to create space and time for people to be able to relax.

Amicably.

Its important to find like minded people.

Testing, testing and more testing.

The table my wife designed for our dining room, its called the Hide and Seek table where our young children and dog can play.
The red shelves my wife designed which balance beautifully with our table.
Our Ligne Roset Togo lounge chair, beautiful design and everyone fights to sit on it.
My study’s Thonet S32 chair.
My 1959 Gibson Les Paul in Tea burst finish.

Not to rush too quickly. Designers are lucky in that they get better as they age.

It’s a tough job with many uncertainties, however it allows you to do your passion for your living.

Proportion and scale.

To keep an open mind, and persevere.

Hand sketch, 3d modeling and physical samples. Its important to balance the real with the digital

By prioritizing, being efficient and delegating.

Depends how long the client gives you.

Give me something special.

The ones where you learn the hard lessons.

We work with many of the top residential developers in China.

Projects which involve interesting challenges.

Grow our practice in China. We would like to develop our luxury design projects. We are also planning to start developing our own projects in other countries. We have started our first of these projects next to Edinburgh Castle.

I usually start the project myself and then work with my team to develop it. Its important that the team see the project through from concept to completion to ensure the idea is realized. Its also how we can test and evaluate our designs.

We are working on Yacht club in Muscat, Oman where we are the architects and interior designers. Hopefully it will complete in 2021.

By email.