Architect & interior designer · Shanghai · Kuala Lumpur

A space should say who it belongs to,
and disappear while people use it.

Half the work is translation: turning a brand, or a household, into a plan. The other half is behaviour: making sure that plan matches how people actually move, queue, wait, reach and rest. Get the first wrong and it is decoration. Get the second wrong and it is a beautiful room nobody can use.

Translating ideas into places

The method

Concept → Space

Every project starts as something a client can only say out loud.

Five worth drawing. All thirty-three are read the same way in the full index.

ConceptThe Fantreea in DKSH's identity: one trunk gathering and sustaining many branches. The company calls that collective strength its DNA.

SpaceA flexible grid that can be reconfigured over time, with curved forms and interconnected zones tracing the helix.

ConceptThe Olympic spirit and the Loong: strength, unity, resilience, a dragon in flight.

SpaceVertical façade strips with a flowing rhythm in reflective material, then curved walls and a sculptural stair in gold, bronze and silver gradients that reference the medals.

ConceptPassion Shadow. The endurance, speed and rhythm of a marathon.

SpaceA gradient from white to deep red, echoing blood carrying oxygen the way apparel carries an athlete, with circulation following the stages of a race.

ConceptAn IoT ecosystem with everything on one nervous system rather than in its own product category.

SpaceThree experience centres from 1,884 to 5,404 m², each built on the same connective plan at a different scale.

ConceptVasen makes everything from municipal mains to the fine water and electrical lines inside a house. They are everywhere and nobody notices them.

SpaceTwo identical model rooms where one has transparent floors, walls and ceilings, so a visitor sees the whole system running through a home.

What I hold to

01 A space should communicate before it explains. If a visitor needs a wall text, a brand video or a host to understand where they are, the architecture has already failed. Signage confirms what the room has said. It should never introduce it.

02 Meaning is half the job. Behaviour is the other half. A plan that carries a beautiful idea but ignores how people queue, reach, wait and rest is not a concept, it is an obstacle course. The translation only counts if the room still works on an ordinary Tuesday.

03 Simplicity comes from clarity, not reduction. Stripping things away without knowing why produces emptiness, not calm. A space feels simple when every element is answering the same question, whether there are three of them or thirty.

04 Good design survives construction and localisation. An idea that only holds in the render is an image, not an idea. The test is whether it still reads after value engineering, after a substituted material, and after the concept crosses a border into a market that reads space differently.

05 Technology should amplify judgement, not replace it. Software is good at the repetition that erodes a design team. It is not good at deciding what a project means. I am interested in the first job so there is more room for the second.

Introduction

Full story ↗

Hoi Yee trained as an architect before moving into interior design for one simple reason: an obsession with detail that architecture alone couldn't satisfy. That instinct to look closer, ask what a space is really communicating, and understand how people experience it continues to shape everything she designs.

Over the past decade, she has worked across Malaysia and China, gaining experience in both international collaborations and hands-on project delivery. Her career spans architecture, interiors, and project management, contributing to projects alongside practices including Studio Daniel Libeskind, GALA CHINA, Studio Marco Piva, MMA, and SBGA, while also delivering interior projects from concept through completion at Spacemen Studio and Arkitek Ari Methi. Rather than defining her by any single design style, these experiences taught her how to navigate different cultures, teams, and project scales while keeping the original design intent intact.

Today, her strength lies in translating ideas into spaces that feel inevitable. Whether leading a 45,000 m² mixed-use development or designing a 250 m² retail concept, she approaches every project with the same mindset: uncover the story behind a brand, transform it into a spatial experience, and ensure it remains meaningful through localisation, coordination, and construction.

In 2022, she founded h.society, a Shanghai-based spatial and brand design studio. Alongside delivering end-to-end interior design projects, she is exploring how AI can strengthen creative workflows, project management, and the way designers turn strategy into built environments.

A space should say who it belongs to,and disappear while people use it.

Every project starts as something a client can only say out loud.

Tell me what the project is supposed to say, and how people need to use it.

A space should say who it belongs to,
and disappear while people use it.