{"id":30274,"date":"2022-07-25T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.essentialhome.eu\/inspirations\/?p=30274"},"modified":"2022-07-25T10:44:18","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T10:44:18","slug":"best-interior-designers-an-exclusive-interview-with-michael-k-chen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.essentialhome.eu\/inspirations\/trends\/interior-designers\/best-interior-designers-an-exclusive-interview-with-michael-k-chen\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Interior Designers: An Exclusive Interview With Michael K Chen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Michael K Chen Architecture<\/a><\/strong><\/em>\u00a0is an architecture practice providing innovative and superbly crafted work for clients seeking thoughtful and considered design. MKCA\u2019s services integrate\u00a0architecture,\u00a0interior design<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, and\u00a0product design<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>through a cohesive, coordinated, and collaborative process. We had the opportunity to speak with\u00a0Michael K Chen<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0himself so stay tuned and discover why Michael K Chen Architecture is one of the most sought-after firms in the industry today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SEE ALSO:<\/strong> The Most Awaited Design Events Yet To Come In 2022<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CovetED Magazine<\/strong>: Can you tell us about the beginning of your journey in the design world? How did the love for architecture emerge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael K Chen<\/strong>:\u00a0I was one of those children who was always drawing and building things in my bedroom. I think I decided to be an architect at age 6 and it just stuck.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CovetED Magazine<\/strong>: From what we know, you founded your company in your own apartment in 2011. What were the main difficulties and what motivated you to do so?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael K Chen<\/strong>:\u00a0I had been working on small side projects before that, first with a friend, and for a while on my own in between stints in offices and teaching. In 2011, I landed a rather large project that was substantial enough to require a team. We started as two people in sublet office space, then grew a little bit into a shared office, and the practice slowly grew from there. I always wanted to have a practice, but it was really the prospect of having a team that excited me and continues to excite me about practice. Building a team with different interests, backgrounds, and sensibilities means that our work is so much richer and more interesting. It\u2019s something that I was interested in for a long time, and then once the opportunity was available, it\u2019s really been about building and sustaining that team in the office. That\u2019s really the hardest and most rewarding thing about practice for me because it\u2019s forced me to learn how to manage and work with people, how to draw out everyone\u2019s best work, and how to be smart about running and resourcing the office\u2026 all things that are aren\u2019t what you\u2019re taught in architecture school.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a9 Max Burkhalter<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Alan Tansey<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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CovetED Magazine<\/strong>: How would you describe your signature style?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael K Chen<\/strong>:\u00a0We studiously avoid any form of visual signature or style, but what I would say is that much of our work shows a dedication to craft, a love of color and materiality, and sense of play. We love challenging projects, and we are very interested in intricacy. I find the situations where there are many different requirements and complexities, and many different agendas and voices that need to be brought into some sort of harmonious and clear resolution to be the most rewarding.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \"michael<\/a>\n\n\n\n

CovetED Magazine:<\/strong>\u00a0How does everything start when you have a new project in your hands? Tell us a bit more about your creative process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael K Chen<\/strong>:\u00a0Most of our projects are commissioned work for clients, so we generally start by asking a lot of questions and listening. We talk a lot about a project\u2019s values and concerns, as well as its functional and budgetary requirements. Because we work with people, we try to understand both what they need from a project, and also what they value, and we look for ways for those two things to come together in an interesting way. Often through that initial process, we start to identify collaborators. I think the team, both inside the office and outside, is so incredibly important to a project. We try to identify what other areas of expertise or experience would be valuable to us and to the project, and we try to identify people who we would like to work with. Those can be consultants, and sometimes they are artists, or other designers, scientists, or other interesting collaborators. We tend to work in digital models, so from the beginning, we build very precise models of a space or a site. And then we do what designers do: we iterate, we sketch, we collect images, we make problems for ourselves to solve, and over time the ideas come together.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a9 Richard Barnes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Richard Barnes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

CovetED Magazine:<\/strong>\u00a0For you, what is the secret to creating something unique?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael K Chen<\/strong>:\u00a0Curiosity, listening, and learning to work well with others.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CovetED Magazine<\/strong>: If you had to name the project of your career and your life, which would it be and why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael K Chen<\/strong>:\u00a0An impossible question! What we look for in projects are opportunities to learn and grow as a practice. We\u2019ve started to do more civic and cultural work, which we would love to do more of. And while I wouldn\u2019t call it the project of my career, my husband and I are building a small house in the country for ourselves. That\u2019s been a very interesting process \u2013 ambitious and humble at the same time.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a9 Brooke Holm<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Brooke Holm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

CovetED Magazine:<\/strong>\u00a0What is the main message that you want to pass to the design world with your beautiful projects?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael K Chen<\/strong>:\u00a0For a while, our priority has been to connect the work that we do to the values that we and our clients hold as people and citizens of the world. We are aware that part of the privileged position that we have as designers is to promote a vision of what we think excellence looks like. For us, that\u2019s never been about luxury or the most precious materials, nor has it ever been about a signature aesthetic. It\u2019s generally been about people, their ideas, and their labor. We\u2019ve always been thoughtful about craft and how things are made and we are trying to pursue that interest in the widest possible way and to connect it to larger issues. Naturally, we are looking for ways to challenge ourselves to find ways to reduce the waste and energy that are created and consumed as part of our work. We are looking for ever smaller and more local supply chains for materials, we are looking at circular and alternative material streams, and we are also trying to use the specification power that we have as designers to attempt to look out for issues like the rights of workers and the diversity of the construction workforce. Unsurprisingly, this is not about slapping a label on the same old practices and materials, but about looking a little deeper and challenging some of our assumptions about what is beautiful and compelling. And it\u2019s about finding the right partners and collaborators to design and produce the work with.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \"michael<\/a>\n\n\n\n

CovetED Magazine<\/strong>: In your opinion what is the big change that the pandemic brought to the design world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael K Chen<\/strong>:\u00a0In my experience, it has certainly supercharged our desire and practice around collaboration, because it has completely normalized remote relationships. We\u2019ve had so many conversations and engaged in so much cooperation as a result of online tools for communication and design as a result of our year working remotely with each other. I think the pandemic and the corresponding attention on racial justice that happened at the same time has also highlighted so many structural inequities that we live with, and it has brought into sharper relief a truth that we can either perpetuate or work to change them. We helped to start a nonprofit network of designers (Design Advocates) who work on providing design service to communities of need during the pandemic, all through tools like Zoom and Miro, and it\u2019s one of the best things I\u2019ve been a part of in my career.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a9 Alan Tansey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a9 Alan Tansey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

CovetED Magazine<\/strong>: We are excited to know about what the future holds for the great Michael K Chen. What are your next steps?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael K Chen<\/strong>:\u00a0We have a number of new ground-up buildings in design and construction for the first time, which is very exciting. As an urban practice, we are so accustomed to working at a more interior and constrained scale, and these house projects have been something of a new kind of challenge. And we are pursuing more work in the public realm, partly through Design Advocates, and partly by building on our experience of designing complex urban projects for individuals. We have a furniture collection coming out with TRNK later this year that encapsulates many of our ideas about flexible living and the slippage between spaces of living, work, and hospitality that I\u2019m very excited about, and we are growing our team, which is always fun and interesting.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor us, that\u2019s never been about luxury or the most precious materials, nor has it ever been about a signature aesthetic. It\u2019s generally been about people, their ideas, and their labor.\u201d \u2013\u00a0<\/em>Michael K Chen<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

CovetED Magazine<\/strong>: Which piece of advice can you give to the young professionals today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael K Chen<\/strong>:\u00a0Mostly that every experience and person that one encounters in one\u2019s professional life is an opportunity to learn. So many architects and designers (myself included) are wired to put their heads down in their computers and to think that they have to have the answers or figure out everything on their own, and this is just not true. Recognizing the limits of one\u2019s knowledge and experience, and taking advantage of the people around you can be so empowering, and it is the fastest way to learn and grow.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"michael<\/a>
\u00a9 Alan Tansey<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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READ MORE: <\/strong>Summer Sale: Grab Your Favorite Mid-Century Furniture Up To 60% Off<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For more irreverent design ideas with a vintage twist, don\u2019t forget to follow Essential Home on\u00a0Pinterest<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>. Subscribe to our newsletters\u00a0here<\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Michael K Chen Architecture\u00a0is an architecture practice providing innovative and superbly crafted work for clients seeking thoughtful and considered design. MKCA\u2019s services integrate\u00a0architecture,\u00a0interior design, and\u00a0product design\u00a0through a cohesive, coordinated, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":30299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1375],"tags":[1587,4772,1538,5290,5291,1376],"class_list":["post-30274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interior-designers","tag-best-interior-designers","tag-luxury-design-projects","tag-luxury-interior-design","tag-michael-k-chen","tag-michael-k-chen-interior-design","tag-top-interior-designers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.essentialhome.eu\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30274"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.essentialhome.eu\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.essentialhome.eu\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.essentialhome.eu\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.essentialhome.eu\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30274"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.essentialhome.eu\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30608,"href":"https:\/\/www.essentialhome.eu\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30274\/revisions\/30608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.essentialhome.eu\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.essentialhome.eu\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.essentialhome.eu\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.essentialhome.eu\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}