In July 2020, my boss asked me if I’m interested to do the interior design for our new branch in Shanghai as he knew I am also an interior designer. I was very excited to do some physical design work after years of working on digital products, so I accepted it without any hesitation. As we can’t travel this year due to Covid, all the information I got was from videos and photos that shared by our team in China. Our communication is purely conducted over the internet without face-to-face talks. It was quite odd at the beginning, but we all overcame it and got use to this new norm at last.

The site is on the high street but it’s not spacious (around 140 sqm), including reception, waiting area, vip rooms and office area. The wooden ceiling installation at the waiting area is a customer centric metaphor that shows all our bank staff join together from different directions and get ready to deliver excellent service to our clients. The spark light in the VIP rooms stands for DBS Bank as it derives from our logo. Sintered stones, natural wood and leather materials are used on the walls and furniture to present a luxury but also warm feeling to our wealth clients. The glass wall is either frosted or cover by monograms to keep the privacy for them too. After 3 month’s work, it was open to serve our clients in Shanghai.

“I love playing with both physical space and digital world, and I enjoy finding the sparks when they meet.”