David Chang, a Chinese-Canadian Designer, founder of David Chang Design & Associates (DCDA), Principal Design Director, a member of the twelve-membered SBID expert committee (the only Asian expert member), a registered member of NCIDQ, ASID and IIDA, and ASID, with over 25 years of experience in luxury commercial, hotel, and residential interior design and management experiences in North America and Asia.

David was born in Taiwan, majored in Interior Design at both California State University in the United States and Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Vancouver British Columbia, Canada, and studied “Green Building and Community Sustainability” professional certificate program at Harvard University. Deeply influenced by Chinese and Western culture, David Chang emphasizes attention to culture and history as a source of inspiration thereby creating vitality and rich artistic essence for each project. Moreover, David Chang emphasizes on interior space comfort, functionality, and creation of souls in each design. Based on these philosophies, David Chang's innovative works have won numerous design awards in the UK, Italy, and Canada. In both year 2017 and 2018, David Chang was appointed as a jury member for the Italian A'Design Award & Competition and was awarded 2018 SBID Master of Design accolade.

In 1998, David Chang founded David Chang Design Associates International (DCDA) in Vancouver, Canada, and expanded to the China market in 2006, established firms in Guangzhou, Beijing, and Taiwan, to provide exclusive upscale design services on landmark projects for local top developers. The interior design and space planning projects encompass multiple fields such as luxury apartments, villas, sales and marketing centers, clubhouses, hotels, private bespoke homes and etc. Projects such as “Heritage Estate”, “Chinoiserie Villa”, “Runze Palace”, “Eminence Mansion” and “Shimao Xishan Loong Palace”, etc., have been listed as exemplary projects in the real estate industry.

Some of our previous projects have also won design awards from Britain, Italy, and Canada, and our Muse Awards is undoubtedly a great affirmation of our design work. All the designers who participated in the award also felt very excited, which inspired us to firm up our aesthetic taste and design more excellent works.

Our winning projects include a restaurant, two residences, and a sales department located in Beijing and Guangdong province, China. The two residential projects (Chinoiserie S3 and Shimano Loong Palace) have some Chinese design elements in them, so we chose these two projects to let the world realize the charm of Chinese culture and art. The restaurant is completely different from the previous two projects. It is a French restaurant located in the most prosperous area of Beijing CBD, which represents the elegant and modern design tendency. The selection of different types of design works into the award selection, but also hope to comprehensively demonstrate the design strength of the company.

The biggest challenge for design projects is to avoid homogenization, because there are many works with similar design styles in the Chinese market, and people will follow the trend to design with the same style if the market has a high acceptance of the style, because there is no risk, but the most valuable original meaning of design is lost. We want to be different, our work should have the spirit of independent research and development, of course, the original must be more laborious than imitation, but this is the real fun of design.

Winning the award will let us be determined in the design of the road to go, let's make sure our taste is accepted and appreciated by everyone, let us have more confidence. The source of confidence is very important for a designer, as it creates a stable strength in his/her work.

Scriptwriting: when receiving a project, we should first write a script suitable for this space, find the inspiration of the design, and then write a story along the line of inspiration. This is a creative process, and we will have a great sense of achievement after completion.

Travel: because we are engaged in design work, so often we will have the chance to go to all over the world. In addition to business contacts, we will take some time off to find all kinds of interesting things, including local exhibitions and various performances. It inspires us to have a extending the boundaries of design.

Time race: to do design work. Very few do not work overtime as developers give a very tight time window. We need to go all out to work around the clock, although it's a little hard, but it can stimulate one's potential, letting us know that it's possible to complete the work.

We added a lot of nationalization in the design, such as the Chinese traditional folk manual art intervention, some of the intangible cultural heritage, the lost art, etc. We apply it to the space design, combining Chinese traditional arts and crafts and practical art, has obtained a good visual effect and has certain significance of cultural heritage.

It will be more intelligent, personalized, functional, and direction-forward. The introduction of high-tech changes people's lives and improves the overall comfort level of living.

Do design that is not behind closed doors, take steps to see the outside world, absorb nutrition from all sides, add inspiration to the design, and it will give a person a bright feeling. Also, when the youth design try not to be too flowery and notice the culture feeling from the overall designs.

Travel and expose yourself to any subject that is related to aesthetic and the five senses.

Something that is preferably remained as mysterious. After all, it is the mysterious unknown that provides us with an intriguing desire to explore, conquer, and move forward in making the world a constantly progressive and prosperous place.

My family, my wife, and children have given me a lot of help and understanding towards my work and life. Because of work, they followed me from Canada to China, enabling me to work here and develop my career. So I would like to express my special thanks to them.

Perhaps the key to success is that I do things more carefully - by being a little more careful, put in a little more effort, and this creates more opportunities than others. As the Chinese saying goes, "no pain, no gain".

It is a great pleasure for me and all my colleagues who are involved in this project to win the Muse Award. Thank you for giving us this honor. I think we should not forget our design "heart" as there will always be a surprise waiting at the front.