Interview with Lanny Hou, Beijing Location Space In Design Co., Ltd., China

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Lanny Hou

As an acclaimed interior designer, Lanny’s design style are based off the Chinese aesthetic influenced by the logical Western methods, allowing a loose and free look.



Interview with the 2021 MUSE Design Awards Winner - Lanny Hou

1Please give us a brief bio of yourself and your design background.

I am Lanny from Beijing and graduated from Beijing University of Technology. I am an interior designer who has been engaged in design for 15 years.I started working on the service and design of the real estate demonstration area. So since I founded my own company, I have been focusing on the real estate design sector.

2What made you become/why did you choose to become a designer/artist?

I was born in the mid-80s, and I just entered the 90s at the age of studying. At that time, China was in music, film, and painting. There were many classics in that era. I was born in Beijing and I was exposed to many foreign cultures of that period, such as the Dragon Ball of Japanese manga. At that time, the popularity of Internet letters was very slow, and the aesthetic impact of a comic on a teenager was huge. So it also had its own aesthetic standards during that period. The industry that is slowly doing it is also biased in this direction.

3Tell us more about your business/company, job profile, and what you do.

Our company currently has 26 employees and belongs to a small design company. The real estate sector where our main business revolves. The quality of our service objects is very valuable. For example, Poly, China Shipping, and other top ten real estate companies. To be able to serve this level of company, a very important point is our professionalism. In the past 15 years of design, I am very familiar with the design process and product requirements of real estate companies. It is also true that our small-scale company can have its own place in the current highly competitive market.

4What does “design” mean to you?

Design is a way of life for me. A good design can show a person's cultivation and character.Because of the particularity of the design industry, you must maintain a high-time job, but this job is not a monolithic brick. Every project has its own characteristics.

5What’s your favorite kind of design and why?

My preference for design is related to my age. When I was in my 20s, I liked free and exaggerated design. Over 30s like natural, relaxing design.

6To you, what makes a “good” design?

A large part of design is to solve problems, and good aesthetics is a matter of the public. Andy Warhol once said: "Everyone is an artist", so there is no standard for good looks. A good design is a good design that solves the problem.

7Describe your design style and its main characteristics.

The design theories we are exposed to come from Western logical methods, but our aesthetic standards are implicit in the Chinese. This is the output of the current Chinese design style, a Western design style under the expression of the East. So I hope our design works look very rigorous, but also very loose and free.

8Tell us about your design process.

Our design service generally takes two months. In the first week after receiving a design commission, we must first collect the design information of Party A, such as marketing part, plot information, and product type. Next, we will make a layout plan according to the needs of customers and find reference cases for benchmarking. After the plane is determined, the second week. We will enter the deduction stage of the model. This stage is very critical. It will last for a week to verify whether our design is reasonable. The model will be very intuitive to see the problems in our design. In the third week, we began to design the effect of presentation, further confirmation, lighting, materials, details, and soft decoration parts. The feeling of space atmosphere is sometimes inadvertent. It is difficult to form at a time, we usually tear it down several times, about two weeks. In the next month we began to expand the construction drawings.

9Do you think your country and its cultural heritage has an impact on your design process?

Beijing has a lot of historical heritage. For example, the Forbidden City is large in size, and Siheyuan is small in size. They have a very deep influence on me. Chinese buildings are mostly frame structures, which are different from classical Western buildings. The buildings are connected by corridors, and one space to another space has to pass through a courtyard with nature. The relationship between the building and the landscape of the courtyard is closer. So my design also hopes to be more integrated into nature.

10Congratulations! As the winner of the 2021 MUSE Design Awards, what does it mean to you and your company and team to receive this award distinction?

This is of great significance to our young design company. It is a great recognition of our company. It pushes us forward and gives us greater motivation to do better designs

11Can you explain a bit about the winning work you entered into the 2021 MUSE Design Awards, and why you chose to enter this project?

United Investment Optics Valley Ruiyuan, this is a very imaginative project. We hope to create a visually recognizable work, and the owner hopes to attract a family of three with children to buy a home here. So the core requirement is to make the whole project more joyful. Therefore, we combine the original building space to create a healthy space full of sunshine, and reshape the harmonious parent-child relationship. The appearance and arrangement of the arches are based on the original building structure and design concepts, and it is a place with a warm living atmosphere.

12What was the biggest challenge with this project?

The original site is a commercial space with a very complex structure and many pillars. After we refined the model, we instead used these structures. A dreamy spatial vision is formed through the dislocation of structural relationships.

13What are your top three (3) favorite things about our industry?

1. Participate in the bidding of some projects and win from them.

2. Let our design start from the plan.

3. Won some international awards.

14What makes your country specifically, unique in the design industry?

The design industry in China is developing very rapidly, and many excellent works have appeared in the decade from 10 to 20 years. I have seen the shadow of Chinese design in many international awards.

15Where do you see the evolution of design industry going over the next 5-10 years?

I think the future design will develop in the direction of branding, diversification and internationalization.

16If you were a student entering this industry or an aspiring MUSE Design Awards submitter, what advice would you give them?

I hope they can design more rigorously, have confidence in themselves, move in the right direction, and make their own unique styles and more attractive and personalized designs.

17What resources would you recommend to someone who wants to improve their skills in the design industry?

We will recommend an excellent platform like Design Epoch to more people to show themselves.

18Do you have anything else you would like to add to the interview?

Thanks to the platform for giving us the opportunity to display our works, allowing our works to reach the public's field of vision, giving us confidence, and enabling us to be more motivated to develop in a better direction.



Winning Entries

WUHAN LIANTOU OPTIC VALLEY RUIYUAN | 2020

WUHAN LIANTOU OPTIC VALLEY RUIYUAN | MUSE Design Awards

Everything grows in stages, budding, vigorous and prosperous. This is a story about growth. With the gradual progress of the life cycle, corresponding to...
(read more at MUSE Design Awards)


Beijing Location Space In Design Co., Ltd.


Beijing Location Space is an award-winning interior design studio based in China.

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