January 7, 2016

Cai-In Interior Design Co.: 2015 BoY Winner for Apartment Lobby

Biomimicry, the practice of emulating nature’s strategies, has become big news in design. Principals Fan Chih-Sheng and Wu Chin-Feng are longtime proponents. And with a client, the Hi-Yes Group, in need of a lobby as the public face for a residential development, they found a kindred spirit.

The exterior would have to register with passersby on the street. So Fan and Wu proposed a painted wood facade resembling fish scales or rattan weaving. The repeating and overlapping forms soften the existing rectilinear architecture while letting daylight shine into the 6,500-square-foot interior.

For the ceiling and the wall behind the marble reception desk, locally sourced sycamore slabs were hand-carved to resemble a cross-section of a plant stem as seen under a microscope. The resulting concave circles are set aglow by LEDs tucked behind iron disks, drawing the attention of visitors like moths to a flame.

Project Manager:

Chen Chun-Chih.

> See more from the December 2015 issue of Interior Design

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