openUU—pronounced "open you, you"—is a small design practice led by Kevin Lim and Caroline Chou, who, having both spent time growing up in Asia and the United States, decided to go to Hong Kong to establish their firm in 2011. Kevin (who is the son of artist and architect William Lim) is a trained architect and chef with degrees from both Cornell and Le Cordon Bleu. Caroline, on the other hand, is an award-winning interior designer with an M.Arch from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Together, the two have combined their expertise to focus on space conversions and the Food & Beverage industry; their roster of projects includes mall renovations, warehouse transformations, art and light installations, traveling pop-up libraries and even their own restaurant, Mean Noodles, which the couple own and operate.
How many people are in your practice?
We have a total of four including ourselves: Kevin Lim is the Managing Director and Caroline Chou is the Design Director.
What is your favorite thing about being a small practice and what is the most challenging?
The great thing about being a small practice is that we are very flexible and can make changes quickly. Another benefit is we can work directly with our clients, minimizing any miscommunication while being able to better understand and cater to our clients’ needs. The most challenging aspect of a small practice is that our time is very limited and thus limits the number of projects we can take on.
What motivated you to start your own firm?
We wanted to deliver and share our knowledge with different communities, executing projects that are both flexible and functional, with a contemporary-chic style in mind. We like to create spaces that help motivate and innovate for the companies we design for. This means we not only want to make them look great, but also create spaces suitable for increased efficiency that can provide greater value for our clients.
What brought you to Hong Kong?
Caroline was born in Dallas, TX and later moved to Taipei, Taiwan with her family when she was six years old. Kevin was born in Boston, MA and moved back to Hong Kong with his family when he was one. After living in the U.S. for 10 years, we decided to move back and start our practice in Hong Kong doing small interesting projects.
Growing up in Asia but being educated in the U.S. has allowed us to live differently, and we think that helps us view space planning more efficiently. Living in Asia, the lack of space alongside an abundance of high-rise buildings has taught us to think differently about spatial design with special focus on efficiency and flexibility. Living in the U.S. for 10 years, with larger living spaces, on the other hand, has broadened our knowledge and allowed us to hone our spatial planning skills while not losing the human ergonomics of a large project.
You have a reputation for warehouse designs. How'd this come to be and how have you branched out since starting back in 2011?
From creating these multifunctional spaces, this opened up new doors for us
When we first moved to Hong Kong, the increase in industrial communities relocating their facilities to China had provided an abundance of industrial spaces for sale. Hong Kong is infamous for its lack of space, and following the trend of other international cities, people started purchasing industrial spaces to expand their habitable and leisure space. As we pride ourselves in creating flexible and functional spaces, clients began approaching us to create their home away from home, serving multiple purposes. Many of them also consisted of an entertaining space so the warehouse became a private clubhouse for clients to host their guests.
Since we were creating spaces that had multiple functions, many of our projects also had a live-work loft element to them, as clients wanted spaces where they could go to be removed from the hustle and bustle of the city, and work on weekends. This was a natural transition for us to venture into the office sector, which allowed us to create offices that had areas for work, but at the same time, were multifunctional spaces that could serve as breakout meeting or hangout spaces. This also allowed companies to have spaces to grow into, and it provided additional spaces for staff to relax and refresh their minds to be motivated and increase their efficiency.
From creating these multifunctional spaces, this again opened up new doors for us to venture into retail and F&B. With our background as a chef and designer, clients saw different usages for the multifunctional spaces, such as lunch spots, yoga, and ping pong. We were able to incorporate these into our retail and restaurant spaces and help clients plan their kitchen based on the cuisine or style of restaurant they were creating.
Kevin, you have a very unique background, trained as both an architect and chef. What led you to pursue both degrees and how have you fused the two interests in your work?
Growing up, I was always interested in the design works that my parents brought home from the office. I would sit down with them and pretend to help them plan out spaces they were working on. My brother and I would take out white paper and draw alongside our parents as they were doing their work, so naturally, I was drawn to architecture and the love for beautifully designed spaces. I always had an interest in the kitchen as a child and seeing what my mom would prepare for dinner. I would occasionally “help out” on weekends, which led me to finding a kitchen internship during our college days. After moving out of campus housing, my friends and I spent the most time around our kitchen island with someone cooking in the kitchen.
Thinking back to my Cordon Bleu days, it was the same issues. We had state of the art kitchens in the classrooms, but when you think of kitchen efficiency, it was almost nonexistent. This happened again when we worked on the FoFo Privat project back in 2012, we were working with a kitchen consultant, but through their layout plans, I learned that the kitchen consultants were more knowledgeable with equipment, and less so with kitchen operations. This led us to redesign the kitchen based on the clients need, creating a more efficient layout that gave a heavy influence to the flow of food. This opened a new door for us, helping clients design beautiful restaurants, but also considering the needs of the kitchen team, streamlining their operations to achieve an efficient and functional kitchen.
Caroline, you do a lot of work with the AIA in Hong Kong. Please talk a bit about your involvement with that community.
I’ve been involved with AIA Hong Kong for about three years now, and it’s been amazing meeting and working with a range of American educated architects practicing in Hong Kong. I started working on the Programs committee and a new subcommittee called Young Architects Group (YAG) under Programs and became a YAG Co-Chair last year. Usually, YAG in U.S. chapters are quite large and active, so we’re working towards that. With Hong Kong being one of the only three international ARE test centers, we’ve been actively recruiting recently licensed architects and examinees (myself included). We applied for grants the last two years to try to make the YAG events free, host study groups, and advocate for lower event fees for YAG members. Our goal is to help Associate members and new members get licensed and to educate U.S. members that licensure can be achieved by practicing overseas as well.
Let's talk about Mean Noodles, the restaurant you own and operate. As a design firm, what made you want to open a restaurant?
As both the design team and chef-owner of the restaurant, it was always a dream of ours to open and operate a restaurant. We saw this as an opportunity for us to showcase our design talent in creating a welcoming and comfortable restaurant environment, and designing a kitchen that served a specific purpose for Mean Noodles. At the same time, we aim to serve delicious food that can showcase our diverse talent, and create a showroom that we use to show potential clients what we can create for them.
Mean Noodles reflects our love of good design and passion for delicious food.
Mean Noodles reflects our love of good design and passion for delicious food. As a trained architect and professionally certified chef from Le Cordon Bleu (Boston), Kevin worked closely with Chef Ming Tsai of Blue Ginger in Wellesley, MA, where he further developed his love of exotic ingredients. Blue Ginger was also one of my (Caroline’s) favorite restaurants in Boston, as she attended Wellesley College, a 10-minute walk to the restaurant.
We are both very enthusiastic about the strong and intense flavors found in Southeast Asian cuisine. We love traveling around southeast Asia in search of local eats, such as hawker stalls or hole in the wall places. One of our favorite dishes is the Thai Yen Ta Fo Heng, a classic Thai noodles dish. After discovering this not so well known Thai pink noodles dish, we began seeking it out whenever we visited Thailand.
The name Mean Noodles is a part nod to western slang and part play on the Chinese word for noodles. “Mean” describes something cool, awesome, interesting, nice and with all the goodness -- as in having a “mean bowl of noodles.” “Mean” also sounds like the word for “noodles” in Chinese.
Can you talk about the design of the restaurant and some of its unique features?
As both the design team and owner, we faced the challenge of coming up with a consistent concept from the logo, branding, and noodle recipes, all the way to the interior and facade. We took our cue for the interior of Mean Noodles from Malaysian Batik, a popular textile art in leaves and floral motifs. The colors are light and vibrant, with carefully crafted lines and floral patterns on the fabrics.
Mean Noodles is envisaged as a casual noodle shop that specializes in traditional Southeast Asian cuisine with a contemporary style. The entrance is emphasized with green stainless steel window frames and logo. The vintage metal look and concrete finish allow the noodle shop to blend harmoniously with its surrounding neighborhood.
For the design of Mean Noodles, we wanted to create a space that also introduced the Malaysian street food culture to Hong Kong, using materials and textures that reminded us of hawker stalls in Malaysia. The feature wall in Mean Noodles has a tile series that draws inspiration from Malaysian batik, a traditional fabric created with wax and paint, using lines to create patterns and shapes. As Malaysian culture encompasses a diverse ethnicity, we wanted to showcase this through the use of variations of the same material: tiles.
Since food is always the main attraction of a restaurant, we wanted to showcase this by providing guests with an open kitchen experience to foster interactions between the customers and the chef, giving diners an opportunity to watch as their food is prepared. The hanging cabinets above the bar have a custom "MEAN" lighting to emphasize the attitude and taste of the noodles. The kitchen subway tiles have been finished with green grout, emphasizing the line motif from the dining room. The standing bar across the seating area allows customers to grab a quick bite or an informal happy hour drink.
The marble tabletops and marble mosaic tiles complement the Mean green tiles, contrasted with the mustard fabric seats. Mean Noodles also takes advantage of the high ceilings to provide a comfortable and airy atmosphere for diners to enjoy. Customer comfort was also a major consideration in the design process; we wanted to provide features to customers that would enhance their dining experiences. With digital media and technology taking over our lives, we felt the need to provide charging stations for our diners so as to not miss any social media opportunities when dining at Mean Noodles. Bags and purses can be hung below the marble tabletops to allow our customers to sit comfortably.
Where do you want to go next and what do you see as the next step for the studio?
We want to continue to work on offices and retail for clients, creating a space that can help add value to the company by providing a comfortable working environment, but at the same time having elements that give the space flexibility, and help motivate and innovate the staff.
We also want to develop our F&B portfolio to create a leading restaurant consultancy that can encompass a full-service package, from design to food—meaning assisting in the operations, helping clients provide a unique dining experience for their guests, and ultimately, having the design compliment the food.
Best thing about starting your own practice?
We really enjoy meeting new clients, and also working with repeat clients who continue to work with us throughout the years. Our most satisfactory experience in starting our own practice is seeing our clients grow with their space and appreciate their unique work environment. Our clients continually seek our services when they relocate, as they want us to create a similar environment that is motivational, innovative, and memorable.
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