Founders Shirley Dong and Andrea Maira. Image courtesy of Studio8.

Based in Shanghai, Studio8 is a multidisciplinary studio designing everything from the visual identity and branding, to the furniture and architecture for restaurants, hotels, stores, and residences. Founded only three years ago, the firm is comprised of an international team of young creatives. For this week's Small Studio Snapshot, we talked with co-founder Shirley Dong about designing spaces; their magnificent, recently completed, Anadu resort; and working together as a diverse team from all over the world. 

How did the firm get its start?

I’m the founder of STUDIO8. I'm an architect and lived 8 years in Milan, where I completed two masters and had my professional practice. After I came back to Shanghai, I met my partner Andrea Maira (co-founder), whose from Sicily. Andrea is an interior designer and has a great passion in graphic design.   

Andrea and I had experience creating visual identities within a branding agency but not necessarily knowing or considering how it will be applied in space. We both think the concept of the project should start from the brand though—everything from the visual identity to the space and product should tell the same story. And, we think from our point of view as architects or space designers, we can carry the concept through the whole project and give a more complete solution.

We started to do VI+interior+architecture design, which we think makes us different from other architecture studios. We began about 3 years ago and we are 15 people now, mostly from Europe. We want to keep our core team international, but we also like using local cultural elements in our design. We just moved to our newly designed studio.  

What is the new studio like?

We believe there is no clear boundary between our life and work. Our way of living represents the way we think and design.

We designed it and built it with a GC we always collaborate with. We had a limited amount of time and budget, but I would say it represents the way we work and the way we live our life. As a group of fun loving architects, we believe there is no clear boundary between our life and work. Our way of living represents the way we think and design. On our website, we have the “Life” section to post the process of our projects, and our point of view; and then a “Work” section for our projects.  

Anyways, the style is very contemporary and essential to what we always do. We kept the original exposed concrete ceiling and made the rest of the space all white, except for the central “creative axis” area, where everything is warmer clay red.  We’ve placed several pieces of multifunctional custom made freestanding furniture and a hanging sliding pin board. We use this axis to discuss, check material samples, pin references or just chat. We’ve used smart controls (switches, shading, plug, sensors) for the whole office, which gives us the possibility to set different scenes (meeting, party, work…) and remotely control from outside the office. We also installed a switchable privacy smart glass for the meeting room.

Is the integration of smart controls something that you guys have used in projects before?

We’ve used smart control in our project Anadu Resort, Sinan Apartment and we are using smart systems more and more often in our current project. Not only smart controls, but also motion sensors, light sensors, smart shading and other hardwares.

What is one of the projects that you find to be exemplary of the studio's approach and why?

For Anadu Resort, we did the visual identity, architecture and interior design—I was the chief architect of the project and Andrea was in charge of the interior and VI design. In this project, we managed to create a brand from the very beginning and carry it through the whole design process. The client came to us with the name “anadu” and a request of designing a place where customer can stay for the whole day (without TV) at a luxury price.

The site is located among a white tea hill (to the west), mountains (to the south) and a bamboo forest (on the east).  We came up with the idea of “a place where people can be with themselves and be with nature,” which then became the hotel’s slogan (“find yourself in nature”). By orienting the rooms to different natural elements around, we gave each room a theme with its own visual system.

Rather than designing the shape of the building, we considered ourselves designing the experience. 

Rather than designing the shape of the building, we considered ourselves designing the experience. The building ended up in a very simple and contemporary form, where a lot of local materials are used. We also included the element of  water, with infinity water features on each floor to create different dimensions of connection between people, space and nature. I think it represents us most because it’s a complete design from VI to space in contemporary design language using local material.

What is “Caozitou”?

I’m glad that you’ve noticed our sub-brand “Caozitou”.  Caozitou (艹) literally means “herb head" a radical of Chinese character to express words about plant, which is also the second radical of STUDIO8’s Chinese name “八荒” (means 8 directions - to say infinity).  The Chinese language is complicated.

But, back to Caozitou, the radical’s shape is like a bench or a seesaw with two legs. We find this symbol playful and functional. So, we started to use the caozitou bench in our projects. And as I mentioned that we are a multidisciplinary studio doing VI design together with architecture and interior design. We’ve also developed a VI system for our studio, which we are also using on Caozitou products (T-shirt, totes and note-books…).

Is scaling up a goal? And where would you like the firm to be in 5-10 years?

We are not sure if all our members will still be living in Shanghai. But, we are quite sure we still want to work together!

Rather than scaling up, we tend to build up a solid team with members who share a similar way of thinking and a comfortable yet fun environment. Not only for the working but also for living. In 5-10 years, since we are from different countries, one of the goals we’ve been discussing is to work from difference places. We all travel quite often and we try to keep the studio functional while we are away. In 5-10 years, we are not sure if all our members, especially the core team, will still be living in Shanghai. But, we are quite sure we still want to work together!

What are the benefits of having your own practice? and staying small?

The benefits of having our own practice is to be able to choose the projects we like and control all the details. Especially as a multidisciplinary studio, we try to do more projects for complete design of visual identity, interior and architecture, which not many architecture studios here do. And as a studio of 15 people, we enjoy working among a network, collaborating with different professions (lighting designer, sustainability consultant, landscape designer, urban planer, special material suppliers…).