Trained in architecture, interior designer Joseph Sy keeps it simple
After 30 years in Hong Kong, Manila-born Joseph Sy is well established as one of the city's most respected interior designers. About 65 per cent of his work is residential, and the rest is designs for restaurants, offices or other work, such as the Louvre Gallery in Ruttonjee Centre in Central, which showcases collections from the likes of Philippe Starck and Pierre Paulin.
How did you get into interior design?
I studied architecture originally, and for the first 11 years I worked for an architecture firm, Eric Cumine Associates. During those years we did very little work on interiors but - shame on me - I was also moonlighting for interior design firms, doing renderings of their designs. They would give me the floor plan, and I would use it to produce a three-dimensional picture of how the interior would look. That's the way I learned to do interiors - and how I learned to enjoy doing them. Then, my friend approached me with an apartment and asked me to design the interior. One apartment became two, two became three, and so forth, so I quit my job and set up my own business.
Do you now see yourself as an interior designer or an architect?
I don't think there's much of a distinction, really. I don't get to do much architectural work in Hong Kong these days, but I do some in mainland China. I design a lot of interiors in new buildings in mainland China, and a lot of them haven't really done anything on the outside of the building. It's like there is no skin yet on the building. So, quite often I will design something to dress up the exterior of the building. I also often do the same thing on old buildings.
Who are your influences?