From Function to Becoming

As the development of artificial intelligence liberates my time and redefines work and productivity, I have started to wonder where I should place my time and energy toward the topics that will make the most meaningful impact in my life.

My passion for art, architecture, and interior design has grown from my upbringing. My parents met at an architecture magazine in Taiwan when they both worked there. Their dates were usually at galleries, theatres, or botanical gardens. Instead of pursuing MBAs like many of my peers, I went to the Parsons School of Design in New York and began the most identity-redefining journey, planting the seed of who I am becoming today.

For over a century, architecture, interior, and industrial design have followed the modernist mantra: form follows function. The idea came from architect Louis Sullivan in the 1890s, a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, who believed that every form should reflect its purpose. After years in luxury retail and marketing roles, and now as a mother of two young girls, I started to reflect more on home design. Our homes hold routines, roles, emotions, transitions, and relationships that shift daily. I see the home as a living, breathing infrastructure that grows with us and supports our becoming in days, in years, and in life.

I didn't grow up thinking I'd be an interior designer. But looking back, it was always there. In the quiet ways our home kept shifting to hold life's changes. In Taipei, we grew up in apartments. They were compact, but never static. My dad ran a contracting business and pioneered the concept of working from home since I was born. One corner was his drafting desk, another was my mom's reading nook. My parents rearranged furniture very often, turning rooms into what we needed in that season. I find myself doing the same for my kids today. That early sense of space as flexible and responsive has stayed with me.

What inspires me the most is how we, as human beings, can be adaptable and resilient, while also taking action to change the course of life and make it better. That, to me, is the purpose of design: to make the world a better place.

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