RFP Magazine

Larry Tsoi,
Design Architect, HOK

When you were ten years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Other than being a rock star, I always wanted to be a man who has passion in both life and work, a man who take risks, break rules and has a little adventure in his life. I always hoped to be able to live in my own imaginary world.

How did you end up in your current role?
After I realised it’s a wishful idea to live in one’s imaginary world, I wondered how I could create one for oneself. I chose to do architecture. Interesting, being a registered architect wasn’t my goal, I treated it more as a means of creation, expression and self-exploration. Different from being an artist, architects listen, digest, interpret and re-create. Architecture is a means of communication with people and. This belief leads me to where I am, an architect who fights to create a better world.

Describe a typical work day for you
Typically my work time splits into 50 percent sketching & BIM, 20 percent meeting and 30 percent design review and coordination. Usually, I have to check e-mails and schedule on the commute, design charette with the team, have a late lunch followed by a teleconference with consultants. Occasionally, after 6pm, I run down for a beer then back to wrap up the work for next day’s presentation. At 5am, taxi home, take a shower then catch early ferry for client presentation and whole day coordination with local architects.


Maysho Prashad, Designer,
5+ Design

Describe a typical work day for you?
Generally the day starts out with a team meeting where the agenda and goals for the day are organised and set. If a design solution is warranted, each of us will individually generate ideas using a combination of software or by the old fashioned way, simple hand sketches. After a set time, we regroup and present our ideas to the team for review and feedback. A day often includes ongoing coordination among the various consultants whose offices can be located just about anywhere on the globe.

When you were ten years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?
If my memory serves me right at ten years old I either wanted to be an astronaut (I constantly sketched space rockets) or a champion karate fighter (a high infuse of Bruce Lee movies at the time).

How did you end up in your current role?
After I finished my Masters degree in Architecture I felt that I needed to do some advance studies in the urban realm. I went looking for these answers at Columbia University in New York City. After graduating with my Masters in Architecture and Urban Design I knew I had to be on the west coast to test some of the knowledge I had acquired - the west coast was also recommended by Rem Koolhaas at a seminar. He knew that Asia was the place for urban designers to be since there are so many large-scale projects being built on the continent. Arriving in Los Angeles five years ago with a short list of firms that would allow me to explore the built environment at a large scale and at the same time have a global connection was no easy task until I found 5+design where I was hired as a designer.

What projects are you working on right now?
A 140, 000 sqm landscape integrated mixed use development in Zhuhai’s new city center, comprises a shopping mall, retail street, hotel, service apartment towers with a 400m multi-media sky canopy.

What about your job is rewarding?
When my team has the sense of belonging to the project. When clients come back to us and appreciate what we have designed. When people’s lives get better through good design.

What is your greatest professional achievement so far?
My greatest professional achievement is the accumulation of knowledge and the understanding of architecture that I have gained through life, practice, from mentors, fellow colleagues and the greatest thing is I can still forsee there is a long way ahead to accomplish. My sense of achievement isn’t from what I have accomplished but what I am still missing and searching.

Where would you like to be in 5 or 10 years time?
A respectful architect doing architecture that improves peoples lives and helping them create their imaginary worlds. Ideally, being a nomad architect, travelling around bringing good design to different places.