Renee Cheng grew up in her father’s design studio. Inspired by his vocation, she followed in his footsteps, studying design in the United States and establishing herself as an entrepreneur back home. Here, the May FRAME Awards Juror and co-president & global managing partner of Cheng Chung Design speaks with former editor Kayla Dowling about the role of technology in design and business.

‘Infusing technology into the design industry’ is a core aspect of your design practice. Can you elaborate on this?

I’ve always insisted on integrating technology with design industry. In my opinion, technology is there not to replace designers, but to make design more efficient and accurate, and to unleash more creativity from designers. In the projects I have participated in the past, I achieved a combination of efficiency and innovation in all stages of design by leveraging proprietary digital solutions developed by Raritag – Ideafusion and Transfusion. With the blessing of technology, the spirit of craftsmanship and design creativity have been realized and implemented in the projects of Mandarin Oriental Qianmeng Beijing, Angsana Chengdu Wenjiang, and Shangri-la Nanshan, Shenzhen.

 Renee Cheng, co-president & global managing partner of Cheng Chung Design

Cheng Chung Design (CCD) works across spatial typologies – but having worked with some of the top luxury hotel brands, it has found a strong niche in the hospitality sector. How does this expertise inform your work across other sectors?

As a global design company, we always maintain keen insight and forward-looking consideration. We are constantly exploring new design concepts, new technical means, and new application areas to provide customers with more comprehensive and better services. This innovative spirit enables CCD to maintain its leading position in the fierce market competition and continuously promote the development of the industry. These abilities actually come from our long-term accumulated systematic experience in hospitality.  In a comprehensive sector like hotel design for example, it is of great importance to collaborate clearly with each section. The practices help us build a more holistic landscape and global mindset in our projects.

Also, we pay great attention to details and quality. Since many hotel projects are globally well-known brands, they have high standards towards their design – therefore, we strive to execute every detail to the best of our ability.

Angsana Chengdu Wenjiang by CCD.

As co-president and global managing partner of CCD, you’ve been founded proprietary sub brands and products like Raritag and Cosmo Cross. How does developing these initiatives in-house help to bolster the firm’s design practice versus outsourcing them?

As AI technology has exploded, ChatGPT has become popular in almost all industries, but I believe that technology is an enabler, not a replacement. The core of design is still people, professionalism, concentration, and long-term investment in passion. We choose internal independent development and offer proprietary digital solutions because we commit to deeply integrating the spirit of craftsmanship with technology to make design easier. Instead of stopping at a simple tool, we have developed a one-stop digital platform and system that works for the entire process of the design industry. It helps designers automatically generate renderings, make material books, find materials and even connect with suppliers. It also helps managers improve labor efficiency and optimize costs. Designers can therefore devote more time to the creation itself rather than repetitive work. Through an efficient and accessible digital platform, the work efficiency and working methods of CCD designers has also been greatly improved. Cosmo Cross, on the other hand, focuses on lifestyle. It is not only a product brand, but also a platform for life solutions that can be implemented and co-created. Through it, we can extend the design language to the consumer end, allowing users to truly experience the value of design and return design to life itself.

So compared with outsourcing, independent development plus linkage with sub-brands not only improves efficiency but also forms a closed loop for our design system, which is both controllable and sustainable from professional creation to final implementation. This is how we consolidate our design business, and it is also the path we believe design companies should take in the future.

Photo: Wang Ting

Shangri-La Nanshan, Shenzhen

As a product designed to improve design process and outcomes, how does Raritag harness technology to become a useful tool for designers?

Raritag is a technology company that focuses on the research and development of internet products for the design industry. We integrate digital technology with in-depth consideration of design business, cultivate an intelligent design management concept, create new and efficient collaborative services and develop an intelligent design ecological environment for all stakeholders.

Considering the problems afflicted to design units, real estate developers, suppliers, construction units, and all the stakeholders within design projects, we are committed to developing a flexible and efficient Intelligent Material Platform. Raritag has independently developed a series of innovative products, such as Digital Material System, Smart Material Library, and SaaS of the IDEAFUSION, as well as the AI Tools (LLM) of the TRANSFUSION, which is specialized for the interior design industry.

By leveraging these proprietary digital solutions developed by Raritag, cutting-edge technology successfully inject into every section of traditional design workflow, which hugely enhance the work efficiency of designers. 

A view of the courtyard at Mandarin Oriental Qianmen, Beijing.  

Can you give us an example?

For the Shangri-la Hotel in Shenzhen, Transfusion AI was used to quickly find relevant information and generate multiple innovative design concepts in the early stages of planning. Starting from the designer's summary of the concept based on nature, art blessing, and culture combined with the latest technological trends and modern design concepts, multiple forward-looking design directions were proposed. For the material selection, the design team used Transfusion AI as a material consultant to optimize the material plan many times to ensure that every detail meets the high standards of Shangri-La Hotel. AI conducted a detailed analysis of the performance and matching effects of different materials and provided the best choice. The materials recommended by Transfusion AI are all connected to Ideafusion. Many scenes in the project rely on special materials carefully selected by designers in the smart material library and artworks specially developed and customized for the project. In order to ensure that the construction materials support the design effect, the owner also selects construction materials through the digital material library and contacts real suppliers for procurement.

A reflective pool at Angsana Chengdu Wenjiang.

Another project, the Angsana Chengdu Wenjiang, used the Transfusion AI design assistant to quickly obtain the local relevant urban background, historical and cultural elements, saving a lot of time looking up information. The design concept combines Chengdu's natural scenery, historical culture, literary poetry and folk art elements. The designer issued instructions to the Transfusion AI design assistant with professional insights, generated a complete set of design story lines, and cleverly integrated many elements into various spaces of the hotel.