(“Text as submitted by architect”)
Joseph Chieng
Joseph Chieng, the founding partner of UNFOLDESIGN, is both a designer and builder; and as a passionate advocate for sustainable and integrated design, he has pioneered many efficient design and management techniques in the industry. Prior to the establishment of his own firm, Joseph had a career in multiple facets of the industry: Owner, Consultant, and Designer. Once the head of Apple’s Real Estate and Development team for Northern China, Taiwan, and Japan, he was responsible for building 16 of the 42 stores in Apple Retail outlets in China, and also the head of the APAC Apple Retail Standards Team. He also served as an Associate Director of inProjects (currently known as Arcadas) and lead the teams’ international retailers portfolio development in China. Lastly, he was a Project Architect for CallisonRTKL, where he worked on a retail and commercial projects on all scales, from Tom Ford to Tianjin Cultural Center. He holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, is a certified LEED AP, and is currently an EMBA candidate at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS).
Joseph’s deeply rooted project management thinking in the design process of each project, accurately positioned clients’ needs, proposed reasonable solutions, and allow projects better control of cost and efficiency. He has been involved in a variety of landmark projects, from boutique retail to commercial spaces, hospitality, and residential; including, but not limited to: Flagship Apple retail stores, such as Hong Kong Causeway Bay, Beijing Huamao, Istanbul Zorlu, along with more than 30 other stores, Tesla retail stores and service facilities in China, HSBC in US, Tom Dixon China retail stores, Stella McCartney China retail stores, Forever 21 Asia and 15 other retail stores around the world, Guazi used car office buildings, Tianjin culture center, CDF Group duty-free shops, etc.
Queena Qiao
Queena founded UNFOLDESIGN in 2015 as an interior designer. She has practiced several projects in cultural, commercial, retail, residential and other diversified industries. Queena focuses on the integration of innovative materials and space culture and tries to retain the authentic space attributes with the diversified thinking of inclusion and breakthrough. In terms of office space, she has designed several office buildings such as Overseas China Town Travel Investment Beijing, Guazi used car, HikeCapital, App Annie, Davost Intelligence, Newbury Wedding office in Guangzhou, etc. Her pursuit of space quality and user experience requires her to pay attention to every detail of the design process. In addition to office space, she is also very enthusiastic about residential projects, whether it is Beijing COFCO mansion design, Taipei Freshwater private residence design, Longhu Jinglin original villa design, Xiao Manhe apartment design, or China Jin private club design, are all developed from her conceptual insight with the UNFOLDESIGN team.
Practice Ideology
Unfoldesign is founded by Joseph Chieng and Queena Qiao in Beijing, which is a design-build firm with an international vision to provide effective solutions to clients around the world. The establishment of Unfoldesign is to unite consultancy, design and construction into a single workflow model to achieve the highest project delivery standards for our clients. The designers and project management team from Unfoldesign believe that in the multi-disciplinary practice process, through high collaboration with people in different fields, an innovative and efficient work mode can be formed benefiting the entire life cycle of the project; focusing on conciseness, diversity, uniqueness, and order. Unfoldesign hopes to help clients better understand their own needs and vision through design management thinking, taking care of every detail of the project from owner lease, concept and schematic design, and project construction to final delivery of the project. We challenge conventional methods to rethink how spaces and buildings are made to enhance the human experience at every level.
Since the establishment of Unfoldesign, its practice types have spread all over the country, from commercial spaces to boutique retail, office space, display space, to residential design, etc., including Tesla China retail and service centres, Tom Dixon stores, GIADA Restaurant, Harmay Xidan Store, CDF Duty-Free Shop, Guazi Used Car Office Building, Xiaomi Headquarters Corporate Restaurant, OCT Beijing Office Space, Hike Investment Office Space, Barco Office Space, Davost Intelligence Office Space, Tianjin Dong Chang Sheng Market Renovation, Dubujib China Restaurants, Seesaw Coffee, Candela Clinic, etc.
Unfoldesign also insists on participating in public welfare projects, such as the reconstruction of Rangniang Temple in Yushu. We have been focused on post-earthquake reconstruction works, and built several living areas closely related to herdsmen’s life, including religion, herdsmen’s classes, art popularization, medicine, and other functions, using the traditional civil technology that will soon be lost.
