Interview
Jinhui He
1 Congratulations on winning the MUSE Design Awards! Can you introduce yourself and share about what inspired you to pursue design as a career?
Thank you! I'm Jinhui He, a licensed architect and BIM specialist with over seven years of experience in design in different scales. With a deep passion for creating spaces that feel meaningful to the people who inhabit them. From an early age, I was drawn to how a room could change your mood, how light hitting a surface could make you feel calm or energized. That emotional power of space is what pulled me into design and keeps me inspired every day.
2 What does being recognized in the MUSE Design Awards mean to you?
It means the emotional intention behind the work landed. Design is communication, and when a jury of peers recognizes that a space resonates, it confirms that the conversation between the designer and the user was successful. It's deeply encouraging.
3 How has this achievement impacted your career, team, or agency, and what opportunities has it brought so far?
It has opened doors to more meaningful conversations with clients who value design that puts people first. For our team at TEG, it reinforces a shared belief that thoughtful, human-centered design is worth the extra effort and attention it demands.
4 What role does experimentation play in your creative process? Can you share an example?
Experimentation is essential. I often mock up material combinations or test lighting scenarios early in a project to see how they feel before committing. On one project, we tested different wall finish textures under warm versus cool lighting before finding the one that gave the space the quiet intimacy the client wanted.
5 What's the most unusual source of inspiration you've ever drawn from for a project?
Mechanical watches. The layering of components, each one visible and purposeful, reminds me of how a well-designed interior works. Every finish, every fixture, every detail should contribute to the whole. Nothing should be arbitrary.
6 What’s one thing you wish more people understood about the design process?
That good design is mostly listening. The most beautiful spaces I've worked on came from deeply understanding how a person wanted to feel inside them, not just what they wanted it to look like.
7 How do you navigate the balance between meeting client expectations and staying true to your ideas?
I try to understand the why behind every preference a client expresses. Once I know what feeling or function they're really after, I can find a solution that honors their intent while staying true to a coherent design language. It rarely feels like a compromise when you get upstream early enough.
8 What were the challenges you faced while working on your award-winning design, and how did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge was creating a sense of warmth and human scale within a space that had strong architectural bones. We worked carefully with layering, using textured materials, curated lighting levels, and intentional furniture placement to bring the space down to a human level without fighting the architecture.
9 How do you recharge your creativity when you hit a creative block?
I step away from screens entirely. Bouldering, cycling, or just walking through a neighborhood I haven't explored before. Experiencing spaces as a user rather than a designer always brings fresh perspective.
10 What personal values or experiences do you infuse into your designs?
Honesty of materials, warmth, and quiet confidence. I want people to feel at ease in the spaces I design without necessarily knowing why. That invisible comfort is what I'm always chasing.
11 What is an advice that you would you give to aspiring designers aiming for success?
Spend as much time studying how people actually use and feel inside spaces as you do studying aesthetics. The best designers are exceptional observers of human behavior. And always submit your work. The process of articulating what makes a project meaningful sharpens your instincts every time.
12 If you could collaborate with any designer, past or present, who would it be and why?
Steven Holl. His work lives at the intersection of poetic concept and raw sensory experience, where light, material, and spatial sequence become the emotional language of a space. That's exactly where I want my own work to live.
13 What's one question you wish people would ask you about your work, and what's your answer?
"How does this space make you feel?" Not what it looks like, not what materials were used, but how it feels. Because that's the real measure of whether a design succeeded. A space can photograph beautifully and still feel cold and disconnected in person. I always design for the lived experience first.