Next week we return to Auckland for No Borders®, an evening hosted by The Designers Institute of New Zealand at Warren and Mahoney's Wynyard Quarter studio.

Under the theme "design without limits, perspective without borders," we'll share what practising between Beijing and Aotearoa has taught us — starting with a short look at our own studio, then walking through four projects in hospitality and the cultures, constraints and expectations that shaped each one.

A panel follows with Alexander Wastney PDINZ (Designwell), Te Ari Prendergast (Warren and Mahoney), Rebecca Irwin (Jasmax) and Nathan Varga (Studio 11:11), on why our cities need to find solutions that transform and reinvent existing spaces through renovation.

26 August 2026, 6–8pm
Warren and Mahoney Architects, 139 Pakenham Street West, Wynyard Quarter, Auckland
Tickets and details via DINZ.

Office AIO recently participated in this year’s MIID REKA Conference, where we shared our journey from Aotearoa to Beijing and how those experiences continue to shape the way we approach design.

Our presentation explored the design narratives behind Big Small Coffee, Shop O, Pangmei LFS, and LDK Noodle Co., using these projects to illustrate how our work begins by responding to what is already present — the people, habits, constraints, and ambitions that define a place. We discussed how daily rituals and commercial needs shape spatial decisions, helping create environments that feel grounded, intuitive, and connected to their context.

We were pleased to speak alongside Artur Sharf of YODEZEEN, Sameep Padora of sP+a, Alvin Tjitrowirjo of AlvinT, and Ramesh Seshan of Seshan Design — each offering thoughtful perspectives on craft, culture, and the evolving role of design across regions. Their contributions added depth to the wider conversation and highlighted the diversity within the design community.

REKA 2025 brought together designers and thinkers from across disciplines, and we were glad to share our work as part of this exchange.

We’re honoured to share that our own studio space, Florette Workshop, has been shortlisted in the Dezeen Awards 2025 under the “Workplace Interior — Small” category.

Housed in a modest 90 m² cottage within a former 1950s forklift factory in Beijing, Florette Workshop is both our design office and floral atelier — a space where creative disciplines coexist and constantly influence one another. The design reflects the duality of our daily practice: the precise and contemplative nature of architecture alongside the organic spontaneity of floral work.

Creating this workspace was an exercise in introspection — a chance to design not for a client, but for ourselves. Being recognised by Dezeen for this very personal project is both humbling and deeply meaningful.

We’re grateful to the Dezeen Awards jury for the honour, and to our collaborators who helped turn this once-derelict structure into a space that continues to inspire our everyday work.

We’re honoured to share that Isabelle Sun and Tim Kwan, co-founders of Office AIO, have been invited to serve on the jury for HOME Magazine’s “Interior of the Year 2025” in New Zealand.

The annual award celebrates excellence in residential interior design, with categories spanning Kitchen, Living, Bathroom, Bedroom, Lighting, and more. From over 100 submissions, 21 finalists have been selected, with winners to be announced on 25 September 2025 in Auckland.

For Isabelle and Tim—both graduates of the School of Architecture at the University of Auckland—this invitation carries special significance. Returning to their hometown to recognise and celebrate design excellence in New Zealand feels deeply personal and profoundly meaningful.

Joining fellow jurors Federico Monsalve and Alex McLeod, they look forward to engaging in thoughtful dialogue around the evolving language of interior design—one shaped by materiality, atmosphere, and lived experience.

We’re grateful to HOME Magazine for the honour, and we look forward to sharing in the celebration of creativity and craft that defines this year’s Interior of the Year Awards.

We’re honoured to share that two of our projects — LDF Noodle in Transit and Florette Workshop & Office AIO — have been named finalists for the World Architecture Festival 2025, taking place this November in Miami.

LDF Noodle in Transit has been shortlisted in the Bars & Restaurants category, while Florette Workshop & Office AIO — our own workspace — is recognised in Workplace (Small). Together, these nominations reflect the breadth of our studio’s practice, spanning the public and the personal — from spaces of gathering to spaces of making.

Following our World Interior of the Year 2024 win, this dual recognition feels especially meaningful. It marks not only a continuation of creative exploration, but also a reaffirmation of our belief that design is both process and dialogue.

We’re equally humbled that our co-founders, Isabelle Sun and Tim Kwan, will continue to serve on the WAF 2025 Jury Panel, joining an esteemed group of global architects and designers. To be part of both the conversation and the competition embodies what we value most about our profession — the exchange of ideas that transcends boundaries.

We’re deeply grateful to the World Architecture Festival team and jury for this honour, and we look forward to presenting our work in Miami this November.

Founders Isabelle Sun and Tim Kwan have once again been invited to serve on the prestigious jury panel of the Architizer A+ Awards. Over the years, Office AIO has celebrated continued success at the A+ Awards, including winning the Jury Prize in the “Hospitality & Night Club” category in 2020 and being honoured as “Best Interior Design Firm” in 2023.

This year, we are proud to be part of the selection process across various key categories, including the Plus Categories: CONCEPTS – Architecture + Renovation, SUSTAINABILITY – Sustainable Private House, and SPECIALIZATION – Best Adaptive Reuse and Renovation Firm. It’s an honor to contribute to recognizing the most exceptional architectural work from around the globe.

We Won Big!

We're beyond thrilled to announce that Office AIO has been awarded World Interior of the Year at the 2024 World Architecture Festival Inside Awards for our design Pang Mei Noodle Bar LFS!

A heartfelt thank you to our esteemed Super Jury: Nigel Coates, Kelley Cheng, Fernando Platino Espinosa, and Fred Holt, for their acknowledgement, our amazing clients for their unwavering trust, and most importantly our dedicated team whose passion and creativity have made this possible.

“This project is an essay in clever design applied to a successful noodle bar business... A veritable machine for dining that ticks all the boxes - for its customers, its staff, and its owners.” – Judges.

Other remarkable category winners include the electrifying “Fender Flagship Tokyo” by Klein Dytham Architecture, sensual “Fasano Itaim” by Studio mk27, prestige “Embassy of Australia, Washington D.C.” by Bates Smart, meticulous yet gracious “CSL Global Headquarters and Centre for Research & Development” by COX Architecture, conscious and thought-provoking “Backpack Housing” by HKU / Superposition, vibrant “WSU Banktown City Campus” by HDR”, calming “Penn Color Technology Centre” by DP Design, and refined “twentyfour” by 3DM Architecture. Each project represents the pinnacle of interior design excellence, and we are proud to stand among such esteemed company.

Thank you all for your support and for believing in us!

Organised by SCAPE Magazine, the premier architectural and design publication in Southern Africa. Having celebrated its 100th volume, SCAPE Magazine continues to be a vital platform for the design industry, promoting growth and showcasing excellence. The 2024 SCAPE Awards aim to recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements of architects, interior designers, landscape architects, and urban planners.

With categories ranging from Collaboration of the Year to the coveted Overall Design Firm of the Year, this event promises to highlight the best in the industry. The awards ceremony, to be held at the iconic Zeitz MOCAA Art Gallery in Cape Town, will be a glamorous and memorable event.

Upon winning past year’s contest at WAF’s INSIDE World Festival Of Interiors with project SAGE, our co-founder Isabelle Sun has the privilege to be invited to join WAF’s highly esteemed judging panel for the first time.

“140 judges representing 68 countries. Only at WAF and Inside are you judged by your peers, your heroes and the industry’s power players, all live at the festival. All finalists present their projects within their categories during the first two days. Category winners then go on to present to the Super Jury.”

We can’t wait to see some of the worlds best work by acclaimed individuals and firms at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore in November 6-8.

The World Architecture Festival (WAF) held its annual event in Singapore from November 30 to December 2, 2023. This event attracted architectural design elites from around the world, showcasing projects representing some of the most successful global examples in architecture and interior space design. Isabelle Sun, founding partner of Office AIO, delivered a captivating and insightful presentation on-site. After intense competition, "Sage" stood out in the Bars and Restaurants category, ultimately winning the prestigious award for the category at this year's event.

Office AIO is extremely delighted and honoured to be shortlisted in this year’s World Festival of Interiors INSIDE 2023 (Bars & Restaurants Category), and longlisted in the Health and Wellbeing Interior category by Dezeen Awards 2023.

This is our fifth year participating in the World Festival of Interiors INSIDE event since 2017, and kudos to our team for our fifth nominations and awards! We will be presenting our project Sage to a live judging panel at Marina Bay Sands Singapore from 29 November to 1 December. And as always, we look forward to all the invaluable keynote talks from industry leaders with great anticipation.

Coincidentally, we have also been equally blessed by Dezeen Awards, with 9 nominations and 1 win since 2018. Out of 4,800 entries from around the world, 150 projects have been selected in this year longlist, and Office AIO’s Paw is the only animal-centric space being chosen in the Health and Wellbeing Interior category. Click here to view our project page on Dezeen's website!

News just in! Office AIO has been selected as the 2023 Architizer A+Awards Jury Winner in the Best Interior Design Firm category!

We are extremely honoured and truly humbled by this recognition. Huge thanks to Architizer and the amazing jury! Congratulations to all the other winners!

Both Office AIO founders Isabelle sun and Tim kwan are member of jury Architizer A+ Awards Jury Panel. This year, we have the honour in reviewing projects across these categories :

Commercial Interiors, Restaurant (L >1000 sq ft), Government & Civic Buildings, Private House (XL >6000 sq ft), Architectural + Learning, and Best Public Projects Firm.

We are very excited to announce that our recently completed project: Pang Mei Noodle Bar, was awarded WAF Highly Commended 2022 (INSIDE Awards: Bars & Restaurants Category). We hope to extend our gratitude towards our client, contractor, suppliers, and colleagues for their trust and support. Congratulations to us all for this accomplishment!

Pang Mei Noodle Bar TKL

In a recently published article, founder Isabelle Sun was in conversation with Architizer about ideas, challenges and motivation behind Shop O's design.

See it on Architizer

Office AIO designed PangMei (Chubby Girl) Noodle Bar is a finalist at this year's INSIDE Award. The ceremony will be held in Lisbon from 30 November - 2 December. We are once again, thrilled to have the honour in sharing our project live amongst some of the world's best architecture and interior projects.

Learn More

Our Shop O project had been announced a finalist in Commercial - Retail category of this year's Architizer A+Awards. Public voting coming shortly, stay tuned.

See project on Architizer

Office AIO designed "Chubby Girl Noodle Bar" in Beijing is shortlisted in Restaurant & Bar Design Awards 2021 - Standalone category. We are, once again, thrilled to be named one of this year's finalists.

We are honoured to have our project Basic Coffee named "Best of Best" in hospitality category at this year's Architecture MasterPrize! Office AIO continue to help entrepreneurial brands strive for design excellence and to define meaningful experiences. See our project among other world-class entries here.

Over the past week, OFFICE AIO founders Isabelle and Tim have had the honour to review some of the best projects in House Interior and Apartment Interior categories for Dezeen Awards 2020. 50 projects were longlisted across both categories, and our founders had thoroughly enjoyed all projects and the process. Stay tuned for the upcoming shortlist announcements in September and again, congratulations to our peers who have made it this far.

Dezeen Awards 2020 has just announced OFFICE AIO as one of the longlisted Emerging Interior Designers. We are truly delighted to be amongst these talented designers.

Four projects designed by OFFICE AIO have been longlisted in their respective categories : Small Interior / Hotel and Short Stay Interior / Small Retail Interior / Restaurant Interior in Dezeen Awards this year! We continue to hope for these projects to strive in the upcoming judging period.

We are thrilled to announce Office AIO designed "Bar Lotus" was named Jury Winner in "Hospitality & Night Club" - Architizer A+ Award. This year's Jury include: Amanda Levete, Christian Benimana, Dong Ping Wong, David de Rothschild and more. Thank you all judges and thank you Architizer!

This year's Dezeen Awards will be judged by a panel of a total of 75 industry-leading professionals across the globe, as winners of Dezeen Awards 2019 "Restaurant and bar interior of the year", founders Isabelle Sun and Tim Kwan have been invited to join the judging panel.


In only a couple years, Dezeen Awards has already became the benchmark for international design excellence. We truly look forward to seeing all the entries by some of the most talented architects, designers, and artists from around the world.

See post

With Christmas just around the corner, Office AIO received a substantial piece of news from FRAME, notifying us about our nomination for an Honorary Award "Emerging Designer of the Year". 

With public voting now open until 15th February, we appreciate every effort of your involvement and support!

Please register to vote for us if you love what we do.

Vote Now

Office AIO is extremely honoured to be shortlisted amongst some of the best design works from around the world, and we are happy to have Bar Lotus project awarded "Restaurant and bar interior of the year". And of course, it is a pleasure receive this beautiful brick trophy designed by Atelier NL.

We are thrilled to announce that Bar Lotus by Office AIO was named Asia Bar of the year at this year's Restaurant and Bar Design Awards.

After much deliberation, Office AIO designed Bar Lotus has been shortlisted in the "Restaurant and Bar interior" category for Dezeen Awards 2019.

Once again, Office AIO will be participating in this year's INSIDE World Festival of Interiors, with Bar Lotus shortlisted in the "Bar & Restaurants" category.

Two of our recent projects "We Pictures, Beijing" & "Bar Lotus, Shanghai" recognised by this year's Dezeen Awards Longlist.

Visit

Bar Lotus, Shanghai by Office AIO has been shortlisted in this year's Restaurant & Bar Design Awards - Asia Bar Category. We look forward to the awards ceremony to be held at King's Cross, London on October 3rd.

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We're thrilled to announce Office AIO designed "M+ Space" has been shortlisted for this year's Dezeen Awards' "workspace" category.

Of more than 3600 projects submitted from 91 different countries world wide, Office AIO is honoured to have 2 of our recent projects "M's Apartment" and "M+ Space" recognised by this year's Dezeen Awards Longlist.

Office AIO is honoured to be shortlisted in this year's WAF Inside award's Bar & Restaurant category with "M+ Space" project.

Office AIO founder and past year's category winner Tim Kwan is honoured to be amongst some of the industry leading designers in this year's WAF/Inside Awards judging panel. We look forward to be amazed in Amsterdam this November!

Office AIO designed "BigSmall Coffee and Guest Room" located at Xiang'er Hutong, Beijing was announced Bar and Restaurant category winner at WAF 2017's INSIDE Awards.