TA Square: Architecture at its Best

The architectural sector is very competitive and the recent technology advances have enabled architects to work almost anywhere in the world. In an industry where ego and architectural design or ‘form’ often compete with a client’s ‘functional’ objectives, the ability to deliver a functional project has been part of T-A Square’s culture of success. T-A Square firmly believes that by being humble, approachable and easy to deal with contributes to the success of the business. The company is passionate in building strong and lasting relationships with its client base and this is reflected in the company’s repeat business with them.

For its architectural/interior projects, T-A Square often pursues a holistic approach and this drives the company to examine the whole aspect of the scope of works and where possible T-A Square handles the branding, concept and interiors by collaborating with the right graphic designers for the owner’s brand to achieve successful outcome. T-A Square’s clients appreciate that the company goes above and beyond its services sometimes to ensure the final outcome of the project is successfully executed.

The beginning

T-A Square was established in 2007 as a collaborative design studio between university mates, Timothy Yee and Antony Tsjin. The directors worked with larger firms to gain the required experience while taking on smaller projects during their free time and weekends to build up the project folio. In 2010, Timothy decided to leave his job with the large established company to focus on T-A Square (the studio was a 3 person team) and started building his network and contacts to work on luxury residential homes, boutique townhouses and apartments projects. During that time, Tim also co-invested on his first Food and Beverage business which is a small hole in a wall Korean restaurant. This opened opportunities and experience for him to start offering interior design as part of the services from T-A Square. This eventuated to enable T-A Square to work on commercial, shopping and retail sectors. T-A Square is currently working on architectural and interior projects all around Australia, Malaysia as well as the United States specifically in L.A and Houston.

The rise

Today, T-A Square is a full service architectural and interior design studio. The firm offers feasibility studies, concept/sketch design, development approvals, master planning and project management services. For hospitality projects, T-A Square is able to offer graphics and branding solutions by working closely with collaborators to achieve the best outcome for the client’s brand and identity. For every project that is given to T-A Square, the directors are responsible for the design process and a senior associate or project architect is assigned to assist them manage the process efficiently. A project management tool is also used to ensure the client is always updated with the progress and to ensure the project can be delivered on time and within budget for all stakeholders involved. T-A Square works closely with its clients by communicating with them in an open and respectful manner and always strives to provide innovative, functional and cost effective design solutions for every client projects.

The encouraging journey

T-A Square’s journey has been quite encouraging for the company. They have been experiencing consistent growth for the company; from a 3 person studio back in 2007 to a team of 20 strong architects and interior designers. The biggest challenges for T-A Square is securing bigger projects in different typologies as clients seems to favor the bigger firms over the mid-sized ones. Project budgets is also quite challenging as T-A Square has to stretch its ideas by ensuring they can still achieve maximum impact without affecting their client’s budget especially the hospitality sectors. These issues however have been improving after being shortlisted for design awards in recognition of the company’s works. The team is also working on interesting projects such as boutique hotels, student accommodations as well as education sectors. “We have been quite fortunate as our clients have been with us all the way since inception, recommending us to their own networks which allowed us to grow organically without the need to advertise our services through repeated business as well as referrals through word of mouth. We are grateful for their encouragement and support,” shares Tim.

A passionate believer in architecture

As one of the founding partners of T-A Square, Tim is a passionate believer in architecture that is responsive to context, clients and commercial consideration. After receiving his Bachelor of Architecture (Honors) and Deans List from the University of Melbourne, Tim worked with three different firms to gain experience on residential, commercial and aged-care and senior living projects. In addition to guiding the studio’s design and development process, Tim is responsible for ensuring every client receives outstanding service as well as the highest quality architectural and interior solutions. Business development is one of Tim’s key strengths and he is also responsible for spearheading the interiors division towards gaining a strong reputation in delivering award winning hospitality, retail and commercial projects too. Being an F&B investor/owner also helps as it gives Tim an intimate knowledge of what’s the latest trend in hospitality design as well as giving his clients the confidence that the design produced by the studio will work well operationally too.

The vision

T-A Square understands the importance of innovation in an ever-changing world, and has made it its mission to provide adaptable services to the client’s needs. Markets and client needs has always been changing and evolving rapidly because everything is connected to the internet these days and T-A Square recognizes there is a need for an architect who can tap into their requirements to ensure the projects that T-A Square delivers for them are evergreen and will not be outdated. T-A Square works closely with its collaborators to ensure the projects viability will always be a successful outcome for its clients.

T-A Square is still growing and its vision is to work across both public and private sector in Australia and internationally. “Our adaptive approach embraces the client as a key design contributor throughout the project and we want to continue to do good work, win awards and forge long lasting relationships with our present and future clients while having fun along the journey,” Tim concludes.