Design options required.

With Chinese mainland real estate companies looking for better margins in a tighter market, Hong Kong architecture firms are themselves aiming to upgrade their designs to keep the business rolling in.

Thai interior design is said to be much prized internationally for its creativity and attention to detail, which is why Hong Kong-based firm SRT (S&P) Architects is searching in Thailand for a firm to partner new design opportunities on the Chinese mainland.

Additionally, SRT is looking for business in Thailand itself, given its ability to maximise plot ratio design targets in the residential, resort and commercial sectors.

SRT believes that it currently lacks designers that are capable of adding the kind of features that will land upmarket developments on the Chinese mainland, where lifestyle is becoming a potent sales ingredient.

The company is looking at an as yet undisclosed "mega project" on the Chinese mainland with the requirement for international standards at "reasonable" cost criteria.

It shows that Chinese mainland developers are no longer prepared to take foreign-designed projects without a thorough view of its ultimate cost/sale ratios - but still require the best that is available.

At present, SRT has several design projects in hand. The five larger ones on the Chinese mainland each have a contract value of HK$25 million and consist of residential, resort and commercial developments that include 400 detached houses and townhouses in Nan Shan.

In Shanghai, the company has a contract to design 1,500 apartments and commercial units, as well as 888 semi-detached houses and apartments in Chengdu, and a 300,000 sqm commercial development in Wuhan along with contracts to build 600 villas there.

Property design fashions on the Chinese mainland have moved from Western styles to classical Chinese architecture, with younger, well-heeled home owners requiring modern amenities but architectural accents from the China of times past.

from Sarayuth Chewarouengroj, Bangkok Office