Atelier Cho Thompson is a multidisciplinary office founded by Christina Cho Yoo and Ming Thompson, working from San Francisco and New Haven. Their expertise range from graphic design and brand strategy to architecture and exhibitions. Atelier Cho Thompson is certified as a Women-Owned San Francisco Local Business Enterprise and is also a member of the Female Founders Collective.
We bring to you an interview with Ming Thompson from Atelier Cho Thompson.
Before opening your own practice, you worked in different parts of the world. Did this influence your work and in what way?
Both of us were fortunate to work and travel around the world before starting our firm, and we are both from immigrant families. We’ve drawn immense inspiration from working internationally. Our projects often propose new paradigms for the ways we use space, and we bring in typologies we’ve experienced around the world, like a night market in Hong Kong or a piazza in Venice.
How did you start your practice? What advice would you give to people trying to start their own?
My main piece of advice is to clearly articulate why you are starting your own practice and exactly what kind of design studio you will be. When we first started, we wanted to be a multi-disciplinary design studio working across architecture, interiors, and graphics, and we have stayed true to that vision throughout the years.
Your studio does architecture and interior design projects as well as graphic design and furniture. What types of projects bring you the most joy?
Our best projects are those where we get to work across the disciplines at the same time. By working on space and objects together, we can create a holisitic and stronger vision.
What was it like designing the childrens cafeterias? How did these projects start?
We’ve been luck to be a part of the San Francisco Unified School District project for many years. For each school, we work with students, teachers, and the principal to understand the stories and values of their institution and community. By focusing on only a few key cost-effective changes, including paint, environmental graphics, and furniture, we work to transform the cafeterias into welcoming, inclusive, and fun environments.
Do you think you learn by teaching?
We learn a lot from our students; they bring in fresh perspectives and energy. We have taught a range of classes, including design studios, building systems courses, and community design workshops.
What books do you most often recommend to your students?
City by Douglas Rae
a sweeping portrait of the history of the American city in the twentieth century, using our home base New Haven as a case study
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
literature provides us new ways of understanding space, and budding architects must understand how deeply memory and feeling shape the way we experience architecture
photo by Alicia Cho
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