Cream is a multi-disciplinary architecture studio which designs interiors, facades, and buildings for international clients. The international members of the practice, led by award-winning architect Antony Chan, have in-house expertise in areas such as modelling, fabric and graphic design, and materials selection. “This multi-disciplinary mixture of creative people is crucial to Cream‘s design process,” he says. “The different backgrounds and skill-sets of my team means that we work in a dynamic atmosphere, developing design ideas in highly detailed and original ways.”

Cream fine-tunes and delivers design projects right through from the conceptual stage to physical completion on site. The designs are developed in an essentially physical rather than virtual way, using hand-drawings, full-scale models of key features, and extremely precise selection of materials.

Antony Chan collaborates personally with clients to establish initial design concepts, and then leads the Cream team to develop precisely detailed specifications of structures, materials, furniture, fittings, fabrics, and curated artworks. This process ensures tight control of the physical and aesthetic qualities of Cream’s designs.

Another unique design quality factor is that Antony Chan’s practice works with a long-established network of master craftspeople from countries including England, France, the Far East and the United States who produce exceptional work in materials including fabric, marble, metal, leather and wood.

Antony Chan
Founder / Creative Director

“I believe that the finest architecture and interiors have distinctly human and poetic qualities,” says Antony Chan, founder of Cream. “The beauty and functional pleasure of structures, spaces, light, shadow and materials are only meaningful if they create very particular and satisfying atmospheres.”

Antony, the founder and creative director of Cream, is an award winning architect and a leading figure in the Hong Kong and Far Eastern design scene. He was rated as one of the 50 best designers in the world in the prestigious Andrew Martin International Design Awards, and his many honours have included two Gold Awards from the Asia Pacific Interior Design organisation, and other major international design awards. His most recent projects include designing both the architecture and interiors of a clubhouse building in Hong Kong.

Antony established Cream in 1999, and his central aim is to create designs whose architectural and spatial qualities are visually and sensually cultured. His interiors, for example, are composed and curated in every sense, and the outstanding craft and material qualities are always evident.

This approach reflects Antony’s international background and outlook. He gained his architectural degrees at the British universities of Westminster and Bath, and studied French at the Sorbonne in Paris. His training included periods with a leading British practice, YRM Anthony Hunt Associates, and the innovative French practice, Architecture-Studio. He was part of the latter’s team when it designed a scheme for the European Parliament Building in Strasbourg.

While in Paris, Antony worked with the legendary interior designer, Andrée Putman, and this was crucial to his commitment to designs of the most sophisticated compositional quality, in which every feature is superbly crafted. Antony and Cream have carried these qualities into projects of every scale, from high-rise building facades to private homes and high-end retail, to luxury hotels and exclusive clubs.