Designer brings dreams to life

"You are decorating people's homes, so you have to respect their private domain. You have to make some compromises based on their personalities, tastes and likes," Tu said.

"Our mission is to help property owners to fulfill the dream (of having a comfortable home). If our designs don't appeal to them, they are not successful ones no matter how beautiful they are."

Referring to interior design as a service industry, Tu said its essence is compromise and equilibrium.

Citing the example of training his team, he said designers should receive architectural training to improve logic and at the same time take interior design lessons to sharpen their aesthetic sense.

"A first-class designer should be capable of treading a careful path between logic and aesthetics to come up with the best designs," he said.

Focusing on the property market's high-end niche, Audi has offered interior designs to a considerable proportion of Taiwan's luxury properties.

The one that helped catapult the company to instant fame is Hung Sheng's Palace.

Branded as Taipei's first luxury property, it actually did not sell well until Audi was invited to do an interior design for its demo room. After an overall consideration of the property, Tu decided on the neo-classical style and chose Baker, a well-known US brand as its furniture provider.

Thanks to cost-effective decisions, the first demo unit sold for less than 30 million new Taiwan dollars ($1 million).