Su Yang, who has been working as a senior project designer for Hong Kong-funded architectural design company Leigh & Orange (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd. for four years, said he has turned into a better communicator and become more prudent and meticulous at work.

“When I first came to Leigh & Orange in 2018, I was deeply impressed by its office’s simple, bright and international décor in Qianhai. I was also quite curious about the multifunctional telephones installed on everyone’s desk, which I later found out to be a very important communication tool at work,” Su said.

After Su graduated as an architecture major at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, Hubei Province, he first worked for two mainland design institutes.

“My previous employers might pay more attention to design schemes, but Leigh & Orange puts more emphasis on coordination and communication. The executive architect model is Leigh & Orange’s signature, under which a chief architect undertakes the whole project management process from design to construction. Such model requires us to frequently communicate with our proprietors through phone calls or emails to continuously adjust the scheme and make sure each construction phase is completed on schedule,” he said.

Su said prudence and communication skills are two major takeaways he has learned from his Hong Kong colleagues.

“I think Shenzhen and Hong Kong just complement each other. Shenzhen may need to learn from Hong Kong’s advanced management model and experience, while the large demand for construction in Shenzhen makes me believe that my Hong Kong peers can embrace more and better development opportunities on the mainland,” Su said.