May Sung — Interior Designer

“The key element of a thoughtfully designed interior is personality.”

— May Sung, interior designer


An Excerpt from “/be-spok/[bespoke]: a philosophy of beauty” by Beth Benton Buckley:

Having earned both a Bachelor of Arts degree (with honors) from the University of California’s Department of Architecture and a master’s in architecture from Harvard University, May Sung could have simply built a highly successful career drafting homes. Instead, she expanded her skills to encompass interior and landscape design, maintaining that there’s no reason to limit herself to just one aspect of design. When all the pieces work together, she explains, the resulting vision is so much stronger for it.

Since 2010, May has been combining all three elements at SUBU Design Architecture, her award-winning firm based in the Los Angeles area. Art and nature are her strongest influences, and often the two combine into plans that highlight a home’s property, gardens, or view. Growing up, she strongly admired her grandfather’s Japanese-style courtyard house, and today often finds herself incorporating a tsubo-niwa, or petite garden, into her designs.

Photography by Manolo Langis

Photography by Manolo Langis