About the Studio
As we were wrapping up this website, we turned to ChatGPT to draft our “About” page. The result? Competent, sure—but honestly, dull as dishwater. It had the anatomy: “Our Philosophy,” “What We Do,” “How We Work,” etc. It was loaded with the usual buzzwords you’ll find on many sites—innovative design, rigorous research, technical expertise, artistic vision, enriching lives, collaboration, commitment, and all those words ending in “-ty,” like personality, functionality, beauty, creativity, sustainability, and community. While those are all fine qualities (and we embody them, too), they’re the prerequisites you should expect from any firm worth hiring.
So, what makes us different? Yeh Design Lab is a multidisciplinary design and consulting studio based in Los Angeles. We’re small, agile, and hands-on. Our founder, Yi-Hsiu Yeh, has worn many hats—homeowner, architect, and sometimes builder—so she knows firsthand what it takes to turn a dream house or renovation into reality. She understands the financial constraints, timelines, and decision-making processes that can make or break a project. She knows the added value of working with competent and design-attentive builders and what they need from the architect during construction.
We get that many clients aren’t sure if they even need an architect, or they fear that committing to a design might mean they can’t afford to build it. At Yeh Design Lab, we believe good design doesn’t have to rely on exotic materials. We know that some of the most common materials, when thoughtfully detailed, can reinforce the design idea, stand the test of time, and stretch your budget further.
We think that a strong design emerges when every formal gesture and its material logic coalece to serve multiple functions. We we also know that, however, when appropriate, architecture should stay actively passive, providing a stage for light & shadow to play and allowing quiet shifting of the perceptual field.
And we’re flexible. We don’t always need to play “the Architect.” We are experienced in leading AE teams in construction problem-solving while navigating through liability traps to achieve a high level of finished product and protect Owners’ interests. We’re just as happy to be a consultant or collaborator on another firm’s project, and you will find a selection of projects demonstrating this under the Construction Focused category. We also understand that sometimes, all you need is an initial consultation or a feasibility study—not the full design, at least not yet.
So, should you leave if you’ve found your way here but don’t need design services right now? Not necessarily. This website isn’t just a portfolio of completed projects—it’s a window into our process and our thinking. It’s a space where ideas can spark discussions. So, feel free to explore, read or skip the project text, or just have fun.
About the People
Yi-Hsiu Yeh (怡秀, 葉 pronounced as e-show yay!) was born in Taipei, Taiwan. Yi-Hsiu has been a California Licensed Architect for nearly two decades and, more recently, was a Senior Associate at Verse Design LA for seven years. Prior to Verse Design, she had worked for Eric Owen Moss Architects, CO Architects, and for herself as a furniture maker and set builder. Before she immersed herself in teaching, she worked as a Senior Project Manager for HWI Construction, an award-winning construction company that built projects in collaboration with architects like Griffin Enright, Neil Denari, Johnston & Marklee, Hodgetts+Fung and the late Ray Kappe. With her extensive experience in architecture, construction, woodworking, and academia, she founded Yeh Design Lab to bridge architecture & fashion via small-scale wearable objects.
Holding a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science degree from National Taiwan University and a Master of Architecture degree from Southern California Institute of Architecture, Yi-Hsiu briefly taught at SCI-Arc. For ten years (2007-2017), she was an adjunct faculty at Woodbury University, where she taught Foundation Studios, Advanced Object Making, Steel & Long Span Competitions, Tectonics, Undergrad Thesis, and upper-level studios for both graduate and undergrad programs. When teaching upper-level studios, her interest focused on spatial interventions addressing the friction and disjunction between the Angelenos’ social classes.
Yi-Hsiu was the speaker for several events hosted by AIA LA and LA Forum, lectured at Woodbury University School of Architecture and Tunghai University, and has been a visiting critic of numerous architecture schools, including the University of Southern California, Art Center College of Design, Southern California Institute of Architecture, Tunghai University (Taichung, Taiwan), National Chiaotung University (Hsinchu, Taiwan).
Yi-Hsiu received the First Interior Design Magazine Furniture Award in the year 2000. Her event-based installation has been published as the “Project of the Year” and the cover story of Egg Design Magazine’s 2004 Chinese New Year Issue. In 2006, Yi-Hsiu was commissioned to design a convention booth for the relaunched issue, titled “Reuse”, of the Architecture Magazine at the National AIA Convention, where she utilized the freeway guardrails donated by CalTrans. The work she did for Eric Owen Moss Architects has been exhibited in the Museum of Contemporary Art in years 2001 and 2013. She has participated in numerous group exhibits. Her installation, Kinetic Bloom, was featured at the Architecture+Design Museum in 2012. For “Sizif” shoes, she was commissioned by the founder, a French fashion entrepreneur to design the company’s first collection, which went into production in 2015. For Verse Design, she completed a 233,000 sq. ft. ground-up Class A office building in the Bay Area, which has won 20+ design awards.