By : Morgan Tate

In a world where spaces often speak louder than words, Xueting Hu has established one of the most compelling voices in interior design. In 2025, her fluency in spatial storytelling earned her three prestigious international honors: Silver in Interior Design – Educational Play Spaces and Interior Design – Fitness & Gyms at the New York Architectural Design Awards, and Silver in Interior Design – Children’s Rooms & Nurseries at the London Design Awards. The wins spanned typologies, continents, and design languages—but each recognized her ability to transform structure into story, and emotion into form. From playful modular classrooms to immersive wellness centers and AI-informed interiors, Hu’s work resonates not only for its elegance but for its empathetic intent: spaces that adapt, uplift, and quietly listen.

It has been a journey years in the making. Hu grew up in Shanghai in a family suffused with art; her childhood home was adorned with her mother’s oil and watercolor paintings, and the graceful strokes of Chinese calligraphy were a daily presence. Long before she could read, Hu was practicing with an ink brush, learning to capture form and feeling in each stroke. By grade school, she was studying painting in earnest, eventually spending over a decade honing her artistic eye. Under the tutelage of a master portrait painter, she learned that a painting can silently express an inner world – that one’s brushwork can reveal personality, emotions, and life stories. This early immersion in the visual arts shaped Hu’s way of seeing: she developed a habit of “reading” the world through images, color, and composition, a sensibility that would later become the bedrock of her design philosophy. Even now, she likens interior design to visual storytelling – each project a snapshot of its era, conveying the emotions and lifestyle of its time. In Hu’s view, the best designs speak without words, engaging the heart as much as the eye.

That ethos carried Hu from Shanghai to the United States, where she pursued formal design education at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Drawn to Savannah’s rich historic architecture and free-spirited arts culture, Hu completed both her BFA and MFA in Interior Design at SCAD, an institution perennially ranked among the top interior design schools in the U.S. The experience was transformative. Immersed in a city celebrated for its preservation of heritage buildings, Hu gained a deeper appreciation for design in its cultural context. She often cites how walking daily among Savannah’s cobblestone streets and centuries-old facades – and studying their adaptive reuse – impressed on her the importance of balance between past and future in design. Academically, she delved into interior design not just as a creative expression, but as a responsive force that shapes human experience within existing environments. This dual perspective – artistry rooted in history, and design as human-centered intervention – became central to her approach.

While still a student, Hu earned a coveted internship with Gensler, the world’s largest architecture and design firm. It was a dream come true for the young designer. At Gensler’s Shanghai office, she worked on large-scale projects and got her first taste of how iconic designs come to life. In a memorable capstone to that internship, Hu represented Gensler at the opening ceremony of the Shanghai Tower – at the time the second-tallest skyscraper in the world. As the tower’s lights ignited the city skyline, she felt the emotional swell of an entire metropolis responding to design. “In that moment,” she recalls, “I understood the connection between architecture and a city’s collective heart.” The experience cemented her conviction that good design must tell a story and stir emotion. It also heightened her awareness of sustainability and public well-being; working on a neighborhood revitalization concept at Gensler, Hu encountered the challenges of renovating aging buildings – from safety hazards to lack of light and green space – which underscored the need for healthier, more sustainable interiors in dense cities. This lesson in melding pragmatism with creativity left a lasting imprint.

After earning her master’s, Hu joined Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA)– a firm renowned as the world’s leading hospitality design studio. HBA’s global portfolio and ethos of “design that gives form to emotion” proved to be an ideal fit. Based in HBA’s Miami office, Hu quickly found herself working on some of the world’s most coveted luxury projects, where storytelling through space was paramount. One of her early projects was the St. Regis Longboat Key Resort in Florida, a new 18-acre beachfront sanctuary that opened in 2024. There, HBA’s design pays homage to Sarasota’s storied performing arts heritage. The interiors waltz with curvilinear forms inspired by ballet and dance, and a palette of light stone, warm wood, and ocean blues evokes the coastal setting – all of it energized by touches of theatrical flair referencing the city’s circus legacy. The result is a harmonious blend of local culture and contemporary luxury, a signature that Hu strives for in every project.

Central to Hu’s design philosophy is a balance between emotion and function – the idea that interiors must move the spirit while serving daily life. She believes a well-designed space should feel almost alive, capable of conversing with its occupants. In her work, this translates to environments that are at once sensorial and sensible. A Hu-designed hotel lounge, for example, might envelop guests in a mood of serenity or joy (through lighting, art, and form) even as it intuitively facilitates comfort and social interaction. This people-centric approach owes much to her dual training in art and design. From calligraphy, she learned the value of negative space and rhythm – lessons visible in her clean, flowing layouts. From painting, she inherited an attunement to color and contrast, seen in her careful layering of textures and tones to evoke feeling. And from her academic and professional pursuits, she absorbed the rigors of functionality, sustainability, and branding. The result is a style that blends cultural narrative with modern aesthetics, where every design element has a meaning or story behind the beauty.

At only a few years into her professional career, Xueting Hu has rapidly built an international profile that many designers spend decades to achieve. Her triple-win in 2025 is not only a personal feat but also a reflection of broader trends in the industry – a sign that the next generation of interior designers is equally at home in the realms of technology, social impact, and artistic expression. 

As of 2025, Xueting Hu is a designer in motion, continually balancing East and West, art and science, heritage and innovation. From Shanghai to Savannah to the world, her journey reflects a deep belief in design as a form of dialogue between cultures, between eras, and between people and space. With her recent accolades and a portfolio that spans from intimate restaurants to grand hotels, she has established herself as an influential young voice in interior design. Yet for all the laurels and luxury projects, Hu remains most passionate about the human side of design. “Ultimately, the spaces we create are for people – to inspire them, comfort them, connect them,” she notes. In the coming years, she plans to continue crafting immersive environments in high-end hospitality, while also venturing into public and educational spaces where design can directly enrich daily lives.

Looking ahead, Xueting Hu’s trajectory seems limitless. She is part of a new generation reimagining interior design not just as the arrangement of furnishings, but as the choreography of experiences. As she forges onward – sketchbook in one hand, tech toolkit in the other – the international design community is taking note. Xueting Hu has more stories to tell, and the world of interiors is eagerly awaiting the next chapter.