Profile
ml@studio-ume.com

UMÉ Studio is a holistic design practice founded by architect Mei-Lan Tan. Rooted in the vast landscapes and wellness cultures of California and Indonesia, UMÉ Studio creates highly crafted, transportive hospitality spaces that draw on Mei-Lan’s extensive research, both knowledge-based and embodied from her own travels. Mei-Lan believes in the power of escape as a means of personal transformation. She designs multi-sensory environments that foster immersion, release and renewal, inspiring a sense of new connections and possibilities. Whether through elemental, intimate structures that connect with the landscape, or engagingly tactile and layered rooms, UMÉ Studio partners with clients from the very beginning of each project to imagine guest-oriented experiences that are site-specific and unexpected. 

In addition to her practice, Mei-Lan is also the founder of UMÉ, a design goods company whose products invite delight into the rituals of daily life. Based in Oakland, Mei-Lan is a licensed architect in California and her practice offers masterplanning, programming, and landscape design as well as architectural and interior design services.

Education

Cornell University
Bachelor of Architecture
2013

Press

Architectural Digest
T Magazine
NY Times
Vogue
Dwell
Surface Magazine
Dezeen
Forbes
Bloomberg
Domus

Awards

2019 
Forbes 30 Under 30 in Arts and Style

2019
Dwell Top APA Designers

2018
Dwell 24

2013
Charles Goodwin Sands