Sue Wang

Sue Wang is Design Director of Place Design Group, overseeing the design operations across China, and leading the organisations International Investment team based in Queensland, Australia. Working closely with developers in Australia and across Asia, Sue has added her extensive design talents to projects across all regions.

With over 20 years’ experience spanning all aspects of design, Sue has developed a focus across Residential Communities, Commercial and Tourism based projects. Her proactive leadership style has enabled her to develop exceptional client relationships, while her skills in design as well as her ability to manage and deliver projects to meet client’s needs have been recognised through numerous award wins – 2021 Credaward (Yungu Apartments), 2020 Reard Global Design Award, 2019 Credaward and Reard Gold Award (LCM), 2017 Reard Silver Award (Seattle), to name a few. Fostering a knowledge-sharing culture is something that Sue promotes and drives, building a bridge between Australia and China’s design thinkers. She knows that the more you encourage a sharing behaviour, the more an organic learning culture builds throughout the team. Sue has fostered industry connections across Asia Pacific, with key partnerships with The Australian Trade and Investment Commission, Trade Investment Queensland, as well as Fudan University in Shanghai, and local Chinese industry educational platforms such as Yuanjingren. Here Sue has facilitating numerous design discussions around key principles that will guide the design of our cities and regions to achieve a more sustainable and inclusive future for our aging population, to bring new ideas and perspectives across China. A passion for nature play exploration and creating spaces for not only children but for all accessibilities and ages is what truly drives Sue. This philosophy is something that Sue has continued to develop throughout her career, implementing elements of nature education and connection into all her projects. Within China where density is almost overwhelming, there has been a disconnect between people and nature. Taking from Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods, the phrase “nature deficit disorder” is used to describe the broken connection between children and nature. After this notion emerged, Sue’s nature-based thinking really started to develop as she noticed a real disconnect in children growing up in cities across China, as they had fewer chances to get close to nature. Sue has used this motivator to drive the design of unique and authentic places that create a greater nature connection and is at an exciting time of her career as she starts to see the transition to more connection to people and nature through the green spaces she creates.