Friends call him "Mr. Style" and his KTVs, lounge bars and restaurants have defined the entertainment aesthetic of Taipei over the past decade.
British architectural and design consultant Mark Lintott presided over the almost baroque look of VMix KTV on Linsen North Road, the purple wonderland feel of Mint at 101 and the billowy elegance of Le Petit Sherwood Carrera Restaurant.
But he is resistant to the idea of being called a style guru.
"Style implies a package of ideas you always follow. It's too two-dimensional and skin deep: like buying off the shelf," he says at an interview in his office on Da-an Road in Taipei. "It's not as bad as being called trendy, I guess. That just drives me mad."
A bundle of energy, he fiddles with his PDA phone, twirls around on his chair and completes a Friedensreich Hundertwasser-like doodle of a futuristic building as we talk.
The 46-year-old graduated with a BA in environmental design and earned his spurs at an interior design firm in the 1980s.
"It was eight to nine years of learning the job, basically. From a design point of view it was about balancing an esoteric or intellectual approach with a practical or commercial edge."
His early credits include work for the "eccentric, very short and big on charisma" pop star Adam Ant. He oversaw projects for "socialists with swimming pools" in London and had a hand in the birthplace of punk, at the World End Store belonging to Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McClaren.
It was an interesting time, he says. "There was a lot of creative energy. I think the UK class system generated a lot of friction and created a dialogue. It's one of the reasons we're so strong culturally."
"Brits have that about them, the desire to question authority ... and the class system, which is quite despicable but also quite positive."
He describes his own background as middle class and "artistic rather than academic."
He went to a boarding school and is grateful that his parents allowed him to follow his own path.
He first encountered what he calls the "architectural anarchy of the ROC" when his company was commiss-ioned to do a job for ATT in 1988.
"I came for a week and stayed for a month. There were two or three other projects I wanted to do and basically the company let me open an office here."
Soon after settling Lintott lost nearly everything. He parted with his old firm and later broke up with his first wife (with whom he has a 19-year-old daughter). Flying solo, he started Mark Lintott Design (mld) in 1991.
"I struggled for a long time but positive aspects outweighed the negative and the practice developed," Lintott says, adding he doesn't regret the move. "I've built four or five times more than I would've done in the same time if I had stayed in London."
Like many expats he has an ambivalent attitude toward both his mother country and adopted country. He enjoys being a big fish in a small pond and has done things here he could not have done at home, like being a model or appearing in films. Yet, there are contradictions.
"I've got no hankering after London as I'm not fussed about recognition. Design in England is snooty and cliquey. Nowadays I question a lot of the value of what they do."
As for Taiwan, he says, "Taipei is not a world-class city. I say that with tremendous disappointment but it's the truth. I mean, just look at the infrastructure. Drive down to Taichung and the road is full of potholes. The toll system doesn't work."
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