David J Mayer, R.A.

Founder / President

Registered Architect / USA

Our founder, David Mayer, studied Architecture at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, in the College of Fine Arts, graduating with University Honours in 1988. He participated in an architectural studio in the Italian hill town region north of Rome in the summer of 1984. He was awarded the John Knox Shear Traveling Fellowship in 1986, that included research and travel in England and Scotland. Mayer passed the American Architectural registration examinations, receiving the title of Registered Architect in 1989. He worked in Architectural firms for ten years in Boston- where he worked on the US Embassy for Bangkok, and a laboratory building at Yale University. He worked at retail specialist firms, Bergmeyer and Fitch, counting Timberland, Bose and Levi-Strauss among his notable clients.

With the dream of starting up a design studio in Asia, Mayer moved to Bangkok in 2001. In 2002-3, he was a lecturer at the School of Architecture & Design, King Mongkut’s University, and has been a guest critic over the years at Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Architecture/ INDA.

In 2004, Mayer registered Whitespace Ltd, leased studio space in central Bangkok, and began hiring designers. The company is registered under the 1966 US/Thai Treaty of Amity, allowing Mayer sole ownership as a US citizen.

In the early years, Whitespace collaborated with US Architectural firms on their projects in the US and in China, and worked on retail projects for Apple retail partners in Thailand. In 2005, Mayer created the iStudio brand and retail flagshipstore for Apple Premium Resellers that became the model for a nationwide expansion across Thailand. This work helped establish Whitespace as the leading retail design firm in the country, bringing clients like AP Honda Motorcycles, Uniqlo, the Central Group, Jaspal, Dtac/Telenor, Pomello and Mykita.