LI Hu, founding partner of OPEN, Kenzo Tange Design Critic in Architecture at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, visiting professor at the Tsinghua University School of Architecture and Central Academy of Fine Arts. He is a former partner of Steven Holl Architects, and director of Columbia University GSAPP’s Studio-X Beijing. LI received his B. Arch. from Tsinghua University in Beijing in 1996 and his M. Arch. from Rice University in 1998.

LI Hu has been the recipient of “50 under 50: Innovators of the 21st Century”, 2022 Wallpaper* China Design Awards | Designer of the Year, GQ Magazine’s Architect of the Year 2014 and 2019, and ICON Magazine’s “Future 50”. He has also been the curator of the first China Design Exhibition, a jury member committed by the Ministry of Culture for the Chinese pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and, most recently, a jury member for the International Velux Awards. Besides teaching, LI is also a frequent speaker at academic conferences and a critic at universities worldwide.

During his tenure at Steven Holl Architects, LI Hu was responsible for some of the firm’s most influential urban projects in Asia, including the Linked Hybrid building in Beijing, Vanke Center in Shenzhen, Raffles City in Chengdu, and Sifang Art Museum in Nanjing. LI left SHA at the end of 2010 to focus on practice at OPEN with partner HUANG Wenjing.

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HUANG Wenjing, AIA, founding partner of OPEN, Kenzo Tange Design Critic in Architecture at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. HUANG received her B. Arch. from Tsinghua University in 1996, and her M. Arch. from Princeton University in 1999. She is a licensed architect in New York State and a member of the AIA. 

HUANG Wenjing and LI Hu co-founded OPEN in New York City in 2003 and established the studio’s Beijing office in 2008. Prior to OPEN, HUANG was a senior designer and associate at the New York-based firm Pei Cobb Freed and Partners.

HUANG has been named one of the “50 under 50: Innovators of the 21st Century, and 2022 Wallpaper* China Design Awards | Designer of the Year. Huang taught at various institutions, including Tsinghua University, China Central Academy of Fine Arts, and the University of Hong Kong. Recently, HUANG Wenjing and LI Hu co-authored three books about OPEN: OPEN Questions (2018), Towards Openness (2018), and OPEN Reaction (2015).