LI Hu, founding partner of OPEN, visiting professor at the Tsinghua University School of Architecture and Central Academy of Fine Arts, 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”, ICON Magazine’s “Future 50”, GQ Magazine’s Architect of the Year 2014 and 2019, and OUTLOOK Magazine’s “Creative Icons of the Year”. 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 at Tsinghua University, 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, visiting professor at Tsinghua University and Central Academy of Fine Arts. Ms. 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. 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”. Besides teaching at Tsinghua University, HUANG has also been a visiting assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong. Recently, HUANG Wenjing and LI Hu co-authored two books titled OPEN ReAction and Towards Openness.