OPEN: a Spatial Language and a Way of Being

Li Hu and Huang Wenjing, reflect on over two decades of architectural practice and the mindset behind OPEN’s work. Rejecting a fixed visual style, they have developed a spatial language built on simple yet powerful operations of opening. By cutting into mass, separating volumes, and dissolving boundaries, projects such as Sun Tower, Chapel of Sound, and a series of cultural and educational buildings bring light, air, landscape, and people into meaningful confluence. The lecture explores how this spatial language fosters connections between people, place, and the environment, pointing toward a more open and sustainable way of being.

LI Hu (Hon. FAIA) + HUANG Wenjing (AIA) are founding partners of OPEN Architecture, Howard A. Friedman Visiting Professors in the Practice of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and Kenzo Tange Design Critics in Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. LI and HUANG co-founded OPEN in New York City and subsequently established their office in Beijing in 2008. Prior to OPEN, LI Hu was a partner at Steven Holl Architects, and the director of Columbia University GSAPP’s Studio-X Beijing. He received his B. Arch. from Tsinghua University in Beijing in 1996, and his M. Arch. from Rice University in 1998. HUANG was an associate at the New York-based firm Pei Cobb Freed and Partners. She received her B. Arch. from Tsinghua University in 1996, and her M. Arch. from Princeton University in 1999. Some major projects by OPEN include Sun Tower, Shanfeng Academy, Chapel of Sound, UCCA Dune Art Museum, Tank Shanghai, and Garden School/Beijing No.4 High School Fangshan Campus. The publications co-authored by Li Hu and Huang Wenjing and on their works include Reinventing Cultural Architecture: A Radical Vision by OPEN (2022), OPEN Questions (2018), Towards Openness (2018), and OPEN Reaction (2015). Recent awards received by OPEN include the AIA International Design Awards Honor Award (US), Arcasia Awards Gold Award, and Design for Asia Awards. OPEN’s work has been collected by Museum of Modern Art in New York and M+ Museum in Hong Kong, and widely published and frequently exhibited around the world.