Prof. Li, Dean of College of Arts & Media of Tongji University, and Ph.D. candidate supervisor at College of Architecture and Urban Planning of the same university, is also a deputy to Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress, chairmen of both China Zhigong Party Committee of Yangpu District and its Branch Committee at Tongji University. He is a member of the Architectural Creation Committee at the Architectural Society of Shanghai China, a special columnist for Time + Architecture, part of the Bajun Group of middle-career Tongji architects, and was a visiting scholar at Graduate School of Design, Harvard University in 2014. He was selected into the Presidential Program “50 ARCHITECTES EN FRANCE” and studied in Ecole d'Architecture de Paris-Belleville in 2000.
Prof. Li endeavors to conduct his architectural teaching, research, practice and international communication on a clear theoretical foundation, and integrate “knowledge production” closely with “building production”. His main research interests include thermodynamic architecture, public architectural conglomerates, and cutting-edge contemporary architectural practice. He has served as the lead architect for many influential projects, including the Civic Center of Hangzhou, which was nominated in 2013 as Best Tall Building in Asia & Australasia Region by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat; Hall B-3 in the Urban Best Practice Area of EXPO 2010 in Shanghai, China; Sichuan International Tennis Center; China Commerce and Trade Museum; and the new Henan Provincial Science and Technology Museum, among others. He has received many awards, including Young Architect Award in 2006 from Architectural Society of China – a top honor for young architects, and Shanghai Young Architect Rookie Award in 2005, as well as over 30 international and domestic professional design prizes.
In addition, he has led many important research projects, including the project funded by the National Natural Science Foundation titled “Research of Passive Design Systems for Urban High-Rise Building Complexes Based on Ecological Simulation”, one of the international academic cooperation and communication projects funded by Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality titled “Integrated Design Study of Low-Energy Buildings on Chongming Eco-Island Based on Environmental Performance and Thermodynamics”, and “Construction of an Advanced Theory for Energy & Thermodynamic Architecture”. He has published more than 50 papers in leading international and national journals. He has edited the book Air Through the Lens of Thermodynamics Architecture: Design Against Smog, and co-edited the paper “Form Follows Energy - Thermodynamics as the Engine of Architectural Design” for Time + Architecture. He has participated in many exhibitions, forums and academic programs, including the “40 Under 40 Exhibition”, “From Research to Practice” (Milan Triennal, 2012), IUAV Workshop as a guest professor (2013), Bi-City Biennial of Urbanism/Architecture Shenzhen (2013), Shanghai Urban Space Art Season – Urban Regeneration (2015), and Towards a Critical Pragmatism: Contemporary Architecture in China (GSD Harvard, 2016), and Architectural Practice of Middle-Aged Generation from Tongji. His “nature based system” of architectural philosophy and creative practice in this field have made him a wonderful interpreter of contemporary Chinese architecture. He is also a strong advocate of thermodynamic architecture and public architectural conglomerates in the international academia.
