Vital Architecture

Founded in 2003, Beijing-based architecture firm Atelier Li Xinggang pursues a research-based approach that connects traditional Chinese urban and garden spaces with contemporary strategies. Its internationally best-known projects are the National Alpine Skiing Center and the National Sliding Center in Yangqing, both competition sites of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the collaboration with Herzog & de Meuron on the Bird's Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing, as well as museums, campus buildings and renovations of historic structures in China. Li Xinggang's architectural thinking draws from intensive engagement with China's historic urban and landscape spaces. The vulnerability of the built in relation to nature, as well as the spatial power of traditional urban structures, form the background for a position that understands architecture as protective, ordering and emotionally effective space. Vital Architecture is the first ever monograph on Atelier Li Xinggang. It introduces 23 of the firm's realised projects through photographs, plans and drawings, and concise texts. The selection includes a wide range of typologies as well as interior and furniture designs. Introductory essays are contributed by Li Xiangning and fellow architects and educators Sakamoto Kazunari and Wilfried Wang.