Natural Trilogy

This lecture explores three recent built works by OPEN Architecture: the UCCA Dune Art Museum, the Chapel of Sound, and the Sun Tower. Each project offers a unique response to its specific site and cultural context, yet all are grounded in shared principles: a deep reverence for nature, resilience in the face of harsh environments, and a profound alignment with celestial rhythms.

Rooted in Chinese philosophy, these works aim to channel the invisible energy of chi, creating visceral, sensorial experiences that help people reconnect with their innate senses—and with the natural world. In doing so, they address an urgent need in our age of technological fragmentation: to restore a sense of place, presence, and belonging.

Together, these three buildings form a kind of trilogy—one that calls on architecture not just to shelter, but to reawaken the very faculties that define us as sentient beings. They remind us of our ability to sense, to connect, and to understand our role within the greater web of life—so that we might better care for the world we inhabit.

A short film titled Nature Trilogy will also be shown as part of this lecture. The film, currently featured as a special video installation at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale, offers another lens through which to experience and reflect on these works.

Speaker bio: 

LI Hu (Hon. FAIA) + HUANG Wenjing (AIA), founding partners of OPEN Architecture, Kenzo Tange Design Critic in Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, visiting professors at Tsinghua University and China Central Academy of Fine Arts.  

LI and HUANG co-founded OPEN in New York City in 2006, and subsequently established their office in Beijing in 2008. Prior to OPEN, LI Hu was the partner of Steven Holl Architects, and director of Columbia University GSAPP’s Studio-X Beijing. HUANG was an associate at the New York-based firm Pei Cobb Freed and Partners. 

Some major projects by OPEN include: Sun Tower, Shanfeng Academy, Chapel of Sound, Shanghai Qingpu Pinghe International School, UCCA Dune Art Museum, Tank Shanghai, Pingshan Performing Arts Center, Tsinghua Ocean Center, 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). 

OPEN’s work has been widely published and frequently exhibited around the world, such as the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennale, Venice Biennale, London Design Museum, and collected by Museum of Modern Art in New York, and M+ Museum in Hong Kong. 

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, 1 Spadina Crescent, Toronto, Canada