A9A Rchitects founder and past FRAME Awards juror Li Yuejiu shares how he employs ancient Chinese architectural wisdom to create compelling community and cultural spaces. His team is based between Chengdu and Chongqing.

How would you describe your design philosophy?

LI YUEJIU: I like multidimensional design solutions, which combine disciplines and solutions. Words, materials and graphic design can all be the starting point of spatial designs. Our team develops unique strategies for each project based on their different materials, climate, place, and local culture. When we are in different places, we have different experiences due to the sense of scale and materials of a space, a reality that’s also integrated into our designs. We also believe in material exploration and innovation and hope to design materials that can be used every day.  

Li Yuejiu.

You work at Chongqing University. What value does academia bring you as a practicing architect? 

Chongqing University has made great achievements in the field of urban planning and mountain architecture research with a strong academic atmosphere. I’ve gained a new understanding and perspective of urban mountain architecture. As the president of the Jiuzhu Branch of Architectural Planning and Design Research Institute of Chongqing University, I also communicate with large design teams whose working styles are quite different from my own, which broadens my resources and professional thinking.

How does your research into ancient architecture methods influence your projects?

The study of Chinese ancient architecture starts with independent logic. Ancient Chinese design wisdom is very rational, from scale and proportion to material and structure. It provides a fresh way of looking at modern design: we begin with traditional rational thinking when designing a project, learning classical proportional-scale relations and experiencing the natural spirit of ancient architecture.

For Pulo Market, A9A Rchitects wanted to create a warm commercial neighborhood space with domestic feeling, so the team opted to use wood.

Cultural projects are a specialty of your team. In a fast-modernizing China, how do you keep the spirit of heritage and history alive through these spaces?

In this era of rapid development, cultural projects in the current market have been slightly backward. People's ideas are constantly developing, so cultural architecture also needs to keep up to meet the diversity of needs. In terms of scale and function, it is necessary to establish an updated design logic, to cope with these changes.

Cover and above: The Yingyao Sandware Museum spans 15,000 sq-m, surrounded by mountains.

How are you scaling your business internationally?

We primarly participate in international competitions to connect with design companies and excellent designers around the world, learn their ways of thinking, navigate globalization and develop our business. However, Chinese studios don’t yet have advantage in global completions. I hope and believe that, in the future, more Chinese designers will shine internationally. 

What are your ambitions for the future of A9A Rchitects?

We currently focus most on business projects and cultural architecture in the community field. Our team realized that many buildings designed a decade ago were relatively lacking in thinking about the construction of community culture and business. So we attempt to fill in the shortcomings in this area, with urban micro-renewal of old renovation projects, or urban renewal exhibition projects.