Interview with Zhen Li | An Emerging Interior Designer with a Wide Range of Expertise

Throughout my growth, I've realized that people's living spaces and environments can significantly influence their feelings, moods, and even personalities. When I create a space, I feel outstanding achievement and joy if it can enhance the quality of life for its users, help them live more mindfully, and provide them with novel experiences.

Currently, most of my main work projects involve corporate interior spaces. I am also involved in furniture design, graphic design, interaction design, and photography.

To me, design is about understanding and caring for "Humans". In my design practice, "Humans are the primary audience, so studying people's physical and mental characteristics is crucial. In addition, design is also an understanding of life. It is not superior but integrated into daily life.

Optimizing and improving life is an excellent design. As a rational activity, design is similar to detective work, requiring extensive investigation and collection of information to identify and integrate clues to problems, draw inspiration from them, and solve all problems.

I don't have a specific preference; all fields of design are interconnected, differing only in their modes of expression.

First, good interior design finds a unique concept rooted in the local cultural context. This concept should be simple and logically connected to the design. Secondly, design that fully considers users' needs, ensuring multi-functionality and adaptability to different uses at different times. Thirdly, it emphasizes environmental friendliness and energy efficiency by using local and recyclable materials to reduce pollution. Lastly, from an aesthetic perspective, good design should transcend its era and remain relevant across different times.

My style is relatively diverse, but I prefer simple elements. Both Eastern Zen aesthetics and the multifaceted cultural influences of the West have significantly impacted my design approach.

Before starting a project, I dedicate significant time and effort to thoroughly researching the local culture and environment. I strive to find a novel and exciting perspective to interpret the local culture, from which I develop the project concept. During the design phase, I conduct extensive analyses of my prior research and use design techniques to address the site's deficiencies while aiming to utilize as many local materials as possible.

My country's culture and philosophy of life have greatly influenced my design. For example, in Western, the focus is mainly on the brightness of light in the space. However, in the East, people appreciate shadows and low-light environments. My cultural heritage gives me a different perspective on how to approach design.

This award is significant to me. It will help me gain more confidence and courage to pursue my ideas boldly.

The competition project is called "Around the Clock." The central concept is that redefining the temporal boundaries and contingencies of interior space can transform machine-centric civil infrastructure from an instrument of class stratification to a humane environment of socioeconomic inclusion. I am participating in this competition because the NY Architectural Design Awards offer excellent exposure, greatly benefiting my future career development.

The most challenging part of the design process is attempting to find a design approach and perspective that can connect all the issues that need to be addressed. The three major problems that need simultaneous resolution include:

1. Finding value in repurposing a large number of abandoned private cars and parking lots in the future.

2. Reducing environmental pollution in conditions of natural resource scarcity and environmental degradation.

3. Addressing the increasing urban population and solving the issue of affordable housing.

What adds more challenge is my desire to bring higher value to the people living in this community. It requires finding a design strategy to break social class barriers, encouraging communication and mutual learning among people of different social strata. Meeting all these requirements, designing a reasonable solution, fulfilling my vision for the future, ensuring the basic spatial functionality, and assisting the vulnerable group pose a challenging task for me.

To some extent, the award can prove my capabilities and lead to more media coverage, which can help me gain more opportunities.

Create, inspiration, and collaborations.

In the next 5-10 years, more artificial intelligence will be involved in the design phase, and the project construction process will pay more attention to environmental protection and energy conservation.

Propose your project boldly and work hard to make it happen.

Archdaily, Designboom, and Detail.

Wang Shu, he combined traditional Chinese culture with modern architecture very well.

You learn, you earn.