Naihan Li (born 5 January 1981) is a Chinese designer architect. She currently lives and works in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

in the

Caochangdi Caochangdi () was an urban village and renowned arts district located in the Chaoyang District of northeast Beijing at the intersection of the 5th Ring Road and Airport Expressway. Translated as "grasslands" in Mandarin, Caochangdi was home to a ...

Art District.

Biography

After graduating from

Bartlett School of Architecture The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, also known as The Bartlett, is the academic centre for the study of the built environment at University College London (UCL), United Kingdom. It is home to thirteen departments, with specialisms incl ...

( UCL), Li returned to

where she first collaborated with

Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei ( ; , IPA: ; born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been ...

as coordinator for the

Jinhua Architectural Park Jinhua Architecture Park (Chinese language, Chinese: traditional characters, t , simplified characters, s , pinyin, p ''Jīnhuá Jiànzhù Yìshù Gōngyuán'') is a park in Jinhua, a city in central Zhejiang province in easter ...

development. She later worked as independent

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...

for architectural and

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...

projects of different scales. Her finished constructions include Keruo Space, a space for practices in Caochangdi, and the Royal Kitchen restaurant and shop inside the

Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is the Chinese Empire, imperial Chinese palace, palace complex in the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City in Beijing, China. It was the residence of 24 Ming dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasty L ...

. After the establishment of BAO Atelier Hong Kong Ltd.), as a director of the company, she led graphic and catalogue design projects such as "Aftershock- Contemporary British Art" for the British Council; "ALLLOOKSAME-China, Japan and Korea art", and "China Business Guide" for Santander Bank. Additionally, she worked on the exhibition design of Seduction-Borderline Moving Image and

NIKE Nike often refers to: * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine giv ...

Golden 08 Beijing Olympic Creative research project. Other positions include project coordinator and designer of the UBS Art Collection Show in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

Art Museum, "Memories for Tomorrow"; Beijing National Art Museum of China's "Moving Horizons", and the Guangdong Art Museum show, "Fact and Fiction."; participation in the Goethe Institution's 20th Anniversary project in Beijing, "Goethe Night" as an artist, where her installation "Brandenburg Gate" was collected by the institution; and featured designer and exhibition designer at China Design Market exhibition during Milan Design Week in 2010 and 2011. In 2009, Naihan was a featured artist and exhibition designer for the E-Art Festival, New Media Archaeology Exhibition in

and exhibition Emporium in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. In 2010, she started her own furniture design studio that includes the furniture series, The Crates, which has been nominated for Design of the Year Award 2012 by the Design Museum in London. In 2011, she participated as exhibition designer to the Gwangju Design Biennale Un-Named section, curated by Ai Weiwei, and developed a new series of furniture called FOLD for the exhibition display. Also in 2011, she participated in

Beijing Design Week Beijing Design Week (BJDW) is an annual event that takes place in Beijing, China during the fall. In 2012, UNESCO named Beijing an "International Design Capital." The purpose of Beijing Design Week is to raise public awareness of design as well as ...

as a featured designer where she showcased her collection of mobile pop-up furniture CRATES, and was nominated for the

W Hotel W, or w, is the twenty-third letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''double-u'',Pronounced in formal situation ...

Designer of the Future Award, Design Miami 2012. She initiated RAWR Design Laboratory and organized Beijing Design Week Design Hub Caochangdi Community, working with Chinese contemporary artists

Ai Wei Wei Ai Weiwei ( ; , IPA: ; born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been o ...

in 2012 and Liu Wei in 2013 to create the CCD Pavilion installation. In 2013, she organized A Taste of Guizhou exhibition featuring contemporary design in crossover with Chinese traditional craftsmanship from the Miao ethnic group. In the same year, she participated as a featured designer in the Digital Crystal Exhibition by

Swarovski Swarovski (, ) is an Austrian producer of glass based in Wattens, Tyrol. It was founded in 1895 by Daniel Swarovski. The company is split into three major industry areas: the Swarovski Crystal Business, which primarily produces crystal glas ...

in Beijing with her work, Crystal Puzzle. In 2014, Li's CCTV wardrobe from the I Am a Monument Series was featured in the Curio Section of the 10th Design Miami. During this time, she was the Featured Designer of Design Shanghai 2014. She also worked with department store chain

Lane Crawford Lane Crawford (HK) Limited () is a retail company founded in 1850 operating specialist department stores selling luxury goods in Hong Kong and Mainland China. It is headquartered in , Wong Chuk Hang. Lane Crawford is a part of the Lane Crawfo ...

on their 2014 A/W Collection launch project in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, Shanghai, and Beijing with her metal crate Hydroponic Garden Wardrobe collection. She started her collaboration with Sino Crane Huahe Group on a brand new collection of domestic furniture. In 2015, she designed YUZ Museum Shanghai's Museum Cafe, participated as one of the featured designers in Lane Crawford 165 Celebration project in conjunction with Swarovski. She is currently launching her own lifestyle product line, Bored to Death, a digital publication: Unfollow, and an unconventional event brand called The Party in Shanghai. In 2016, her CCTV Wardrobe and Birmingham Library Drawer from I am a Monument series were featured in the exhibition Alarmark! at the XXI Triennale di Milano, and her original crates series were featured in the Expended Housing exhibition of the triennale. CCTV Wardrobe has been officially acquired by the M+ Museum, Hong Kong and was featured at their design department's inaugurating exhibition. In 2017, Li participated in Superbenches, a development project aimed at revitalizing Stockholm's Jarfalla suburb. Li also contributed a virtual reality installation to the Himalayan Museum in Shanghai, as a response to

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

's series of deluge sketches. In 2018, she showcased a new body of work with Amy Li Gallery in Beijing, including the "Leaning Mountain Sofa", part of the third installment of the I Am a Monument series, which is inspired by

Chinese mythology Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature throughout the area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology encompasses a diverse array of myths derived from regional and cultural tradit ...

and the Dunhuang Cave Paintings. She also contributed production design for

Jiang Wen Jiang Wen (born 5 January 1963) is a Chinese actor and filmmaker. As a director, he is sometimes grouped with the "Sixth Generation" that emerged in the 1990s. His representative works include '' In the Heat of the Sun'' (1994), '' Devils on the ...

's film,

Hidden Man ''Hidden Man'' () is a 2018 action comedy film co-written and directed by Jiang Wen and starring Eddie Peng, Liao Fan, Jiang Wen, Zhou Yun, and Xu Qing. A Chinese-Hong Kong co-production, the film is an adaptation of Zhang Beihai's wuxia novel ' ...

External links

Official Website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Naihan Chinese women architects 21st-century Chinese women artists Chinese furniture designers Living people 1981 births Artists from Harbin Alumni of the Bartlett