Overview
Projects
Pavilion Design, Hortus Botanicus TU Delft
Architect: Han Li, Ludovica Beltrami
Design and construction of a permanent exhibition and education pavilion for the Hortus Botanicus at TU Delft, built entirely from obsolete materials sourced on or near the site. A process of working with material as found rather than specified.
Ongoing Research Project
Weihai, Læsø, Texel
This research investigates the parallel development of eelgrass architecture in China and Denmark, tracing shared ecological and spatial knowledge across distant geographies. Two coastal communities, without any known contact, independently arrived at the same building intelligence from the same plant. I propose this convergence as evidence of material intelligence: eelgrass itself taught communities what was possible. The work is conducted through drawing, constructing with the material directly, and allowing it to teach. Knowledge that lives in the hands, not in files.
Skopje, North Macedonia
A research by design project investigating the liminal political, social, and spatial condition of Skopje, a city suspended between contested histories and unresolved identities. The research manifests itself as a public building containing a club, commercial spaces, and a public interior: two parallel helix spaces running alongside each other, giving spatial form to the parallel realities coexisting in Skopje’s society.
Animation, Timber maquette
This research by design project investigates how architecture can be experienced not as physical existence, but as a point of intensity in the environment. In the spirit of Camus, the project accepts the ordinary as a liberating force, committing to it more intensely rather than seeking to escape it. Light is introduced as a primary building material, dissolving the solid and static state of architecture, transforming materiality into appearances of energy. Each person must construct their own point of intensity. This project creates the conditions for that construction to happen.
Theatre Set Design
Han Li x MAISON the FAUX
The Horn of Plenty is a multidisciplinary performance exploring the tensions between nature and synthetic, individual and matter, fertility and decay — and the seductive pull of abundance. The audience experiences the work through all the senses, drawn in as participant, consumer, and voyeur. As scenographer, I designed and built the spatial world of the performance, developed in close collaboration with the artistic direction of MAISON the FAUX. This project was supported by Stimuleringsfonds Creative Industries Funds.
Temporary Pavilion for Creative Urban Living Festival in Milton Keynes, UK
Festival curated by raumlaborberlin
Design and construction: Han Li, Iris Andreadis, and Sam Stalker
The pavilion serves as a information point and beds sharing reception for visitors of the festival. The horizontal elements act as table, sitting and storage for flyers. Before arriving there, we had a different idea of what to build, but the spirit of the site, available materials and time drove us to redesign. The pavilion is finally designed constructed by ourselves in 3 days.
Straw Installation in Melbourne, Australia
Design and build: Han Li, Stephanie Clark, and Brian Siu
A large-scale installation suspended in the woods of Melbourne, built from straws connected by laser-cut acrylic parts, with form controlled through parametric design. Hundreds of identical components combining into something that reads as natural, weightless, atmospheric.