SHANSHAN QI

Shanshan Qi founded STUDIO QI in Hangzhou, a sole-female led firm since 2013. STUDIO QI is proud to employ predominately over 90% female architects and designers. For Shanshan Qi, architecture is a media linking the world to its inhabitants. She creates a succession of buildings, located on the far frontiers of China, combining indigenous features with subtle geometries that respect and reinvigorate the built context. She is a leading figure pushing for the awareness of the new rural culture in China and continuously challenges the definition of archi-tourism. She brings a lightness of spirit to all her projects, creating a strong sense of place to enrich the spatial experience. Her work has published widely, and is featured in the recent book of "New Chinese Architecture: Twenty Women Building the Future." Shanshan Qi graduated with distinction from Barnard College of Columbia University, Summa Cum Laude and Centennial Scholar; she earned a Master of Architecture from the GSD of Harvard University, and recently received her doctoral degree from the China Academy of Art, with Pritzker Prize Laureate Wang Shu, on "Existence and 2.5 Dimensional Perceptions of Architecture". She teaches at Zhejiang University and serves as thesis advisor at The China Academy of Art since 2014. Shanshan Qi has recently won the prestigious Unsung Hero - Female Frontier Award, and was named the Green Women Power 100.