Floornature

The founder and principal of TAO (Trace Architecture Office), Mr. Hua Li received his M. Arch. Degree from Yale University in 1999 and his B. Arch. Degree from Tsinghua University in 1994. He has worked at Westfourth Architecture and Herbert Beckhard Frank Richlan & Associate in New York. In 2003 he returned to China and started his own practice in Beijing. Since 2004, Hua Li has taught at Central Academy of Fine Arts and has been a visiting critic at School of Architecture in Tsinghua University. In 2009, he established TAO.  Hua Li’s design works and have been published by numerous architectural media including T+A, WA, domus, AREA, A+U, MD, Wallpaper, Abitare, Arquitectura Viva(AV), Casabella, and Space.

TAO was founded by Hua Li in Beijing. It is a design studio committed to architecture, urban, landscape, Interior, and furniture design. TAO is critical at architecture as an obsession to fancy forms in the context of media based globalized consumerism and becoming either fashions or dogmas. We are interested in exploring ontological and essential meaning of space and tectonics in architecture, and concerned with its social and environmental impacts. The subjects such us sense of place, response to climate, material and construction method, efficient use of resource, are explored in each TAO project with its specific context.

Major project list:

    •    Sports Center for Northeast Normal University, ChangChun, 2004-2011, under construction
    •    Beijing Changmeng Care Center, 2007-2008, completed
    •    TAO Architect’s Office, Refurbishment of a Warehouse, Beijing, 2009, completed
    •    Museum of Handcraft Paper, Gaoligong Mountain, Yunnan, 2008-2010, completed
    •    Rebuilding of XiaoQuan Elementary School, Sichuan, 2008-2011, completed
    •    Riverside Clubhouse-Folded Farnsworth, Yancheng, 2010, completed
    •    Huancui Courtyard Houses, Weihai, 2009-2012, under construction
    •    Vanfund Exhibition & Sales Center, Xianghe, 2011-2012, under construction
    •    Wuyishan Bamboo Raft Factory, Fujian, 2011-, ongoing