Leyuan Li

About

Leyuan Li is a Chinese architect, educator, and researcher whose professional and academic work focuses on interior and urban realms in the articulation of spaces and societies. He has practiced architecture internationally at OMA, SOM, and Affordable Housing Lab. He is the founder of Office for Roundtable, a design collective exploring different forms and events of sharing. Recent built projects have been featured on ArchDaily, Designboom, Architect’s Newspaper, Gooood, and KoozArch, among others.

Li is currently an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Colorado Denver. He was a visiting assistant professor of architecture at the same institution, and has taught at Rice University’s School of Architecture and the University of Houston. He has been invited to lecture and review at numerous institutions, including Cal Poly, Cornell AAP, Ohio State University, Nanjing University, Syracuse University, and Rhode Island School of Design. Most recently, the housing studio he developed was awarded the AIA/ACSA Housing Design Education Award in both 2024 and 2025.

A recipient of the Art Omi Fellowship (2025) and the MacDowell Fellowship (2025), Li’s research and writing have been published in PLAT, New York Review of Architecture, Paprika!, Rumor, and Architecture Writing Workshop. His work has been hosted and exhibited at the History Colorado Center in Denver, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, OCAT Museum in Shanghai, and Citygroup Gallery in New York City. His recent project, Balchen, investigated entrenched ecological and cultural care for food production and was exhibited at the 9th Bi-City Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in Shenzhen. His curatorial project, Your Greenhouse Is Your Kitchen Is Your Living Room, received a Design Trust Seed Grant from the Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design and was on view at FEI Arts in Guangzhou.

Li studied at the University of Cambridge and Nanjing University before receiving his Master of Architecture with distinction from Rice University. He is the faculty advisor for AIAS at the University of Colorado Denver, and served as the chair of Exhibition at ACADIA 2023. Most recently, he was elected to serve as the 2024-2027 ACSA Liaison to the AIAS Board.

Research & Creative Projects

Leyuan Li, in collaboration with JXY Studio, Your Greenhouse Is Your Kitchen Is Your Living Room, Fei Art, Guangzhou (2024).

Leyuan Li, in collaboration with History Colorado and CAPU, Where is Denver's Chinatown, History Colorado Center, Denver (2024). Photo by Jesse Kuroiwa.

Leyuan Li, Balchen, 9th Bi-City Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, Shenzhen (2022). Photo by Wenhan Dong.

Leyuan Li, Your Kitchen Is Your Dining Room Is Your Greenhouse, 9th Bi-City Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, Shenzhen (2022). Photo by Wenhan Dong.

Leyuan Li, Room City, Rice School of Architecture, Houston, TX (2020).

Leyuan Li, U Showroom, Guizhou, China (2020).

Leyuan Li, Slash Cafe, Haikou, China (2020).