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Meet Yichen Lu, the Principal of New York City-based Studio Link-Arc, LLC, an international team of architects and designers who work across various disciplines.
Between 2008 and 2010, Yichen worked as a project architect at Gehry Partners, LLP, where he designed many projects, including Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi. Later in 2010, he joined Steven Holl Architects as a project manager and managed the firm’s award-winning projects in China.
In 2012, he left his job at Steven Holl Architects and started his own firm named ‘Studio Link-Arc.’
Yichen has also served as the Chief Architect for China Pavilion for Milan Expo 2015, which was China’s first Expo Pavilion outside of its borders.
He holds a Master of Architecture from Yale University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tsinghua University in China. In 1999, Yichen was awarded the Ikuo Hirayama Scholarship and was nominated for the 2008 H.I Feldman Prize for his contribution to Frank Gehry’s Advanced Studio at the Yale School of Architecture.
A Diverse Organization
As an organization, Studio Link-Arc has always been diverse in terms of the team’s background, training, and design approaches. With its team of international architects and designers, the firm aims to collaborate with all designs in architecture, urban planning, & spatial art and bring a holistic answer to its design issues.
Thanks to the firm’s collaborative and open culture, it approaches every commission with a new vision and approach. The entire team often debates, discusses, and makes progress on the merits of the ideas, which naturally results in the most diverse language of design in their projects. The diverse design language of Studio Link-Arc has helped the firm win many prestigious awards on different continents and brought new clients who are looking for new and fresh ideas.
Under Yichen’s leadership, Studio Link-Arc has not only established its NYC office but has also designed various projects in Europe, Asia, and North America, with several built projects, within the last decade. However, the most critical built project for the company and Yichen is the China Pavilion for Expo Milano 2015 in Milan. It was not only an internationally acclaimed project, but it was also one of the most popular and spatially open designs amongst all other pavilions representing their respective countries.
Yichen presently teaches in Beijing, with his office in New York, and built projects in Milan and Shenzhen.
He often says, “I truly benefitted from globalization for my generation of architects. And I am super proud to be a global citizen without being defined by any form or any boundaries.”
Biggest Failure
In 2020, Yichen and his team at Studio Link-Arc were presented with an exciting commercial project, where they designed a ‘cloud’ that floats over the city. They saw this building as an element for challenging the traditional commercial buildings and the only chance to uplift the environment surrounding the area. Soon, the revolutionary project was recognized by the prestigious Italian award, ‘The Plan,’ in the commercial architecture category.
The client was also impressed by the design, but they asked Yichen and his team to simplify and reduce the building costs. However, the client had to cancel the project with Studio Link-Arc’s insistence on design quality and the pandemic-induced global recession and slowdown.
Idealist Leader
Yichen says, “Every leader should be an idealist. The real world is boring and chaotic. Everyone needs the light of idealism to brighten their lives.” He believes that the architecture industry has become tedious in the U.S and some other countries. People are repeatedly working on the same uninspiring buildings while accumulating expensive materials or glorifying some meaningless designs, details, and technology without aiming for emotional inspiration for the most.
Yichen also adds, “We are lacking something with the livelihood and soul at the present moment. We are also lacking the architects like Le Corbusier who used architecture as a weapon to change the sociality or someone like Zaha Hadid who had burned her life like a torch to scorch the critics.” He feels that very few people believe that architecture is a powerful and earth-shattering tool for human evolution at this point of time.
For Yichen, architecture is the proper representation of idealist beliefs. He feels it is a way to popularize the value of democracy and fairness to ordinary individuals.
Ingredients to Success
As the Principal of the architecture firm, Yichen leads by example and takes every task and detail seriously, encouraging the other members to do well. He says, “These small principles will grow our advantages over other firms exponentially in a short period because of our tenacity.”
Secondly, He loves to create an environment for everyone to work at their best. He hires the best people who are eager to work in a creative environment and encourages them to learn and compete with each other in a healthy and positive environment.
And finally, Yichen and his team are always open-minded and curious. The best part is that they don’t limit themselves to a particular design discipline, project, country, and region and always explore to expand their understanding of the physical environment and its relationships with the inhabitants.
Picture of the Future
Yichen feels Studio Link-Arc’s future is to redefine the public space in our generation and expand the influences of the built environment for the public. Studio Link-Arc designs education architecture to redefine education, cultural architecture to redefine culture, and theater architecture to redefine hearing. In doing so, each of the projects will stand on its own yet the thought process and design methodology will be consistent with the generational ideology
The firm intends to break away from the idea that excellent architectural design is only for a selected group of privileged people. Studio Link-Arc believes architecture is a platform of inspiration for the public and everyone.
