Cincinnati Design Week is a six-day event made up of workshops, panel discussions, fashion shows, fundraisers and, of course, great parties. 21c Cincinnati is hosting keynote speaker, Jing Liu on 07.22.2014.

A native of China, Jing Liu received her education in China, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, concluding with a Master of Architecture from Tulane University School of Architecture in New Orleans. In 2008 Liu founded SO – IL with Florian Idenburg, whom she met while working at SANAA on the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art. As a partner of SO – IL, Liu has worked with numerous cultural institutions on their big and small adventures. Liu helped the London-based Frieze Art Fair in designing and realizing its acclaimed structure for the inaugural New York fair; curated the cross-disciplinary event series Stillspotting for the Guggenheim Museum; researched and re-envisioned museum education spaces together with the MoMA Education Department and installed highly experimental and interactive structure Pole Dance at PS1. Liu has also worked with prominent private and public clients on building their work spaces such as headquarter offices for Derek Lam and Ideo, as well as the renovation of the facade of Queen’s Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI), a major landmark in the city of Bristol.

Outside of SO – IL, Liu is passionate about cities and their architectural fabric. During her time in New Orleans, Liu was deeply involved in researching and documenting the physical environment of economically distressed communities and experimenting with urban infill housing typologies for dislocated public housing residents. She helped establish Tulane Regional Urban Design Center (TRUDC) and worked on their inaugural projects for new town planning in Yangtze Delta, China, the location of her hometown, Nanjing. While exploring the issues of rapid urbanization through these projects, Liu also worked in partnership with the American Planning Association and the Mayor’s Institute on City Design and facilitated programs and discussions to help the planning officials with making better design decisions. With her position at multiple universities including Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, Syracuse University and The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Liu has led her students in delving into issues such as the preservation of the zono colonial in Santo Domingo, the first gridded city implemented in the Americas, and resilience design in post-Hurricane Sandy New York. Her studio projects have been part of the exhibitions at architectural biennales and generated valuable resources for public discussions on the important relationship between city planning and architecture. Liu is involved in the design of all current projects at SO – IL while remaining academically active.

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