Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects

Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects 坚持善念的设计，力求善意的建筑
Architecture of Craft and Care

Caoyang Centennial Park: Transforming a Disused Freight-Rail Strip into a Multi-Level Community Public SpaceLocated in C...
01/09/2026

Caoyang Centennial Park: Transforming a Disused Freight-Rail Strip into a Multi-Level Community Public Space

Located in Caoyang New Village, one of Shanghai’s historic workers’ communities, Caoyang Centennial Park revitalises an approximately 800-metre-long, narrow urban strip formerly occupied by the Zhenru freight-rail branch line and a bustling local farmers’ market.

Surrounded by dense residential buildings and constrained by metro development requirements, the site had almost no room for horizontal expansion. Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects therefore looked upward, reimagining the narrow strip through a multi-level spatial strategy.

✨ Three-Tier Spatial Layout: 3K Corridors
▪️ K1 Underground Gallery: A semi-underground space for community exhibitions, cultural programmes and creative activities.
▪️ K2 Activity Corridor: Ground-level open spaces for everyday recreation, sports, community gatherings and public performances.
▪️ K3 Cloud-Corridor Platform: An elevated pedestrian walkway that extends public circulation while helping protect the privacy and tranquillity of surrounding residences.

🌿 The “Vine-and-Melon” Concept
A continuous linear corridor runs through the site like a growing vine, while ten distinctive functional and scenic nodes act as “melons”, bringing terraces, canopies, plazas and other community spaces into the narrow urban strip.

🏗️ Rapid Construction & Contextual Heritage
Built entirely with prefabricated steel structures, the project was completed within one year and served as a core exhibition venue of the 2021 Shanghai Urban Space Art Season.
The design also preserves memories of the site’s former railway and farmers’ market. Lightweight arched canopies subtly echo traditional railway platforms, connecting the new public space with the history of the neighbourhood.

Caoyang Centennial Park offers a compelling example of grassroots urban renewal—showing how overlooked urban gaps can become vibrant, inclusive public spaces that enrich everyday community life.

🏙️ Project: Caoyang Centennial Park
📐 Design: Atelier Liu Yuyang
📍 Location: Shanghai, China
📸 Photography: Zhu Runzi

28/08/2026

Six Years at CUHK, a New Chapter of Practice in Shanghai ✨

After nearly six years at CUHK, Liu Yuyang returned to Shanghai and began a new chapter of architectural practice.

He was fortunate to experience a particularly vibrant period in Shanghai’s architectural scene — meeting architects and friends such as Ma Qingyun, Chen Zhanhui and Zhu Xiaofeng, while witnessing young practices founded by Liu Yichun and Zhuang Shen take shape and grow.

One of the highlights was his role as co-curator for the Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale, working alongside chief curator Ma Qingyun and collaborating with Charlie Koolhaas. At the time, Shenzhen OCT was still filled with vacant industrial buildings, offering an extraordinary sense of possibility for design and urban renewal.

Before the Shanghai World Expo, he also took on small-scale renewal projects along Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street for the Huangpu District Government.

Looking back, these experiences gradually shaped his connection with Shanghai — and confirmed his decision to put down roots here. ✨

27/08/2026

An architect’s journey: unbuilt ideas that find new life✨

His architectural journey began in New York, where he worked on a Manhattan Midtown high-rise completed within three years. A chance opportunity then brought him to Hong Kong.

Balancing architectural teaching at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), he led preliminary campus-planning research and supported the Li Ka Shing Foundation in coordinating the renewal and Phase II masterplanning of Shantou University, moving between academic research and professional practice.

He worked on the renovation of a traditional Hui-style heritage house in Huangshan. A bold darkstone facade concept was conceived for this historic dwelling, yet the idea remained unbuilt.
This very concept was later realized on the facade of MOCA Shanghai, harmonizing with park greenery and adjacent glass galleries.

There were also bittersweet competition moments: jointfirst prize in an international competition, but the project never came to fruition.

In Hong Kong Central, he renovated his own mountainview apartment. Iterating while living insitu, it took three years to reach its ideal state.
Just when the home was finally complete, a new chapter awaited — a move to Shanghai.

For architects, bringing one project to its ideal state often marks the beginning of the next journey.

From former dormitories to creative workplaces ✨Shenyao Art Centre Phase II explores how glazed porcelain aesthetics can...
17/08/2026

From former dormitories to creative workplaces ✨
Shenyao Art Centre Phase II explores how glazed porcelain aesthetics can reshape an adaptive reuse project — transforming a small-scale industrial ancillary building.

Designed by Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects, the project reconfigures the existing dormitory building through structural optimization and spatial reorganization, improving spatial proportions, daylighting and functional flexibility.

Curved elements, custom lighting, premium stone and metal materials extend the project's glazed porcelain design language throughout the interior.

The former staff dormitory is transformed into a contemporary creative office complex, balancing artistic expression with practical workplace needs.

📍 Location: Shanghai, China
🏛 Architect & Interior Design: Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects
📸 Photo: Zhu Siyu

Revitalization of a large-scale industrial building✨Light reshapes industrial memoryHow can an old factory become a cont...
14/08/2026

Revitalization of a large-scale industrial building✨
Light reshapes industrial memory
How can an old factory become a contemporary cultural space?
Shenyao Art Centre Phase I explores this transformation through structural reconfiguration and spatial renewal.
Inspired by porcelain craftsmanship, the interior design translates ceramic qualities into light, curves and spatial experience.
Designed by Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects, the project preserves the original industrial structure while introducing new steel mezzanines, multi-level spaces and refined daylight strategies.
The former production space is reorganized into an art complex for exhibitions, ceramic workshops, education and public activities.
Light wells, curved staircases, white surfaces and translucent partitions continue the ceramic-inspired design language, creating a dialogue between industrial heritage and contemporary art.

📍 Location: Shanghai, China
🏛 Architect & Interior Design: Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects
📸 Photo: Zhu Siyu

From raw to glazed✨A former industrial site in Shanghai finds a new identity through adaptive reuse.Designed by Atelier ...
12/08/2026

From raw to glazed✨
A former industrial site in Shanghai finds a new identity through adaptive reuse.
Designed by Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects, Shenyao Art Centre transforms former 1990s factory workshops and dormitories into a cultural and creative destination.

Phase I preserves the strength of industrial structures while introducing soft curved forms inspired by raw porcelain forms. (P1-5)
Phase II continues the ceramic-inspired language, using terracotta facades and sculptural spaces to transform former dormitories into contemporary creative offices. (P6-10)

The project shows how old industrial spaces can carry new stories — connecting heritage, culture and urban life.

📍 Location: Shanghai, China
🏛 Architect: Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects
📸 Photo: Zhu Siyu

01/08/2026

What does it take to trade bioengineering for a life of architecture?

For Liu Yuyang, Founder and Principal Architect of Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects, it all started on the black sand shores of Taitung, Taiwan.🌊
Childhood views of green mount

ains and deep Pacific blue shaped his love for landscape and spatial design.
Years wandering cities across Taiwan, Southeast Asia and California opened his eyes to varied urban lifestyles.
While studying bioengineering at UCSD, brutalist campus buildings & Tadao Ando’s concrete architecture ignited his true calling.
A visit to Louis Kahn’s legendary Salk Institute sealed his fate—architecture became his lifelong pursuit.
Every mountain, beach, old street and foreign city he has encountered lives on in his designs.


What’s the moment you found your true passion? ✨

From Hundred Flowers Park to the Four Seasons Libraries — Prefabricated architecture coexisting with nature🌿Architecture...
14/07/2026

From Hundred Flowers Park to the Four Seasons Libraries — Prefabricated architecture coexisting with nature🌿

Architecture grows with nature
Nestled in Xinyang Hundred Flowers Park, the Four Seasons Libraries by Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects redefines urban public space with prefabricated green design.

Blending traditional Chinese wooden roof aesthetics with modern steel-wood structures, the project adopts a scattered linear layout, integrating book spaces, geometric pavilions and tea-field-inspired corridors.

Softly embedded in lush landscapes, the architecture blurs the line between city and nature, creating a warm, inclusive public retreat for citizens.

A new paradigm of community architecture & sustainable urban renewal.

Photography: Tian Fangfang

Breaking free from conventional architectural thinking, designing for the whole urban environment. 📚🌿TBB Hundred Flowers...
13/07/2026

Breaking free from conventional architectural thinking, designing for the whole urban environment. 📚🌿

TBB Hundred Flowers Park Libraries (2026) is designed by Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects. This prefabricated community architectural complex is nestled in the central civic park of Yangshan New District, Xinyang.

Moving beyond a single building-focused mindset, the project adopts a holistic urban perspective. The fluid linear building cluster embraces the east and west wings of Baihua Park (Hundred Flowers Park), reinforcing the plaza’s gateway identity and activating the large-scale public green space for citizens.

The multi-corridor system shapes a layered, immersive public experience:
▫️ Fan Pavilion – Cultural Libraries
Responding to the plaza’s curved contour, the structure reinterprets traditional Chinese timber sloped roofs. With a classic 5-span-wide, 1-span-deep layout and a 3-metre deep overhanging eave, the front-high and rear-low volume, combined with ultra-clear glass façades, crafts a unique “front city, rear garden” mood that balances urban vitality and park tranquility.
▫️ Polygonal Pavilion – Community Flowerhouses
Inspired by the geometric forms of clustered blooming flowers, the pavilion brings a delicate floral aesthetic and warm public atmosphere to the surrounding residential neighbourhoods.
▫️ Terraced Pavilion – Urban Service Station
Drawing on the undulating terrain of local tea fields, the facility integrates civic service functions with landscape micro-topography, naturally weaving lush greenery into urban infrastructure.
▫️ Curved Pavilion – Landscape Pergola
Following the park’s existing 2-metre-wide pedestrian trail, the continuous curved pergola connects all architectural units as a complete circulation spine. Architecture and landscape interpenetrate seamlessly, creating a continuous, dynamically changing visiting experience.

A refined, sustainable paradigm for contemporary community architecture and urban renewal.

Photography: Tian Fangfang

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Lane 672 Changle Road , No. 33, Ren-Mei Building, Unit 401, Jing-an District
Shanghai
200070

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