Deep Origin Innovation Lab was founded in 2018 in Shenzhen, China. The lab focuses on innovative technology, art sculpture, architectural landscape, and space planning, providing creative solutions for cities and built environments. As a design-driven art and building tech company, it excels in multi-scale design and cross-professional cooperation, tackling diverse projects to adapt to the ever-changing environment.
Lu Yao, an artist and co-founder, graduated from the Architecture and Environmental Design program at Tama Art University in 2015. She specializes in materials and scheme planning.
Qinrong Liu, an architect and co-founder, earned his Master’s degree in Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University in 2020. With experience in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Boston, and Shenzhen, he also teaches technology and design at the China Academy of Art.
Can you tell us about your favorite project and why it stands out?
Nebula Tower is a new civic landmark that rises above the network of transportation and infrastructure to provide a rich human experience for visitors and passer-buyers alike. The site is at the intersection of the Guadalupe River and Los Gatos Creek, which is the center of the Valley of Heart. The ethereal form allows for visual connectivity to what is and what will be to see the history of agricultural and natural surroundings coexisting with the innovative influence of the tech corridor. We see the possibility of “technological nostalgia” in a new type of architecture.
This was the first international project done by Qinrong. Only great teamwork with multiple collaborators can carry out such a beautiful final delivery. I was also lucky to meet a client who is so patient, organized, and respectful. This early project shows a motivating shift in public interest in what urban, architecture, landscape, and installation could be when the boundaries are merged. In the later practice of the lab, we continue to explore the interdisciplinary way of thinking and hybrid types of design-build projects.
What is your favorite architectural detail?
The most fascinating details are not what perfectly drawn and reproduced in construction, rather, the favorable details are those beautiful expedient solutions that happened on-site during construction. For a renovation project, no drawing can perfectly represent the original site. Where the old meets the new add-on and where the material shifts, expressive intersection takes place.
The projection curve of railings is the edges of rough terrazzo and polished terrazzo, which defines the almost flat walkable zone and the curvy topographical zone. The grid seams serve as expansion joints purpose, but rotate in different directions when fall on two continuous but varied surfaces which implies the spatial partition.
Do you have a favorite material?
We believe in the immense potential of materials with a translucent quality since it is responsive to the environment and has a lightness aura beyond their solid physicality. In our projects, we did several cases using glass, acrylic, membrane, and even metals, to create visual ambiguity in form and superficiality.
How would you describe your design philosophy?
Our design philosophy is ‘Tangible Visionary’ .
By ‘Tangible’， what we try to achieve is to touch realism and rationality. The grounded practice could be responsive to the context and environment.
By ‘Visionary’, one of our design objectives is to consistently create innovative prototypes that could motivate multiplicity and extensive reflection.
What is your process for starting a new project? How do you approach working with clients to understand their needs and visions?
Site investigation is significant, especially in renovation projects. We do sketch a lot in the early phase to find creative and favorable forms.
Keep communicating with clients and contractors to ensure the design is executed as needed. When construction begins, we will face a lot of new challenges. Yet, this is a very provocative phase when innovative solutions and details can be created to make things possible economically and technically.
How do you balance creativity and practicality in your designs?
Practicality is a considerable driver of creativity. The value of professionalism is to know where the limit is and work collectively towards that edge so that a vision can be achieved in satisfaction. The creativity lies both in concept and technical details.
How does your role as a guest lecturer influence your architectural practice?
Architecture itself is a discipline in that its knowledge and thoughts integrate multiple subjects, which could be introduced to many fields of design related to space. Meanwhile, interdisciplinary pedagogy would be very beneficial for architecture students for their long-term careers, this profession is not only about specialization but also about generic application.
The tools we learn and master will have a strong impact on how we process information and imagine our design. No one could always keep up with the latest trends in technology, theory, and instruments. Only by grasping the abstract but timeless principles of design and communication, someone can be a competent architect who creates a good design that lasts.
What emerging technologies or methodologies do you see shaping the future of architecture?
For now, the trend of Artificial Intelligence and Spatial Intelligence doesn’t affect the industry too much, because of the high complexity of the cooperative nature of the profession. How practically these new technologies can really be applied to architecture in the future would be a slow but inevitable process as we can envision. However, what is most interesting is how our notion about physical reality may change in the next few decades. The way we see the world will truly reshape the future of architecture.
What advice would you give to aspiring architects?
We work in a profession that is both ancient in tradition and highly accessible to the latest technology. Architecture is more and more a vessel of affordance with a stack of complicated engineering and design techniques today. Architect has to be able communicate and solve emerging problems and demands, that has never been seen before as our society and technology keep involving. A sense of purpose is a necessity since architects build beautiful things for our coextensive environment that brings pleasure to people.
