Principal Architect and Co-founder of URBANUS Architecture & Design Inc.
In 1999, MENG Yan co-founded URBANUS with partners LIU Xiaodu and WANG Hui. He has focused on architectural design and urban research in the context of contemporary Chinese cities for twenty years. As Principal in charge of Design of URBANUS, MENG Yan has led numerous design projects over the years. These projects have won an international reputation for URBANUS, including Kingway Brewery Renovation, China Merchants Group History Museum, Yuehai Culture and Sports Center, Nantou Old Town Preservation and Regeneration, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal-B10, OCT-LOFT Renovation, Dafen Art Museum, Luohu Art Gallery, Artron Art Center, the OCT Art & Design Gallery, SHUM YIP UpperHills LOFT, the Southern University of Science and Technology Library and Gymnasium, CGN Headquarters Building, Quad of Gourd – No.37 Luanqing Hutong, Tulou Collective Housing, the Renovation of Meng Sheng Residence, etc. His works have been exhibited in international architectural exhibitions in New York, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona, Lisbon, Rotterdam, Tokyo, and other places and have been published in academic journals, and collected by prestigious Museums including MoMA in New York and M+ in Hong Kong.
MENG Yan’s work has long focused on the key issues of China’s urban development, including social and cultural issues of rapid urbanization, high-density urban building typologies, Urban Village regeneration, and preservation of the historical area. He has led many urban design and research projects, such as a series of studies on Shenzhen’s Urban Villages, including Hubei Old Village and Baishizhou 5 Villages Urban Regeneration Research, Nantou Old Town Preservation, and Regeneration, Huaqiangbei Catic City Urban Design, as well as Preservation & Regeneration of Historic Qianmen East Hutong Area in Beijing, etc.
MENG Yan is an architect licensed in New York State and a RIBA Chartered Architect. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Architecture from Tsinghua University, and a Master’s degree in Architecture from Miami University. MENG Yan was a visiting professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong and Syracuse University. He has been invited as a jury member for numerous international design competitions and to lecture at many international academic institutions. MENG Yan is one of the chief curators for the 2017 Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\ Architecture (Shenzhen) and the chief curator of the Shenzhen Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo.
