Wenchian Shi

Partner, Architect and Urban Planner, Wenchian Shi (CH) is the driving force behind MVRDV’s Asia Studio. Shi joined MVRDV in 2004, and after four years of demonstrated successes, she became a Project Leader overseeing the office’s broad body of work in China, Taiwan, Korea and Singapore, and in 2016, Partner. Prior to joining MVRDV in 2004 and thereafter expanding the office’s portfolio in Asia, Wenchian worked at OMA, contributing to the design of the highly acclaimed CCTV Headquarters in Beijing.

With this extensive experience, combined with an international education, that includes a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Shanghai Tongji University, as well as a master’s degree in Urban Planning from Delft University of Technology, Shi excels at international collaborations with clients and consultants in both Asia and Europe. She has worked at all scales of architecture and urban planning including housing, offices, retail, and cultural institutions. Projects she has lead partnering next to founder Winy Maas include the Tianjin Binhai Library - a library part of a larger masterplan to provide a cultural district for the city in Tianjin, China - , the Seoullo 7017 Skygarden – a true plant village that has been realised on a former inner city highway in Seoul, Korea- and Tainan Spring – the transformation of a former city-centre shopping mall into an urban lagoon in Tainan, Taiwan.

Shi excels at international collaborations with clients and consultants in both Asia and Europe. She is leading the teams and projects from MVRDV HQ in Rotterdam as well as the satellite studio in Shanghai, China. Shi is strongly attached to the office’s mission to not exclude anyone or anything and introducing gender equality in Shanghai.

Considering all this, we believe Wenchian Shi to be the outspoken candidate to win the Unsong Hero Award at the Wan Female Frontier Awards.