Jing Liu

After receiving her education in China, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Jing Liu co-founded SO – IL with Florian Idenburg in 2008 in New York City. Over 20 years of practice, Jing has brought an intellectually open, globally aware, and locally embedded sensibility to her work spanning a wide range of mission-driven cultural projects.

Through building practice and interdisciplinary collaborations, Jing has led SO – IL to explore new fabrication techniques, such as in Kukje Gallery, Las Americas Housing project, and K11 Museum — and to engage with the socio-political conditions of contemporary cities — in projects like Martin Luther King Library in Cleveland, Neighborhoods Now initiative in New York, and the Melbourne Arts Precinct Transformation. In each case, Jing carefully considers the feedback loop between the cultural, social, economic, and political systems unique to the place and its material practices and seeks to make positive contributions toward transformation. As a past and present board member of several non-profit institutions, including the Van Alen Institute and the Urban Design Forum, Jing furthers these endeavors in the broader public sphere.

Jing has written on a number of topics, including housing, design culture, and female practices. She has contributed to Solid Objectives: Order, Edge, Aura published by Lars Müller, The Fabricated Landscape published by Carnegie Museum of Art and Inventory Press, Home Futures: Living in Yesterday’s Tomorrow published by the Design Museum, and the Avery Review by the Office of Publications at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.

Jing has been an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University GSAPP since 2008 and is currently reshaping the Master of Science in Architecture Program at the Pratt Institute. Furthermore, Jing has held visiting positions at Harvard Graduate School of Design, Princeton University, UT Austin, Hong Kong University, The New School, The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO), and many others. Liu received the Vilcek Prize for her lasting contribution to American society in 2018, United States Artists Fellow in 2021, The American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture in 2022, and was named New Generation Leader of Women in Architecture Awards, also in 2022.