Link-Arc, LLC is an international team of architects and designers based in New York City, founded in 2012 by Yichen Lu. The firm's name, Link-Arc, reflects its collaborative nature and mission: to work interdisciplinarily to create strategies and designs in the fields of urbanism, architecture, spatial art, and landscape architecture. Link-Arc achieves this by connecting knowledge, resources, and intelligence from diverse perspectives and backgrounds.
Link-Arc's work includes innovative projects at all scales. The firm views the relationship between architecture and context as an opportunity to create a new context, a new nature, and a new understanding of the world. Through research, they uncover the unique, essential truths of each project and use them to develop concepts and shape design. Link-Arc strives to create refined architectural works, crafting spaces that foster contemplation and imagination, providing serene satisfaction through the simple act of inhabiting them.
Link-Arc approaches each project with an open mind. The firm works to understand the specific constraints of each project and then integrates them into the process, allowing the work to develop in an informed manner. Link-Arc's work addresses social and cultural issues, which in turn promotes design integrity and an understanding that context extends beyond the physical.
Link-Arc's intellectual approach is based on openness to challenge, the strength of diverse backgrounds and cultural contexts, and the conception of architecture as a discipline that transcends the pragmatic act of building. The firm believes that architecture can be an inclusive discipline that rises to the challenges of our time.
Yichen Lu, Principal of Studio Link-Arc, holds a Master of Architecture from Yale University and a Bachelor of Arts from Tsinghua University in China. He was awarded the Ikuo Hirayama Scholarship in 1999, and was nominated for the 2008 H.I. Feldman Prize for his work in Frank Gehry's Advanced Studio at the Yale School of Architecture. His design project “Planless House in Manhattan” was awarded First Prize in the 2006 Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition. He received the Iconic Award from the German Design Council in 2014 and 2016, and was one of ten architects '2015 Design Vanguard' winners selected by 'Architectural Record'.
Between 2008 and 2010 Yichen Lu worked as a project architect at Gehry Partners, LLP, where he was responsible for the design of many projects, including the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. Between 2010 and 2012 he was a project manager at Steven Holl Architects, and managed the firm's many award-winning projects in China. Lu founded Studio Link-Arc in 2012. He served as the Chief Architect for the China Pavilion for Expo Milano 2015. This commission, China’s first Expo Pavilion outside its borders, opened in 2015 to international acclaim.
Yichen Lu has been an Associate Professor at Tsinghua University since 2012. In 2016, Lu served as a visiting critic at the Syracuse University School of Architecture and the Politecnico di Milano. In that same year, he was invited to participate in an exhibition and symposium at the Harvard Graduate School of Design titled “Towards a Critical Pragmatism: Contemporary Architecture in China.”
