Jun Li Presents Her Vision of a Standard Architecture in a Not-Standard World

“Forget about the Boring World! Welcome to our Not Standard World!” So begins Jun Li’s presentation titled Not Standard, which she delivered recently to the next generation of architects visiting from an immersive summer design program. Jun, an architectural intern at Sparano + Mooney Architecture, asked the students to consider: How do we design for a diverse public experience in an increasingly standardized world? Though it may be tempting to conceive of and produce generic spaces, Jun posits that you can design for individuality and the creation of a unique product, perhaps paradoxically, through a standardized data-gathering process. First, we must take into account the variability of a client and the fluid environment in which they wish to live or work. But, by asking broadly applicable questions to distinguish differences such as gender, age and body type, and subjective preferences like whether one prefers to live alone or among others, Jun proposes an evolution of architecture that is intimate and better suited to clients’ personal needs. 

Jun Li was born in Taiyuan, China, and studied Environmental Art Design at one of China’s leading architectural institutions, Jiangnan University, where she specialized in construction, structural and design research related disciplines. She then earned her Master of Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley where she focused on architectural design, landscape design and material research in her graduate study. Jun’s work was selected for UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design’s Annual Project publication and she received the award for Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis at Jiangnan University.

Jun is a wonderful member of the Sparano + Mooney team and we are pleased that she was able to help shape the future of these young and aspiring architects!