Jia Li | Architecture Portfolio

PORTFOLIO ARCHITECTURAL

SELECTED WORKS

Jia Li

Los Angeles, CA, US

2177jiali@gmail.com

EDUCATION

ABOUT

Master of Architecture (M.Arch I)

Hefei University of Technology

Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering

EXPERIENCE

Red Dot Culture and Media Co., Ltd.

This project imagines an open, sustainable multigenerational community that supports aging by reducing loneliness and creating more opportunities for everyday connection across generations. It envisions a living environment where children, adults, and seniors can share routines, exchange knowledge, and take part in a more connected social and ecological life.

Living in Common

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Type: Los Angeles, CA Mixed-Use Sep 2025 – Feb 2026 Individual Project

Three strategies shape the project: productive loops that foster collaboration through growing, making, learning, and local exchange; adaptable housing for changing household needs; and ecological systems that support both the environment and everyday community life. Together, they create a living environment that supports connection, adaptability, and shared life across generations.

Productive Loops for Community Cohesion

The loop is designed not only as a system of production and reuse, but also as a social framework that fosters intergenerational exchange through shared growing, making, learning, and engagement with the landscape.

Shared planting and care encourage intergenerational collaboration.

Harvests and local materials are transformed through shared making and knowledge exchange.

Treated greywater is reused in an ecological river landscape for filtration, habitat, and recreation.

Organic waste is composted through a visible process of ecological learning.

Community-produced goods are sold through a community-based economic model.

Program Placement Logic

Elevated Residential Ground Plane

Resident-Only Access

Ground Floor + Level 2

Shared by Residents and the Public

Stepped Residential Massing for Mountain Views

SPORTS CENTER

CHILDCARE CENTER

LIBRARY

WELLNESS HUB

User-Oriented Circulation Diagram Movement Patterns Among Different Generations

Exploded Axon Intergenerational Interactions

Children

Adults

Seniors

Structural Diagram Load Transfer and Structural Hierarchy

Transfer Slabs

Primary Structural System

Library & Daycare

Supporting intergenerational care and shared learning

Community Garden

Cultivating community through shared growing

Shared Kitchen

Learning and sharing through cooking

Living Cycle Corridor

Experiencing cycles through growing and composting

Making Workshop

Making and repairing within a shared system

Community Market

Supporting local production and community exchange

Residential Massing Development

Greywater Treatment & Reuse System

Domestic greywater is treated and reused for landscape water features and irrigation.

Residential Greywater Sources

Pre-Filtration Chamber

Irrigation

Primary Settling Tank

Landscape Filtration Channel

Constructed Wetland

Treated Water Storage

Wellness Hub

A day-use space for older adults to socialize, stay

A shared space for daily exercise, recreation, active, receive light wellness support, and spend time in community. and community events that bring residents of different ages together.

Ecological River Corridor

Part of the greywater treatment landscape, this public river corridor supports recreation, everyday encounters, and shared engagement with the environment.

Situated in Los Angeles’s Arts District, this mixed-use project combines gallery space, artist studios, a café, and housing within a building that balances public activity and private living. A streetfacing gallery brings art to the sidewalk, while a large exterior stair at the corner creates a shared gathering space and draws visitors to the courtyard, studios, and café above. Terraces and balconies extend

the residential levels outward, giving them privacy while keeping them connected to the street and district. Developed collaboratively in Autodesk Revit through BIM 360 , the project was carried through a full construction documentation process. The result was a comprehensive, coordinated drawing set that tested how the design could be resolved, detailed, and documented.

02.

4th Street Exchange

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Contribution: Los Angeles, CA

Mixed-Use

Sep 2024 – Dec 2024

Group Project

Zoning and code analysis; schematic massing development and structural grid setup; Revit development for the 3-level underground parking garage; selected construction drawings and schedules; and all renderings and diagrams.

RESIDENTIAL AREA COMMERCIAL AREA GALLERY

BASEMENT/PARKING

This project proposes a new Graduate Design Institute through the adaptive reuse of an existing civic building and the addition of a new volume in Mexico City, establishing a twinned relationship between the two. Rather than treating the school as an isolated institution, it is imagined as an extension of the city’s street life—an infrastructure that brings the social and cultural functions of the street into the building in response to the density and vitality of

urban life. Inspired by street vendors as a decentralized model of exchange, the project introduces clustered program organization and a series of buffer spaces to encourage informal interaction, openness, and knowledge sharing. Educational programs are arranged in clusters, allowing parts of each cluster to open onto semi-public spaces and making sharing an active and essential part of the learning environment.

Urban Nexus Design Hub

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Mexico City, Mexico

Educational / Adaptive Reuse

Jan 2024 – Apr 2024

Group Project

Cluster-based architectural strategy; massing and overall form development; Rhino modeling; physical model fabrication; and selected diagrams.

Existing Building

IMSS Central Building is located in Colonia along Paseo de la Reforma, one of Mexico most active urban corridors. Completed in 1950, originally served as the headquarters of the Mexican Social Security Institute.

Street-Level Public Life

Public life extends naturally into the street, where markets, street vendors, and everyday activities shape a vibrant public realm.

Juárez Mexico City’s 1950, it Mexican

Decentralized Program Organization

Inspired by street vendors as a model of decentralized exchange, the school is organized into small, connected clusters.

The new volume houses educational programs, while the existing building retains its original use. The space between them becomes the project’s main buffer zone, where gallery spaces extend into the existing building.

At ground level, the Public Plaza opens the project to the city, while the second floor becomes the building’s new ground floor, housing an open gallery and café.

Educational spaces are organized as flexible clusters , and separate vertical cores serve different user groups.

Lightweight

Museum by the Harbor

Derived from an initial sketch, the project was developed through SubD modeling into a lightweight museum form that encourages movement, curiosity, and exploration.

Project 01: Living in Common Earlier Site and Chunk Models

The site model and chunk model were fabricated using 3D printing, CNC milling, and resin casting.

A Doll’s House

Developed through ZBrush modeling, 3D printing, and woodworking, the project creates a fantastical spatial world.

Serenity Grove

Individual Project

Developed in Autodesk featuring custom furniture created for the project, derings produced in

Model Unit

Accurately struction drawing in D5 Render, appliances specifications.

Project

Autodesk Revit, furniture families project, with renD5 Render.

Unit Visualization

modeled from the condrawing set and rendered Render, with materials and matched to project specifications.

2177jiali@gmail.com