In our ongoing series Design Dialogues, we engage with visionary architects and designers who are shaping the built environment through innovative approaches and creative insights. By exploring their design philosophies and groundbreaking projects, we aim to uncover valuable perspectives that inspire both established professionals and emerging talent.

In this edition, we have the privilege of speaking with Deve Build, a practice renowned for its ability to merge traditional Chinese architectural elements with advanced technologies like AI. Through their work, Deve Build has consistently explored the delicate balance between preserving cultural identity and embracing modernity, creating immersive and emotionally resonant spaces.

In this conversation, Deve Build delves into the influence of Huxiang culture in their Lakes and Mountains installation, the integration of AI in optimizing natural materials, and the profound role of humanistic feelings in spatial design. They also reflect on the future of architecture in the digital age, emphasizing the importance of cultural depth and emotional resonance in creating timeless spaces.

Join us as we explore Deve Build’s approach to architectural storytelling, where tradition and technology coexist in harmony, offering meaningful experiences that transcend time and space.

How do Deve Build balance the integration of AI technologies with traditional Chinese architectural elements in your designs?

Yu Feng: Deve Build consistently places natural materials and humanistic feelings at the core of its creations, with AI technology serving more as an auxiliary tool than a dominant force. For example, in the project Lakes and Mountains, we used AI algorithms to simulate the mechanical properties of bamboo, optimizing its natural curvature in the initial design phase. However, the final structure still relied on manual craftsmanship and physical testing to preserve the material’s inherent randomness and warmth. While AI helps us predict structural stability, the soul of traditional elements—such as the flexibility of bamboo or the texture of Xuan paper—is always imbued with human wisdom. This integration is not about replacement, but about amplifying the potential of traditional materials through technology, allowing the old and the new to coexist in harmony.

How did the cultural significance of Yue Lu Mountain and Huxiang culture influence the design process and the spatial narrative of the Lakes and Mountains installation?

Yu Feng: Yuelu Mountain is a symbol of Huxiang culture, carrying the spirit of “practical learning for societal benefit”.Lakes and Mountains abstractly recreates the mountain’s steepness and depth through layered and cantilevered bamboo screens, echoing the concept of “lofty perspective” from the Three-Distance Method in traditional Chinese landscape painting. The winding spatial pathways metaphorically reflect the contemplative journey of academy culture, while bamboo’s regenerative nature aligns with the Huxiang philosophy of endless vitality and renewal. This installation is more than a physical structure—it is a spiritual journey, engaging in a profound dialogue with history.

Could you elaborate on how the ‘Three Distances’ technique from Chinese landscape painting was translated into architectural elements within the installation?

Yu Feng: The “Three Distances” technique merges visual composition with poetic atmosphere. In Lake and Mountain:
Deep Distance (深远): Interlaced bamboo screens create a labyrinthine sense of layered peaks and winding waterways.
High Distance (高远): Vertical bamboo columns evoke cliff-like grandeur through tensile verticality.
Level Distance (平远): Horizontally extended screens form an open “visual net”, mirroring the expansive horizon in landscape scrolls.
As visitors move through the installation, their sightlines rise and fall with the structure, offering an immersive experience of dynamic perspective, much like walking through a living landscape painting.

How do you foresee the role of AI influencing the future of architectural design in China?

Yu Feng: AI will cause the disappearance of modern architectural design as traditionally defined over the past century—a disappearance that represents a fundamental disruption. It will provide singular, decisive technical support for future-era design. This technological dominance is not mere “replacement” but a complete redefinition of design’s essence.

This shift will return design to its roots, pushing it toward deeper contemplation—a profound inquiry into humanistic values. It also means that future demands for architects, designers, and artists will increasingly prioritize humanistic depth and emotional resonance.

How did the cultural symbolism of plum blossoms and the solitude of traditional Chinese literati influence your approach to spatial design and material choice in this installation?

Yu Feng: Searching for Plum Blossoms in Snow is, in itself, a uniquely introspective dialogue within the spirit of traditional Chinese Literati. It is not a passive response to loneliness but an active choice to stand alone and “gaze at the stars.” Thus, this artistic conception is not the “result” of the design but rather the “starting point” from which the spatial narrative unfolds.

To bridge traditional Chinese humanistic ideals with a modern, futuristic vision, we deliberately chose highly contemporary industrial materials. The crystal-clear, pure white resin lines contrast with the hand-sculpted plum blossoms, highlighting the interplay and coexistence of tradition and modernity, industrial precision and handcrafted warmth. Just like the ancient Literati who ventured into the snow in search of plum blossoms, this space embodies a state of contradiction, struggle, and warmth—a deeply authentic emotional landscape.

What were the key challenges in working with 33,000 acrylic resin rods and xuan paper to create the dynamic, tree-inspired structure, and how did you overcome them while maintaining structural integrity and aesthetic fluidity?

Yu Feng: The challenge lies in the contradiction between the rigid straightness of acrylic resin and the natural curvature of plum branches, as well as the precise control of the resin’s flexibility and structural load-bearing limits.

Through node experiments, we discovered that the interwoven resin “net” must follow the natural growth logic of a plum tree—dense at the base for support and dispersed at the top for lightness. Like taking root in new soil, it gradually grows, developing into a stronger structural system, eventually forming a solid framework.

The Xuan paper is handcrafted using traditional mounting techniques, preserving its element of randomness. In the end, the delicate balance between structural stability and controlled fragility, the abstract representation of various ancient plum tree forms in Chinese painting, and the naturally wrinkled, hand-shaped plum blossoms all become part of the aesthetic.
The Xuan paper is handcrafted using traditional mounting techniques, preserving its element of randomness. In the end, the delicate balance between structural stability and controlled fragility, the abstract representation of various ancient plum tree forms in Chinese painting, and the naturally wrinkled, hand-shaped plum blossoms all become part of the aesthetic.

In your experience, how does incorporating humanistic feelings enhance the functionality and aesthetics of a space?

Yu Feng: Humanistic feelings is the origin and core of space. While a space may serve many practical functions, these are merely physical attributes. Truly sophisticated and high-quality spatial systems must be rooted in the creator’s cultural depth, social experience, and perceptual sensitivity. Such spaces withstand the test of time, growing more captivating as the years pass.

In the age of AI, the decisive role of humanistic feelings in spatial design becomes even more pronounced. Material application is merely a technique, no longer confined to the past century’s Western design principles, which emphasized space as a purely functional entity. Thus, humanistic feelings is the foundation of spatial aesthetics, the essence of beauty, and the very core of the visual system.

Your project beautifully evokes nostalgia and a longing for a simpler past. How did you translate these emotions into architectural elements and spatial experiences within The Fading Past?

Yu Feng: The Fading Past is an artistic response to the reality of air pollution and smog, as well as an emotional installation designed to awaken visitors’ memories. Its conception, development, and realization are all rooted in the spatial logic of alleyways found in traditional Chinese architectural settlements.

Through the use of delicate, translucent white fiber nets, the piece elegantly conveys the visual language of Chinese poetic aesthetics, evoking a mist-like haziness. By recreating the spatial scale of Jiangnan alleyways, visitors walking through the installation experience a sensation akin to strolling through a rainy lane in Jiangnan, or drifting within a veil of light fog—partially concealed, partially revealed. The bamboo lanterns swaying with the wind further evoke a longing for the once-pristine natural environment while also serving as a quiet lament for its destruction in the present day.

The project juxtaposes the serene imagery of the past with the chaotic realities of modern urban life. How did you approach balancing these contrasting themes architecturally, and what impact did you aim to achieve on the visitors’ perception of time and memory?

Yu Feng: We use such delicate, translucent materials to subtly embed Chinese architectural proportions within the spatial construction logic, shaping volumes through layers of pure white fiber nets. As viewers walk through the installation, it feels as if they are wandering through the alleyways outside the windows of ancient Chinese villages.

This work is not just a sigh of lament but also a “reawakening”—through the experience and contemplation of moving through the alley-like space, visitors are reminded of the poetic beauty found in Dai Wangshu’s Rainy Alley:

“Walking through the long and desolate rainy alley, longing to meet a girl sorrowful like lilacs.”
This is precisely the kind of beauty and cultural memory that is gradually disappearing in contemporary China, never to be recreated.
With the rapid urbanization of modern life, the essence of China’s rural past is drifting further from the present. At the very least, when visitors step into this installation, in that specific space and moment, a memory is rekindled. In essence, this piece is an act of cultural preservation.

Looking ahead, how do you envision the role of architecture evolving in shaping human experiences and societal values in an increasingly digital and transient world?

Yu Feng: As long as humanity exists, the fundamental role of architecture will not change. It will always serve as the three-dimensional entity that accommodates human activities—whether in cities or villages, indoors or outdoors—forming spatial structures built upon functional needs. This essential attribute remains constant.

However, in the face of digitalization and the rise of AI, I personally believe that the century-long era of modern design may come to an end. In the future, when we think about design, we will no longer be confined to Western traditions of ergonomics and logical paradigms but will instead step into an artistic dimension.

With advancements in digital technology and AI, material innovation and iteration are accelerating rapidly, pushing the future into an increasingly unpredictable and uncharted state. Yet paradoxically, this very uncertainty will drive those in the field to return to a deeper exploration of human emotion and cultural meaning. When materials and construction techniques are no longer limiting factors, the artistic evolution of architecture will demand that every creator enrich their cultural knowledge, humanistic depth, and intellectual breadth.

While architecture itself will not disappear, the role of architects and related professions will face a fundamental restructuring. AI, scientific advancements, material technologies, and construction standards will be disrupted and reshaped by the relentless momentum of this era.