About / Architect & founder
A practice built over time
Weibing Liu is an architect based in Chengdu, China, and the founder of Linpan Studio and Sichuan David Architectural Design. He began practising architecture in 1988.
His drawings and writing record Linpan dwelling culture. From Huaxi Village’s 2009 reconstruction design to building reuse and bamboo experiments, his architectural work brings attention to existing places and collaboration with the people who build and use them.
Place & continuity
On the Chengdu Plain, Linpan describes a rural settlement in which homes, bamboo groves, waterways and farmland support everyday life. It gives Liu’s practice a setting for examining architecture through its relationships with land, materials and the people who build and use it.
Huaxi Village’s 2009 reconstruction design, following the Wenchuan earthquake, considered housing in relation to the existing Linpan settlement pattern, landscape and local livelihoods. Later projects extend this attention to existing conditions through the reuse of a village school, bamboo craft, local earth construction and experiments with reassembly.
Across these projects, the emphasis falls on what a place already has: buildings that can adapt, local materials and the knowledge of the people who work with them.
Reconstruction design following the Wenchuan earthquake, working with the existing Linpan settlement pattern.
Nanxi Yao and Ma’s Bamboo Workshop completed in Dujiangyan.
Xingfu Ridge completed. Wuxing exhibited at the 23rd Triennale Milano.
Circularity & continuity
Reading a continuing practice, from reconstruction design in 2009 to building reuse, local materials, bamboo craft and reassembly.
The 2028 Global Award for Sustainable Architecture theme, Architecture Is Circularity, considers the relationships between places, materials, local knowledge and collaborative processes. It offers a way to read the work across time: from Huaxi Village’s settlement design to later projects that keep buildings and craft knowledge in use and explore local resources and reassembly.
Drawing, writing & inquiry
Liu’s book and selected drawings record settlement patterns, daily life and bamboo landscapes. His ongoing doctoral work examines energy performance in existing buildings, while his 2025 conference paper considers relationships within a project.
Read alongside the projects, these activities connect observation, adaptation and research with questions of continued use. Reports, interviews and award records follow the work over time.
Collaboration & making
Material knowledge enters the design process through work with the people who make and build. Conversations, prototypes and adjustments during construction help connect architectural ideas with the ways materials behave.
Ma’s Bamboo Workshop · Completed 2020
Liu worked with Ma Zehong and his family to bring bamboo craft into the design and construction process. The workshop provides space for making and exchange with visitors.
View projectXingfu Ridge · Completed 2022
Collaboration with local residents included earth-brick production. These bricks form part of a hybrid wall assembly, connecting material choices with local experience.
View projectWuxing · Exhibited 2022
With local craftspeople, Liu explored bamboo construction through assembly, dismantling, transport and reassembly. The prototype was exhibited at the 23rd Triennale Milano.
View projectCraft knowledge enters architecture through shared decisions about materials, construction and use.
Drawing, writing & inquiry
Liu’s monograph and selected drawings record how homes belong to a wider setting of landscape and everyday life. His ongoing research examines existing buildings and relationships within projects.
Together with the architectural work, they offer different ways to consider what places already hold and how they can continue in use.
Research & publicationsArchitectural drawing · Building reuse
Explore the research
Writing, painting and photography recording the dwelling culture of western Sichuan.
Explore the bookA settlement sketch, At Ease and Bamboo Sea record buildings within their inhabited and material settings.
View selected drawingsResearch at UCL on intelligent technologies and energy efficiency in existing buildings in Britain and China.
Doctoral researchA case study examining technological, institutional, social and environmental connections.
View the paperBackground & professional contributions
The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction
University College London, United Kingdom
University of Reading, United Kingdom
Southwest Jiaotong University, China
Liu is a named drafter of two CECS association standards published in 2024.
Urban regeneration programming and evaluation
Technical specification for zero-carbon industrial parks
These contributions sit alongside building projects, material experiments and writing as part of his professional practice.
Chengdu, Sichuan, China
For project enquiries, research collaboration and publication requests, please contact the studio.
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