Rock-Skin

Studio Pararaum, an international partnership established by Meng Li and Linda Zhang, is an award-winning architecture, design, and art studio based in Zürich and Toronto. We consider our practice to be a provocation of architecture’s capacity to communicate through felt experience—affect as a design process towards lived experience. Studio Pararaum has been the recipient of awards, fellowships and funding from the Swiss Arts Council, Central New York Arts Council, European Ceramic Workcentre, National Council on Education for Ceramic Arts, Myseum of Toronto, among others. Their work has been exhibited and presented internationally in Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, including the Milan Architecture Design Expo, Canadian Centre for Architecture, London Festival of Architecture, Syracuse Erie Canal Museum, Toronto Offsite Design Festival, Berlin Institute for Endotic Research and the Berlin Centre of Art and Urbanistics. Both principals understand design research and teaching to be essential for the development of architectural ideas in practice.

Meng Li teaches at the Chair of Emanuel Christ & Christoph Gantenbein at ETH Zurich. She was a Frank Knox Fellow at Harvard GSD where she received a M.Arch I AP with distinction, the James Templeton Kelley Thesis Prize and the AIA Henry Adams Medal. She has also completed the exchange program at ETH Zürich. She received her B.Sc.Arch with honors at McGill University Peter Fu SOA and received the Clifford C.F. Wong and the Favretto Scholarships. She was awarded the first prize in the Lyceum competition in 2011. Her work has been exhibited internationally in Switzerland, Germany, Canada, and the United States. Prior to founding Studio Pararaum with Linda Zhang, Meng Li has worked for Diener & Diener Architekten (Basel), Studio Olafur Eliasson (Berlin), Prof. Hans Kollhoff Architekten (Berlin) and Valerio Olgiati (Flims).

Linda Zhang is a registered architect and an Assistant Professor at Ryerson University RSID. She is the recipient of the 2021 Artist-in-Residence at the EKWC, the 2019 Multicultural Fellow at NCECA (National Council on Education for Ceramic Arts), the 2017-2018 Boghosian Fellowship at Syracuse University School of Architecture as well as a 2017 Fellowship at the Berlin Center for Art and Urbanistics. She was a Dean’s Merit Scholar at Harvard University GSD where she received a M.Arch I AP with distinction, the James Templeton Kelley Thesis Prize and the AIA Henry Adams Certificate. She completed her B.Sc.Arch with honours at McGill University Peter Guo-hua Fu SOA. Prior to founding Studio Pararaum with Meng Li, Linda Zhang has worked for Studio Olafur Eliasson (Berlin), Barkow Leibinger (Berlin), Christian Kerez (Zürich), WOJR (Boston), and Approach Architecture Studio (Beijing).

DESIGN TEAM:

Georgia Barrington (Project Lead), Reese-Joan Young + Amy Yan

SEOUL INSTALLATION TEAM:

Subin Kim 梯 熱綴 (Team Lead), Eunbin Cindy Hong , 

Lee Dongwon 檜 翕錳 + Sieun Lee 檜 衛擎

ROCK-SKIN RESEARCH STUDIO STUDENTS:

Monica Beckett, John Vilmor Sicat, Amy Yan, Robin Grundy, Laura Trinchini + Eden Steenbakkers Lucuik

FABRICATION SUPPORT: 

Meimei Yang, Nora Alkeyat, Carol Kaifosh, Amanda Bly, Alexander Verni, Jonathon Anderson, Adrian Kenny, Buthaina Ahmed + Alda Escareno

FUNDING SUPPORT: 

Pro Helvetia Swiss Art Council, Ikea Foundation Switzerland, X University Internationalization at Home + Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism

IN-KIND SUPPORT:

Stiftung Gipsmuseum Gipsbergwerk Schleitheim, Stiftung Landesplattenberg Engi, Ontario Place, Design + Technology Lab at the Creative School + XSID 3D Studio Workshop

PHOTOGRAPHER + VIDEOGRAPHY + DRONE PILOTS:

Stefan Müller, Jocelyn Reyolds, Meng Li + Linda Zhang