”It’s not about the area of starchitecture anymore.”
We met Chinese architect Xu Tiantian, who believes in architectural acupuncture and minimal intervention.
”Architecture is for people, right? It’s not for the architects. So you want to have the involvement and the ownership of the local people.”
”The mainstream concept of architecture is that one day you’re going to build these large-scale high-rises or monuments. I think there’s now a very different concept and understanding of architecture. We live in a new time, facing all these difficulties, global challenges, climate change, and disparity everywhere around the world. I think the younger generation may already approach architecture differently today. It’s more about what architecture can do instead of what I could make. So, it’s probably to take yourself out of this thinking.”
”Architectural acupuncture means that the engagement of architecture is rather minimal. It’s not looking for the large-scale monuments, but really working with the necessity, really working with the locally available materials, elements, and cultural contexts. Belonging to the place instead of introducing something completely alien.”
Xu Tiantian (b. 1975 in Fujian) is the founding principal of DnA _Design and Architecture. In recent years, Xu has focused on architecture in China’s rural regions. Her practice is dedicated to rural revitalization through a strategy she describes as “architectural acupuncture”—small-scale, site-specific interventions designed to activate local culture, agriculture, and tourism. In 2019, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) recognized her Songyang “architectural acupuncture” initiative as a global model for urban–rural integration.
Xu received her Bachelor of Architecture from Tsinghua in 1997 and went on to earn a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) in 2000. She is currently a professor at the School of Architecture, Tsinghua University. Xu was named an International Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 2020 and elected a member of the German Academy of Arts (Akademie der Künste) in 2024. In addition, Xu has held visiting professorships at Yale University and the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture in Switzerland.
Her work has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including the 2025 Wolf Prize in Architecture, the Berlin Art Prize (2023), the Swiss Architectural Award (2022), the Marcus Prize for Architecture (USA), the Holcim Gold Award for Asia-Pacific, and the UNESCO Global Award for Sustainable Architecture.
Xu Tiantian was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark. The conversation took place in January 2026 in connection with the opening of the exhibition Memoryscapes at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.
Camera: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Edit: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2026
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