Following in his father's footsteps, alongside his brother, Chien Chung Pei continues to push architectural boundaries, Li Yingxue reports.

Pei has been engaged in the architectural design industry for over five decades. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The pedestrian bridge on Yuejiang Road in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, has become a popular spot for residents since it was built two years ago. It's a combination bridge that permits three different uses: running, cycling and strolling.

On the side closest to the river, there is a walking path, where pedestrians can amble along the river's north channel, enjoying unobstructed views of both riverbanks, gazing at the Canton Tower and the imposing skyscrapers, or resting for a moment on one of the benches that dot the walkway.

In the middle, a running track arches upward, providing shade for the benches along the walking path, and respite from the summer heat.

As night falls, the pedestrian bridge resembles a lively musical note dancing along the "stave" of the riverside avenue, as its designer, Chien Chung Pei, concealed strip lights within the space beneath the handrails, cleverly embedding the lighting circuits within the bridge's side rails.

The 77-year-old Pei, a famous Chinese American architect and founder of Pei Architects, was invited by the Guangzhou government to take part in the program to beautify the riverfront on Yuejiang Road.

Projects Chien Chung Pei has worked on include the Louvre Pyramid in Paris. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The construction of this bridge was done during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through online meetings, Pei "walked" the riverside with staff from the Guangzhou city planning institute and had over a dozen meetings with them to discuss the details of his design.

His vision was for people not just to transit hastily, but also to linger, relishing the river's beauty and finding a moment of relaxation while sitting against the structure.

After an absence of more than three years, Pei returned to China in August, embarking on a three-week journey. During his travels, he finally got to visit the bridge in person.

"When I told the driver to 'stop right there', it was exactly the right place," he recalls, noticing that people were already walking or jogging.

For Pei, the bridge was a "fun little project" among his five-plus decades architectural design experience.

In 1968, he earned a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in Physics from Harvard College and graduated in 1972 from the Harvard Graduate School of Design with a master's degree in architecture.

The Bank of China headquarters in Beijing. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

He spent the first 20 years of his career working with his father, the world-renowned architect I.M.Pei, before founding his own office together with his brother, Li Chung Pei.

Chien Chung Pei has contributed to many of I.M. Pei & Partners' most celebrated projects, including the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Louvre Pyramid in Paris. He was also project architect and designer-in-charge for Fragrant Hill Hotel in Beijing and for the expansion of the Mount Sinai Medical Center at the Guggenheim Pavilion in New York.

According to Pu Xiaoyi, representative of Pei China, Chien Chung Pei visited eight cities in three weeks, meeting with clients, colleagues in the construction industry, government officials, and real estate developers, engaging in constructive discussions.

While exploring historical Chinese architecture, he also experienced the rapid development of Chinese architecture in the new era, Pu says.

Chien Chung Pei observed the transformation in China since his last visit, and the multitude of projects that have sprung to life. "People think that during the pandemic, everything stopped in China. It didn't stop. China's never going to stop changing," he says.

For Pu and her colleagues, Chien Chung Pei embodies a persona characterized by precision, humility, knowledge, humor and vitality.

"His work ethic is marked by energy, and he employs scientific reasoning in design, considering a wide array of factors such as geometry, circulation, landscape, materials, green technology, and user psychology," Pu says, adding that Chien Chung Pei's oft-repeated motto is to "solve 10 problems with one gesture".

A pedestrian bridge on Yuejiang Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong province. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

When he talks to clients, Chien Chung Pei always likes to ask them, "Why?"

"I want to make the building better for them. I don't want it to be my building, I want it to be their building," he explains.

In his mind, his methodology is the same as his father's. "This is something that I learned as a scientist, that you have to have a very rational thinking process. So I think that architecture, like science, is problem-solving," he says. "What I try to do as an architect is to find a new solution to the problem."

He thinks that to solve a problem, an architect needs intuition. "It's based upon what you already know, which really is what the scientific process is all about," he says.

Take his new project in Changsha, Hunan province, as an example. The building's first two floors are a shopping mall, then above that are the apartment buildings.

"I was thinking about that problem, and I said, 'we have to find a way to enter the apartment buildings'," he recalls. He solved the problem with a ramp up to the entrance at the top of the shopping mall. "My intuition told me that I had to find a way to move the lobby up."

Bank headquarters represent a notable segment of his extensive portfolio. Currently, with three projects for the Bank of China under construction, Chien Chung Pei has noticed that the banking business is changing.

"In the United States, the old banks, they always had the big banking hall, which was the most monumental room, because they wanted to impress the clients who walked in. Banks don't work that way anymore," he says.

The Suzhou Museum in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

He recalls when he did the Bank of China building in Beijing, there was a room where companies came to get their payrolls. "They paid everybody in cash, so this room was full of money, and it had to be very secure. But nobody does that anymore, either," he says.

He feels that architects always have to adapt, learn and understand why things have changed. "If you think every building is similar, it's not. Every one is a new one."

He has also designed two large hospitals in the US. For these medical projects, he notes, it's important to listen really carefully to the clients.

He proposed a less usual idea, that the corridors in the hospital should be on the outside of the building with the windows, instead of in the middle with rooms on each side.

"I showed them that the efficiency is even better, and I convinced the hospital to do something that other architects said I shouldn't," he says. "The most important reason I wanted to have the windows is because I wanted to bring the light in."

Chien Chung Pei believes that without light, there is no architecture.

He has worked on the design of the Suzhou Museum in Suzhou and the Six Dynasties Museum in Nanjing, both in Jiangsu province. When it comes to building museums, he says that besides light, it's important the museum has the right temperature and humidity, especially for art, as some of the exhibits are among the most fragile, such as those made of paper, wood and textiles.

Since first visiting China in 1976, Chien Chung Pei has returned dozens of times, and his familial hometown, Suzhou, is one destination he never misses. Each time he visits, he will go to the family's old house and see what's happening there.

He thinks that one signature of Suzhou architecture is its windows. "It's a picture frame, not just a rectangle," he says. "Everything that we do in China has a feeling that the building belongs in China. It isn't necessarily like traditional Chinese architecture. But it's a building that feels like it should be in China."

Contact the writer at liyingxue@chinadaily.com.cn