Re:Form - New Life for Old Spaces #2 competition 2nd Prize winners - Wenzhuo Cai, Ruoxi Li and Yi Wei Chen

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to the 2nd Prize winners of our Re:Form - New Life for Old Spaces #2 competition – Wenzhuo Cai, Ruoxi Li and Yi Wei Chen from United States!

2nd Prize winners from United States

Please tell us about your company (when it was founded, where it is based, how many employees, etc) Alternatively, if you do not have a company, please give us some insights on your own professional/academia background.

We are three recent graduates trained in architecture and urban design.What brought us together, (beyond friendship,) is a shared curiosity about the middle state: things that are unfinished, paused, or still becoming. For this competition, we set out to test one question: can the being of a building still hold, even without completion?

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/ individuals have been Involved?

Most of our work has focused on speculative, urban, and public-facing questions. We are especially interested in projects that sit between architecture, infrastructure, and everyday life. Across different scales, we tend to work through systems, phasing strategies, and spatial frameworks that allow buildings to adapt, accumulate, and re-enter life over time.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

To us, architecture is not only about making finished objects. It is also about recognizing and shaping states of becoming. We are interested in whether a city’s liveliness can be understood not as a collection of completed forms, but as something continuously generated. In that sense, the architect is not only a form-maker, but a designer of conditions: someone who creates the spatial and social framework for life to enter, attach, evolve, and remain visible.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

We participate because competitions allow curiosity to move faster. They are a testing ground—a place to refine ideas, take risks, and push questions further than conventional practice usually allows.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

Enter a competition when there is an idea you cannot stop thinking about. The reward is not only the project itself, but also the accomplishment, the conversations with friends, and the fun of bringing something to life together.