This International Practice Committee featured talk will focus on business development strategies and project management best practices for firms interested in joining international design competitions in Asia. The speaker will share his expertise on identifying potential competition opportunities, forming teams, schedule, and deliverables. In addition, he will present a recent first-place master planning competition entry to illustrate how the strategies were successfully applied.

This program is accredited by AIASF to provide 1 CES Learning Unit to AIA member attendees.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe the process for a US-based design firm to participate in an international competition in Asia;
2. Discuss the design team coordination efforts that take place between the US-based design team and local design team during the RFP and design phases of the project;
3. Identify best-practice strategies used to increase design quality and efficiency as part of a design team based in different parts of the world;
4. Illustrate the use of successful competition strategies in an award-winning design entry.

About the Speaker

Qian (Kevin) Yi
Principal, Heller Manus Architects

Architect and planner Qian (Kevin) Yi has more than 19 years of experience practicing in the Bay Area, United States and Asia. He graduated from Tsinghua University in Beijing with a Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Science in City Planning. After moving to the US, he earned a Master of Science in Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Qian is a licensed architect in California. In addition, he is a guest lecturer at UC Berkeley’s urban design graduate program and active member of the Bay Area Council.

As a Principal at Heller Manus Architects, Qian has led more than 70 international and domestic competition projects and numerous high-profile, award-winning commissioned projects in the Bay Area. He focuses on sustainable building technology, urban neighborhood development, housing design, commercial building design, and transportation facility design. Leveraging his unique interpersonal skills liaising with clients and consultants, his projects received the China National Excellent Urban and Rural Planning and Design Award (multiple wins), Guangdong Planning Institute Award, China National Quality Engineering Award, Guangdong Lingnan Characteristic Planning Award, and China National Habitat Classic Architecture Award. Recently, in 2020, he led a team on the master planning of “Taihu Science City”, winning first place in an international design competition.