Conversations with James Shen

Today we’d like to introduce you to James Shen.

Hi James, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Long Beach and grew up in HB. I went to Cal State Long Beach and studied product design and then worked at Don Chadwick’s office designing furniture, he’s know for designing Herman Miller’s Aeron Chair. I then went to MIT for a masters in architecture. After graduating I moved to Beijing to work for architect Yungho Chang who was the Department Chair of MIT at the time. After a few years I founded People’s Architecture Office in Beijing with my co-workers at Yungho’s office, Hezhe and Zang Feng. After ten years in Beijing I moved back to the US to be closer to family. I was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design 2016-2017. The fellowship helped me transition back to the US. I lived in Cambridge for five years and then decided to move back to the LA area and settle in Long Beach. While in Cambridge I spun off a company called Plugin House Company to focus on producing low cost housing. Now my work is split between the Plugin House Company and People’s Architecture Office with projects in the US, China, and the Middle East.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Trying to find my place in the world of design has been a struggle. We try to focus on work that has a strong social impact but this kind of work doesn’t pay well. Working between China and the US is also difficult with the changing political situation. Much of my work focuses on revitalizing public spaces and serving the unhoused community through building housing, both of which we find very challenging.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My work is in low cost housing, urban regeneration, education, and public art. I consider a project successful if I see people spending time and enjoying themselves.

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I listen to a lot of audio books. Recently Anxious Generation, Abundance, Determined, The Tyranny of Merit are non fiction books I’ve enjoyed reading. For fiction I love Michael Connelly. I also recently complete my own book called Plugin House published by Thames & Hudson and available February 24 this year.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.peoples-architecture.com and www.pluginhouse.org
• Instagram: @peoplesarchitecture @plugin.house @jameshshen
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-shen-963a36330/
• Other: https://vimeo.com/user47811722