I.M. Pei | Designing Architecture with Light and Shadow


The prominent family background influenced I.M. Pei, and his father, Bezuyi, once said, “The essence of excellent architecture lies not only in conceptualizing great buildings, but also in effectively linking them with financial and economic factors.” This stayed in his mind. During his youth, I.M. Pei mainly lived in Shanghai, but his grandfather insisted that he return to Suzhou every summer to play with his cousins in the lion grove..

Pei Runsheng, the uncle of I.M. Pei, spent several years resettling the Zhongshan stones in the garden, dredging the water pool, and then replanting and constructing flowers and plants. They even found stones from the Taihu Lake Lake and began to “plant stones” – put limestone in water for 15-20 years to make it eroded by water, then dig holes in the stones and continue to be eroded until the final modeling is completed. The Lion Grove is filled with rockeries, caves, stone bridges, ponds, and waterfalls, bringing endless joy to I.M. Pei..

Scaffolding Ringlock System Ledger End

After graduating from Harvard, I.M. Pei did not stay on campus to teach, but instead joined a construction company. He believed that “these ideas and professional practices were not enough to support (architecture).” In 1955, I.M. Pei founded his own construction company I M. Pei&Associates. In the 1960s, his company mainly undertook the construction work of Party B. Following the ancestral teachings of his father, I.M. Pei, who emphasized the effective connection between architecture, finance, and economic factors, he designed many apartments that were both aesthetically pleasing and cost-effective, making them popular among the working class..

At the age of 102, Mr. I.M. Pei has left behind 25 representative works for the world, winning over 50 architectural design awards. His works are spread across four continents and ten countries, with the most representative being the Louvre Pyramid..

In the year of renovating the Louvre for the French, I.M. Pei was 64 years old, just two years after the completion of the prestigious Kennedy Library. But the French do not accept the “glass pyramid” that allows I.M. Pei to interweave modernist lines in a traditional French historical building, which is too indecent for anyone to see..

In addition to the pyramids of the Louvre, architectural design works such as the Suzhou Museum and Islamic Museum are also outlined with simple and clear modernist lines, while incorporating light and shadow into the soul of each country’s traditional culture, presenting the purest beauty of the building itself..

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