Remarkable Youth · Venture Capital Record | Anshi United Design Institute: Focusing on Urban Humanities, Empowering Change Through Design
With the development of urban economy and the integration of culture and tourism, a city’s image and distinctive features have become key elements in demonstrating its charm and competitiveness. As the external expression and internal manifestation of a city, architecture and culture carry the city’s spatial functions, historical civilization, and social values, while also embodying its innovation and vitality. Against this backdrop, design institutions that take cities as their core research and work objects adopt a holistic perspective to consider nature, cultural context, economy, art, politics, and other factors. They translate the connotations of cities into architectural expressions through design, create livable and business-friendly environments, and generate value for cities.
Anshi United Design Institute (hereinafter referred to as "ASSE") was founded in this era and environmental context. Its core mission is to align with the current temporal-spatial conditions and social reality, integrate diverse elements, and respond to the needs of the times and cities through each innovative design, thereby empowering change with design.
In 2017, Hou Wenjie, who had just obtained his master’s degree from the Department of Architecture at Southeast University, was preparing funds for his entrepreneurial idea of "Internet + Architectural Design Services". Through promotions by Southeast University, Hou learned about Nanjing’s "Ningju Plan" (a talent attraction and entrepreneurship support initiative) and immediately signed up for the "Win in Nanjing" Youth College Student Entrepreneurship Competition that year. After multiple rounds of selection and evaluation, he ultimately won the third prize, along with angel-round equity investment from Nanjing Innovation Investment Group and corresponding financial subsidies. "The unique Nanjing model—featuring dual support of state-owned capital investment plus financial subsidies for startups, coupled with continuous follow-up incubation for invested projects—was like a shot in the arm for me during that period of uncertainty," Hou Wenjie recalled.
"The entire process of participating in the competition, going through selection and competition, and finally securing investment was also a rare opportunity for self-reflection. It allowed me to objectively assess the project’s feasibility, growth potential, and value from a third-party perspective. After the company received the investment, the angel investment team of Nanjing Innovation Investment Group also provided professional advice on the company’s initial operations, teaching us to take a long-term view of development, balance social and commercial value, and fulfill our responsibilities in everything we do now," Hou said. Returning to the real market, Hou led his team to identify value and advantages in various projects. Based on in-depth industry insights, they established scientific systematic thinking, enhancing the team’s professional design capabilities, internal and external collaboration capabilities, and interdisciplinary service capabilities amid fierce market competition. Gradually, they developed a competitive operational model of "designer’s full-process responsibility system" and formed the core value concept of "Design motivates changes".
After years of development, ASSE has grown from a fledgling studio into a comprehensive design institution specializing in architectural design practice. Its services cover urban public service buildings, urban renewal, commercial complexes and facilities, hospitality architecture, public art installations, and more. It also has joint design teams in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Los Angeles, and Singapore. The team has won a series of industry awards, including the First Prize of the 2020 Jiangsu Provincial Urban and Rural Construction System Excellent Survey and Design Award and the 2021 London Design Awards.
"As important carriers of application, urban buildings gather abundant social and industrial resources. An outstanding architectural designer today must possess the ability to keenly grasp the underlying logic behind needs, integrate cross-disciplinary achievements, balance overall value and unique characteristics as well as the interactive relationships between various elements, unlock the power and potential of architecture, explore the connections between diverse cultures in architecture with a rigorous and inquisitive attitude, and create value resonance," Hou noted. ASSE’s philosophy is rooted in the century-old academic and cultural heritage of the Department of Architecture at Southeast University. The team’s understanding and reflections on architectural design, shared among partners and team members, are also reflected in the company’s business directions and project works.
Currently, ASSE’s business is divided into two segments:
ASSE Associates: Under the architect’s responsibility system, it provides full-process, full-professional design and design management services for urban public buildings and the renewal of built environments.
ASSE Another: Focusing on small and medium-sized commercial spaces and residential environments, it offers full-cycle services including planning, design (spatial design, product design, brand design), construction, and even investment promotion and operation.
"For small commercial spaces with special public value to the urban environment, we pay close attention to their uniqueness and representativeness—such as the CactJungle coffee shop in Baijiahu 1912 and the Zhenzhu Medical Aesthetic Clinic. Through subtle design interventions, these projects become catalysts for activating the surrounding urban areas while conveying the humanistic thoughts embedded in them. Nanjing’s urban cultural context is one of the starting points for our team’s work. Throughout every project, we constantly explore how to effectively respond to this context and provide strategies that meet the expectations of building users—take the ongoing overall construction project of the kindergarten at Nanjing Foreign Language School Xianlin Campus, for example," Hou Wenjie explained.
The kindergarten construction project at Nanjing Foreign Language School Xianlin Campus is a key local project that ASSE began working on two years ago. As a crucial part of the campus’s complete K15 education system (covering kindergarten to senior high school), the kindergarten has attracted widespread social attention since the planning stage. After confirming the cooperation intention with the school, ASSE’s core team fully dedicated themselves to the project.
"For the Xianlin Campus Kindergarten project, we adopted a ‘full-project management system’ from the very beginning, which is different from the management model of ordinary public building projects. Since the project team was formed, we have used a joint design approach, establishing an efficient and open communication mechanism with all stakeholders—including school leaders, the kindergarten principal, and senior early childhood education experts. This allows us to fully explore cultural heritage inheritance in our design practice and focus on the emotional connection between people and objects," Hou said. Based on previous research, the team discussed multiple complex dimensions, such as the building’s sun exposure direction, functional zoning, and the conditions required for children’s spatial perception, mental health, learning ability, and creativity. This ensured that the design scheme—from the ingenious conception of architectural style to the planning and configuration of hardware facilities—incorporated the concept of "people-oriented". At the same time, the team conducted scientific and systematic analysis of the links, data, goals, resources required for implementation, as well as the project’s practical, social, and commercial value. This rigorous thinking and systematic mechanism fully demonstrated ASSE’s strengths in "professional comprehensiveness, logical consistency, and quality control".
In the end, the design scheme featuring a cloud pattern formed by multiple circles stood out. In terms of appearance, the building resembles a light and free cloud resting by the Lingshan Mountain, embodying the harmonious, diverse, modern, eco-friendly, and artistically vibrant vision of a future "children’s home".
In 2023, ASSE took on the architectural design of the headquarters of Yuhua District Experimental Kindergarten. It is believed that in the near future, Nanjing will gain another urban building with profound humanistic and educational heritage—one that is visually pleasing, recognizable, warm, and able to stand the test of time.
"General knowledge is the foundation, while specialized knowledge is the branch." Having emerged from a university and gone through project practice and market tests, ASSE’s team has developed a deep understanding of the balance between "generalism" and "specialization".
"Today’s architecture is a complex integrated entity that combines material civilization, spiritual civilization, and elements such as politics, economy, culture, art, and technology. Therefore, greater emphasis is placed on a designer’s understanding of cultural heritage and their ability to master and apply interdisciplinary and cross-professional knowledge. ASSE continues to enhance its capabilities through experience, striving to become a design team that serves the full lifecycle of architecture," Hou Wenjie stated. He believes that urban buildings—especially functional ones—must stand the test of time. This requires designers to pay attention to commercial operations, skillfully integrate development strategies and operational planning with historical context into their designs, focus on business formats and product combinations, and view full-lifecycle urban architectural design services as a form of operational service. Based on this understanding, ASSE’s team has set its future development goal: "Rooting in Nanjing, deeply engaging with the ‘city’ as our core theme, improving the built environment of urban areas through full-lifecycle design services, and supporting urban operations".
The angel investment team of Nanjing Innovation Investment Group has continued to follow ASSE’s growth and development after the investment. A relevant person in charge said: "Private architectural design companies, leveraging the talent advantages of universities, have entered a fast track of development amid the market opportunities brought by new-type urbanization. From scratch to its current scale, ASSE has always focused on the collective wisdom of different eras and fields, integrated traditional cultural memories with diverse voices of the future, and interpreted architecture and responded to the present through each design innovation—qualities that are essential for urban development. By collaborating with universities and human resources departments, Nanjing Innovation Investment Group plays the role of a ‘living water source’, identifying distinctive projects through the combined model of ‘investment + funding’ to achieve university-local integration. Nurturing young and dynamic design companies like ASSE, helping them expand their business and scale, and thereby contributing to urban construction and development is a highly meaningful endeavor."
Source: Nanjing Innovation Investment Group
Review: Xue Yao
Release: You Yi
