Alex Holloway and Na Li met while studying at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, first working together on the Soho Farmhouse while at Michaelis Boyd. Though they each started their own respective firms in 2015, they found themselves frequently collaborating and made their partnership official in 2018 when they launched Holloway Li.
London itself inspires the duo—who cite the conflict between historicism and futurism as a formative influence. “Our work captures something of that antagonism,” says the London-reared Holloway. Further, their projects often act as “a bridge between Far Eastern and Western thinking,” says Li, who was born in Nanjing, China. This worldview has served them well when crafting projects for the likes of the Hoxton brand, where Holloway Li is designing a rooftop extension with a restaurant for the original Shoreditch outpost.
London restaurant Omar’s Place, a collaboration with Sella Concept
“Na and I are both designers at heart, so the ambition is always to create spaces that are fun, interesting, and challenge customer expectations,” says Holloway. “Na’s power is with technical insight and application whereas my focus is on the conceptual side of the design process. In that sense, we make a perfect team.”
Holloway Li collaborated with Martin Brudnizki on Linnaean, a spa, salon, and restaurant in London
This article originally appeared in HD’s February 2020 issue.
