Thomas Grannells | Founder, Director
Thomas Grannells | Founder, Director
Studio Mù is an inter-disciplinary architectural design practice based in Wuhan and Shanghai.
The studio responds to complex challenges with coherent and refined solutions capable of cutting through the melee of the modern world. We are a studio founded by an Englishman with an Ecuadorian mother, Irish father and Chinese wife whilst our work ranges from a school in Senegal to a luxury apartment in Kunming. Our provenance is unique and our perspective broad, qualities that we bring to a design process that generates solutions both curious and relevant to contemporary China.
Our response to each brief is crafted individually; we emphasise a thorough understanding of the unique conditions and challenges to arrive at not only pragmatic, but also poetic solutions that celebrate nuance, sense of place and above all, experience.
A British architect with Chinese characteristics.
Thomas first came to China in 2011; this followed the completion of an undergraduate Architecture degree at The University of Nottingham in the UK. The years since were packed with formative experiences including time studying at the Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark, the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and several years working at Chinese and international design studios. Thomas has worked on several high-profile projects including NIO Home West Lake (completed, 2018) and the 80,000sqm Beijing Tongzhou theatre (completed, 2022) and during this time developed an extensive knowledge of Chinese building traditions and praxis.
Together with his diverse background and education, this experience has inspired a particular interest in finding middle ground and transcending cultural barriers through design that is concise, engaging and meaningful.