User:Raphael Valais/sandbox

Raefer Wallis is also known as Pan Chaoyang (潘朝阳) in China. He is the co-founder of A00 Architecture with Sacha Silva, co-founder of GIGA with Ryan Danforth Dick and is also responsible for pioneering the use of modern rammed earth (SIREWALL) in China and Sri Lanka. His career is focused on fostering the regeneration of ecological, social and economic environments through architecture and manufacturing.

Wallis obtained his Masters in Architecture from McGill University in 2000 with special recognition from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. In 2002, Wallis moved to Shanghai, China to begin his career as an architect and subsequently co-founded A00 Architecture in 2004. Since its inception, A00 (azerozero) has focused on pioneering healthy and ecologically responsible design in China. Their portfolio is composed of many firsts in China including the first carbon neutral hotel (URBN hotels Shanghai) , the first stabilized rammed-earth structures (both insulated and not), the first LEED certified retail space and the first ecologically regenerative resort.

In an effort to help other designers find green materials in China, A00 made their office database public by putting it online in 2008, thereby giving birth to GIGA. An acronym for Green Ideas Green Actions, GIGA was the first online database in China to transparently organize and rank materials according to their life-cycle.

In 2009, Wallis was invited to present and relaunch GIGA at the Clinton Global Initiative. He was also listed by CNN as one of 20 people to watch in Shanghai .

GIGA is also one of the first social enterprises in China, making ecological and social benefit indivisible from economic benefit and was listed as one of 6 social enterprises to watch in 2011.