Pei’s life has been well documented, from his affluent background to upbringing in Shanghai and Suzhou, his architectural education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University to his high-profile building commissions, not to mention his long list of accolades and honours, including the Pritzker Architecture Prize, AIA Gold Medal and US Presidential Medal of Freedom. The exhibition “I.M. Pei: Life Is Architecture” at the M+ Museum captures all of the above and more.

If titled “Architecture Is Life,” the exhibition would merely narrate from Pei’s point of view what architecture meant to him. But the exhibition refers to “Life Is Architecture” in which life is prioritised and Pei’s works democratised. In this light, architecture was a medium, a means or a metaphor through which we can explore deeper life meanings through Pei’s lens.

The exhibition is timely, coming amid a transformation in the design world, among other professional fields, when creativity and grunt work could arguably be automated. Critically acclaimed as they are, Pei’s buildings are down to earth, resolute and timeless. They were determined to resolve rigorous issues from site conditions and budget constraints to the functional requirements of the modernist’s favourite geometries.

He started his practice in 1955, well before the information age, theoretical discourse, parametric modelling software or AI-generated design – if we can call that design. He left behind a body of work that we should study to appreciate the meaning of architecture, space, light and materials – truly relevant works go beyond conveniently generated eye candy that grabs attention but lacks deeper convictions.

If life is architecture, it is built with a solid foundation. Pei’s works were built from collective experience, education, experimentation and curiosity, even after he gained international fame – in sharp contrast to the digital-age products that encourage instant gratification and media peacocking. His portfolio was assembled brick by brick, space by space, project by project, and they speak for themselves – much louder than any manufactured publicity.

Imagine the challenges he faced arriving in the United States at the age of 18 with a funny name. Also imagine the scepticism overcome to win such politically sensitive commissions as the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the East Building of the National Gallery of Art and the Grand Louvre in Paris. The odds should all be stacked against Pei but these commissions proved that he beat them, not by luck, but by great ideas, hard work and an undeniable charisma and likeability.

In the West, Pei did not just blend in but he also bridged the East and the West; Americans celebrate his life as a great immigrant story. He was able to extract the essence of the project sites and historical significance, absorb knowledge, reinterpret spatial arrangements from the Chinese garden to Islamic symbols in modern means, and find his formal logic in the resolution. Pei’s works are transcultural. He is the pride of both China and America.

He is easily the pride of France as well – his controversial resolution in the Grand Louvre eventually won over the French, who honoured him with the Grande Médaille d’Or of the Académie d’Architecture and made him a Commandeur of the Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur. A true citizen of the world, his influence surmounted barriers, and he did it through the language of architecture.

In a time when the world is culturally, socially and ideologically divided, and when superficiality, irrationalism and increased tensions between individuals, interest groups, and nations are overwhelming, we need the idea of I.M. Pei more than ever, if only to find optimism in humanity.

The M+ exhibition is a must-see, not only for artists and architects who look for inspiration, also for people who believe in old-school meritocracy, Generation Y and Z who are confused about their future and searching for a role model, or anybody who believes we are one people, albeit with different backgrounds, and that we should celebrate our diversity. As his son Sandi Pei Li-Chung said, more than an architect, he was a humanist.

Anybody practising architecture knows that pure ingenuity and good ideas do not guarantee success. It takes a lot of luck, hard work, resilience, compromises and charm, not just to win over clients and other competitors, but to win them over through nobility in the work and the character.

The exhibition ends with a video of Pei sharing his conviction that an architect should carry a sense of responsibility; in his words, if the work is good, it should enrich the environment and bring excitement. Pei delivered all of the above with his signature smile. That’s why he is one of a kind.