Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, US, BArch, Architecture

Studied BArch in Pratt Institute. During my study at Pratt, not only I developed my design abilities in architectural practice, but I also developed the ability to face all kinds of challenges in life. There were several changes in my understanding of architecture.

1st year: Begining to think outside of the box. The definitions of many terms in the architectural field are different from what we used to know. What is the rule and what is the logic behind every move?

2nd year: Came back from abstraction, starting to deal with scales and dimensions of architecture. For the first time, when I walked down the street, my eyes started to see the building as parts, components at different scales

3rd year: My professor said "at this point, you should easily throw out a couple of design ideas in one topic" This shocked me but also pushed me to think harder, take control of the design. And from observing other good designs, I realized sometimes there are no absolute right standards, we have to explore a new way and define the path for ourselves. This is also the year I begin to engage with some structural considerations in the project.

4th year: Traveled to Japan, Taiwan in the summer, spent a semester in Rome. I'll never forget the dizzy feeling when I stood 5 feet away from Michelangelo's tomb. At that moment, the stories in history class, the building that traveled through time, the light coming down from the Dome all came together. Rome is a great place to study urban design. I started to deal with the social, historical aspects of my project. It wasn't easy, but I learned sometimes architecture is about making a statement. To stimulate people to think.

5th year: My thesis studio jumped into the near future, 2033. The topic of architecture is spread out through movies, science, and the future. Had a great run with my partner working on the topic of airport and urbanism.