Ester Hong-Fen Lo is a Taiwanese architect/researcher of digital design and fabrication. She holds an M.S. degree in Digital and Material Technologies (DMT) from the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. As an experimentalist, Lo’s research involves the novel notions between design methodology, material performance, and advanced technology in digital practice. Prior to her time at DMT, she had worked on multi-discipline design projects, including architecture, exhibition, interactive stage animation and academic area.
SYNECDOCHE, Ann Arbor, MI, US, Spring Extern
During a one-week spring break externship, I assisted the facade design, fabrication, site measurement, shop drawing and presentation slides.
ORAVI Design Studio, Taipei, TW, Junior Architect
In ORAVI Design Studio, I worked closely with licensed architects and China’s architectural design institute to contribute to the project “Bing Pan Village” (Henan, China) which is a tourism village plan of the Chinese government. I help with tourist village planning, architecture design, facade/structure shop drawing, physical model making, complex 3D modeling in Grasshopper, construction document and presentation slides.
I Studio & Feng Chia University, Taichung, TW, Junior Designer/Teaching Assistant
As a Junior Design, I cooperated with i Studio, Sun Yat-Sen University (Guangzhou, China) and the local Chinese government for the project “Homes in Sham Tseng Village”. I worked on program proposal and architecture, installation, and exhibition designs. In my professional practice project – "The Coffee House in Gukeng," I took full charge of the elementary students' studying and entertaining space from design to build in the notion of the childlike treehouse.
At the same time, I assisted the application proposal of the workshop – “Hsieh Ying Chun Architecture Studio” and I was a Teaching Assistant of software workshop - After Effects and Processing.
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, US, Masters, MSc - Digital Material Technologies
10 months intense program which combines digital fabrication and digital design to explore various material behavior with KUKA industry robots, 3-axis CNC router, waterjet, Zund and other fabrication machines. As a designer, fabricator and engineer, I always keep manufacturing possibility and efficiency in mind to generate innovative ideas in both traditional and computational methods. Combing these manufacturing techniques with design, the knowledge of elaborating the layer of ethos through materiality is valuable.
Feng Chia University Department of Architecture, Taichung, TW, BArch, Architecture
My Bachelor's degree in Architecture gave me a good background in shaping cultural atmosphere from the master plan, architecture, construction to installation projects. To me, social behavior forms the morphology and strengthens the resonance between people and the environment. On the other hand, Feng-Chia's diverse and international approaching for architecture design established my creative mind and critical thinking. I got the skills of defining the relationship between social environment and design research from my thesis project's mentor, who's graduated from AA.
Delhi Architecture Festival 2016, 3rd Place
Project: Wearable Society
gURROO - A new generation of innovative minds - Virtual Epoch, Honorable Mention
Project: Wearable Society
