A Journey of Curiosity and Discovery
Yifan (Fia)
Qian
I BELIEVE DESIGN IS A WAY TO EXPLORE THE UNKNOWN, AND SPACE A WAY TO CREATE MEMORIES. EVERY LIFE IS WORTH CELEBRATING.
The Burner Next Door
Housing as a Value Capture Device for a Waste Incineration Plant
A tenant-owned affordable housing cooperative turns the stigma, energy and land-value effects of Shanghai’s waste infrastructure into a long-term collective resource.
Professional Projects
Selected Work at TAO and On Design Studio
Selected cultural, hospitality, workplace and exhibition projects developed through architectural design internships at Trace Architecture Office and On Design Studio.
Look into the Rust Belt
An Architectural Experiment to Rethink Tiexi District Redevelopment
A proposal for Tiexi District that makes room for new urban growth while preserving the physical memory, social systems and everyday lives of the old industrial city.
Urban Knitted Butterfly Corridor
A Multispecies Habitat for Mexico City
A knitted, three-dimensional pollinator highway choreographs butterfly life cycles with human rhythms, creating pockets for habitat, encounter and collective urban life.
Form Follows Forces and Functions
SANAA Serpentine Pavilion
An iterative structural study of the SANAA Serpentine Pavilion, using Karamba simulations to refine its accessible roofscape, shell geometry and load performance.
This was a group project; my role focused on developing the Karamba scripts and carrying out most of the modelling and structural simulations.
Sound of the City
Liverpool Musicians’ Co-living Apartment
Shared homes, rehearsal rooms, recording spaces and performance venues form a creative hub for emerging musicians and an auxiliary venue for Sound City.
Joyful Growth, Custom Childhood
Birkenhead Primary School
A compact primary school creates varied environments for different stages of childhood around a luminous central cone, supporting Birkenhead’s greener 2040 vision.
Windshell
Wind Surfing Centre
A timber, granite and glass windsurfing centre sits lightly at the forest edge, balancing the needs of athletes, visitors and the surrounding landscape.
About
Designing with systems,
stories and living worlds.
Yifan (Fia) Qian’s work moves between architecture, urban research, ecological systems and fabrication. Across scales, each project asks how design can make overlooked relationships visible—and turn them into shared spatial value.
View selected projects ↑