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My central motivation to study and practice in architecture is rooted in my philosophical studies. This discipline has cultivated in me a habit of close observation and critical reflection, particularly around a question that continues to shape my work: how does space shape relationship between environment and human identity, and how should architects exercise this power with care and responsibility?


Email: yzhao182@syr.edu
CV


Academic Work

1. Design for Deconstruction
2. Apollonian and Dionysian
3. Live, Recycle, Farm
   
4. Coastal Resilience Reimagined
   
5. Living-Synthesis
   
6. Invasion
7. Buffalo Student Residential Housing
   
8. Museum of Emotion

Professional/Other Work

1. Analog Photography
2. Internship Works
   
3. Fine Art

Design for Deconstruction

ARC409 Spring 2025 | Architecture Integrated Design Studio
Instructor: Brian Lonsway | blonsway@syr.edu
Site: Syracuse, NY
Concept Phase Collaborator: Tina Jiang

Index

"True sustainability is designing for the moment of departure, treating every product not as a permanent possession, but as a temporary arrangement of future resources".

The design focus on the idea that a DfD research facility must operate as both a working laboratory and a live public demonstration center. To support this, the building organizes material and human circulation into two distinct networks that run in parallel but intersect at key points of assembly space. Materials enter from the east loading dock and move linearly through fabrication, controlled-environment testing, climate-exposed assembly, and finally into the materials library, forming an architectural “assembly line” that makes the life cycle of components legible to the public. In contrast, visitors and researchers occupy an lower circulation loop that looks into these processes without interrupting them, allowing the building to function as a live research and exhibition center. This dual system reinforces the institute’s mission to advocate for “design for disassembly” by ensuring every workflow can be observed, studied, and reconfigured. All major programs sit within a robust, long-span structural frame conceived as the permanent skeleton of the building, while every floor plate, facade panel, lab partition, and mechanical cassette is designed to be removable, replaceable, and upgradeable. The result is a center that does not remain static but evolves over time as DfD technologies, experiments, and assemblies change, allowing the architecture itself to embody the circular principles it promotes.

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