Selected Works (2022-2024)
CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
2022-2027| THIRD YEAR B.ARCH STUDENT
EMAIL: yingqik@andrew.cmu.edu KIKI (YING QI ) KUANG
PERSONAL STATEMENT
The multifaceted area of architecture includes materiality, sustainability, and societal reinterpretation. My goal in creating this portfolio is to showcase my keen interest in this broad field of work. In some ways, an architect is a curator with the emphsasis on the social circumstances of the past, where the main weight to the subject is how they addresses its context.
EXPERIENCE
CMU Spring Carnival Committee
CMU School of Architecture
Booth Director Assistant
January 2025 - Present
Reviewed structural plans of Soroity Booths for Spring Carnival to help student organizations create safe and codecompliant structures.
Oversee structural checks during Build Week, actively providing construction feedbacks to organizations on
Architecture Intern |Guangzhou China
Produced detailed water management system designs to optimize resource efficiency
June 2024 - Aug 2024
Collaborated with interdisciplinary teams, enhancing ability to integrate diverse perspectives into design solutions
Conducted regulatory and environmental reviews, ensuring compliance with local building codes and sustainability guidelines
CMU DFAB Monitor
Manage digital fabrication environment that has Laser cutters, 3d printers, and CNC router
Perform regular maintenance on machinery
62-122 & 62-123 Digital Media Teaching Assistant
ACTIVITY
CMU Carnival Gateway Pavilion
CMU NOMAS
January 2025 - Present
Aug 2023- May 2024
Assisted in instructing 60 students in digital media design, facilitating both in-class and weekend recitation sessions
Provided actionable feedback on assignments via Miro, improving student outcomes and engagement
62-125 Drawing Teaching Assistant
Aug 2023 - Dec 2023
Taught 60 students alongside Douglas Cooper and 4 other TA, supporting skill development in traditional and digital rendering
Led workshops and one-on-one sessions to address challenges in drawing assignments
Builder & Designer
Discussed and found more efficient way in production
Led team in prefabricating ornamentation of pavillion
Fabricated on site with physical scaffolding model for construction
PR Commitee
EDUCATION
SKILLS
January 2024 - March 2024
November 2024 - Present
Designed and curated engaging social media content to enhance brand visibility and audience engagement. Transformed a standard newsletter into a cohesive and visually appealing publication to effectively communicate organizational updates and initiatives.
Carnegie Mellon University | Pittsburgh PA
Major: Architecture & Building Science/Technology (NAAB Accredited)
Minor: Human-Computer Interaction
Cumulative GPA: 3.90
Deans List: 2022 Spring, 2023 Fall, 2024 Spring, 2024 Fall
Rendering Software
Architecture Software
Vray, Enscape, Keyshot
Rhino, Revit, Autocad
3D Modelling Software
Adobe Suite
Aug 2022 - May 2027
Blender, Nomad
Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, AfterEffects
Drawing & Illustration Languages
Photoshop, Procreate
English, Madarin, Cantonese
TABLE OF CONTENTS
STUDIO
01.
METAMORPHIC CONVERGENCE
Repurposing and Hybridizing Pittsburgh’s Creative Urbanization
02.REVITILIZING BEAUTY
Perserving the Pre-exisitng Ecology: Cacti Conservation
03.
INTERMINABLE
Attemping Circular Ecology through Water & Construction
04.
CELLULAR GARDEN
Exploring Light through Techtonics of Bricks
Infrastructure Event
Metamorphic Convergence
ACADEMIC TERM: Praxis / 2024 FALL
PROFESSOR: Jared Abraham, COORDINATOR: Heather Bizon
STUDIO PARTNER: Yifan (Leo) Wu
SITE: Pittsburgh, PA
Residential
The pre-existing railway system in North Pittsburgh, once a key part of the industrial economy, now connects old warehouses like Wools Warehouse and Heinz Company with the artistic transformation in Millvale. This railway, which historically powered Pittsburgh’s industry, is being repurposed to activate artistic regeneration, linking past industrial heritage with present creative growth.
Unused materials transported by the railway are repurposed by local artists, whose finished works are then sent back to repurposed warehouse galleries via the same rail system, creating a continuous cycle of materials. Occasional pop-up trading events will allow locals to exchange unused items for art made from these materials, fostering cultural exchange.
Our intervention of the necklace starts utilizing the pre-exisiting system and buildings that already preoccupy the area: the railway system and the warehouses. The intersections of these places marked in red. These nodes extend the programs beyond the immediate vicinity, creating a ripple effect that connects to the greater Pittsburgh region. By strategically placing these event spaces, the design bridges gaps where the railway cannot reach, enabling the expansion of programs and activities into previously inaccessible or underserved areas.
One intent of this continuous cycle is to be able to reuse the materials acquired from the abandoned warehoueses. One concept stems from readapting and reusing terracotta in different forms to prolong its life within the system.
Housing Artist Residency
The concept of modularized “shops” offers a dynamic and flexible approach to creative workspaces designed to accommodate a variety of artists from different disciplines.
Various shops vary in size and shape, allowing artists to select a workspace that suits their specific needs, whether they work in sculpture, painting, digital design, or other artistic fields. This modularity encourages diversity in creative processes and ensures that each artist has the ideal environment to develop their work.
Shops are separated into two different regions: the front of the shop acts as a small showcase studio space, allowing other artists to see what the artist produced to inspire themselves. Within each layer, the modularized forms create void spaces that act as spaces of leisure and more public spaces for artists to work on their artwork.
Unit Plan
Artist can choose different modules housing units depending on the physical need in space for their art practice, where the unused spaces are altered as communal gathering spaces.
Exterior View From the Railway Station: Bottom Layer
Unit Plan, Section and Axonometric
Exterior View From the Railway Station: Top Layer
Communal Area
Passageway to Artist Residency
Artist Residency Gallery Space
Artist Residency Store Front
Communal Areas Axonometric Highlight
Longitudinal Sectional Perspective
Corridor Space
Infrastructure Logisitics Center
The original structure of the warehouse is being kept and parallel to the coastline. The storage space expanded is parallel to the railway system. The market space for exchanging the artwork is located on the ground level to give more direct access for the public. The gallery space is juxtaposed with the raw materials in the storage, allowing the viewer to see the before and after of the creation of the artwork.
Package Station
Viewing Deck Storage for Smaller Items
Event Pop-Up Installations
To further this creative cycle into the fabric of Pittsburgh, we will hold occasional pop-up trading events. These events offer a unique opportunity for locals to actively engage in this cycle by bringing their own unused or unwanted items in return for pieces of work created by local artists from the same materials transported via the railway system. These pop-up events create a direct bridge between the artist and the community, turning this system into a vessel for cultural exchange.
These are the quick iteration models than be made through the different pieces that be combined together to create follies for the artist residents to exhibit their artworks. Many of the pieces come from premade parts of pre-existing buildings (roofing, wooden structure), while the concrete is an interpreation of the terracotta made through the embedded system.
Exploration Model
Popup Within the Environment of Pittsburgh
Revitalizing Beauty
ACADEMIC TERM: Option Studio/ 2024 Spring
PROFESSOR & COORDINATOR: Sarosh Anklesaria
SITE: Pheonix, Arizona
The Cacti Archive educates visitors about the ecological, biological, and cultural significance of cacti while addressing the threats posed by climate change. Highlighting their role in stabilizing soil, supporting wildlife, and embodying resilience in indigenous traditions, the archive emphasizes the urgency of preserving these vital desert plants. Designed sustainably with zero-carbon cement and inspired by notable architectural precedents, the building integrates public education, a central cacti nursery, and xeriscaping principles to promote eco-friendly practices. Through an immersive horizontal circulation, visitors witness the lifecycle of cacti, deepening their connection to conservation. Surrounding depaved xeriscaped landscapes further reinforce the archive’s mission to mitigate environmental harm and inspire actionable change.
Parti Ideation
Ideas of boolean to create a form of the negative was explored to create the building mass.
Physical Models Parti
The creationg of this buiilding to reduce the transportation cost is to do the casting on site. This allows the building to be cost effective and it to be unqiue to the surrounding environment
Site Mold
On-site Casting
On-site Assembly
First Cacti Specie
New Addition Cacti Speci
Cacti Polluniation Nearby Region
1. Seed Archive
2. Open Cactus Nursery
3. Soil Archive 4. Open Auditorium
5. Meeting Room
INTERMINABLE
ACADEMIC TERM: Poiesis III / 2023 Fall
PROFESSOR: Priyanka Bista
COORDINATOR: Laura Garofalo
STUDIO PARTNER: Fuxiao (Andrew) Li, Tian Ming
SITE: Pittsburgh, PA
Our project was inspired by the formal language seen in Bajau Laut floating reed houses and Troglodyte caves in Matmata, as well as the philosophies of three influential chefs. Our focus was on the contrasting use of light in these structures. We extracted elements like the floor planks from the floating reed houses and the retaining walls from the Troglodyte caves to create a field model, using the cave walls as a transformative operator. By translating a 2D field drawing into a 3D model, we influenced the formal design of our building massing, drawing on the concept of robust retaining walls and a planking system to manage light filtration. Incorporating the chefs’ ideologies into our design, we emphasized material reuse, circularity, and the optimization of student and public circulation. Material studies were conducted to explore reuse options on-site, while implementing natural and mechanical water filtration systems to establish a more circular ecology for the building’s water and construction processes.
The design draws inspiration from the tectonic techniques of the Bajau Laut, particularly their innovative use of planks in traditional floating structures to allow sunlight to filter through the gaps, creating a dynamic interplay of light and shadow within the space.
The careful arrangement of the planks fosters a visually striking and functional solution, where light spreads organically throughout the interior, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere while maintaining the delicate balance between openness and enclosure.
An essential aspect of the project is to consider not just the primary users of the space but also other inhabitants, such as plants, and animals. This involves designing spaces that are flexible and inclusive, accommodating not only human activity but also promoting ecological balance and biodiversity. Features such as green roofs, and wall systems that are animal friendly, and water management systems that support local wildlife can ensure the building remains responsive to the needs of other beings.
Circulation
Our intent for this project to integrate an water filtration system utilizing aquatic plants and sedimentation processes using plants such as reeds and water lilies to provide a natural purification system. This approach emphasizes sustainability by harnessing ecological methods for water treatment, aligning with contemporary environmental considerations.
Cellular Garden
ACADEMIC TERM: 2024 Spring
PROFESSOR: Vernelle A. A. Noel
PARTNER: Simon Han, Eva Chen
The Mitochondrion-inspired Structural System combines nature’s efficiency with innovative design. Drawing from the intricate forms of mitochondria, each meticulously crafted panel ensures maximum strength and stability. These panels interlock seamlessly, forming a robust framework capable of supporting various loads. Complemented by specialized interlocking stilts for added structural integrity, the system is both functional and aesthetic. Designed as a blend of structure and art, it features shelves for housing ivy plants, harmonizing with its environment while providing unparalleled support and beauty.
The derived pieces are then turned into different interlocking components depending on the different rotations that the pieces are turned to allow for infinite possibilities of creating the garden shelf.
The cut out peieces are also turned into miniture tables for the plant pots to be placed.
