Ms. ZHANG, Lily (张径) Practitioner-in-residence, Adjunct Assistant Professor




Introduction Lily Zhang is a designer whose work and research focus on designing environment through the interaction of the natural and the artificial. She and her partner, Wataru Shinji, teach at the Chinese University in Hong Kong in the School of Architecture’s inaugural Practice in Residence programme. She is the latest recipient of the James Harrison Steedman Memorial Research Fellowship in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis, studying and rethinking systems of material production, consumption, exchange, preservation, and display around the world.
Zhang earned her Bachelor of Arts in Architecture degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Masters of Architecture degree from Princeton University. She has trained in numerous offices in Tokyo, New York, and San Francisco, including the practices of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Junya Ishigami, Toyo Ito, Fumihiko Maki, nARCHITECTS, and Mark Cavagnero. She has previously taught at Princeton University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Chulalongkorn University.
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Research Interests Design environment
Natural and artificial interaction
Global material systems

Publications Zhang, Lily, Storage Sublime: The Stuff of Architecture. James Harrison Steedman Memorial Research Fellowship in Architecture, Washington University in St. Louis, 2021 (forthcoming).
Zhang, Lily, and Wataru Shinji, Crafting Environment, Bangkok Design Week, Chulalongkorn University, 2020.
Zhang, Lily, and Wataru Shinji, Crafting Environment, Samyan Mitrtown Gallery, Chulalongkorn University, 2020.
Zhang, Lily, “Learning from the Village,” Radical Pedagogies, ed. Beatriz Colomina, Ignacio G. Galán, Evangelos Kotsioris, and Anna-Maria Meister. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2020 (forthcoming).
Zhang, Lily, editor, Freeing Architecture, Junya Ishigami. Tokyo: LIXIL Publishing, and Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, 2018.
Zhang, Lily, “Collective Clutter,” Princeton University School of Architecture Workbook 15/16. Princeton University, 2016.
Zhang, Lily, and Rennie Jones, “Centripetal Gallery,” Princeton University School of Architecture Workbook 14/15. Princeton University, 2016.
Zhang, Lily, Johannes Hallermeier, Nina Chausow, Deirdre Ely, Eliza Mott, Wardah Bari, Walker Carpenter, and Sydney King, contributors, “In Living Color: Juxtaposing Havana, Old And New,” Jamie Saxon, Princeton Alumni Weekly, July 2016.
Zhang, Lily, “The Hara Laboratory Village Surveys and Dwelling Group Domain Theory at the University of Tokyo,” Radical Pedagogies: Reconstructing Architectural Education, Volume #45: Learning, ed. Beatriz Colomina, Ignacio G. Galán, Evangelos Kotsioris, and Anna-Maria Meister. October 2015.
Zhang, Lily, “Hara Laboratory Village Surveys,” Radical Pedagogies, ed. Beatriz Colomina, Ignacio G. Galán, Evangelos Kotsioris, and Anna-Maria Meister. 2015. https://radical-pedagogies.com/search-cases/a34-hiroshi-hara-lab-village-surveys-dwelling-group-domain-theory/
Zhang, Lily, “Floating Ferry Terminal,” Princeton University School of Architecture Workbook 14/15. Princeton University, 2015.
Zhang, Lily, “Housing in Japan: Cultures of ‘Impermanence’ and ‘Disposability’ Revisited,” paper presented at Urbanization in China: Past, Present, and Future symposium, organized by Princeton University, Hong Kong University, and Shanghai Study Centre, 2014.
Zhang, Lily, and Sanger Clark, “Up to the Clouds as If They Had No Weight,” Pidgin Magazine 17. Princeton University, 2014.
Zhang, Lily, “University of Things,” Princeton University School of Architecture Workbook 13/14. Princeton University, 2014.

Research Projects Storage Sublime: The Stuff of Architecture, 2019-2021, funded by the James Harrison Steedman Memorial Research Fellowship in Architecture, Washington University in St. Louis.
Cross Cultural Analysis of Architectural Writings, New York Workshop and Interviews: Bernard Tschumi, Steven Holl, and Thom Mayne, with Jesse Reiser, 2016, funded by the Princeton University + University of Tokyo Strategic Partnership Grant.
Havana Architecture, Literature, and the Arts, with Esther da Costa Meyer and Michael Wood, 2016, funded by the Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism & the Humanities.
Cross Cultural Analysis of Architectural Writings, Tokyo Workshop and Interviews: Fumihiko Maki, Arata Isozaki, and Hiroshi Hara, with Jesse Reiser, 2015, funded by the Princeton University and University of Tokyo Strategic Partnership Grant.
History, Memory, and the Urban Future, Shanghai Public History Seminar, 2014, funded by Princeton University.

Honours and Recognitions James Harrison Steedman Memorial Research Fellowship in Architecture, Washington University in St. Louis, USA, 2019-2021
Theodore?U.?Horger?’61 Artist-in-Residence, Finalist, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, USA, with Wataru Shinji, 2020
Young Architects Competition, Finalist, New Sports Citadel, Bologna, Italy, with Wataru Shinji, 2019
Golden Madonnina Winner : Exhibition Design, THE DESIGN PRIZE, Milan, Italy, Freeing Architecture, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, with Junya Ishigami, 2018
Top 10 Architecture of 2018, Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian, London, England, Freeing Architecture, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, with Junya Ishigami, 2018
Boston Society of Architects Exhibition Space : Guest Curator, Finalist, Boston, USA, 2018
Suzanne Kolarik Underwood Prize for Design Excellence, Princeton University, USA, 2016
Robert A.M. Stern Architects Travel Fellowship, Finalist, New Haven, USA, 2015
LG Furniture Design Competition, Winner, New York, USA, 2010
Matthew M. Lyon Prize in Photography, University of California, Berkeley, USA, 2009