Architecture project 1
Hung lam
紅林
10" x 14" x 8"
handmade with tennis balls, air-dry clay, bamboo sticks, acrylic
This space serves as a multifunctional cultural hub celebrating the natural and social parts of traditional Hong Kong culture. Hung Lam is also designed as a learning landscape. Drawing on the Reggio Emilia idea of the environment as the “third teacher,” its paths, planters, and viewing points sit at a child’s eye level, so the space itself invites questions. The proposed Little Roots program uses place-based, experiential learning. Kindergarteners explore a sensory garden of common native plants, smell agarwood incense, and trace a mangrove’s roots from soil to water. Primary students take on inquiry projects, observing and recording species over a term. Grounded in constructivism, the program has children build understanding through hands-on discovery rather than memorization, with teachers scaffolding each visit. Cantonese opera workshops in costume, gesture, and rhythm bring Hong Kong’s social heritage to life in the same way.


mangroves
The name originates from the Cantonese word for mangrove forest 'hung lam' (紅林). The space is proposed to accommodate a botanical garden in the form of a large-scale terrarium to celebrate, exhibit, and ultimately preserve Hong Kong's native species including the Hong Kong Lady's Slipper Orchid (Paphiopedilum purpuratum), Hong Kong Ma Dou Ling (Aristolochia westlandii), Agarwood (Aquilaria sinensis), and many varieties of mangrove species. Our mangroves are highly endangered: only about 510–624 hectares across 59–70 fragmented stands remain, threatened by development, pollution, and weak legal protection.




Architecture project 2
No Detours.
Perloff Hall, UCLA’s historic architecture building, has a courtyard that is beautiful but oversized, underused, and full of detours, especially for wheelchair users. I believed an extension was only worth building if it solved that problem. An origami herringbone tessellation, which naturally folds into a flexible half cylinder, became two connected tunnels: an all-weather walkway that gives people on foot and in wheelchairs the same direct route to every entrance, with a tool store for AUD students and faculty. The design preserves the original palms, uses compression to keep foot traffic flowing, and divides the courtyard into two smaller spaces where a community can gather.


Digitally rendered on photoshop





