Yiran joined Merge in 2022. She holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) where she was selected to study at ETH Zurich as an exchange student. Previously Yiran obtained a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis with a Minor in Art, receiving the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts Senior Award and Frederick Widmann Prize upon graduation.
Yiran’s Master thesis ‘Empathetic Encounters’ explores the tension between one’s body and it’s surroundings, an empathy that penetrates the objects material surface and vibrates with the subject. Working with gravity, materiality, and programs, these encounters hope to shake up our rigid imagination of domestic life.
Prior to joining Merge, Yiran had architectural internship experiences in Beijing, Shanghai, and Zurich that continued these interests through installation projects. Her past works include ‘Encounter in the Cloud’ – a public art installation in Guangzhou – and ‘Floating Pavilion’ – an exhibition in Yunnan for painter He Duo-ling created with NATURALBUILD.
