What grounds me is the observation of life. In this life, I love, craft, and narrate. I touch, feel, and work with my hands dirty. Details draw my attention, so do unspoken words and hidden stories.
I am deeply fascinated by the cultural and ethnographic veins of architecture, and try to engage with a design approach that is honest, sensitive and sentient. Along this journey, the camera has been my significant partner who teaches me how to see, unearth, and imagine.
In this world that’s overly saturated with images, noise, opinions, why do I need to add more? What do I want to share and why does it matter? Perhaps I will never find the answers, but I never stop asking myself these questions.
Let’s connect. daisyz@mit.edu
EDUCATION
2019 - 2023, Master of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
major in MIT School of Architecture and Planning, with classes and research taken across MIT Comparative Media Studies, MIT Open Documentary Lab, and Harvard University Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies
2014 - 2017, Bachelor of Design in Architecture, The University of Sydney, Australia
2015, Exchange, University of California, Berkeley, USA
EXPLORATION
2023 - present, Co-founder, Dunes Workshop Initiative, Cambridge + New York
an architectural storytelling initiative that engages with social and cultural issues of the contemporary world through creative writing and transmedia filmmaking
Fall 2022, Teaching Assistant, 4.021: How to Design (Almost) Anything taught by Skylar Tibbits, MIT
assisting instructor with course development and regular reviews of students’ feedback, assisting students with concept designs, prototypes, fabrication, narrative and documentation
Summer 2022, Artist and Research Residency El Recinto, Mexico City
funded by a grant of MIT Mexico, conducting research on the aging of architecture through the lens of technology, ethnography, and filmmaking
2021- present, Freelance Filmmaker, Everywhere
an ongoing research navigating the intersection of architecture and art to question the established norms of building, unearth the often ignored and unseen, and explores new possibilities of imaginaries
2020 - 2023, Department Photographer and Communication Assistant, MIT
for the duration of 3 years, contributing all photography and videography for Department of Architecture of student life, reviews, events, and ceremony etc. for visual contents in news, prints, publication and social media
2021-2022, Columnist, Out of Frame, MIT
contributor to the community platform of MIT Architecture with a multimedia essay series centering the observation and archival of the enchanted everyday
2020, Researcher, Many Houses/Many Worlds for Venice Biennale 2020, MIT
a research that unearths the life cycle of architecture materials through their entanglements with environment, labour, culture, and society, conducted with Mark Jarzombek Vikramaditya Prakash
2019-2020, Venice Architecture Biennale Curator Assistant, Hashim Sarkis Studios, Cambridge
researching for the conceptual development of exhibition, designing curator’s interventions with drawing, modelling, visulisation, and physical prototypes
2016-2019, Architecture Designer, Neeson Murcutt Architects, Sydney
working on a variety of projects across different scales in conceptual development, design iteration, visualisation, modelling, fabrication and prototypes; also in charge of the office’s photography, graphic design, and publication. Full involvement in the design development of projects including:
•• Public, Institutional and Community Projects
Rosebery Primary School, Rosebery, Sydney, 2019
Broken Hill Town Library, Broken Hill, NSW, 2019
Australian Museum Extension, Sydney, 2018
Vine Church Community, Surry Hills, Sydney, 2018
Pittwater House School Masterplan, Northern Beaches, Sydney, 2018 Spring Bay Mill Adaptive Eco-Tourism, Triabunna, Tasmania, 2017
•• Residential Projects
The Vale Development, Launceston,Tasmania, 2019
Dulwich Hill Apartments, Dulwich Hill, Sydney, 2018
Lower Fort Street Apartments Renovation (Heritage Listed), Sydney, 2018 Paddington House, Paddington, Sydney, 2017
•• Competition
Parramatta Aquatic Centre Competition (finalist), Parramatta, Sydney, 2018
Visitor Centre of Cascades Female Factory (finalist), Hobart, Tasmania, 2017
Barker College Sports Hall + Learning Precinct (winner, built project), Hornsby, Sydney, 2017
•• Publication
AIA NSW Award Entry - Residential Architecture, 2018
Venice Biennale Australian Architecture, 2018
“The Material City” - Prince Alfred Park Pool Upgrade, 2017
2017-2019, Co-founder, The Freswind Community School Project Initiative, Sydneydesigning, exhibiting and fundraising for an ongoing collaboration with the Freswind community of Ohlen, Vanuatu to collectively build a new school in Port Vila, an area severely affected by tropical cyclone Pam in 2015
EXHIBITION & PUBLICATION
2023, (Forthcoming) Daisy Ziyan Zhang, “Wrinkles”, Scroope 32: The Quotidian and the Enchanted, University of Cambridge, UKa multimedia essay that gazes at the ageing of architecture; it is an attempt to break the binary of before and after in architectural design, and gently question established forms of architectural authorship
2022, Cambridge Science Festival, MIT Museum, Cambridge
project “Frozen Forces” that explores the concept of intelligent skin at the intersection of fashion and technology, exhibited at MIT Museum as part of 2022 Science Fashion Festival
2022, permanent collection, MIT Museum, Cambridge
project “Spines” that pushes the boundary of digital fabrication and traditional hand crafting in the discipline of geometry, acquired as part of MIT Museum’s permanent collection
2021, “Desktop”, Keller Gallery, MITan ehxibition that celebrates the learning history during the year of COVID; 2 projects exhibited - “Miscarrage” that foregrounds a catastrophic mistake during the learning process of mastering flip milling CNC for crafting a piece of digitally optimised furniture; “Melt, Remelt” that explores the potential of domestic fabrication within all the constraints of remote learning due to COVID
2020, “Play Room”, Keller Gallery, MITan exhibition that showcases designed board games that examine a series of contemporary topics in architecture; our project shown is “Portfolio Agency” that investigates the booming of preperation agencies for architecture school application (collaborated with Cloe Yun Wang)
2018, “Ohlen Freswind: patterns for a community school”, Tin Sheds Gallery, The University of Sydney
exhibition that presents the development of an ongoing collaboration and community engagement of disaster resistant housing; as a co-founder of this initiative I was involved through all stages of design and fabrication to bring this exhibition to life
2016, Architecture Graduate Exhibition, The University of Sydneygraduation design studio project selected for annual architecture exhibition
2015, New Nature - Sri Lanka Design Exhibition, Sydneydesign proposal selected for an exhibition that reestablishes the relationship with nature in the unique urban setting of Colombo
2014, Sydney Design Festival, Sydneyan art project selected, one that explores the potential of a body instrument which is transformable between 2D and 3D, realised through a mechanism built with traditional bamboo weaving technique
AWARDS & GRANTS
2023, Independent Research Grant, MIT Brazil, MIT
2022, Official Selection, International Photography Awards
2022, Independent Research Grant, MIT Mexico, MIT
2021, Research Grant, Council for the Arts at MIT, MIT
2019-2023, Department of Architecture Graduate Fellowship, MIT
2015, International Exchange Outbound Scholarship, The University of Sydney
2014-2015, Dean’s List of Excellence in Academic Performance, The University of Sydney