Originally from Shanghai, China—a modern city interwoven with spontaneous greenery, meandering roads, massive infrastructure, and vibrant public spaces—Jiayu developed a deep sensitivity to the temporality and texturality of urban landscapes. Her design approach positions landscape as a medium between ecology, infrastructure, and city-making, integrating systems thinking with material expression.
Her design work spans infrastructure adaptation and regenerative systems to speculative urbanism and the renewal of public space. She communicates through deep sections, oblique drawings, phase diagrams, and mapping to reveal the histories and evolving ecologies of place. She often resorts to interactive storytelling and curatorial strategies to communicate with diverse audiences.
Beyond design, Jiayu finds joy in dancing, drawing, and cooking. These practices allow her to explore the textures of the world in embodied, sensory ways—flowing through air, capturing light, or layering flavors on a plate. For her, they are acts of creation born from staying connected to the body, to place, to the present moment, and to everyday beauty.
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