Yiran Zhang

• position:
  Designer
• contact:
  yiran@mergearchitects.com
  
• bio:
  Yiran Zhang joined MERGE architects in 2022. Yiran holds a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture degree from Washington University in St. Louis, with a minor in Art. There she was given the Senior Award, Widmann Prize of Sam Fox School. During her time at the GSD, she was selected to study at ETH Zurich as an exchange student. Prior to joining Merge, Yiran has had various architectural internship experiences ranging from Beijing, Shanghai, to Zurich.
  
  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 vibrate with the subject. Working with gravity, materiality and programs, these encounters hope to shake up our rigid imagination of domestic living.
  
  Yiran’s practice has continued these interests by involving in many installation projects. Her past work includes “Encounter in the Cloud,” a public art installation in Guangzhou, and “Floating Pavilion,” an exhibition installation in Yunnan for painter He Duo-ling, led at Naturalbuild office.