MASKING FUTURES
THESISMASKING FUTURES: Architectures
of Hypervisbility and Invisibility in the
Chinese Diaspora examines how architecture
participates in systems of slow violence though
bureaucracy, visibility and spatial control,
while proposing new forms of collective
care rooted in community support and
cultural continuity. Grounded in research
surrounding Rob Nixon’s theory of slow
violence, the project investigates how the built
environment gradually distributes harm
through institutional neglect, surveillance
infrastructures, and systems of bureaucratic
processing tied to China’s One-Child Policy
and transnational adoption. Orphanages,
immigration offices, suburban domestic
spaces, and adoption infrastructures are
understood not as neutral environments, but
as architectures which regulate movement,
visibility and identity over time.
In understanding the constant reminder
of “othering” which the Chinese adopted
girl lives through, the project asks how
architecture might instead support her, and
the broader immigrant community, through
networks of care, exchange and visibility on
their own terms. Deriving from a site known as
an immigrant hub in Providence, the proposal
creates a layered community infrastructure,
integrating legal advocacy spaces, cultural
gathering areas, cafes and libraries to create
a collective support environment. The project
reframes architecture not as a system for
classification and processing, but as a spatial framework for connection, interdependence,
and mutual support.
The project understands the impact of
white suburbia on the standardization of what
the “American” girl should be. It draws from the
contrast of postwar suburban architectures of
domestic control and Chinese systems layered
thresholds and collective gathering. Rather
than organizing space through rigid linear
circulation, the plan fragments the building
into interconnected volumes which bend,
rotate and unfold across the site, creating
moments of pause, overlap and exchange.
This spatial language becomes a critique
of institutional systems which prioritize
efficiency, surveillance and immediate
legibility. Instead, the project proposes
environments where identity is allowed to
exist in states of multiplicity, opacity and
continual transformation.
By shifting architecture away from
systems of bureaucratic processing and
towards collective occupation, the project
imagines the immigrant community as an
interdependent social network sustained
through shared resources, cultural memory
and mutual visibility. Spaces of food, language
exchange, childcare, education and legal
advocacy become forms of resistance against
the slow violence of displacement, assimilation
and institutional neglect. Ultimately, the project
proposes architecture as a living support
structure: one which does not demand legibility
or assimilation in order to belong, but instead
creates space for immigrant communities
to gather, preserve cultural continuity and
construct new forms of belonging together.
Meditating Through Compost
Food waste makes up around 30% of the waste in the Johnston landfill. This project proposes a hybrid program meditation park and in-vessil composting system within the Swan Point Cemetery to radically push compost into the public realm. In normalizing compost with a quonset hut design meant to be viewed as beauitful, education around our waste and how to properly discard of it will encourage more diversion from the already close to capacity landfill.
Breathing Berms
Within a heavily urbanized landscape the Quebrada Josefina has become heavily constrained to the built environment. With the channel isolated between concrete walls, it has lost its connection to the land and the people who inhabit it, posing a constant threat of flood damage to those who live closest to it. Our goal is to soften the connection between land and water, create more space for ecological growth, predict and control flooding, and create new relationships between locals and the water they live beside. Stilt and Berm housing units feature a gradient from private to public, inviting residents to look towards the Quebrada instead of away. These two new housing typologies are strategically deployed to respond to FEMA flood zones, minimizing flood damage in the surrounding neighborhoods through the creation of a controlled flood plane.
This was a group project with Olivia Messimer (RISD B.arch 2026). The shown drawings are my part of the project.
Swan Point Cemetery Site Analysis
While developing a composting hub in Swan Point Cemetery, I created a set of drawings in order to analyse how the existing site composts and who has access to the composting facilities present in order to understand what was needed at the site. This consists of a site plan where drop off points of compost are mapped out and an estimate calculation of how much food waste is produced within the neighborhood of Blackstone is made. Additionally, a zoomed in site analysis shows the type of people around the site which would use compost. Finally, the three sections show the path of potential compost and how soil is used throughout the cemetery.
Urbanism and Bioremediation
This is an Urban ecology project based on idea of bioremediation of the marshlands in New Bedford, Massachusetts. By establishing a series of living machines throughout a pathway structured around the entirety of the site, waste-water treatment and bioremedation of soil becomes an inevitable aspect of an inhabitants life. This was a group project with the section drawings, diagrams and community center plans done by me and the residential and site plan drawings done by Michael Earle. Models and site strategies were collaborative.
Tracking Industry in New Bedford
This drawing is an analysis of invasive species tracked into New Bedford through dredging. It was inspired based off of the areas rich history of dredging and field research showing the amount of invasive species on site. This study further pushed the ethos of my Urbanism and Bioremediation project by allowing me to expand my focus of the inhabitants of an urban plan beyond just humans.
Painting Pavilion
This pavilion proposal provides learning, making, and exhibition spaces for RISD students, specifically the painting department and the greater community of Providence interested in exploring outdoor painting. Here, outdoor learning and open air painting is highly encouraged through the use of porches and mezzanines. The project can be read as nesting smaller spaces to create outdoor shaded areas and responds to the site by following its elevation through roof heights and different level entry ways focused on the retaining wall.