Architecture, Landscape, and the Future of Public Space with Chentian Liu

The core idea of the project is learning to live with water rather than endlessly fighting against it. “Above and Beyond” proposes an amphibious waterfront campus that adapts to changing tides and flooding conditions through a combination of fixed and floating architectural systems. 

The campus itself becomes a teaching tool, where students interact directly with wetlands, tidal ecologies, floating classrooms, and resilient infrastructure. Instead of treating water as a threat to exclude, the project explores how architecture can foster new relationships between communities, ecology, and climate adaptation.

I have always been interested in the relationship between cities, landscapes, and human behavior. Growing up in rapidly urbanizing environments made me aware of how architecture shapes everyday life at every scale. 

I later studied architecture at Rice University and Yale School of Architecture, where I became increasingly interested in climate-responsive design, adaptive urbanism, and the social role of architecture. What continues to inspire me is architecture’s ability to synthesize technical, environmental, cultural, and emotional questions into physical space.

My work focuses on architecture as a form of environmental and social infrastructure. I am particularly interested in projects that address climate adaptation, resilience, public space, and new relationships between urban systems and natural systems. Whether speculative or built, I hope the work can provoke discussion about how architecture can respond more creatively and equitably to future challenges.

One of the biggest challenges was balancing environmental complexity with architectural clarity. The project deals with sea level rise projections, flooding scenarios, ecological restoration, public infrastructure, and educational programming simultaneously. 

Early on, the proposal risked becoming too technical or fragmented. Refining the project required simplifying the spatial language and creating a stronger organizing framework, which ultimately became the elevated circulation loop and the gradient of water conditions across the site. That process helped the project become more legible and spatially cohesive.

My process often begins with research and mapping. I like to study the environmental history, social conditions, infrastructure, and hidden systems of a site before developing formal ideas. From there, diagrams become important tools for testing relationships between program, landscape, circulation, and environmental performance. 

Visualization also plays a major role in my process. I use drawings and renderings not only to represent a project, but to discover spatial and atmospheric qualities throughout the design process.

Adaptive, amphibious, and optimistic.

One meaningful response was that the project felt optimistic despite addressing climate anxiety and environmental loss. Many climate-related proposals focus primarily on defense or retreat, while this project tries to imagine new forms of collective life and education alongside water. Hearing that the project felt both speculative and emotionally grounded was very encouraging to me.

This recognition is incredibly meaningful because it validates the importance of speculative and research-driven work within architecture. Projects like this often exist between academic research and professional practice, so receiving recognition from an international design award demonstrates that these conversations are increasingly relevant beyond the studio or classroom. It is also personally encouraging as an emerging designer.

I hope it allows me to continue pursuing ambitious and experimental work related to climate adaptation and resilient urban futures. The award also reinforces my interest in combining research, visualization, and architectural storytelling as part of the design process. Moving forward, I would like to further explore projects that bridge environmental systems with public and civic space.

I am very interested in the future of climate-adaptive coastal cities and amphibious public infrastructure. I would love to work on projects that combine ecological restoration, housing, education, and public space into integrated systems rather than treating them as separate disciplines. I am especially inspired by projects that redefine resilience not only as protection, but as creating richer relationships between people and their environment.

I believe architecture will increasingly shift toward adaptation, reuse, resilience, and systematic thinking. Climate change, resource limitations, and environmental instability will require architects to engage more deeply with ecology, infrastructure, and long-term environmental performance.

At the same time, emerging technologies such as AI and advanced visualization tools are transforming how we research, communicate, and test ideas. I hope to contribute by developing projects that combine environmental thinking with strong spatial and cultural narratives.

I see sustainability not only as reducing environmental impact, but also as creating adaptable and socially resilient systems. My work often explores flexibility, passive environmental strategies, ecological restoration, and the integration of public amenities with environmental infrastructure. I believe architecture should move beyond isolated buildings and instead operate as part of larger ecological and civic networks.

I would love to design an entirely amphibious coastal district that evolves with changing water levels over time. Instead of relying solely on rigid flood defenses, the district would combine floating public spaces, adaptive housing, wetlands, research facilities, and ecological infrastructure into a living urban environment. 

What inspires me most is the idea that architecture could help communities not only survive environmental change, but develop new cultural and spatial relationships with the natural world.