Zi Zhuo Advancing Architecture Through Digital Workflows, Sustainability, and Storytelling

Zi Zhuo: Advancing Architecture Through Digital Workflows, Sustainability, and Storytelling

26 November 2025

Introduction

Zi Zhuo is an award-winning architectural designer specializing in campus housing and digital workflows, currently practicing at NAC Architecture in Seattle. His professional path includes influential roles at Ayers Saint Gross and RMJM, where he contributed to major higher-education, residential, and mixed-use projects across the United States. He holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Architecture from Chongqing University, grounding his work in rigorous design training and a strong international perspective.

Across institutions such as Clark University, Bryant University, Elon University, Dartmouth College, and the University of Washington, Zhuo has played key roles in planning, design, and digital coordination. His expertise in BIM integration, parametric systems, and large-scale housing analysis positions him among the new generation of designers advancing the future of student living environments.

Beyond his professional practice, Zhuo actively develops an independent design portfolio that explores narrative architecture, environmental awareness, and experimental form-making. His personal works—Sci-fi Gallery New York, Billboard, and Prism—have earned numerous international recognitions, including the UDAD Gold Award, A’ Design Award (Bronze), London Design Award Gold, Muse Design Award Gold, and French Design Award Gold. His conceptual installations were also exhibited at the CICA Museum, Korea, reflecting his rising presence in global architectural discourse.

Design Philosophy – Community, Storytelling, and Context

Zhuo’s design philosophy is rooted in the belief that architecture must support both human connection and spatial narrative. In his work for Clark, Bryant, and Elon Universities, he has emphasized the importance of “outside the unit” spaces—lounges, study rooms, kitchens, and social nodes that influence daily student interaction. His approach focuses on creating circulation networks and community spaces that foster belonging and academic well-being.

Alongside this human-centered rigor, Zhuo explores architecture as an emotional and cinematic medium through his independent practice. Sci-fi Gallery New York transforms a Manhattan ventilation tower into an immersive, projection-driven environment inspired by science-fiction aesthetics. The project manipulates spherical volumes, controlled lighting, and abstract imagery to create otherworldly interior experiences, demonstrating Zhuo’s interest in blending narrative, perception, and spatial transformation. For him, architecture is not only functional—it can also be expressive, imaginative, and deeply atmospheric.

Sci-fi Gallery New York:

Digital Tools – BIM, Parametric Design, and Advanced Workflow Innovation

Digital innovation is central to Zhuo’s practice, enabling precision and creativity at multiple scales. At Dartmouth College, he used parametric massing tools to evaluate complex housing scenarios rapidly. For the University of Washington’s Blakeley Student Apartments, he developed an automated façade workflow that generated thousands of gradient panels, reducing typical modeling time from weeks to days while improving constructability and coordination.

His independent work extends these methods into speculative experimentation. Billboard, a catastrophe-education center near Santa Monica Beach, reinterprets Los Angeles’ history of smog as both a cautionary narrative and an architectural interface. The east façade absorbs pollution and slowly develops evolving smog-formed patterns controlled by intelligent systems, while the west façade remains pristine—a symbolic contrast between degradation and restoration. Powered by parametric logic and integrated environmental systems, the project demonstrates how digital workflows can merge activism, performance, and expressive form.

Through both professional and conceptual work, Zhuo illustrates how BIM and parametric design can act not only as technical engines but also as tools for storytelling, resilience, and innovation.

Billboard:

Sustainable Design – Performance as an Architectural Language

Sustainability is a fundamental driver in Zhuo’s work. In practice, he has supported advanced envelope design, Low-E glazing, solar strategies, and high-performance insulation for large institutional projects at Dartmouth and the University of Washington. These strategies enhance comfort, reduce energy consumption, and help universities meet LEED certification goals.

In his conceptual practice, sustainability becomes more expressive. Prism, a mixed-use high-rise overlooking Chongqing’s iconic Hongyadong scenic area, organizes commercial podiums, exhibition spaces, twin towers, and terraced public amenities into a coherent architectural system responding to the city’s dramatic topography. At the heart of the project is its double-skin glass façade, which creates a ventilated buffer zone, reduces heat gain in Chongqing’s humid climate, enhances acoustic performance, and significantly improves overall energy efficiency. Paired with recyclable aluminum framing and elevated green terraces, the design reflects how environmental performance and geometric clarity can reinforce one another. Inspired by “chromatic dispersion,” the project reorganizes Chongqing’s complexity into a climate-responsive, prismatic architectural expression.

Prism:

Looking Ahead – Toward Integrated, Human-Centered, Intelligent Architecture

Zhuo’s future vision lies at the intersection of community, technology, and sustainability. He aims to refine data-driven methods for residential planning, integrate BIM-parametric workflows across the full building lifecycle, and advance sustainable strategies that use smart systems and adaptive envelopes. Whether designing a new university residence hall or an experimental sci-fi pavilion, he remains committed to creating architecture that is technologically innovative, environmentally responsible, and deeply attuned to human experience.

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