“In the recognition of the existence of love lies the answer to despair. Work is that recognition given voice and name. ” (Audre Lorde, 1980)
Qianer is a feminist killjoy from Shanghai. Her research and practices aim to unmask coloniality and build a community of empowerment.
She is co-founder of Unmasking Space, a student initiative aiming to foreground grassroots voices and critically question the current knowledge production in architectural education. It has resulted in the establishment of a student-led elective course at the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich.
She is also co-founder of Sekundos - Morphologies of Identities, a student initiative that aims to recognize background identities in public spaces and to upkeep differences in the institution in the form of a musical podcast and live events.
She is an active member of the Parity Group, a fluid group of students, assistants, and professors from the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich, who meet to discuss issues around gender and race diversity, organizing the yearly Parity Talks in March. The Parity Group has won the Prix Meret Oppenheim in 2023.
She has practiced at Lacaton & Vassal Architectes (Paris 2020), gen Architects (Shanghai 2018), and has been a research/teaching assistant for Prof. Anne Lacaton (2020), Prof. Milica Topalovic (2022-23), and Prof. An Fonteyne (2023) at ETH Zurich. She is now a research assistant for Prof. Teresa Gali-Izard (2022-).
She received Architecture B.Eng at Tsinghua University (Beijing 2018), Architecture BSc at ETH Zurich (2021), and is now pursuing Architecture MSc at ETH Zurich. She has spent one exchange semester at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Autumn 2016) and one exchange semester at Harvard Graduate School of Design (Autumn 2023). She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, English, German, and speaks French.
She loves to collaborate with others and join collective forces. Please write to zhu@arch.ethz.ch for any ideas of collaboration!