Ray Wang

SMArchS Urbanism

Ray is a Researcher and Architect based at MIT. He is a SMArchS Urbanism Candidate (‘25) and works at the intersection of urban studies, architectural design, and building technology. Currently, he serves as a teaching assistant in the Art, Culture, and Technology (ACT) program and as a research assistant in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory's (CSAIL) HCI Engineering Group.

Before joining MIT, Ray was a registered architect and interior designer in Taiwan. With years of professional experience across the globe, he has worked on projects in Kyoto, Taipei, Singapore, and Boston. He holds a B.Arch from National Cheng Kung University, where he received the Thesis Award with Distinction in 2019. His research at MIT, focusing on sustainable architecture and urbanism, is currently supported by the Taiwanese government.

Since 2019, Ray has established WZR, a multidisciplinary practice aimed at designing for a more sustainable future. He has been actively involved in several international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale, Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab, and the Yokohama Triennale. In Fall 2024, his collaborative exhibition Damp Skin was exhibited at the MIT Wiesner Student Art Gallery.

Projects
Rocket Horizon
MIT’s Rocket Horizon project is leading a new approach to creating lunar habitats. This collaboration brings together MIT’s Department of Architecture, Media Lab, Aero Astro, and Sloan School of Management, working together to adapt SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System (HLS) into a reusable and sustainable living space on the Moon.
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The Parthenon
In 2023, a temporary pavilion named "The Parthenon" was constructed at the former Air Force Command Headquarters in Taipei as part of the Annual Exhibition at the Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab. Utilizing industrial materials and contemporary construction methods, the team constructed an evolving public container that could be disassembled and reassembled at various civic activity sites. Its recyclable and open-ended design embodies the principles of sustainability and adaptability.
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The Liquid City
How can architecture link the past and future of the city? As described by Aldo Rossi, the permanence of architecture allows it to create the collective memory of the environment. However, as places disappear, memories will also be forgotten in rapid urbanization. This thesis establishes a framework for the dialogue between urban history and contemporary life and serves as a public infrastructure that catalyzes future urban transformation.
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Follow the Tuna
Following the Tuna, the research aims to reveal various scales and steps in transnational extraction operations. Each action represents a different scale of interest transformation. This liquid urbanism examines the dynamic urban movement entirely predicated upon global extraction's political and economic interests, often overlooking fundamental contexts such as culture, history, geography, ecology, and humanity.
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Damp Skin
Damp Skin is a collaborative project exploring the impact of East Asia’s climate on post-modernized cities, focusing on memories, body perception, and everyday cultural phenomena affected by humidity and heat. This exhibition, The Porous Urbanity and Individual, presents three works by MIT Taiwanese architects and design researchers. These works include a living archive and historical research of Taiwanese domesticity as it contends with dampness within urban housing, a sculpture series capturing emotional imprints of exhaling skin within Taiwan and Hong Kong’s urban environments, and digital representations of urban life’s permeable, living skin.
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Contact

zrwang@mit.edu