TAK YING CHAN (TIFFANY)
Portrait courtesy of Tak Ying Chan.
BFA of Interior Design from Pratt Institute | Interior Designer/Architectural Visualizer
Tak Ying graduated from Pratt Institute’s interior design program in 2020. With broad experience and knowledge in both 2D and 3D software and great passion in illustration, she has a diverse field of design skills to dedicate in interior design and architecture. She has worked in interior design firms and architecture Visualization firm in Shanghai and New York and grown as a designer with strong design skill and visualization work.
Living in the Future
What inspired you to pursue architecture?
Since early childhood, I have been traveling and living in some of the busiest and most complex cities in the world such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, and currently New York. As cities developed and became denser in population and urban volume, life quality of the communities and citizens are compressed and pressured constantly overtime; for example, the extreme density in the saturated city of Hong Kong. Growing up in these cities, I have witnessed people’s life style become more undesirable and problematic in terms of both physical and metal health. Therefore I started to wonder, in what way can I help this change? How can we improve our living styles in cities by changing the system of interior spaces and architecture? That curiosity and eager to solve current problems urged myself to pursue interior design at Pratt Institute which has a focus on interior architecture. By understanding the relationships between cities, societies, communities, culture, and people themselves encourages my studies to make a change in our lives by design and creativity.
Traveling through Hong Kong International Airport every year - Photo courtesy of Tak Ying Chan
Pratt Institute Interior Design Studio - Photo courtesy of Tak Ying Chan
Personal Illustration Project of Imagining Future Cities - Photo courtesy of Tak Ying Chan
What is the most important thing that you learned in the past year?
2020 is the last year of my interior design program. An unspeakable amount of situations where happening and changing in the world as I worked on my thesis. The pandemic had such a huge impact on us and students and designers both physically and mentally. I learned during months of working from home, that there are so many more issues rapidly growing and bursting continuously; and we as designers should not only focus on the current issue, but at the same time be able to look forward, to stretch our designs and ideas to the future scheme.
Thesis Project ‘Symbiosis’ Drawings and Renderings - Photo courtesy of Tak Ying Chan
Thesis Project ‘Symbiosis’ Drawings and Renderings - Photo courtesy of Tak Ying Chan
What are some architectural organizations (or specific person/role model) that helped you learn to overcome an obstacle? How did they?
“Architectural League” helped me open a door of conversation with students, professors, and professionals from other schools of architecture. An obstacle that I faced in 2020 is the difficulty and lack of communication during my last but most important semesters because communication became extremely rare due to the pandemic. The League held programs and forums online and participants were able to exchange ideas outside of school from week to week.
‘Reimagine’ Urban Video Project, Group T, Architectural League - Photo courtesy of Tak Ying Chan
If you were given the opportunity to repeat the year, what is one thing you’d do differently?
This year, I have been away from my family for a very long time due to the pandemic. If I can repeat the year, I will choose to return to my family earlier to spend more time with them. As an international student and worker, this pandemic made reunion with family very difficult.
‘Reimagine’ Urban Video Project, Group T, Architectural League - Photo courtesy of Tak Ying Chan
As you reflect on the past year, what did you discover as your biggest strengths?
On the past year, I used my extra time at home to complete competitions and additional projects both independently and with friends, and won several awards/honors. I discovered my strength of creating with my independence of thinking and creativity. After four years of hard work at school, I was able to prove to myself that I have not only grown as an interior design student, also as an independent designer. When the world seems to have stopped, I could still find my own way to move forward.
Project ‘Osmosis’, Team with Wanlu Liu, 2020 IIDA Student Competition First Prize - Photo courtesy of Tak Ying Chan
In terms of rising concerns and problems (in the architectural profession) over the past year, what is one change that you wished would happen and it did not? This can be in an educational or work atmosphere.
As a graduate of 2020, I was very disappointed when the pandemic hit and majority of architectural firms, companies, and studios completely shut off opportunities for internship or job opportunities and most hardly considered remote work style. I think it is essential that the architecture field start to dig more into the remote work style so there is a system prepared to run, so newly graduates do not just lose all the opportunities this year.
