NANCY AI

Nancy Ai (b. ZhuHai, China) is a Los-Angeles based designer with special interests in cultural receptions of material experience within architecture. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Southern California Institute of Architecture. With working experiences in Foodstory DTLA as an assistant cook, local architecture firms and art nonprofit organizations such as 18th Street Art Center, Materials & Applications, and Wende Museum, she seeks a multi-disciplinary practice that focuses on public engagement and community building. Nancy also spearheaded a series of self-initiated design research called “Local Jitters” which interrogates architecture’s influence on social and gender norms through specific interior detailing.

A Dive into Materiality and Culture

What inspired you to pursue a career architecture?

To be honest, I didn’t want to pursue architecture until the third year of my professional education. I have always been drawn to a certain tactile and sensory experience and had initially wanted to go to school for costume design because clothing was the most immediate environment outside of our skin. To me, the stage was the ideal spatial experiment where everything performs - not only the characters but also the textiles, surfaces, objects, lights, and many times, the audience. However, in the midst of my B.Arch degree, I got into a medical emergency. My hospital stay made me realize the importance of material experience within healthcare architecture - that tactility is critical to intimacy and wellness but is severely lacking!

While this made me so frustrated, I think that’s when I truly started getting excited about architecture. It is vital to create spaces that are livable and worthwhile. That said, there are so many factors in making a “livable” space. What defines home or domesticity? Is there a certain programmatic need or aesthetic? Is it different depending on culture and social class? I believe we need to have open dialogue about what it means to create an intimate and responsive architecture in a diverse set of social perspectives.

As a recent graduate, what are your thoughts regarding architectural design education today?

Every architecture institution is different in their philosophy and focus. I can only speak to my experience in SCI-Arc. To me, there seemed to be a consensus that Architecture (with a capital “A”) should impose a certain perspective about how a place is supposed to feel - a certain narrative. An architect is taught to universalize a particular narrative that is brought forth objectively but is, in reality, subjective and personal. While I am very grateful for my design discipline, I believe there was an unbalanced focus on permanence and formal massing. There was so much emphasis on the exterior facades and forms that the interiors are usually neglected. This is a problem because the most frequent user groups are experiencing a building from the interior.

In more general terms, I think there is a problem with the way we think about and judge an “aesthetic.” A standard aesthetic can be problematic because there are heavy social implications. For example, the contemporary minimalist aesthetic (which has totally deviated from the initial ideas of minimalism) is a luxury. It is exclusive to a certain class status. A graphic designer friend once told me a story where she gathered images for her client’s mood board. The boss told her those images did not look poor enough. We never question in our education what it means for something to be more beautiful or grotesque. I believe this is critical in making more inclusive and public accessible designs.

What influenced you to start Local Jitters?

Many of my friends were international students and the two languages we always had in common are food and architecture. So one thing we love to do together is cook for each other our favorite meals and talk about design. These conversations led to so many interesting debates and findings about how different cultures see the meaning of various designs. For example, a Japanese friend would measure the temperature of sake with his fingers so accurately (with only 1-2 degree margin of error) because of a culture of bath taking. In this way, the sense of touch as a tool, as architecture, was so intriguing to me.

Through this, I questioned what it meant to modernize traditions and traditional spaces. Many traditional cultural spaces and built environments have been exaggerated as stereotypes or for tourism. San Francisco Chinatown is a great example of utilizing stereotypically “Chinese” ornamentation and facades to make it more “Asian” and “authentic.” Thus, some “cultures” are created because of the socioeconomic needs to create these ‘stereotypes’. This is aside from the problem of cultural appropriation but trespasses into conversations about domesticity and diversity in design pedagogy. These thoughts led to an urgency to start to unveil certain nuances that make minority cultures so unique, beautiful, and worthwhile.

Japanese stir fry lunch prepared and presented by Yoko at Foodstory DTLA - Courtesy of Nancy Ai

Arepas and fried plantains prepared and presented by Tiziana Felice and Nancy Ai - Courtesy of Nancy Ai

With Local Jitters, what was the key takeaway from the collaborative efforts and cultural differences between you, Asmaa, and Omar?

Wow, there were so many takeaways. Just listening to them speak about the landscapes in which they sojourned was invaluable. It worked out really well for us because we thought about space very differently - I lean towards 3D materials while Asmaa has an amazing eye for graphics and Omar, a love for fabrication.

While we complemented each other in this way, they also caused design frictions. Because of this current pandemic, most of our conversations, designing and modeling happened virtually. That was difficult because, as architecture students, we are so attuned to this studio culture where we experiment things, rip things, and assemble things together in person.

But apart from, and also because of, the obvious design and cultural differences, I learned so much about communication. I personally am getting better at illustrating things in my mind onto schedules and lists - tedious but so crucial.

Mashrabiya designed and fabricated by Nancy Ai, Asmaa Abu Assaf and Omar Eddin - Picture taken by Nancy Ai.

Where do you see Local Jitters going? How do you see this platform influencing the current and next generation of emerging professionals?

I hope for Local Jitters to continue expanding with a new project every two months. Our team are all people of color ranging from filmmakers to musicians to designers (email me if you’re interested). I think of these projects as bursts of our individual passions - because there is no funding, we’re really just trying to create something that may inspire others to do the same. That said, I also hope Local Jitters continues to challenge the idea of cultural purity, creates spaces of mergence, and brings forth the impact design has on social norms and behavior.

My dear friend and upcoming collaborator, Chuwen Ong, very accurately and beautifully told me once: “Honestly, Local Jitters is like the way you had named it. It is an excitement in exploring painted pages rather than painting blank sheets. You are the “local” source that has ‘detected’ these nuances and is excited in learning and exploring all the painted characters that came into your life that some you relate so much to, and others that you may not but are willing to learn about the differences. If anything, your interest in starting this might also be because of that you felt like you were a ‘jitter’ too - with your whole immigrant background where you have to readapt to the “American culture” and all.”

Teaser render of Local Jitters’ next interior and conversation in collaboration with Chuwen Ong - Courtesy of Nancy Ai

NANCY AI

A Dive into Materiality and Culture

APRELLIA STANLEY

SARA RAMIREZ