Alicia Chai.

I’m Ziyi Chai—though you’re welcome to call me Alicia. I’m a student designer, musician, and researcher interested in how architecture can carry cultural memory, translate complex systems, and shape more meaningful public life. From tracing 160 years of change in Beijing’s Embassy District to transforming the counterpoint of a Bach fugue into architectural form, I move between archives, maps, musical scores, and models to explore how ideas become spaces.

Beyond the studio, you’ll often find me at the piano, composing music, editing poetry, or building creative communities. Whether performing in a musical pit orchestra, sharing instruments through KeyMelody, or bringing students together through literature and campus life, I’m drawn to work that gives structure a human voice.