about
about
Hi,
my name is Hanzhang Lai!
(hahn-jahng)
I am a designer, researcher with a multidisciplinary background spanning architecture, visual practice, and communication. This breadth shapes how I approach ethnography, systems thinking, and synthesis, allowing me to move fluidly between lived experience, structural analysis, and strategic decision-making.
Trained at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (expected graduation in 2026), Syracuse School of Architecture, and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, shaped by nearly a decade of design training, my work focuses on understanding how people navigate complex systems and translating research into clear, actionable insight. My work focuses on understanding how people navigate complex systems and translating research into clear, actionable insight.
Selected
Work
*click on image to view project details
Community Engagement Strategy for Nashville's Public Transit Improvement Program
strategy planning / public policy research / transit / community engagement
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An applied design research and strategy project embedded in Nashville Cityhall, focused on strengthening community engagement systems for the city’s largest-ever transit investment.
Reclaim the Streets
event curation / organization
A community event organized to celebrate "in-between" culture for the brazilian immigrants neighborhood in Somerville, MA.
Community Ingenuity within Institutional Disaster Housing in Taiwan
field work / design research / ethnographic study / indigenous ecological wisdom
An ongoing ethnographic research project examining how indigenous communities adapt within institutional post-disaster housing systems, revealing the limits of standardization and the invisible labor behind resilience.
"What if Steam Engine was Never Invented?"
speculative design / data-visualization / climate art
Using speculative design, this data-art project imagines an alternative climate history. Two animations visualize atmospheric COâ‚‚. The faster the particles move, the higher the concentration.
