Architecture plays many roles in our world. They are places where we live and work. They house art and performances. They build industries, whether with warehouses and factories or giant server rooms. They are money-making machines for bankers and commercial developers. Above all else, I like to think that architecture brings people together.

We love cities because they connect us. Wasn’t it a pain during the pandemic when everyone was kept in their little rooms? When you take a stroll down the street and smile at a stranger, you share that moment together. When you go to a museum and marvel at a piece of art with the crowd, the owe and bliss link you. When you talk over coffee tables with a friend and tell him about your dreams and fears, you spread some ideas and added a few more possibilities to what the world could be.

That may have sounded like any humanly occupiable space at all could readily lend itself as social spaces. This is not true. Architectures are sophisticated systems where choices have to be made. An apartment building developer could include community rooms and a dog park where tenants can socialize, but that comes at the cost of a few leasable units. Will that be worth the rent lost? A corporate campus would have employee canteens, gym, and whatnot. These can be shared with the city, but it makes the facilities a little harder to manage. Do they open up to the possibilities or gate themselves away? Architectures carry as many agendas as the people they bring. An architect cannot build meaningful places if he cannot navigate the power struggle.

I started looking at architecture as social vessels very early on in my undergraduate study at Tsinghua University in Beijing, perhaps in often misled ways. Through my Master of Architecture study at Yale and my early career at KPF, I met some of my most precious mentors and friends who led me to see how in order to make a great physical place, one has to ponder the invisible net of contending interests, perspectives, and priorities behind. This led to my H.I. Feldman Prize winning project at Yale, a fictional masterplan for a New England coastline town.

Between 2022 and 2025, I worked at David Chipperfield Architects in Shanghai. I led the first RAM Assembles, a biennale festival where we worked with Shanghai Rockbund Art Museum and the ROCKBUND’s developer to turn the commercial properties a place shared by the city. I led many design competitions, both at David Chipperfield Architects and with my own projects, for schools, museums, office parks, and more. I taught at Tongji University alongside Sir Chipperfield to guide the students to design for the communities. These formed the idea base for Agora: a practice that focuses on the social value of architecture, and reconciles it with practical challenges.

About Minquan Wang

Minquan Wang is a registered architect in Connecticut and a member of the American Institute of Architecture. He serves professionally as an Associate Principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox in New York, where he was involved in several large-scale high-profile mixed-use development projects including the Chongqing International Land-Sea Center, Baker Circle, and Thamrin Nine.

He previously served as an Architect at David Chipperfield Architects Shanghai, where he played critical roles in the Shanghai office's design-focused projects and cultural/academic engagements, including being the leading designer in high profile competitions such as Jinqiao Art Center and Minsheng Wharf Masterplan, and the project architect for the 2023 RAM Assembles.

Minquan's independent works have received numerous accolades and awards internationally. His winning proposal of West Zhejiang Agro-Tech Campus, collaborated with SIZE Arch and ZJUT Engineering Design Group, was the Gold Winner of A' Design Award 2025, Gold Winner of APR Urban Design & Architecture Design Awards 2025, Bronze Prize winner of International Design Awards 2024, and Gold Winner of NY Architectural Design Awards. His proposal for China Academy of Art Mengyuan Campus, was the Bronze Prize winner of International Design Awards 2024, and Silver Winner of MUSE Design Awards 2024.

Minquan taught the Option Studio at Tongji University in Shanghai on rebuilding the industrial heritages and craftsman communities in Jingdezhen. He is a co-author of Folding Jingdezhen as a review of the studio’s work. He received his M.Arch from the Yale School of Architecture, where he was awarded the H.I. Feldman Prize, and his B.Arch from Tsinghua University.