{"id":40900,"date":"2025-07-08T09:38:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T09:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/muse.international\/?p=40900"},"modified":"2025-07-10T06:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T06:29:10","slug":"yujin-cao-and-liwei-shen-weave-ecology-and-identity-in-city-spine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/muse.international\/index\/yujin-cao-and-liwei-shen-weave-ecology-and-identity-in-city-spine\/","title":{"rendered":"Yujin Cao & Liwei Shen Weave Ecology and Identity in City Spine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Yujin Cao is an architect and urban designer who integrates art and challenges conventions across scales. Liwei Shen, a landscape designer at Sasaki, focuses on ecological justice and cultural representation, connecting environmental systems with social equity. Together, they explore interdisciplinary urbanism with a commitment to impact and innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q1. Congratulations on winning the MUSE Design Awards! Can you introduce yourself and share about what inspired you to pursue design as a career?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yujin & Liwei:<\/strong> Thank you! We are Yujin Cao and Liwei Shen\u2014designers who share a passion for interdisciplinary collaboration and transformative urbanism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yujin:<\/strong> I’m an architect, urban designer, and artist whose work bridges scales and disciplines. I hold a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard GSD and have practiced across Asia and North America. My design journey is driven by a desire to challenge conventions, explore systematic thinking, and integrate art into the built environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liwei:<\/strong> I’m a landscape designer at Sasaki with a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard GSD and a strong focus on ecological justice and cultural representation. My work engages deeply with the intersection of environmental systems and social equity. As the 2022 LAF Olmsted Scholar, I believe landscape architecture should be concerned with a vision for global dynamics and risks as well as design precision in local cultural representation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yujin & Liwei:<\/strong> We both entered design with a shared curiosity about how spatial systems shape human experience and a deep belief that design must be both visionary and responsive. Our collaboration allows us to bridge architecture and landscape, strategy and detail, imagination and implementation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Q2. What does being recognized in the MUSE Design Awards mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being recognized by the MUSE Design Awards is incredibly meaningful to us\u2014not only as validation of our collaborative process, but also as recognition of the values embedded in City Spine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This project reflects our belief in equitable urbanism and design that addresses ecology, mobility, and community identity in an integrated way. It\u2019s an honor to be part of a platform that elevates innovative, future-forward design thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q3. How has this achievement impacted your career, team, or agency, and what opportunities has it brought so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being recognized by the MUSE Design Awards is incredibly meaningful to us\u2014not only as validation of our collaborative process, but also as recognition of the values embedded in City Spine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This project reflects our belief in equitable urbanism and design that addresses ecology, mobility, and community identity in an integrated way. It\u2019s an honor to be part of a platform that elevates innovative, future-forward design thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q4. What role does experimentation play in your creative process? Can you share an example?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experimentation is central to how we work together. We constantly challenge each other to go beyond disciplinary assumptions\u2014whether integrating kinetic energy into public space or reshaping infrastructure into social space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In City Spine, we experimented by combining transit architecture with landscape systems\u2014using V-shaped structures to house solar-powered terminals, while layering green roofs and forested plazas to build ecological corridors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These experimental gestures allowed us to push technical boundaries while staying grounded in real-world impacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q5. What’s the most unusual source of inspiration you’ve ever drawn from for a project?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One unexpected source of inspiration came from observing informal transit hubs in cities where the edges between infrastructure, commerce, and social gathering blur. These spaces, though chaotic, often embody resilience and adaptability that formal planning overlooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We used this as a lens to rethink what a train station could be\u2014not just a point of transfer, but a layered urban spine of daily life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

??<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explore the journey of Minjun Liao<\/a>, the Gold Winner of the 2025 MUSE Design Awards. She\u2019s an interior designer who creates warm, meaningful spaces by understanding how people connect with their surroundings to inspire comfort and security.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yujin Cao is an architect and urban designer who integrates art and challenges conventions across scales. 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