Jie Zhang, AIA, LEED AP BD C, is an award-winning architect, researcher, design instructor/critic, and strategist.
Zhang leads the Shanghai office of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects as GM, and has previously contributed to Henning Larsen Architects, Atelier Jean Nouvel, NADAAA, CNRPD and Payette Associates. Besides designing buildings and cities, she built Accra's first youth entrepreneurship awareness program, created aerial maps of informal settlements in Ahmedabad, and initiated Opt, a platform for design inquiry and technological research.
Zhang is the author of thesis manuscript Diplomatic: Letter from the Architectural Enclave, and is interested in Architecture’s socio-political dimension and updated strategies of gaining agency. Her design work has been awarded widely in prestigious competitions and exhibited in New Haven, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Medellin, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore etc., as well as through leading magazines and online platforms such as ArchDaily, FastCompany, Domus, SuperArchitects, DesignBoom, InHabitat, Core77, Concept, Metropolis, CityLab, MarketWatch, among others.
Coming from Beijing and currently based in Shanghai, China, Zhang is a graduate of the Master of Architecture program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was the recipient of the Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal, American Institute of Architects Certificate of Merit, multiple merit-based full-tuition scholarships, and research fellowships that lead to independent studies in China, UK, Colombia and India. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture and Economics, with Distinction, from Yale University. With a passion in education, she frequently serves on the jury at academic design reviews.
