Wyles Daniel
Photo courtesy of Anqi Wang
For Los Angeles–based designer Anqi Wang, architecture is about shaping experiences rather than just putting up walls. She compares her design process to choreography, an unfolding performance where every turn, glance, and breath is carefully considered. “Design,” she says, “is choreography. It begins with how someone enters, turns, looks up, and breathes in.”
This idea comes through clearly in a speculative culinary school she designed. The building doesn’t simply hold kitchens and classrooms—it tells the story of food. At its heart, a ramp acts as the spine, carrying visitors through each phase: planting and harvesting, preparing ingredients, cooking, dining, and finally, waste processing. Inspired by Le Corbusier’s ramps and the circulation of museums, Wang uses openness and shifting views to create a seamless sequence. The ramp is not just a pathway. It is the story itself.
Photo courtesy of Anqi Wang (“On Display” project)
Her professional career is built on this same devotion to human experience. At SVA Architects, she worked on projects that served community needs, including The Whole Child Interim Housing and Support Services Center, the Lincoln Boulevard Apartments, and the Murrieta Public Library Expansion. At The Whole Child, for example, she utilized a courtyard design to encourage inclusivity and connection, creating shared outdoor space where residents could gather, children could play, and support services felt accessible rather than isolated. “These weren’t just buildings,” she recalls. “They were spaces people relied on every day.”
Her move to NBBJ expanded her work to a global scale. She contributed to major international projects such as MIK Housing, the PLDT Headquarters, and the Georgia Aquarium Expansion. For the aquarium’s beluga whale habitat, she planned the layout of three-story glass tanks and designed visitor paths that encouraged people to pause, linger, and connect with the aquatic environment. Working with marine specialists, she made sure the design supported both animal welfare and visitor experience. She also played a role in winning proposals for Korea’s Sogong District Redevelopment and the POSCO N.EX.T Hub, from early concept sketches to construction documents.
Photo courtesy of Anqi Wang / NBBJ (Georgia Aquarium Expansion)
Alongside her firm-based practice, Wang’s speculative designs push architectural thinking into new territory. Underbridge Homes and Waves were both recognized with Honorable Mentions in the Buildner International Architecture Ideas Competition and have been featured in ArchDaily and Buildner publications. Her Tender Towers project, awarded Gold at the London Design Awards, reimagines the solitary pencil tower as part of a vertical community. Ten slender towers rise together, shifting to form balconies, sky platforms, and shared spaces. The design gestures toward density without isolation.
Her fascination with movement doesn’t stop at buildings. In the realm of furniture and product design, she has created award-winning pieces that translate architectural ideas into tactile encounters. The Flow Chair, a bent-wood seat that responds to a sitter’s movements, earned Silver from both the New York Product Design Awards and the MUSE Design Awards. Her projects Long House and Villa Arcadia were recognized as Silver Winners at the 2025 French Design Awards, underscoring her growing international profile. Additionally, works such as Arcade.dia, Cenote del Sol, Between Scylla and Charybdis, and CASA DELL’OCCHIO have received several Gold and Silver awards at the French and MUSE Design Awards, demonstrating her fluency at scales ranging from monumental public spaces to intimate objects.
Her portfolio has been featured in MUSE World, ArchDaily, and the New York Product Design Awards. “I think about who will walk through this space,” she says. “What they’re carrying. What they’ll notice. What they’ll remember.” For Anqi Wang, architecture is not the act of arriving at a form—it is the crafting of a journey, one step, one gesture, one threshold at a time.