Portfolio
Fan(Emma) Bai
2019-2025 Selected Work
Fan Bai is currently a
Master of Architecture student at the University of Michigan, driven by a deep passion for architectural representation. Fan’s work delves into innovative approaches to visualizing architectural concepts, using intricate drawings, compelling videos, and other visual mediums to bring ideas to life.
Beyond architecture, Fan is captivated by visual and digital art, always seeking ways to integrate these techniques into architectural design. Fan’s aim is to push the boundaries of visualization and create immersive spatial experiences. Additionally, she is sensitive to color, which informs her design approach and allows her to create visually striking and emotionally engaging work.
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01 SUGARCANDY MOUNTAIN
In Animal Farm, Sugarcandy Mountain is a fabricated paradise promising rest from labor, a tool of control. Like The Truman Show, this illusion unfolds as spectacle - fleeting, reshaping, and deceptive. As it ascends, vibrant with false hope, one question haunts the dreamers trapped within: What, then, is real?
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10/2024
Innovative Design
02 THE WAY HOME: STAIRWAY TO LIVABILITY
We reimagine staircases as social hubs—transitional spaces between city and home that host shared domestic activities. Through innovative housing typologies, sustainable construction, and diverse programming, our project fosters inclusive, environmentally conscious neighborhoods that reflect Ann Arbor's shifting demographics while strengthening community ties and promoting social and ecological resilience.
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05/2024
Residential Design
& Landscape Design
& Interior Design
03 ASSEMBLING VARIABILITY: A HYBRID PREFABRICATION SYSTEM
This thesis proposes a hybrid prefabrication system that operates as an ecology of parts, combining timber and concrete elements. Drawing from the legacy of Fordist production, it challenges the historical push toward uniformity by emphasizing flexibility and variation. The final design is an exhibition pavilion built from a kit of parts—repeating timber beams and precast joints—that never fully replicates itself. Light and geometry animate the space, revealing the expressive potential of assembly and celebrating architectural diversity within a standardized system.
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05/2025
Prefabrication
& Exhibition Design
04 EPHEMERAL HARVEST: THE GASTRONOMY OF MIRAGE
In this world, food doesn't grow traditionally - deserts cast fleeting mirages of feasts and markets. These illusions can be harvested and consumed, but quickly rot into dust or spawn parasites. Some nourish; others deceive, leading to starvation, hallucinations, or mutations. Survival hinges on discerning sustenance from illusion.
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03/2025
Innovative Design
05 NATURE'S REVIVAL IN BARCELONA
This project explores human-nature symbiosis in Barcelona, challenging Western rationalism through biophilic design. By merging urban space with nature, it envisions a city garden that prioritizes emotional connection over pure functionality, aiming to restore harmony between society and the environment in architecture's next historical phase.
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05/2022
Parametric Biophilic Tectonics Design
06 TRAVEL IN THE INDUSTRY
Capitalist shifts marginalized workers, worsened land use, and eroded trust in domestic products. This project reimagines the factory system - integrating tourism and tech - to improve efficiency, uplift workers' lives, and restore social value to labor and production.
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08/2021
Innovative Design
07 THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF
This project explores the deep analogy between the human body and architecture - not through likeness, but through layered relationships. If skin and clothing form the body's first layers, architecture becomes the third. Starting with object design as architectural devices, the project scales these into pavilions shaped by characters and context.
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12/2019
Parametric Bamboo Pavilion Design
08
PARASITIC TEENAGER
Kabukicho, Japan's red-light district, is a refuge for the "Toyoko kids" - runaway teens facing abuse and neglect. This project envisions a space offering education, therapy, and shelter, helping them coexist with, not be consumed by, Kabukicho.
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10/2022
Public Space Design
09 SOLAR SHADE
This project designs an adaptive canopy façade for a Shanghai building using a fan mechanism system. Physically and digitally tested, it responds to solar exposure and lighting conditions, improving energy efficiency and user comfort. The design integrates innovative strategies for dynamic light control and architectural performance.
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12/2021
Parametric Canopy Design
10 PINK TOY STORY
This is a forgotten paradise, once filled with children's laughter but now silent, as time has carried them away. Toys lie still, waiting for a return that may never come. Yet, a pop-up book opens, revealing a world of imagination - boundless joy and playful colors - but will those who've grown older still feel its pull?
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09/2024
Innovative Design
11 BETWEEN TOXIN AND BEAUTY
This project explores "out-of-focus architecture" through a sanctuary within the toxic yet captivating red tide of the Gulf of Mexico. Capsule-like shelters blur the line between habitat and red tide, creating adaptable spaces that protect while embracing its beauty. The design captures the tension between life and death, preserving the red tide's fleeting memory.
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12/2024
Innovative Design
12 KANDINSKY'S ECHO: A HOUSE OF UNCERTAIN TRACES
In the realm of abstraction, this house'ish emerges as a living canvas, echoing Kandinsky's legacy. Inspired by "On White II," it transcends traditional architecture, using vibrant hues and flowing lines to explore emotion. Through pure linework, modeling, and their fusion, the project preserves creation’s essence, celebrating impermanence and the poetry of fleeting traces.
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11/2024
Innovative Design
13 LIGHTING CINEXPERIENCE
"LightingCineXperience" explores the dynamic relationship between lighting, emotions, and film in cinema spaces. By using modular lighting and architectural elements, it tailors the atmosphere to narrative tone - joyful films with vibrant yellow lights, sad or mysterious films with purple hues, and thrilling films with sharp contrasts and red lighting. This project redefines cinema by enhancing audience emotions through dynamic lighting design.
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12/2023
Immersive Cinema Design
& Interior Design
& Lighting Design
14
RECONNECTION
This pedestrian bridge connects two campuses by extending nature elements, specifically tree branches, from the north riverbank to the south. The tree structures, calculated using Ameba software, serve as both decorative and supportive elements. The design encourages the integration of trees into the campus landscape, symbolizing a harmonious connection with nature.
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04/2021
Parametric Pedestrian Bridge Design
15
FLOATING FOREST
This project envisions Suzhou in 2035, where frequent flooding reshapes urban life. The design proposes towers that "float" on water, like an underwater forest, allowing residents to coexist with the rising water levels. Set along a green belt between two rivers, the project introduces seven towers integrated into the landscape, creating a forest-like atmosphere with elevated structures and rooftop gardens. The towers are designed to house young graduates in temporary micro houses with public spaces, offering affordable, small yet functional living options that cater to their dynamic, transitional lifestyle.
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12/2020
Public Community Design
& Residential Design
16
GRID HOUSES
This project reimagines Vallbona, Barcelona's Nou Barris district, into an agro-ecological hub, focusing on connectivity, green connectors, agricultural heritage, water heritage, and urban facilities. It includes designs for a research institute, farmland initiative, and pedestrian bridge, promoting sustainability and revitalization, while integrating local resources with broader urban strategies.
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05/2021
Urban Farming Planning
& Agriculture Training Center Design
17 THE SUBURBAN TABLE: A GAME OF UNFAIR PLAY
In the quiet streets and manicured lawns of suburbia, deeper forces are at play. The Suburban Table: A Game of Unfair Play invites participants to gather around a table and engage with the hidden dynamics of property, privilege, and exclusion. Through a distorted game of suburban life, players experience how systems of inequality are designed, maintained, and resisted.
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2025
Innovative Design
18 AI DESIGN SERIES
A series of AI work produced by Midjourney.
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2024-2025
AI Design