Quanye Zhou, BFA'25 Tuija Community Center In the heartbeat of New York City, where steel and glass tower over stories untold, this design rises as a love letter to the Tujia people of central China, a community carrying mountains in their hands. The timber joints of their ancestral homes, once shaped to cradle valleys and storms, now whisper through this space: a marketplace where hands carve memories into wood, a hall where laughter echoes like rivers in Hunan, and workshops where elders and children stitch time itself. Thesis advisor: John Nafziger #prattint2025book #prattint2025bookbfa #pratt_sod #prattshows2025 #PrattGrad25 @prattinstitute @pratt_sod

Jieqi Chen, BFA'25 Pier 40 Recreating Pier 40 as a cognitive playground, this project explores how everyday acts of play can become powerful tools for mental fitness. Movement, perception, and interaction activate the brain beyond entertainment, re-framing play as an essential practice for sustaining cognitive vitality in daily life. By embedding mental stimulation into spatial experience, the design redefines wellness as a joyful, continuous engagement. Thesis advisor: Calvert Wright #prattint2025book #prattint2025bookbfa #pratt_sod #prattshows2025 #PrattGrad25 @prattinstitute @pratt_sod

Jiawen (Gaven) Yu, MFA’25 SPATIAL COSTUME: Space Meets Body, Body Meets Space This thesis explores identity transformation and empowerment through sensory engagement with space, inspired by mythological feminine villains. Drawing from the performing arts, it proposes that extreme costuming can inform spatial design that interacts with the body to evoke bold personal expression. Thesis advisor: Nina Freedman @ga_xxix #prattint2025book #prattint2025bookmfa #pratt_sod #prattshows2025 #PrattGrad25 @prattinstitute @pratt_sod

Yeva Rajpal, BFA'25 Look deeper, Think deeper, Feel deeper This laundromat becomes a portal to the subconscious, where spinning machines mirror life’s hidden rhythms. Light, sound, and scent evoke memory, subtly revealing internal patterns. Routine gives way to reflection, stillness becomes movement, and waiting transforms into introspection, offering not just clean clothes, but an emotional cleansing. Thesis advisor: Rachel Paupeck #prattint2025book #prattint2025bookbfa #pratt_sod #prattshows2025 #PrattGrad25 @prattinstitute @pratt_sod

Funing An, BFA'25 Feel Within This thesis investigates the role of spatial design as a tool to help college students navigate and process emotions during the transition into young adulthood. Through the creation of distinct experiential spaces, the project explores how physical environments can serve as coping mechanisms, offering students a path toward self-awareness, emotional release, and healing. Thesis advisor: Sarah Lippmann #prattint2025book #prattint2025bookbfa #pratt_sod #prattshows2025 #PrattGrad25 @prattinstitute @pratt_sod

Crystal Sun, MFA’25 Weaving Place, Weaving Self Spatial Interventions for Reclaiming Space, Identity, and Mental Health Among Asian American Women This thesis project explores the potential of site-specific interventions, which integrate participatory design and hands-on weaving workshops, to empower Asian American Women to claim space, de-stigmatize mental health, and disrupt associated cultural barriers within the Asian American diaspora. Thesis advisor: Nina Freedman #prattint2025book #prattint2025bookmfa #pratt_sod #prattshows2025 #PrattGrad25 @prattinstitute @pratt_sod

Hsiang-yi Chen, BFA’25 Exit Through the Art Shop "Exit Through the Art Shop" re-imagines 58 Kent Street as an interactive cultural space where visitors navigate through an art supply store, encountering exhibitions by chance. The Peep-box facade teases hidden activities, encouraging curiosity and unplanned exploration. Self-directed circulation fosters spontaneous discovery, enhancing memory retention through unexpected, immersive experiences. Thesis advisor: John Nafziger #prattint2025book #prattint2025bookmfa #pratt_sod #prattshows2025 #PrattGrad25 @prattinstitute @pratt_sod

Jessie (Yixuan) Zhao, MFA’25 Beyond Sight - Creating Soundscapes for the Visually Impaired By creating aural and tactile ‘soundscapes’ for the visually impaired, this thesis explores subtle, sensory accentuated engagement and navigational methodologies in spatial, prototypical, interventions of performative public space. Thesis advisor: Nina Freedman #prattint2025book #prattint2025bookmfa #pratt_sod #prattshows2025 #PrattGrad25 @prattinstitute @pratt_sod

Lili Zhu, MFA’25 This thesis reimagines residential interiors by integrating AI-driven adaptability, creating spaces that are flexible, sensory, and user-centered. By challenging static layouts and traditional dependencies, the project proposes a new model for living that merges technological innovation with human comfort and emotional experience. Thesis advisor: Frederic Levrat #prattint2025book #prattint2025bookmfa #pratt_sod #prattshows2025 #PrattGrad25 @prattinstitute @pratt_sod