Joyce Hwang
FAIA, NOMA, NCARB
Joyce Hwang is professor and director of graduate studies of Architecture at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. She is the director of Ants of the Prairie, an office of architectural practice and research that focuses on confronting contemporary ecological conditions through creative means, and a partner in Double Happiness.
Joyce Hwang stands with “Habitat Wall,” a prototype wall structure that accommodates humans and urban animals such as bats, raccoons and birds. Says Hwang: "I am interested in exploring how a wall can act not only as a facade, but also as an inhabitable, living membrane." Photo by Scott Gable
My work is dedicated to developing creative approaches in confronting the pleasesures and horrors of our contempirary ecologies.
For nearly two decades, Hwang has been developing a series of projects that incorporate wildlife habitats into constructed environments. She is a recipient of the WOJR/Civitella Ranieri Architecture Prize Fellowship (2024), Exhibit Columbus University Research Design Fellowship (2020-21), the Architectural League Emerging Voices Award (2014), the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship (2013), the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Independent Project Grant (2013, 2008), and the MacDowell Fellowship (2016, 2011).
Her work has been featured by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and exhibited at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Matadero Madrid, the Venice Architecture Biennale, and the Rotterdam International Architecture Biennale, among other venues. Hwang’s projects and writing have been featured in publications including Architect Magazine, Architectural Record, Architectural Review, AV Proyectos, Azure Magazine, Biophilic Cities Journal, Bracket, Curbed, Elle Décor, Forbes, Good, Log, Metropolis Magazine, Next Nature, Praxis, Volume Magazine, and World Architects. She is a co-organizer of the Hive City Habitat Design Competition and a co-editor of Beyond Patronage: Reconsidering Models of Practice, published by Actar. Hwang serves as a Core Organizer for Dark Matter University, and previously served on the editorial board for the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE).
Hwang is a registered architect in New York State, and has practiced professionally with offices in New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Barcelona. She received a post-professional Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University, where she was awarded the Charles Goodwin Sands Memorial Bronze Medal.
Hwang's "Bat Cloud" is a hanging canopy of vessels designed and constructed to support bat habitation. It is installed in Buffalo's Tifft Nature Preserve. Photo by Joyce Hwang
Education
- B Arch, Cornell University College of Architecture, Art and Planning, Department of Architecture
- M. Arch, Princeton University School of Architecture
Selected activities, honors and awards
- WOJR/ Civitella Ranieri Architecture Prize (2024)
- Interview with Stewart Hicks (2023)
- MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) “Built Ecologies” Video series (2022)
- Brooklyn Botanic Garden “For the Birds” Exhibition (2022)
- Exhibit Columbus University Design Research Fellowship (2021)
- The MacDowell Fellowship (2016, 2011)
- Architectural League Emerging Voices Award (2014)
- New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship (2013)
- New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Independent Project Grant (2013, 2008)