Angelina Yihan Zhang
CSFP FELLOW
Angelina Yihan Zhang is a Master of Design Studies (Ecologies Domain) student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, collaborating with Aurelia Institute as a 2024 Community Service Fellowship Program (CSFP) Fellow. As an architect by training, Angelina's work primarily focuses on optimizing systematic modules as an accessible medium for human survival in extreme environments. She works across diverse contexts, from designing climate-resilient buildings in the global south to developing modular habitats supporting human survival in outer space. Angelina is one of the 25 undergraduate architecture students across North America to receive the Metropolis Future 100 award. Her work has been exhibited at the Shenzhen Bi-city Biennale of Low Carbon Architecture and was also awarded in numerous international competitions, including Buildner, Non-Architecture, ArchTwist, and LandArtGenerator.
Angelina graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Architecture from Syracuse University, and is a LEED Green Associate. Her undergraduate thesis, titled “Extreme Habitation: On the Higher Frontier,” reimagines modular Mars habitats through the design of mobile architecture, challenging architecture’s ability to contend with extreme surface conditions such as oxygen-less air, extreme cold, and high radiation levels, to support mankind’s survival in the most hostile conditions of space. This thesis received Syracuse Undergraduate Research Fellowship and was honored with the Britton Memorial Award and Dean’s Citation for Excellence. She continued to advance the research with the MIT Space Exploration Initiative at the Media Lab as part of the Zero Gravity Flight Course.