Alex Ching-Chen Liu (he/him) is a Taiwanese registered architect currently pursuing the Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design at Columbia University GSAPP.
Building upon a solid foundation in architectural practice, his work approaches architecture as an act of integration—engaging urban context, site history, and environmental conditions to reorganize the relationships between built space and human activity. Prior to joining GSAPP, he worked as a senior architectural designer at JJP Architects + Planners, one of Taiwan’s leading firms, contributing to projects including industrial adaptive reuse, office complexes, and university laboratory buildings. Through both built and speculative work, he continues to explore architecture as a tool for addressing environmental and social issues.
Beyond architectural practice, he actively explores graphic and visual approaches to representing design ideas. Through drawing, photography, publications, and mixed media, he continues to challenge conventional modes of architectural representation.
Education
Columbia University GSAPP (New York)
Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design, 2025-2026
National Cheng Kung University (Tainan, Taiwan)
Bachelor of Architecture, 2016-2021
Experience
Columbia University GSAPP (New York)
Teaching Assistant for Architectural Drawing and Representation I & II, 2025-
Student Photographer, 2025-
JJP Architects + Planners
(Taipei, Taiwan)
Senior Architecture Designer, 2022-2025
Zhaoyang Architects (Dali, China)
Architecture Design Intern, 2019-2020
AMBi Studio (Taichung, Taiwan)
Architecture Design Intern, 2018
Publications
Among Things, B-SIDE(Columbia GSAPP), 2025
Production Editor
The Ideas of Ordinary Objects, Studio Tngtetshiu, 2020
Research Contributor
License
Registered Architect of Taiwan, 2024-
Contact
Email
/
alexchingchenliu@gmail.com
LinkedIn
/
Ching-Chen Liu
Instagram
/
alexdoublechen
© Alex CC Liu 2026
Living Threads Along the Greenline
Year
2025
Project Type
Academic Design Studio Work (Columbia GSAPP)
Instructor
Ricardo Flores + Eva Prats (Flores & Prats)
Site Location
Hunters Point, New York, USA
How can housing facilitate co-existence between industry, landscape, and everyday life?
Living Threads Along the Greenline explores how housing can coexist with an active industrial landscape where large-scale infrastructure dominates the ground and limits everyday public life. The project introduces housing as a connective fabric, reactivating residual spaces and weaving daily life back into the abandoned railway.
Site Context: A Logistics-Dominated Landscape
The site remains highly active industrially, with dense truck traffic, oversized industrial scales, and a severe lack of public space—conditions that are fundamentally incompatible with housing. Introducing housing here therefore requires not just density, but the creation of generous public ground that transforms residual industrial spaces into shared urban spaces.
Opening the Ground, Framing the Cutoff
Through selective demolition, the project opens the industrial ground to create a sequence of public plazas. The residual warehouse walls are transformed into inhabitable edges, mediating between industry and housing. Two housing volumes—one integrated into the warehouse and one across the cutoff—establish a spatial dialogue that reconnects the site to the Greenline landscape.
Industrial Tectonics
The housing structure adopts large shear walls, echoing the tectonic language of nearby industrial buildings. Variations in wall spacing generate different housing types, aligning domestic spaces with the rhythms and scales of the surrounding factories.
Living with the Cutoff
From facade to interior, the housing unit translates the cutoff landscape into domestic experience. A diagonal wall organizes served and servant spaces, compressing the entry and expanding views toward the trees. The facade, shaped by the extrusion of the cutoff curve, uses vertical wooden slats to filter light and shadow, allowing the Greenline to enter daily life.
1/200 Model
© Alex CC Liu 2026