Alex Ching-Chen Liu (he/him) is a Taiwanese architect currently pursuing the Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design at Columbia University GSAPP. His work explores architecture as a continuum bridging past, present, and future, with a focus on adaptive reuse, urban regeneration and climate consciousness. Before joining GSAPP, he was a senior architectural designer at JJP Architects + Planners, one of Taiwan’s leading firms, where he contributed to a wide range of projects, including industrial adaptive reuse, office complexes, and sustainable laboratory designs. Beyond architecture, he is also an passionate photographer, using the lens as another medium to explore space, memory, and everyday life.
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
License
Registered Architect of Taiwan, 2024-
Contact
Email
/
cl4735@columbia.edu
LinkedIn
/
Ching Chen Liu
Instagram
/
alexdoublechen
© Alex CC Liu 2026
Rewriting Fluidity:
From Enclosed Abstraction to Chromatic Openness
Year
2025
Project Type
Academic Work (Columbia GSAPP)
Instructor
Seth Thompson
What if the notion of “fluidity” in space could be rewritten by renderings?
Developed in the course Rendering Systems, three renderings explore how representation can function as spatial storytelling—reframing a built project not through architectural alteration, but through perception and narration.
In Toyo Ito’s original conception of White U, fluidity was imagined as an inward and abstract movement—light folding through walls and spaces looping back into themselves. This project revisits that idea through three speculative renderings that re-stage White U within new spatial and emotional conditions. What if the notion of “fluidity” in this house could be rewritten?
Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects
White U, coloured plan, 1976
Courtesy of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA)
Scene 1
The first rendering imagines White U as a physical model placed among scattered objects, introducing an unexpected sense of playfulness into the otherwise restrained interior. This scene proposes an alternate childhood for the two daughters who once lived there—a parallel timeline in which the house becomes a site of joy rather than grief.
Scene 2
The second rendering envisions blue gradually seeping into the curved walls. The gradients formed by the architecture’s geometry overlap with the gradients of color, softening the perception of spatial depth and blurring the boundary between surface and light.
Scene 3
The third rendering reconstructs White U with more transparent materials. Yellow light begins to fi lter in from the outside, interweaving with the existing blue. Their interaction generates a renewed abstraction—one in which fl uidity becomes chromatic, porous, and outward-looking.
© Alex CC Liu 2026