Meet Alexandra Meilan Wang

We were lucky to catch up with Alexandra Meilan Wang recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alexandra Meilan, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

I hope to embrace the entanglement between subjects, recognizing the interconnectedness across the limits of the field of studies. Architecture itself is incredibly interdisciplinary, and I resist limiting my view, instead finding inspiration in the entangled messiness of ideas, which allows me to discover my stance through exploration rather than rigid frameworks through different projects.

I think research and readings continues even after the initial phases of a project, especially as I am still developing my processes and methods of practice. I use philosophy, literature, poetry, and history as sources of inquiry, allowing each discipline to inform and enrich the other. In the meantime, craft—whether hand drawing, paper cutting, or model-making—becomes both a meditative process and a source of inspiration, grounding me in the tactile and the tangible while fostering a deeper connection to the creative act itself. I often feel the rhythm of making becomes a space for reflection, where ideas take physical form between the thoughts and actions.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Originally from Beijing, China, I attended middle school and high school in Philadelphia. I am currently pursuing a five-year Bachelors of Architecture degree at Carnegie Mellon University, graduating in 2025. I have also completed a minor in architectural history, and pursuing an Accelerated Master in Building Performance & Diagnostics at CMU, graduating in 2026.
Alongside with history and natural environment, architecture as a way of storytelling and understanding the place is something I have been interested in. I look forward to taking design as a way to understand another story, the people, the place, while making sense of our world and environment.

I am currently working on my undergraduate thesis project, which examines 17th-century Dutch women’s dollhouses and their role in constructing an imaginative vision of the “Orient” as these women’s Utopia. These dollhouses, filled with exotic objects, showcase the convergence of Western and “Oriental” worlds. When viewed in context, they blur the lines between realism and mythology, creating a hyper-real scene that reflects both fascination and fantasy. I am researching how the domestic sphere and the human body—through personal relationships and material interactions—become vessels and makers for shaping idealized worlds. By focusing on the spatial and spiritual values embedded in the use of “Oriental” objects along with the women’s body, I aim to explore the deeper narratives of cultural exchange, identity, and imagination woven into these miniature spaces.
What the project is beginning to offer me is a recognition of the world and my background as an international student, an understanding that was noted by Architectural historian Alberto Pérez-Gómez: “Imagination is precisely our capacity for love and compassion—for both recognizing each other when we fall in love, valorizing the other, fearing like the other, and recognizing each other’s solitude.”

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Pursuit for knowledge

2. Rigor and Dedication to craft

3. History and Philosophy

I think the process of pursuit for knowledge is never ending. Stay curious and being open to diverse sources of knowledge. The rigor of practice and refinement comes to me through the iterative and consistency of making, reflecting, and remaking. Starting from small things and maintaining my standard, while recognizing the improvements along the way often becomes a source of inspiration. In terms of history and philosophy, I think that everything we do are informed by the past. Therefore, tracing the origin and the question help me to understand my stance, shapes the institution of my mind, helps me to articulate my perspectives.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

The poetry “Stray Birds” by Rabindranath Tagore, which is a collection of brief yet profound poetic aphorisms, each capturing fleeting moments of beauty, thought, and reflection. I received this book when I was probably still in primary school. The book contains both the English text and a Chinese translation by Xu Zhimo (a modern Chinese poet). The emotional depth, calmness, reflectiveness, and patience within the passages still resonate with me today. Tagore’s poems often capture the essence of fleeting moments, reminding us to stay attentive and open to the world and the people around me. Through the tangible and the symbolic, I hope to see life in the formless , and hopes within the imaginations.

Here are a few of my favorite passages within the collection:
#22. “That I exist is a perpetual surprise which is life.”
#82. “Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.”
#176. “The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words that are clear; the great truth has great silence.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/alexandra.meilan.wang
• Instagram: @alexandra_wang__
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-wang-a806431b3/

Image Credits

Alexandra Meilan Wang
Collaborators: Suzie Liu, Andrea Wan