This meeting is offered in person at the Center for Architecture and on Zoom. RSVP HERE. Please email skaba@aiany.org for details on how to join.
Alternative Pathways to Architecture: On Design Strategy
Please join the AIANY Emerging New York Architects Committee for a conversation with Aelin Li and CoCo Tin, who will reflect on their journeys from architectural design to strategy, sharing how new directions and a deeper clarity of purpose have evolved. Through personal projects and professional experiences, they will explore how design thinking extends beyond buildings into storytelling, systems, and strategic work, revealing the many ways architects can continue shaping impact in the built environment and beyond.
Speakers:
Aelin Li, Strategist, Gensler
CoCo Tin, Senior Strategist, 2×4
About the Speakers:
Aelin Li is a designer and strategist exploring how digital storytelling shapes cities, organizations, and human experiences. She translates complex systems into clear insights, driven by the belief that analytical rigor and empathy together create meaningful impacts. Trained in Architecture at Cornell University, and Design Research at Harvard GSD, Li co-founded RightClick, a video channel that communicates design ideas through accessible visual storytelling, reaching over 70,000 followers in two years. Now based in New York and working as a Strategist at Gensler, she helps organizations align people, place, and purpose through data-driven visioning, programming, and portfolio analysis. Her work continues to explore how design thinking and narrative frameworks can foster more informed, human-centered decision-making in the built environment.
CoCo Tin is a Hong Kong-born designer, researcher, and writer specializing in cross-cultural and ecological investigations. Working with global collaborators to bring complex worlds to life, her interdisciplinary practice spans Design, Strategy, and Editorial—building initiatives, forecasts, brands, books, furniture, exhibitions, spaces, and experiences. Past and present collaborators include: Prada, Miu Miu, WSA, Aspen Art Museum, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Grand Palais, OMA, and more. Her writing has appeared in FAR-NEAR, Rumor Review, DISC, Pairs, and other peer-reviewed publications. She currently lives in New York, is a Senior Strategist at 2×4, and most recently taught at Yale University. Prior to 2×4, she practiced as an architect in Hong Kong and New York. CoCo holds a Master in Design Studies from Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she received a thesis award and distinction, and a Bachelor of Architecture with a minor in Art History from Cornell University.
The committees of AIA New York are the foundations from which the Chapter positions itself in the field of architecture, whether through discussion, advocacy, policy making and development, event and exhibition planning, or other endeavors.
Committees meet monthly, usually at the Center for Architecture. AIA members, AIA associate members, and general public are all welcome to participate.
If you have questions or are considering attending a meeting for the first time, contact each committee’s co-chairs for more information at aiany.org/committees.
AIANY Emerging New York Architects Committee
