Atelier of spatial matters is founded in pursuit of inventive and meaningful architecture.

We are committed to the practice of architecture as both a cultural endeavor and a craft. We bring a combination of creative thinking and intellectual rigor to everything we do. We explore potentials and reassess assumptions for every project, without presuming answers in advance. We insist on clarity and precision in our designs and our ideas.

We are motivated by architecture’s potential as interventions to confront the complexities and urgencies of our contemporary world. We seek to invent new forms of civic and living spaces, by uncovering latent possibilities brought forth by societal, cultural and technological advancements.

Our work is informed by our diverse experience practicing architecture internationally. We collectively hold experience from offices renowned for design excellence, including OMA in Rotterdam and New York, Gensler in San Francisco, and IDEO in Palo Alto. We have contributed to significant projects worldwide that attracted attention and acclaim.

Despite our recent founding, we have immediately garnered international recognition for our work. We were awarded second prize in an international competition to reimagine a museum storage facility for public exploration. We were also shortlisted among well-established firms to design a national museum of architecture and urbanism for South Korea. Our proposal was commended by the jury for being poetic. Most recently, our competition entry for Finland’s Museum of History and the Future won the Architectural Review Future Projects Award in 2025.

Our fascination with museums comes from our longstanding interest in the arts. We often find ourselves influenced by the artistic production around us. We are eager to be active participants in the cultural discourse.

We are deeply curious about the spaces we inhabit. We embark on research and design experiments to deepen our understanding of architecture’s capacity and limitations. These studies are an important part of our design process.

Atelier of spatial matters is directed by Emerald Wu & Chong Ying Pai.

Chong Ying studied architecture at the University of Michigan and Harvard University. He completed his Master in Architecture thesis at Harvard under Iñaki Ábalos and studied with Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron for a studio at ETH Zurich. He practiced at OMA in Rotterdam and New York; SOM in New York; Kengo Kuma & Associates in Tokyo; and IDEO in Palo Alto, California. Chong Ying is a registered Architect in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts since 2019 and an Architect member of the American Institute of Architects.

Emerald studied architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University, where she earned her Master in Architecture with Distinction. She combines professional experience from global design firms and experimental studios, including Gensler in San Francisco; MILLIØNS in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Aranda\Lasch in New York; and Atelier FCJZ in Shanghai. Emerald is a registered Architect in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts since 2021 and an Architect member of the American Institute of Architects.