Meet Shixuan Sun | Architectural designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Shixuan Sun and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shixuan, we’d love to hear what makes you happy.
Good architecture makes me happy, and my current working on residential buildings makes me happy.

Architecture is something between aesthetic and engineering. It is about how to achieve something real in the real world. Good architecture not only relies on architects’ good taste, but also depends on how it can solve people’s life issues. When looking at a good architecture design, you will realize the success immediately.

Residential buildings is the origin of architecture, because people create shelters to cover themself first before developing different kinds of architecture design. My current work is designing luxury residential buildings using traditional architecture language in on Manhattan. It is excited to see our design merging into the texture of city. The traditional proportion, material, and building details create a timeless building in the city, help shape an unique but meaningful community in our quick-paced society.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I got my bachelor and first master degree in Tsinghua University, and graduated from Cornell graduate school in 2019, then joined Robert A M Stern Architect. In 2020, I got laid off unfortunately, and spent one year in a small studio. From 2021 till now, I jumped back to RAMSA and grew a lot.

What sets my apart from others is about insistence. The laid off in 2020 was a huge surprise to me since I got top degrees in architecture education, and did my best in the early role. But reality is reality, and what I could do is to follow my heart. At that time, lots of my classmates, my teammates chose to switch industry to become a SDE with high salary and hot job market. I was hesitating as well, questioning myself why I was still in architecture.

But fortunately I insist on architecture. Though it was hard, my wife(girlfriend at that time) gave me a lot of support and encouraged me to try different things before made choice. I even started to learn coding in Udemy. After the experience in coding, I found myself not suit in that industry. I prefer to do something more realistic and close to life. Though the current salary was low, I believe the market or industry is in circulation and opportunities change every time. Today’s top may be tomorrow’s bottom. So I am glad and proud I stay in architecture and become an experienced designer now.

Also I insist on myself. It was a big surprise to me that I got laid off. However, I trust myself the ability to overcome any bad condition and achieve the impossible goals at last, not only when I was a child, but also now. So I sent almost 200 applications to different companies in 202o and finally got a job to survive the pandemic. After that I learned that life is always changing full of uncertainty. The only thing I can do is to get prepared anytime for any possible issues.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would like to show my best friend New York City.

New York City is not only famous for its landmarks, such as Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, and Brooklyn Bridge, but also know for the Met museum and several different museums.

For one week long time, I would spend two days to show my friend the landmarks, by subway or by bus. Also, I will take friend to take a ferry to travel on Hudson River, and overview the skyscrapers from the river.

Then another two days for the museum. The rest three days I will walk with my friend in upper east side, Chinatown, Wall Street, and SOHO. Besides landmarks and museums, New York is also known for its complexity as a metropolitan. You can experience different culture and meet different people from various background.

At night, we will go to the rooftop of Rockefeller Center to overlook the night view and be surprised at the metropolitan scene.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to my parents, my wife, and myself.

Thanks to my parents, I grow in the environment full of love. They taught me how to become a good person full of positive attitude towards the world. They helped me to shape my teenager route to my dream.

Thanks to my wife, I kept learning new things about life. The half marathon, the skiing, the badminton, and the music. She shows the variety of life to me, and we try things together and explore the things together.

Thanks to myself, I overcome difficult moments in my life, including pandemic layoff, challenges, exams, and still insist on the architecture road.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shixuansun?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app

Image Credits
Image credit to internet