Dr Jingru (Cyan) Cheng
- AcrossRCA Tutor
- Architecture MA Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2)
- Tutor
- Design Practice MArch
At the intersection of architecture, anthropology, art and filmmaking, Cyan traces the entangled flows of people, life forms, matter and the built environment to unpack the interconnectedness and interdependency of our time.
Jingru (Cyan) Cheng works through fieldwork, following drifting bodies—be they sand, water or migrant workers—to confront intensified social injustice and ecological crisis. Cyan was awarded the Harvard GSD’s 2023 Wheelwright Prize for TRACING SAND, and received two commendations from the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) President’s Awards for Research in 2020 and 2018.
Cyan is co-founder of field-0, a collaborative practice operating at the intersection of architecture, anthropology, art, and filmmaking. Their recent exhibitions include solo shows HOW MUCH WATTAGE IS ONE HANDBREADTH OF WATER at Storefront for Art and Architecture (New York, 2025) and RIPPLE RIPPLE RIPPLING at the Architectural Association (London, 2024), and as part of the 2025 Singapore Biennale. Their film work received the Architecture Short Film Award at the Milano Design Film Festival (2024) and the Best Short Film at the Venice Architecture Film Festival (2023).
Cyan holds a PhD by Design and M.Phil Projective Cities from the Architectural Association (AA) and was the co-director of AA Wuhan Visiting School (2015-17). At the RCA, She co-led the MA architectural design studio Politics of the Atmosphere (2019-22) before teaching at the AcrossRCA and MArch Design Practice. Cyan is also a Canadian Centre for Architecture’s CCA-Mellon Multidisciplinary Researcher (2024-25) on field research as a land-dependent practice.
Gallery
More information
Research Funding
Cyan’s work has been supported by the Harvard GSD Wheelwright Prize Fellowship (2023-26), Canadian Centre for Architecture (2024-25), Storefront for Art and Architecture (2024-25), Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts (2024-25 & 2022-23), Elephant Trust (2023), Driving the Human: 21 Visions for Eco-social Renewal (2021), Shanghai Biennale (2020-21), ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (2019-20), British Academy (2018-19), Henry Lester Trust (2017), among others.
Awards
Winner, Swanplands: Open Call, Storefront for Art and Architecture x frieze magazine, 2024
Architecture Short Film Award, Milano Design Film Festival, 2024
Winner, Harvard GSD Wheelwright Prize, 2023
Best Short Film, Venice Architecture Film Festival, 2023
Special Mention, Arquiteturas Film Festival, Porto, 2023
Commendation, RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) President’s Awards for Research, 2020
Commendation, RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) President’s Awards for Research, 2018
Chinese Student Award, Great Britain–China Educational Trust, 2017
PhD Travel and Research Award, Architectural Association, five times during 2015-17
Architectural Association Director’s Selection, 2014
Publications, exhibitions, other outcomes
SOLO EXHIBITION
2025, How Much Wattage is One Handbreadth of Water? Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, U.S. [with Chen Zhan] [link]
2024, Ripple Ripple Rippling: 10-Year Review, Architectural Association, London, UK. [with Chen Zhan and Mengfan Wang] [link]
2024, Ripple Ripple Rippling: Drystone House Foundation, Public installation at Bedford Square, London, U.K. [with Chen Zhan and Mengfan Wang] [link]
2023, Ripple Ripple Rippling: Screen Back, Shigushan Village, Wuhan, China [with Chen Zhan and Mengfan Wang]
2019-present, Scroll: Floating, Dissolving, Rippling, Scroll installation on view at the reception, permanent collection of the Architectural Association, London, U.K. [link]
GROUP EXHIBITION
2025-26, Drifting Bodies & The Humming of the Power Grid, Singapore Biennale [with Chen Zhan] [link]
2021, Ripple Ripple Rippling: Prologue, Driving the Human: 21 Visions for Eco-social Renewal, at Radialsystem, Berlin, Germany [with Chen Zhan] [link]
2020-22, Sky River: Politics of the Atmosphere, Critical Zones: Observatories for Earthly Politics, at ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany [with Elise Hunchuck and Marco Ferrari]
2019, WUHAN: Collective Forms in China, Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, Korea [with Sam Jacoby]
2018, Collective Forms in China, 16th Venice Architecture Biennale, Italy [with Sam Jacoby, Xiaomao Cao and Huace Yang]
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FILM
Drifting Bodies (2025), four-channel video [website]
Till Ashes Turn Into Pines (2025), experimental short [website]
The Hall (2024), experimental short [website]
On the Margins (2023), documentary short [website]
Orchid, Bee and I (2024), fiction short [website]
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PUBLICATION
Cheng, J (Cyan). and Zhan, C. (2025) ‘Field Notes on Tracing Sand’, in Büsse, M. (ed.) Granular Configurations: Sand, Materiality and Planetary Urbanization. Berlin: K. Verlag. [link]
Cheng, J (Cyan). and Zhan, C. (2025) ‘Hydroelectric Sensibility’, in Franch i Gilabert, E., Luzárraga, M. And Muiño, A. (ed.) 100 Words for Water: A Projective Ecosocial Vocabulary. Zurich: Lars Müller Publishers, pp. 111-112. [link]
Pietroiusti, L, Cheng, J (Cyan). and Zhan, C. (2025) ‘Walking into the black box with a flashlight’, in Esparza Chong Cuy, J., Kwok, J. and Ruiz de Teresa, G. (ed.) Swamplands Reader. New York: Storefront for Art and Architecture, pp. 148-153. [link]
Cheng, J (Cyan). (2023) ‘Structured Ambiguity: Scroll as Method’. AA Files 79, special feature.
Cheng, J (Cyan). (2022) ‘Rippling: Towards Untamed Domesticity’. The Journal of Architecture, 27(7-8), pp. 949-978. [link]
Cheng, J (Cyan). (2022) ‘Collectivisation, Paradox, and Resistance: The Architecture of People’s Commune in China’. The Journal of Architecture, 27(7-8), pp. 913-948. [link]
Hunchuck, E., Ferrari, M and Cheng, J (Cyan). (2021) ‘Prologue to the Sky River’. The Avery Review 53. [French translation published in Habitante, no.3, 2022] [link]
Jacoby, S. and Cheng, J (Cyan). eds. (2020) The Socio-Spatial Design of Community and Governance: Interdisciplinary Urban Design in China. S.I.: Springer. [Chinese edition published by Tongji University Press, 2023] [link]
Cheng, J (Cyan). (2019) ‘乡/Xiang (Chinese Rurality)’. AA Files 76, pp. 184-188. [link]
Cheng, J (Cyan). (2018) ‘Observations on Agritourism’. Log 43, pp. 59. [link]
Jacoby, S., Cheng, J (Cyan). and Tan, G., eds. (2018) Collective Forms in China: A Contemporary Review, special issue of New Architecture 180.
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MEDIA
Frieze, interview, 2025, ’How a Floating Community and a Luxury Waterfall Are Connected by a Power Grid.’ [link]
KoozArch, interview, 2025, ’Ripples, Traces, Drifts: Jingru (Cyan) Cheng and Chen Zhan on process-oriented practice.’ [link]
PIN-UP, interview, 2024, ’Keywords: Jingru (Cyan) Cheng.’ PIN-UP 35, pp. 162-163. [link]
The Common Table, 2022, ’Chairs at the Table.’ [link]
KoozArch column, 2022, ’Living with Precarity: 1# Not A Manifesto; 2# A Historical Opening; 3# Speculative Anthropology; 4# Situated Imaginaries.’ [link]
RIBA Journal (Royal Institute of British Architects), 2021, ‘Spatialising Collectivity’. [link]
E-flux x Shanghai Biennale, podcast, 2021, ’Discharging - Sky River.’ [Podcast]