Buildner's Unbuilt Award 2025 competition participant - Hanqin Tang

We’d like to take this opportunity to introduce a participant in our Buildner's Unbuilt Award 2025 competition – Hanqin Tang from the United States!

Please tell us about your company (when it was founded, where it is based, how many employees, etc) Alternatively, if you do not have a company, please give us some insights on your own professional/academia background.

CED Studio is an independent design practice founded by Hanqin Tang in San Francisco, California. The studio focuses on architecture, urban design, and digital representation, exploring how spatial design can bridge memory, technology, and community life. Drawing from Hanqin’s academic background at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received the Sandy Hirshen Prize in Architecture, CED Studio approaches each project as a dialogue between conceptual research and built environment. The practice has produced award-winning works recognized by the American Good Design Award (Gold) and the International Design Awards, emphasizing a commitment to clarity, social relevance, and poetic spatial experience.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/ individuals have been Involved?

CED Studio engages in projects ranging from small-scale community and cultural buildings to large-scale urban concepts, emphasizing the relationship between form, social memory, and environmental context. The studio’s recent works include Another Side Community Center in San Francisco, a civic project exploring the juxtaposition of memory and renewal, and GB Group Headquarters Tower in Ningbo, a mixed-use high-rise integrating public space and corporate identity. Collectively, these projects reflect the studio’s interest in clarity, adaptability, and atmosphere, combining architectural precision with a sensitivity to urban and human scale.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

To me, architecture is a medium that translates collective experience into spatial form. It is not only about creating objects but about shaping relationships—between people, time, and place. Architecture holds the power to reveal the unseen layers of a city, to connect memory with renewal, and to transform everyday routines into moments of awareness. In today’s society, I believe the role of the architect is to act as both a listener and a synthesizer—someone who interprets social, cultural, and environmental complexities and turns them into built expressions of care and possibility. Beyond aesthetics, the architect must engage with issues of equity, sustainability, and belonging, ensuring that design remains a civic act that brings people together rather than setting them apart.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

I participate in architecture competitions because they allow me to explore ideas freely beyond the limits of practice. Competitions create a space for experimentation—where concepts, narratives, and design methods can evolve without the constraints of a client or commercial agenda. They challenge me to think critically about how architecture responds to social and environmental questions, and to translate research into form. Each competition becomes a way to test a vision, to learn from global peers, and to refine the relationship between concept and construction. For me, it is less about winning and more about contributing to a collective dialogue—using design as a language to imagine what our built environment could become.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

I would tell them that competitions are not only about recognition, but about growth. They offer a rare chance to develop your own voice, to explore questions that matter to you, and to practice communicating ideas clearly through drawings and words. Even if you don’t win, each submission becomes a laboratory for thinking, helping you define what kind of architect you want to be. At the same time, it’s important to choose competitions wisely—focus on themes that align with your interests or values, and treat the process as a way to strengthen your design philosophy. The most meaningful outcome isn’t the award itself, but the clarity and confidence you gain through the act of creating something authentic.