Yaju Lee

YaJu Lee is a Taiwanese architectural designer and researcher currently pursuing her SMArchS in Urbanism at MIT. Her work explores the intersection of urban density, cultural narratives, and participatory spatial strategies.

She graduated with distinction from National Cheng Kung University, where her thesis project Super Theater received top honors, including First Prize in the National Architects Association of Taiwan Thesis Competition, and was awarded or exhibited in the TEAM 20 Architecture and Planning Graduation Projects Competition and the International Exhibition of Architecture Graduation Design (IEAGD). Her work has been featured in ta Magazine and Taiwan Architect Magazine.

YaJu has worked on architectural and planning projects across Taiwan and Spain, ranging from public infrastructure to residential and workplace renovations. She also contributed to planning and design studies for airport and transportation facilities at April Yang Design Studio in Taiwan. She later joined LoCa Studio in Barcelona, where she was immersed in residential and office renovations and typological studies grounded in site-specific urban conditions. In Taiwan, she served as lead designer for the Mennonite Christian Long-Term Care Center—Taiwan’s first hospital reconstruction project under the Urban Renewal Act—at JJP Architects & Planners, leading the design through concept, schematic, design development, and construction documentation phases.

Her interests lie in urban form, cultural continuity, and the lived experience of density, often bridging across architecture, urbanism, and collective memory.