Photo by Kaitrin Acuna

Sophie Weston Chien is a designer-organizer. 

Her expanded practice involves organizing in the design fields, participatory textile research and fabrication, theorizing on contemporary design practice, and teaching. She often does this work in collaboration through projects and leadership with just practice, Design As Protest Collective, Dark Matter U, and is a former board member of DESIGNxRI. Her work builds spatial and social relationships to ensure people can shape their own spaces.

Sophie has shared her work at cultural institutions (Boston Public Library, Boston Society of Architects, Boulder Public Library), academic institutions (University of Waterloo, Harvard, Middlebury, Northeastern, University of Oregon), and mainstream platforms (Architect’s Newspaper, Clever) and has been a resident at Art Omi: Architecture, I-Park, and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. She has exhibited at Biennales/Triennales (Venice, Lisbon, Timișoara), Data Through Design (NYC), the District Architecture Center (DC), and was a finalist for the Harvard University Radcliffe Institute Public Art Competition. Her work is in the permanent collection of the MIT Museum and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Sophie holds a Master's in Landscape Architecture and Master's in Urban Planning from Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Architecture and BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She is currently a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Colorado Boulder in Environmental Design.

❣️ reach me at sophiewchien@gmail.com

❣️ view my cv here

Sophie’s work will be on display at upcoming shows in the District Architecture Center (winter 2026), Museo de las Americas (winter 2026), Northeastern University (spring 2026), Mills College (fall 2026), and Center for Architecture (fall 2026).