Sen Sen is a New York-based architect-designer whose work explores how architecture can create new relationships between design, production and environmental systems. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in architecture and is a LEED Accredited Professional. Her work covers facade engineering, architectural design and experimental construction research. Rather than treating architecture as a static object defined only by form, Cen Shen approaches architecture as a system shaped by construction, installation, material life cycle and environmental processes, and her work seeks to redefine the role of architecture in both the city and ecological systems.
Cen Shen’s professional practice and research-based investigations are constantly reinforcing each other. Her work focuses on understanding how architectural design decisions interact with construction methods, construction processes, and environmental systems. In her methodology, architecture is not just a formal result. it is the result of interactions between design intent, production logic, material systems and manufacturing processes. Therefore, the architectural form is not the starting point, but the consequence of construction, construction and ecological processes working together.
At Elicc Group, a facade engineering and construction company specializing in high-rise and high-rise buildings in North America, Cen Shen works on facade systems for high-rise residential towers in New York. Her role focuses on translating architectural facade design into buildable production and installation systems. Her work includes facade panel layout coordination, embedment and anchor adjustments, plate edge tolerance analysis, facade system optimization and shop design coordination to ensure constructability and construction feasibility.
Also develops panel numbering, packaging and shipping logic and coordinates installation sequences with site installation teams. In complex high-rise projects with irregular geometry and setbacks, Cen Shen works to streamline the architectural geometry in buildable panel systems while coordinating structural, mechanical and lighting systems integrated into the facade. Through this work, facade design is treated not only as an aesthetic building envelope, but as a construction, construction and coordination system that directly affects construction efficiency, installation workflow, building performance and construction planning.
Her work often focuses on solving manufacturability challenges, coordinating tolerances between concrete structures and facade systems, integrating lighting systems into facade assemblies, and improving construction and installation performance through system optimization. In this context, facade design becomes a production and construction problem rather than a purely design problem, and the building envelope becomes a system that links architecture, structure, mechanical systems, construction and installation.
On the 8 Carlisle Street project in Manhattan’s financial district, Cen Shen played a key role in coordinating and optimizing the facade system for a 65-story residential tower with multiple setbacks and complex geometry. The project required coordination between concrete fabrication, structural steel, mechanical systems, facade construction teams, and installation teams to resolve the manufacturability challenges associated with facade installation and system completion.
Her work included facade system optimization, integration coordination, tolerance analysis, installation sequence coordination, and streamlining of irregular facade geometry into manufacturable panel systems. Through these efforts, manufacturing performance and installation workflow were improved while maintaining the intent of the architectural design.
The project uses triple-insulated bird-friendly glass systems to improve the performance of the building envelope while reducing the environmental impact on the surrounding wildlife. Optimizing the facade system in this project helped to improve the construction performance, installation sequence and overall performance of the building envelope.
Beyond the building itself, the project is part of the ongoing urban transformation of Lower Manhattan from a predominantly office-based area to a mixed-use residential community. In this context, building envelope performance, long-term durability and construction efficiency play an important role in the economic and environmental sustainability of development. Therefore, Cen Shen’s work contributes not only to the performance of individual buildings, but also to the long-term performance and sustainability of urban development projects.
Alongside her professional practice, Cen Shen founded CSLab as an experimental architecture and research platform that explores the relationship between architecture, construction, material systems and ecological infrastructure. Through CSLab, he develops projects that explore how architecture can be created from manufacturing processes, material behavior, production logic and environmental systems rather than form alone.
The work developed in the CSLab includes robotic manufacturing experiments, modular manufacturing systems, reversible assembly methods, biodegradable materials research, digital manufacturing workflows, and eco-infrastructure prototypes. Many projects begin with material testing, construction constraints, or construction logic, and architectural form emerges from these production and material systems. Through this research, Cen Shen explores how architecture can be understood as part of production systems, material life cycles and environmental processes rather than as static building objects.
At different scales, from structural elements to waterfront infrastructure, her work consistently explores how construction processes, material systems and ecological systems can be integrated into architectural design. In this research context, architecture is positioned not only as spatial planning but as a system embedded in production networks, material life cycles and environmental systems.
In the Riprap Ram Jam project, Cen Shen focused on the ecological reconstruction of habitats in the Gowanus Waterfront in Brooklyn, where industrial development has greatly reduced aquatic habitats. The project proposes an ecological coastal infrastructure system in which brick components are manufactured using reusable mold systems and mixtures of biodegradable materials, including oyster shells and organic binders.
The manufacturing method allows multiple brick geometries to be produced from a modular mold system through rotation and combination of mold components. These bricks are assembled using a dry stack system to form shoreline infrastructure that can support habitat formation and water flow interaction.
The bricks are designed with an intentional life cycle: organic materials are gradually consumed by organisms and eroded by water flow, creating cavities and surface textures that provide habitats for aquatic organisms. Over time, the bricks gradually break down into smaller sediment particles and return to the river system. In this project, architecture is not a permanent object, but part of an ecological life cycle and environmental process. Construction methods, material life cycle and ecological systems are integrated into a single architectural and infrastructural system, where architecture becomes part of the environmental transformation rather than a static built object.
On a larger architectural scale, the Garden Clinic project explores the relationship between the healthcare space, the campus environment and prefabricated construction systems. The project integrates garden courtyards and building spaces into a continuous spatial system, allowing the landscape to act as a spatial buffer, environmental filter and layer of privacy for sensitive healthcare functions.
The building shell and structure is designed as a prefabricated panel system in which structural panels, facade panels and landscape retaining elements are coordinated as part of a unified construction logic. Prefabricated components allow building structures and garden infrastructure to be constructed simultaneously, reducing construction time and minimizing site disturbance.
In this project, the architecture is not only defined by the spatial organization but also by the construction logic and the pre-construction strategy. The project shows how construction methods and construction strategies can influence spatial planning and environmental performance, and how building and landscape can be constructed as a single integrated system.
The projects developed by Cen Shen through both professional practice and CSLab have received international recognition through multiple design awards, such as the iF Design Award, MUSE Design Awards Platinum Award, Architecture MasterPrize and New York Architectural Design Awards. Her work will be exhibited at the NYCxDESIGN Festival in New York.
These awards recognize not only the architectural design of the projects, but also the integration of production logic, material systems, ecological infrastructure and construction methods into the architectural design. In her award-winning projects, architectural design is developed alongside production systems and material strategies from the pre-production stage rather than implemented after the design is complete. This consistent approach across many projects demonstrates her ongoing research into architecture as a system of production and environment.
In ultra-high facade systems, modular construction research, construction experiments and ecological infrastructure projects, Cen Shen’s work demonstrates a consistent approach in which architecture is understood as a system shaped by production, construction, construction and environmental processes. Her work attempts to bridge the gap between architectural design and actual construction processes and situate architecture in larger production systems, material life cycles and ecological systems at the building and urban scale.
Rather than treating architecture as a static object defined by form, Cen Shen’s work positions architecture as a dynamic system embedded in construction processes, construction workflows, environmental systems, and urban development. Through professional practice and experimental research, her work explores how architecture can be produced, assembled, adapted and ultimately reintegrated into environmental systems over time.
Words from DSCENE editor Eli Porter.
