Catherine Ahn

2020 Fall Fellow

Catherine Ahn is an architectural designer and researcher, based in New York and Seoul, whose work intersects materials studies, ecology, and social infrastructure. She holds a BArch from the Cooper Union and an MArch from Princeton University. Her 2020 graduate thesis project A Porous Poche—a new structural system that channels concrete demolition debris to create collective leisure spaces at Jamaica Bay, Queens—was awarded the Suzanne Kolarik Underwood Prize, the Howard Crosby Butler Traveling Fellowship, and a Student Project Citation from the AIANY-ASLANY Transportation and Infrastructure Awards. Her design and managing experiences include cultural and educational buildings, mixed income housing, landscape buildings, installations and exhibitions, and retail spaces in the U.S., Korea, China, and other countries while working at SITE and Obra Architects from 2009 to 2018. Prior to the IPA Fellowship, Catherine completed a research project with the Princeton Mellon Initiative on the Women’s School of Planning and Architecture (WSPA, 1975-1981) and continues to research new methods of collaborative design.