Our work blends curiosity, experimentation, and cultural context, reimagining traditional forms and functions for contemporary needs. Like a zoo curates and nurtures life, we curate and transform architectural ideas—bridging past, present, and future. For us, ZOO is not just a studio but a living archive of creativity and innovation.
Born and raised in Yantai, China, Alex Mingda Zhang is the founder of ZOO. He graduated from Yale University (M.Arch ‘23), where he studied under Peter Eisenman, Frank O. Gehry, Alexander Garvin, and Anthony Vidler. He received his B.Sci in Architectural Studies, and a Minor in Urban Planning, from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2019 with Highest Honors. He practiced architecture with OMA (Rotterdam), Pentagram (New York), Morphosis, SOM (New York), and Gensler (San Diego), with projects built in Milan, Paris, New York, and Beijing. He was also a competitive player at Yale Table Tennis Club.