Katharina Wang’s creative scholarship and research explores the intersection of art, design and technology.

“I’m exploring the question: how can digital fabrication support traditional glass forming techniques?” she said.

With support from the Stouffer Design Excellence fund, Master of Architecture candidate Katharina Wang attended the Pilchuck Glass School workshop over the summer, furthering her creative scholarship and enabling the next step of her research thesis exploring using recycled glass as a sustainable building material.

“If you would have asked me at the start of my masters program, would I be working with glass – I never would have seen this coming.”

But thus is the exploratory nature of a graduate design program, with the benefits of an interdisciplinary art & design college. She is interested in understanding how to apply technology to working with different mediums. Her interest in glass started with an initial idea: can glass be used in architectural model-making? Designs that she envisioned were tough to make out of acrylic, she learned. So she started learning about working with different materials – including glass.

“The best thing you can do while researching is to chase those sparks of inspiration. If you are going down rabbit holes chasing your inspiration, sometimes you actually end up in wonderland and find something really exciting.”

A “Transformative” Experience

With a background as an interior designer studying architecture and practicing artist, Wang embodies the interdisciplinarian artist-designer who is both a student and an educator herself at the LSU College of Art & Design.

In June 2025, Katharina attended the “Living with Glass” workshop “Reimagined Material: Kiln Forming Recycled Glass” led by Morgan Gilbreath at Pilchuck Glass School in Washington, with the aim of furthering her experience working with the medium. She applied to the summer residency after learning about the program from interior design instructor Ana María Agüero Jahannes, who recommended it to her when discussing her interests.

Wang said that she never expected to be selected to participate. “I didn’t have a portfolio built up in glass, didn’t have good documentation of my past work in stained glass to submit with my application.” She submitted her digital fabrication and architectural work, and was delighted to learn that she was invited for a summer session.

While at the residency, she learned more about the techniques of glassmaking and had the opportunity to explore and test the properties of different glass types and applications. The experimental process merged the experiences of artmaking and scientific testing, in an environment with everything one could want or need.

“The entire class —  entire campus — was so overwhelmingly positive and inspiring. It felt like a summer camp movie, where all of the people there come from different corners of the world and all bring so much creativity and inspiration that it is palpable in the air around you.”

As an MArch student, she is exploring the overlap between glass and architecture, seeking to understand how buildings are created from glass, and how architects are using glass in different aspects of building design – both in traditional and unexpected new ways.

Her research is working toward full computational control over glass to understand its behavior. “I’m developing my own technique that combines digital fabrication with kiln formed glass, using technology with glass in an innovative way that eliminates the need for in-kiln constraints such as molds,” she said. 

Her research abstract has been accepted by ARCC, so now she is working toward a paper on how digital fabrication might meaningfully integrate into the traditional craft of Frit lace, Kilnformed glass. This digitally enhanced frit lace method could “help close the gap between the dynamic movement of molten glass and computational control, creating a path for further integration of this historically delicate craft within the world of architecture.”

She is delving into a new way to use digital fabrication with this medium, she explained. She is particularly interested in working with recycled glass, furthering knowledge on sustainable building materials. She even aspires to assemble a database of information on glass properties, that could be accessed by artisans, designers, and researchers working with reclaimed glass materials. 

Wang described the residency as transformative. “I would love for all art students to get to experience this kind of environment – it was so inspiring. I came away with new ideas, new projects I’m working on now, and I’m taking it all forward for my research.”

“It was an absolutely life-changing experience in so many ways, and I would just be so excited if other students get the opportunity to go and experience this,” she said. “I appreciate the support so much.”