‘I Would Change Nothing:’ Architectural Designer Leverages Psychology Background for His Work

Studying psychology at MCPHS helped Tayu Ting become a successful architectural designer.

For Tayu Ting, BS ’19, designing buildings isn’t just about structure—it’s about understanding the users of the space. As a psychology graduate-turned-architect, he believes the two fields are closely intertwined. “Architecture is human experience, and human experience is psychology. The building is nothing without the people,” Ting said.

An alum of the Health Psychology program at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS), Ting works as an architectural designer at a Seattle firm. He credits his education in psychology with equipping him with valuable skills for his profession.

“Studying psychology helped me understand how people feel and how to convey complex ideas simply,” Ting said. “For example, a client might not connect with just seeing a floor plan diagram. But if you describe the journey through the space—like, ‘You enter here, this is the sequence, here’s the first touch of color’—it makes a real difference.”

Ting said when he initially enrolled at MCPHS, he had “no idea what he wanted to do.” However, he had an eye for design.

“I was always very intentional with all my boards and posters—colors, visuals, hierarchies in fonts,” Ting said.

After being encouraged by one of his professors, Dr. Stacie Spencer, to branch out and explore, he took a class on architectural drafting at a neighboring school and quickly developed an interest in it. From there, he built his portfolio by working at a local nonprofit that encourages children to get involved in design.

“Without Dr. Spencer pushing me to do architecture, I wouldn’t have gone that far,” he said.

Ting applied to architecture school, graduating this past summer. He said his thesis project—a design for a community center on the site of an abandoned copper mine in his home country of Taiwan—required him to thoughtfully integrate the site’s history and the pride of its local residents.

Ting consulted with community members to understand their views and honored the site’s past by packing its soil into the bricks that were used to build the new center, using the ruins of the old to construct the new.

"I needed to consider how to bring the emotions and experiences of the miners into the new adaptive reuse buildings,” he said. “To design a good building, you have to think of people's feelings and how they’ll use it. So, psychology is absolutely a part of architecture.”

As for the future, Ting is studying for his licensing exams with the goal of one day designing a school or a senior living home. Though his career has evolved, he said he is confident in the path he chose.

“I wouldn’t change a thing. I’d still choose psychology. I’d still be Dr. Spencer’s student because she pointed me in this direction,” Ting said. “It’s been a long journey to get here, but I’d do it all over again.”