Kathlyn Kao is a doctoral fellow at RIOT, EPFL ENAC-IA. Her work focuses on questions of immeasurability and intangibility within regimes of land ownership and environmental law, specifically pertaining to migrant communities.
 
As a researcher, she has recently worked for Cornell University AAP, Harvard Bloomberg City Leadership Initiative & Frances Loeb Library Building for Tomorrow Project. Her thesis, "In the Capital of Absence, I am Longing for___," supported by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, focuses on the spatial remittance economy of overseas Filipina domestic workers. Her work has been featured in Harvard Urban Review, Room One Thousand, and Pairs. She has given talks at institutions including Bauhaus-Universität Weimar University, ABK Stuttgart, and ARQ Technológico de Monterrey.

As a practitioner, she has worked on projects in New York City and Boston, specializing in academic institutions, historic renovations, and installation work with firms like DiMella Shaffer Associates (MIT Vassar Street Residence Hall), Christoff:Finio Architecture (Bennington Commons Renovation), and Dream the Combine (After Images I-III, Venice & Chicago Biennale 2022).

As an advocate, she has helped steward the First-Generation Initiative Committee (Harvard GSD), establish the Racial Equity Working Group (DiMella Shaffer Associates) and served as Vice President for the Cal Poly, SLO National Service Fraternity chapter (Alpha Phi Omega). She is currently a co-organizer of South X Initiative at EPFL ENAC-IA with Akshar Gajjar (THEMA). 

Kathlyn is a registered architect in New York, USA. She holds an M.Arch from Harvard and a B.Arch from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.