Jianan "John" Dai is a Master of Architecture student at University of Pennsylvania, as well as the Founder and Director of Studio CURVES, a Shanghai based Architecture and Interior Firm launched in 2020. Dai has formerly worked for UNStudio, HOK, OHM Advisors, Gunzelman AI, and holds Graduate Teaching Assistant positions at PennDesign. Additionally, Dai was President of PennDesign Student Council, and an executive board member of  University of Pennsylvania Graduate And Professional Student Assembly from 2018-2019.

From Changshu, China, Dai came to the U.S. when he was 15. Witnessing life in ever-growing cities in China, and then in the suburb of the states, he recalls becoming vastly interested in futuristic urban planning solutions. Dai graduated Cum Laude with Honors from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science in Architecture.  Dai has received multiple awards and has placed in several design competitions, among them the Warren Power Laird Award at PennDesign, as well as 1st place in the 2018 HOK design futures challenge. 

Dai's current research interests lie in contemporary social political urban development, particularly in hyper-dense cities of Asia, with digital design tools, emerging technologies and nonhuman agency. Dai envisions an unification of horizontal suburban expansion and vertical urban growth, via new generation of city infrastructure that enables multi-layered vehicle and supply transportation, integration of urban and natural ecosystem, and high performance building structure.