Fiona Chen
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ACADEMIC WORKS

Interesting projects in Parsons





The Future of Wellness

Analyzing Trends, 2025
A comprehensive trend analysis examining how wellness is shifting from a hyper-personalized optimization culture toward collective, civic, and relational care. Applied multiple diagnostic frameworks, including PESTLE analysis, Johari Window mapping, Signposts of Change, and a Futures Cone with near-term and long-term hypotheses. Near-term thesis: "The Age of Wellness Burnout," in which AI self-care routines lose meaning and people crave ambient presence over performance. Long-term thesis: "Wellness Becomes Public Infrastructure," in which grief gardens, silence rooms, and co-healing pods are treated as civic utilities. Each hypothesis is supported by speculative design concepts.


LOEWE - Gap & White Space

Brand Strategy, 2025
Strategic growth analysis identifying where LOEWE has earned consumer permission to expand versus where it would enter genuinely new territory. Distinguished between adjacent gap opportunities (technical outerwear capsule, hybrid city-to-trail footwear leveraging the LOEWE x On collaboration) and true whitespace plays (essential oils, craft wellness retreats, vegetable-forward dining experiences). Recommended sequencing the gap first to prove functional credibility before piloting whitespace, supported by market evidence from gorpcore culture normalization and rising wellness spend data.




Starbucks

(group, led strategy and research sections)Strategic Management, 2025

 Collaborated to develop a future-casting strategy for Starbucks across three strategic territories: wellness-driven product and service innovation (functional beverages, adaptogenic ingredients, regenerative sourcing); biophilic customer experience design (nature-infused cafés, guided wellness sessions, climate impact receipts); and AI/technology integration (robotic vending, blockchain traceability, AI drink personalization). Developed a scenario planning matrix mapping consumer orientation against climate reliability. Contributed to the potential futures analysis and the full research plan across all three territories


COMMUNITY - Quilt Patch

Space / Materiality, 2023, Featured on Parsons School of Design
A 4x4-inch embroidered and beaded quilt patch exploring the performance of respectability within toxic communities. The central image, a fish with a concealed face, draws from the Thai idiom "Mee Na Mee Da," which describes someone who appears presentable or respectable as a function of status and power. The wall surrounding the fish represents both the privileges and the restrictions that come with that identity. Made in fabric, embroidery, and beading.

Check it out!

HERE