ALA Studio founder Alda Ly shares with us the only beer she enjoys, her deep love of sketching on an iPad, and more in this week's Friday Five!

Alda Ly founded ALA Studio (formerly Alda Ly Architecture) in 2017, inspired to sit at the helm of her own practice after taking a leap of faith when The Wing ? a then groundbreaking co-working platform ? tapped her to design their East Coast and California locations. This project marked the start of the studio’s continued work with entrepreneurs and startups, as well as established organizations looking to rethink traditional retail, healthcare, office, and cultural spaces.
Ly’s story originates in New Zealand, where she was born before moving and being raised in a working-class suburb of Los Angeles, California. Watching her cabinetmaker father draw up plans and traveling with him to visit open houses, she became interested in how others shape their spaces. Ly attended UC Berkley as an undergrad before going on to earn a Master’s degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design ? but she was hooked on architecture from the moment she started studying freehand drawing. In 2008, while still a student at Harvard, she helped launch MASS Design Group, the award-winning nonprofit design practice dedicated to humanitarian and socially sustainable work. Alda Ly \ Photo: Christine Han
Living in New York City since 2002, Ly has long nurtured a curiosity in the evolution of work and cultural spaces,...