Photo: James Duncan Davidson

An overhead sculpture of cut paper that looks like an intricately woven cloud. An undulating shopping mall designed like a wave. An apartment complex that emulates the beauty of the local peach blossom trees. These are the kind of things that architect, interior designer and artist Yu “Jordy” Fu creates.

Fu, now of the firm Marques and Jordy, begins her talk at TED2013 by showing an extraordinarily well-drawn pagoda that she drew when she was just 5 years old. After all, Fu had her first exhibit in Beijing at age 6.

“I love to capture this world through colors, light, movement. I capture this would through my eyes and through my heart,” says Fu. ”Art is something that lights up our world.”

Fu has taken the traditional Chinese art of paper cutting and used it to create 3D, cloud-like sculptures and lamps, like the one above, that have been installed all over the world. Much of her work, in fact, comes in the form of objects.

“Art is not always sitting in galleries. It could be a martini glass or a bed, a wardrobe, or a mirror that’s graceful and sexy,” says Fu. “A chair doesn’t have to be boring.”

As an interior designer, Fu has worked for clients as varied as Bloomberg London — for whom she remixed her cloud sculpture, creating it out of discarded computer wires — and a 2-year-old, whose bedroom she made magical.

“When we presented her home, she smiled,” recalls Fu. “That is all that matters to me as a designer.”

Fu looks to emotions and nature — even fashion — for her work. She created a diamond cafe called the Love F Cafe in Abu Dhabi, where even the displays are shaped like diamonds. It’s a motif she picked up in these prefab resort units for FashionTV that can be moved to remote locations — in a field or floating in the sea.

She’s even emulated this diamond motif in an apartment building.

“We spend a lot of time at our home; I think our home should also be art,” said Fu. ”How many people in this world actually love their house? Why can’t a house be romantic and beautiful? Why can’t a house be very sensual … A home can be so extraordinary, like diamonds in the sky.”

 Waves, water, flowers, Chinese tea — these have all informed designs of Fu’s. She sums up her talk saying, “I think there are no boundaries between art, design,and architecture. Nothing is impossible with love.”

The speakers who appeared in this session. Click on their name to read a full recap of their talk:

In his film “Mars et Avril,” Martin Villeneuve brings his sci-fi romance graphic novel to glorious life.

Andrew McAfee studies how information technology affects businesses and society.

Dong Woo Jang turns an unusual stick of bamboo into an archer’s bow — an exploration of his cultural heritage and a metaphor for his perfect world.

Jinsop Lee is an industrial designer who believes that great design appeals to all five senses.

Barb Stuckey makes food for a living — and wants to help you taste things better.

Yu “Jordy” Fu‘s dream is to make this world a better place through art, design and architecture.

Jacky Myint designed the boundary-breaking news feature “Snow Fall” for NYTimes.com.

At Novalia, Kate Stone and her team use ordinary printing presses to manufacture interactive electronics, which combine touch-sensitive ink technology and printed circuits into unique and cost-effective products.

A paper on carbon nanotubes, a biology lecture on antibodies and a flash of insight led 15-year-old Jack Andraka to design a cheaper, more sensitive pancreatic cancer test.

Backstage setup starts on the TED2013 stage in Long Beach.

A monumental amount of effort goes into setting up for TED. This year’s iteration in Long Beach is no different. Construction of our stage started on Wednesday, and it wasn’t long before the entire Long Beach Performing Arts Center was full of the buzz of technicians, workers and artists getting ready for next week.

Artist and TED2013 speaker Jordy Fu (center, in green jacket) works on the installation of her cut-paper piece “Cloud” (2013) for the lobby of the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. Above her hangs Gabriel Dawe’s “Plexus C2,” installed for TED2012 and now part of the permanent collection at the LBPAC.

Hanging speaker signs in the lobby at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center.

Reflections of the TED2013 speakers in the windows of the Long Beach Performing Arts Center

Photos: James Duncan Davidson (photos 1 and 3); Ryan Lash (photos 2 and 4)