Architecture Portfolio Keying Zhong
sketchbooks
Continunity
The Great Rivers Resource Center
Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
In 1806, the Corps of Discovery returned to St. Louis from a two-year journey across the Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, and Pacific Coast, bringing back an invaluable collection of objects and observations. While their contributions to science, geography, history, and culture are well-documented, their greatest legacy—recognizing the deep symbiotic relationship between people and the natural world—has taken centuries to resonate. The onceabundant wilderness they charted seemed inexhaustible to early 19thcentury Americans. However, within 100 years, we began mourning its loss and grappling with ecological crises. This project explores the Confluence of the Great Rivers near St. Louis as the site for the Great Rivers Resource Center—a national hub for research, education, and public engagement on ecological and cultural symbiosis. Situated near the Chain of Rocks Bridge and Chouteau Island, the project reimagines the interplay of landscape, water, and architecture to redefine sustainable design and planning for rivercentered ecosystems.
This project connects Chouteau Island's well-trodden paths, creating a continuous circulation through two strategies. First, the design blends architecture and environment with curved walls and weathering steel exteriors to create the continuous changing landscape. Second, it captures and evokes the sensation of continuing a walk through the forest by integrating ramps, a long strip of skylight, and curved walls to guide movement, invite sunlight and shadows, and frame immersive views, creating a continuous experience.
Continunity of Experiences
Passive Strategies
Climate Responsiveness
The building is oriented linearly from south to north, maximizing views of the stunning Mississippi River while benefiting from the prevailing south-to-southwest winds in St. Louis for natural ventilation.
To optimize solar performance, the second floor extends as a cantilever above the first floor, providing shade without obstructing the ground floor's views. Adjustable louvers on the southern facade of the second floor further shade the classrooms, enhancing comfort and reducing glare. Nestled within a forest, the structure enjoys natural shading, enhancing its passive design performance.
On the western side, an additional strip of space serves as an outdoor observation area, adding a protective layer that provides shade and effectively mitigates the intensity of the afternoon sunlight.
The building materials are thoughtfully chosen for energy efficiency: concrete serves as thermal mass, regulating indoor temperatures by storing and releasing heat, while high-quality insulation and tinted double-glazed glass with Low-E coating minimizes heat loss or gain, ensuring consistent thermal comfort.
Active Strategies
Energy Performance
The building employs a zoned design based on usage, ensuring optimal climate control for areas such as exhibition spaces, classrooms, restaurants, and auditorium...
The HVAC system integrates a Variable Air Volume (VAV) system and a Dedicated Outdoor Air System (DOAS) to provide precise temperature control and consistent ventilation, promoting energy efficiency and indoor comfort.
To facilitate airflow across the building, five strategically placed shafts connect to Air Handling Units (AHUs) located on the roof, distributing conditioned air effectively to each zone. The roof also houses DOAS units, VAV Rooftop Units (RTUs), Exhaust Fans, and Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERVs) or Heat Recovery Ventilators (HRVs) to maximize energy efficiency and support sustainable operations. Additional ducts and vents ensure intake and exhaust of outdoor air, enhancing air quality throughout the building.
The mechanical room, situated on the second floor at 440 feet above major flood level—safeguarded from potential flooding (major flood level: 419 feet)—contains critical components. These include spare VAV terminal boxes, BMS controls for VAV and DOAS systems, network switches, servers, and electrical panels powering the HVAC infrastructure. The placement ensures operational continuity and protection against environmental risks.
Managed by an advanced Building Management System (BMS), the active HVAC strategy optimizes energy use, monitors system performance, and allows for real-time adjustments, ensuring reliability and adaptability.
The building integrates efficient suspended lighting and advanced plumbing systems to enhance functionality and sustainability. Suspended LED lighting complements the wood ceiling, providing energy-efficient, visually appealing illumination. The plumbing system incorporates low-flow fixtures, backflow prevention, and grease interceptors ensuring water efficiency, flood resilience, and reliable operation for kitchens and restrooms.
Flood Resilience
Program / Circulation
The building features four main entrances, five emergency exits, and one staff entrance, all designed as ADA-compliant ramps that also serve as egress routes during emergencies. These entrances are strategically positioned at varying elevations (410 to 415 feet) to accommodate diverse visitor and staff access routes from different pathways. The building itself is elevated on soil-filled foundations (425 feet) to safeguard against major flood levels (419 feet). Additionally, a distinctive entrance on the second floor (425 feet) is accessible via a wooden boardwalk connecting the levee directly to the building, ensuring continuous accessibility during severe flooding events.
The first floor, dedicated to temporary exhibitions, employs a flood-resilient strategy. During extreme floods exceeding 419 feet, all exhibits can be relocated to the second floor using the staff elevator located within the storage area. The spacious second-floor lobby, conveniently adjacent to the elevator, serves as a temporary holding area for relocated items, ensuring their safety and accessibility.
Flood resilience is further enhanced through the use of bare concrete walls on the first floor, intentionally left without finishes to maximize durability and simplify post-flood cleanup. This thoughtful design ensures the building remains operational and adaptable during and after flood events, prioritizing safety, functionality, and long-term resilience.
Blossom Chasing
Nomadic Beekeepers' House China
Beekeeping is a widespread global activity with millions of beekeepers rely on bees for their livelihoods. There are 300,000 beekeepers in China with total output of bee products accounts for more than 1/4 of the world, which ranks world first for many years in spite of the extremely poor living conditions.
This project plans to provide housing prototypes for these beekeepers along the way to improve their living environment. At the same time, using the form of off-grid buildings to protect the ecological environment.
Individual Work
Summer 2021
Critic: Lili Zhang
Flower Chasing Route
Select 3 beekeepers' stop points with large differences in terrain, environment and temperature as the sites of housing prototypes.
Beekeeper's Schedule
Haoran Mountain Village, Zhalantun City,
Jiaoshan Village, Shigu City, HuNan Province
Luoping Village, Qujing City, YunNan Province
Longfeng Village, Mianyang City, SiChuan Province
Luren Village, Mingchang City, GanSu Province
Menyuan Village, Haibei City, QingHai Province
Tangbula Grassland, Weiwuer City, XinJiang Province
Kulunqi Village, Tongliao City, NeiMengGu Province
Heilong River
Exploded Drawing
International Housing in Barcelona
Housing Design for Condensed City
Barcelona, Spain
The concept of this project adapts the high-density community in Barcelona. The spatial arrangement creates the lighting gradient from the dark foyer to f brighter outdoor space, as well as the division of public and private realms. Spaces in different shapes with similar size provide flexible usage of rooms and the rich potential of cross views, which accommodated to dwellers with various income. The use of ventral shafts at the center and the adjustable louvers enveloped the apartment is designed for pleasant lighting condition and climate change. Althese together evolves the living quality and creating modern lifestyle in Barcelona.
Individual Work
Fall 2023
Critic: Emiliano Lepez
Grade: A
New Orleans
Threshold Model Threshold Model
Vegetable Station
Agricultural Cooperative in the High Density City
Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
The urbanization causes the emergence of urban villages. Alomost 70% of pupulation living here are the underclass who come to work here from other city due to the low-cost housing in urban villages, resulting in the economic stratification. The city now facing the farmland marginalization, making the rise of vegetable prices, which create the inequality of food supply. Government is planning to rebuild the urban village to improve the appearance of the city, but once it is improved, these underclass people will not be able to afford the rising rents , even facing unemployment, their re-moving leads to the emergence of the next urban village problem.
This project plans to create a new type of urban agricultural operation system. Providing those underclass with part-time jobs of farming in exchange for discounts on renting and shopping, and also provide the city with fresh vegetables, so as to reduce economic stratification, food inequality and guarantee the lives of the underclass.
Individual Work
Fall 2022
Critic: Jing Li
Economic Stratification
Food Inequality
Subdivide the spaces and make the slope to get more light.
Form different shapes of space to increase identity.
Gardening and Learning Area
Soil Harvesting Farm
Hydroponic Harvesting Area
Ruin Reborn
Community Design for Women in Post-war Iraq
Mosul, Iraq
At present, the government plans to close the last refugee camp in the country, but many people are still living in the refugee camp although five years have passed since the Iraq War. According to the survey, women and chidren who are facing discrimination, fear and trauma make up the vast majority of this refugees, which means that the closure of the refugee camp will make them unable to find a job or even a place to live.
This project plans to build a community on the ruins for refugees which is under the premise of protecting women's guardianship, safety and privacy. Provide these refugees with a place to live, work, study and relax.
Individual Work Spring 2022
Critic: Lingqing Zhang
We have no where to go
The
and
We are insecure
This society is too unfriendly to women, there are many restrictions on us.
Women's refuge doesn't solve the problem
We need society to make changes, not isolate us from society to protect us.
We lack labor, material and financial resources
We don't have a way to build a good house,
Built on ruins Urban restoration work should be undertaken to provide permanent living space.
Women-friendly space
The creation of functions and spaces allows women to feel safe in the environment and encourages them to participate in urban restoration.
Open community Creating a real community for women, not a closed women's refuge.
Self-growing community
The house is easy to build and all residents can participate in the construction. The use of passive design makes the house save energy.
Chidren classroom
Chidren classroom
Chidren classroom
Handicraft Factory
Handicraft Factory
A Retreat for Painters
An Addition to Louis Kahn’s (unbuilt) Salk Meeting House
San Diego, California, USA
The Salk Institute, commissioned from Kahn by Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine, provides laboratories for Nobel Prize-winning biologists who are pursuing the cures for the most devastating human diseases. Salk commissioned Kahn with the request that, in addition to laboratories, he design “a place where I can bring Picasso to meet my scientists,” for Salk believed that radical breakthroughs in science often are stimulated by exposure to fundamentally different ideas and ways of thinking. To fulfill this request, Kahn designed the Meeting House, to be built closest to the sea on the site overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Under the design guidance and site selection of Kahn, this project creates a gallery that interacts with the existing meeting house, and also provides artists with living areas. The design emphasizes the connection between the new building and the existing building with surrounding landforms. In addition to this, this project also focuses on the mutual connection between humans and space, which is people's behavior controls and changes the function of the space, while at the same time, the space constrains people's behavior.
Individual Work
Spring 2024
Critic: Robert McCarter and Dennis McGrath
Grade: A-
Studio for Artist
Using the concept of the geometry of Salk Institution. The studio consists of 2 squares. The smaller one is the working area for artist, with service areas like stairs, a terrace, and a bedroom around it. The inner square twists a little bit, offering a more living experience for the artist when going up the stairs, also creates 4 tiny skylights above the service space. The studio is hung by tube steel beams which are supported by the surrounding concrete walls with the concrete precast panel on the outside layer. There is also a big skylight with a filter on the top of the studio, which brings the light in and provides ventilation.
Exploded Drawing
Gallery
The design of the gallery follows the same design strategy as the studio. The arrangement of the gallery and 6 studios is a continuity of the landform surface, emphasizing the geometry of Kahn's meeting house.
Gallery
Detailed Wall Section
The gallery is hung by 4 big tube steel beams which are supported by the surrounding concrete walls with the concrete precast panel on the outside layer. Considering the heavy weight of the gallery, only the walls of it are hung on the beams, while the ground of it is actually put on the ground. The floor is cast concrete floor. The inner walls which are used to divide the space consist of the wood frame with insulation in it. On the top of the gallery is the big skylight with the filter glass.
Glass Roof with Filter
Glass Skylights
Steel Tube (Height: 5ft, Width: 3.5ft, thickness: 0.3ft)
Steel Tube (Height: 3ft, Width: 2.0ft, thickness: 0.2ft)
DOAS Unit
Concrete Floor Finishing
Screed
Thermal InsulationUnit
Pre-cast Concrete Slab Roof
Suspended LED Lighting
Recessed Cove Fixture
LED Track Lights
Knauf Soundshield PlusHigh-density gypsum board
Wood Frame with Mineral Fiber Insulation
ATS Acoustics Panel 24x48x2 Inches
1 lb. Mass Loaded Vinyl (MLV)
Wood Frame
Double Pane Windows Laminated acoustic glass with a special interlayer to dampen sound vibrations
High-quality Engineered Wood Flooring
Aluminum Heat-transfer Plates
Radiant Heat System In Lightweight Concrete
Concrete Pavers
MUD-SET Pavers
Cast-in-place Reinforced Concrete Slab
Rigid Insulation
Vapor Barrier
Cast-in-place Concrete Secondary Footing
Stitching
Forgotten Spaces in the City
Chengdu, Sichuan, China
During the large-scale plannings and constructions in the urban renewal, some inconspicuous corners and spaces often lack planning and management, which called forgotten spaces, being prone to the problems such as dirty environment, illegal using and traffic jam. This site is a narrow passage which is under above mentioned situation.
This project plans to take full advantages of this forgotten space, creating a space that changes according to human behaviors. It will not only keep the activities currently happening on the site, but also add more activities in order to activate this forgotten space, solve the problem of traffic jam, and improve space utilization, offering more public areas for city.
Individual Work
Fall 2020
Critic: Yixuan Wei
Characteristic
MANUAL Space Movement Rules
RULE 1
The mode changes three times a day and loops every day.
2
Time: 8:00
Mode3 Mode1 Time: 15:30 Mode1 Mode2
Time: 18:00 Mode3 Mode2
Voice of Wind
Pavilion Design and Construction
Yaan, Sichuan, China
Group Work
Summer 2021
Critic: Shen Gao
Commercial Street Design
https://youtu.be/7I9ffnJr6lQ
Design
Urban Complex Design
Middle School Design
https://youtu.be/nFQhysa9SpM
Library