PORTFOLIO
FEIFEI ALICE CAO
OBLIQUE EXPLORATIONS GRADUATE THESIS
Between 2011 and 2050, the world population is expected to increase by 2.3 billions, passing from 7.0 billions to 9.3 billions. At the same time, the population living in urban areas is projected to gain 2.6 billion, passing from 3.6 billion in 2011 to 6.3 billions 2050. With the exponential growth of population comes the issue of exponential growth of urban water and data management. While they are not the only infrastructural problems that need improvement, they are the two that can be addressed at the same scale by an architectural solution. The system scale problems of both infrastructures converge at the architectural scale due to the fact that density, circulation, resource planning and distribution are inherently architectural conditions. It is no coincidence that data management sector coined the term information architecture to describe the management of digital and analog data. As networks, both systems share common spatial qualities. The physical structure colocation center and phytoremediation network is basically contingent. Both are networks with distinct articulation of concentrated processing and vast network of distribution. While one processes matter, i.e. water, waste, effluent and returns it anew for recirculation, the other manages, processes and dispatches data. Upon further examination, both networks currently experience vast inefficiencies in terms of siting, energy consumption, and operational organization. Siting and energy consumption are problems at the architectural scale; the third, however, belongs to the system scale. Combining the programs does not mean they will share a distribution network – for water cannot actually carry data, or vice versa – but the combined infrastructure creates a symbiotic system that will hopefully address the issues of two inefficient single-function infrastructural systems. In the current model for both water and data networks, rapid growth is anticipated. In order to increase capacity of either networks, the conventional solution is to increase the number of nodes minimally but make the new node as large as possible. This is achieved by building larger and larger processing centers with increased capacity, eventually resulting in establishment of new connections to the existing network. I propose the opposite. Infrastructure should be denser, smaller, with more smaller connections between nodes to reduce transportation waste. Smaller systems can be implemented more flexibly, with lower replacement cost and provide contingencies for nearby facilities. Water is the common resource that circulates through both wastewater and colocation networks at different scales and capacity. When wastewater is cleaned on-site through a constructed wetland phytoremediation system, the resulting greywater can be used to circulate through the colocation space to radiantly cool the data space. Through further filtration, clean water can be redistributed to the collection area. Some of the clean water can remain on-site to provide additional public program suitable to the urban context.
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water hyacinth zooplankton
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duckweed common reed
water iris
torpedo grass giant bulrush alligator weed soft rush pickerel weed
canna lily
maidencane soft stem bulrush
ginger lily
calla lily
Plants and Organisms Distribution During Wastewater Treatment
pennywort
duck potato
cattail
elephant ear
fish
snails
shrubs
small trees
freshwater crayfish
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
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D duck weed water hyacinth common reed alligator weed arrow arum arrowhead giant bulrush soft-stem bulrush calla lily canna lily cattail elephant ear ginger lily maidencane pickerel weed soft rush torpedo grass water canna water iris water pennywort
All species are perennial : diagrammatically uninteresting, but ultimately great for remediation.
Building and Data Density Studies
dividing the initially thick 200ft wide building into three distinct climate zones by function
in addition to radiant cooling, new openings on the building facade enables convection cooling of both data and forest space during summer months
Glazing
Experiential Programs
Data Space
Rain Forest
Vertical Circulation
Phytoremediation
High Line Connection
GEOMETRY 3 3 directional intersections
GEOMETRY 2 diagonal intersections
GEOMETRY 1 orthogonal intersections
CONTROL 0 intersections
Filtration and Surface Area Studies for Phytoremediation Area
FILTRATION 1 0 intersections
FILTRATION 2 2 intersections
FILTRATION 3 4 intersections
RESULTS time (seconds)
Excavation Studies
rainwater catchment + green roof brown water combine with rainwater open aerobic tanks liquid cooled data space office space with radiant heating anaerobic pond and final filtration tanks with shrubs and small trees vertical secondary aerobic filtration walls brownwater collection from surrounding buildings fresh water re-distribution anaerobic settling tank fresh water tank LEGEND hot water cold water brown water grey water clean water
Water Flow Diagram of Water in the Building
interior space
Hybrid Drawing
Design Fall, 2003
Peter Viera Professor
An examination of the relationship between a fabricated architectural element and its relation to the human body, this study uses only parallel projection to represent spatial objects. After the translation of the geometry of both the hand and the newel finial of a balustrade in a Frank Furness library, the resulting projected drawings are hybridized to imagine a new object that would be the synthesis of the two constituent elements.
Night-Habit Envelope
Design
Fall, 2004
Larry Mitnick Professor
A space that houses idiosyncratic behavior (night-time reading, in this case), this small envelope examines a program specific to a single habit, here heightened to ritual. The seat provided rotates and slides down, accommodating a dynamic movement surrounding the stationary act of reading. The chair reclines into a tunnel of increasing privacy, achieved by changing the translucency of the material that controls lateral sources of light. In the final position the chair reclines fully, a bridge between text and sleep, the realm of dreams.
Analytical Drawings
Fall, 2008
Peter Eisenman Professor
Habit-At
Design
Fall, 2004
Larry Mitnick Professor
Here the Night-Habit (see previous drawings) object-space interacts with the neutral, receptive loft of an existing building. The introduction of the specificity of the envelope requires the alteration of the existing building only to the extent that the existing and the new are brought into dialogue. Alterations include the generation of a roof structure as well as vertical divisions and horizontal divisions to respond to the night habit space. The habit envelope influences the surrounding space without corrosively invading its structure, while at the same time, allowing itself to be emulated and neutralized in what is extant. Consequently, two initially disparate conditions become mutually dependent and indistinct.
The Maritime Aural History Museum
Design
Spring, 2004
Larry Mitnick Professor
The Aural History Museum is a translation of the text of Moby Dick into architectural form. The museum posits the act of harpooning as a self-generating infill: the harpoon creates the void which it fills, a foreign object inserted into a new context. As the harpoon is retracted, the void it creates is refilled with elements of the original condition, now chaotic and disjointed. This act provides a way of looking at urban infill. The building fits into an existing site, much of its form hidden in the urban fabric. In this project, the whale and text of Moby Dick are not taken as form generators, but as metaphorical guide. Thus, the rigid grid structure of the museum is an indirect architectural translation of the whale’s skeleton functioning like a skeleton rather than emulating one. Within this structure, the building’s elements leave much of the interior open for the aural nautical history to be perceived from the core to the periphery.
Housing, Part 1
Team Design
Spring, 2006
Richard Wesley Professor
An exploration of praxis, this project provides low-income housing units in West Philadelphia for formerly homeless teenage mothers. Considerations for the project include innovative materials, environmental sustainability, safety and community impact. The external appearance of this building has undergone many incarnations in order to transform a derelict neighborhood back into a vibrant community. Part of this process involved pushing the materiality past practical application in order to explore and expand the possibilities of innovative and inexpensive materiality. Due to the nature of the program, this residential project must be appropriate to its context without drawing unwanted attention to eccentricity in its form. As a result, innovations in design are mostly internal energy-saving devices and principals that blend seamlessly into the unassuming appearance.
precedent Third Floor
material studies
Second Floor
Second Floor
sun path diagrams
alternate design
final design
“University of Pennsylvania architecture students have successfully completed a design for a sustainable and affordable West Philadelphia housing project for teen mothers and their children. The Bernice Elza Homes project will begin construction this spring and involve sustainable design elements, such as photovoltaic roof panels and solar hot water heat, all within a limited budget. Eighteen students participated in a design studio for one academic semester at the UPenn’s School of Design in conjunction with Philadelphia-based Blackney Hayes Architects (BHA), Philadelphia-based Richard Wesley Architects, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC), and the Peoples Emergency Center Community Development Corporation (PECCDC). John Fox Hayes, AIA, principal at BHA, guided three undergraduate students through the final design.” Boniface, Russell. “Penn Students Design Sustainable, LowCost Housing Project.” AIArchitect. December 2006: Volume 13
Housing, Part 2
Design/Model/CD Summer, 2006
John Hayes/Sara Sweeney Blackney Hayes Architects
The construction documentation and grant proposal phase of the previous project. This design is one of four COPC (Community Outreach Partnership Center) experiments in applying the rigor of academic design in a pragmatically professional setting. Myself and two other students were selected to continue through the final design.
solar panel studies
building elevations
wall sections
Brake-Form Table Design Summer, 2006
Personal Project Collaboration with Eli Allen
This side table was designed to complement the Brake-Form chair. The chair and table were exhibited in the 2006 “Philly Heart Design” show at the F.U.E.L. Gallery in Philadelphia. The table is formed from two bolted plates of steel carrying a solid black walnut surface. The simplicity of materiality is an expression of the simple precision of the technology that was used in the process of fabrication. Fabrication of the Brake-Form table explores mass customization in steel. With the development of widespread use of computer numeric controlled (CNC) technology and equipment, precise steel fabrication is now possible in an efficient and cost effective manner. A CNC laser cutter and a CNC press brake were the primary fabrication tools for the table. An AutoCAD file programmed into the laser cutter and the press brake provides a direct genesis for the table’s fabrication, where the translation of drawing to built design has an immediate relationship.
Explosion Containment
DD/CD
Spring, 2007
Howard Lebold McGillin Architecture, Inc.
This project is a conversion of a portion of an industrial building to an explosion-proof solvent mixing site with retractable containment walls. This exceptional space contains, within its construction, the possibility of destruction. Here the details raise questions about the permanence of structure.
AIA Gondola Competition
Team Design/Digital Model Summer, 2007
Richard Goloveyko Veyko, Inc.
Using CNC-bent rod, these book shelves were the winning entry in a competition for the new AIA book store in Philadelphia. The fabrication technique was developed as part of ongoing fabrication research developed by Veyko. Veyko’s unique position as both designer and fabricator allows for an exploration of form that is possible in few places. The same method of fabrication was also used in the following project.
SEPTA “Art in Transit”
Digital Model/Presentation/CA
Ongoing
Richard Goloveyko Veyko, Inc.
The SEPTA subway station at Eighth and Market Streets in Philadelphia is a transitory threshold between two cities in motion: above, the mercantile district, below the subterranean network of speedways and destinations. As a transitional object situated between the hectic yet exhilarating corporate district and the constantly fluxing traffic of the subway system, the Groundswell bench takes on the form of malleable metal to evoke imageries of motion and velocity. At the same time, the fluid form of the Groundswell bench, named for its transitional nature and adaptability to the moving landscape, provides a niche of tranquility and allows a moment for revitalization before the passenger re-enters the activity of the city above or below. The bench’s form is a blended shape based on two primary conditions; sitting and leaning. The form of the bench resolves these two functionally different forms, allowing a single object multifunctional use.
Flying Book Lighting
CD/Fabrication Drawings
Fall, 2007
Design: Gluckman Mayner Architects Implementation: Veyko, Inc.
135 break-bent light fixtures frozen at varying angles in flight are funded by a charitable organization, the Robin Hood Foundation for public schools in New York City. These fixtures show a remarkably light-hearted application of powder-coated steel to be used in a children’s library. Photograph is courtesy of Gluckman Mayner architects.
DISPLAY KN
20 21
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1 18
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DISPLAY B2 DISPLAY B1
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DISPLAY A
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13 3
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DISPLAY B1
7
DISPLAY B1 DISPLAY A 11
DISPLAY B2 8
DISPLAY C 10
9
AXONOMETRIC SCALE: 1/4: = 1'-0"
Kiesler Exhibition Display
Digital Model/CD/Fabrication Drawings
Complete
Design: nArchitects Implementation: Veyko, Inc.
12
Guest House
Research/Digital Model/CD
Ongoing
Lisa Neely Veyko, Inc.
This residential construction serves as a detached addition to an existing residence. The ground floor serves to store and display a rotating collection of exotic cars, while the upstairs serves as a guest house and retreat. The relationships between private and public, above and below, are explored through delineation, inversion and translucency. The light zinc and glass cladding form much of the lower level, while heavy stone is made to float above. The lower level and the upper level play a part in two interlocking, interpenetrating volumes that are connected through an interior entry hall staircase. This staircase is veiled by a GKD metal mesh “scrim” wall that blurs the transitory space, delaying the moment of recognition as one passes from public to private. The building exploits Veyko’s dyadic nature as both architecture firm and custom metal fabricator with detailed metal work playing a large role in the building.
Entrance Sculpture
Digital Model/CD/Fabrication Drawings
Ongoing
Design: LTL Architects Implementation: Veyko, Inc.
Designed by LTL for the new Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Veyko will digitally model and fabricate 480 stainless steel, welded boxes that are pierced by sight lines from important programmatic locations within the lobby. The optical geometry from the site lines is used to open the wall, creating shifting perspectives in space. Lobby rendering and conceptual diagram are courtesy of LTL architects.
sight-line diagram
mock-up
fabrication model
Entrance Sculpture
Digital Model/CD/Fabrication Drawings
Ongoing
Design: LTL Architects Implementation: Veyko, Inc.
WINERY & TASTING ROOM Site: Glen Ellen, CA The program combines a winery and tasting room on a site adjacent to Sonoma Creek. The divergent programmatic requirement of two spaces generated a third mediating elongated space that contains not only circulation but also opportunities to connect the two disparate programs by sight, sounds, smells and light.
VERTICAL CITIES COMPETITION Site: Seoul, South Korea Urban and architectural proposal of Yongsan District in Seoul to respond to the aging and growth of a metropolis in the next fifty years. The strategies are specifically implemented to accommodate a projected population growth from 100,000 people per square kilometer to 300,000.
DISCONTINUOUS
CITY OF
CITY OF
CITY OF
CITY OF
CONTINUOUS
CITY
MEMORY
COMMUNITY
MOBILITY
HEALTH
CITY
VERTICAL CITIES building parse in brown field marsh and site analysis
2
as cities grow, there are two typical strategies
roof top inaccessible to pedestrians
vertical growth accomodates density requirements but decreases access to street level TOWERS IN THE PARK
TYPICAL OC HORIZON CUPIABLE TAL AREA
horizontal sprawl allows the same access to street level but continues to consume land URBAN SPRAWL
PROPOS ED OCCUPIA ADDITIONAL BLE CIRC ULATION
CURRENT DENSITY CONFIGURATION
VERTICAL CITIES existing building mass and overlay of additional circulation
CURRENT DENSITY CONFIGURATION
CURRENT DENSITY CONFIGURATION
CURRENT DENSITY CONFIGURATION
CURRENT DENSITY CONFIGURATION
Photogram Prototype C Design 2003-2006 Fine Arts
Independent Study
In order to understand the relationships among different artistic media, painting and photography in particular, I chose to study the photogram, a seemingly elementary form of photography. During my three years of study, I became literate in painting with light and discovered the compelling diversity of this medium. The luminescent texture of the photogram is telling of its process, and each exposure is crucial to the unified final image. The resulting images are works of process even as they are autonomous. Numerous prototypes were created to test the spectrum of color, method of exposure, and capacity of this new medium.
ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAM PROJECT PROPOSAL I propose to explore photography in the form of the photogram. Traditionally, this medium is seen as an overly simplified method of producing silhouettes of ready-made objects. From Hippolyte Bayard to Loszlo Moholy-Nagy, the photogram represents a straightforward way of producing graphic compositions in subject matters ranging from scientific recordings of typical flora and fauna to more abstract images of contemporary symbolic objects. Most work done in photogram form is in black and white, exhibiting shape, form, and thickness but lacking texture and luminosity. There are few artists who attempted to create color photograms; their efforts are limited to abstract, matter-of-chance compositions with little control over the outcome of the shape, hue, or intensity of the image. David Berg, Seze Devres, and Adam Fuss have all experimented with the technique. While yielding dramatically different images, most work produced by such artists still exhibits a limited palette of mostly saturated primary colors, deficient in subdued hues. It was Fuss’s approach that particularly interested me. In his work, the images demonstrated a particular sense of control; the directorial mode that the artist has taken is evident in the product. Each photogram was the result of careful planning, set-up and timing. Chance and coincidence seemed to play a role of lesser importance, which resulted in images that represent intention and intellectual pursuit rather than whim and coincidence. In order to explore and also to expand the usage of the photogram, I plan to adopt a similar approach, thereby reconciling this seemingly unsophisticated medium with other more intellectually filtered forms of the fine arts such as painting and sculpture. I intend to direct the palette, depth, texture, and form of the objects to be placed on top of the unexposed paper, just as carefully and painstaking as a painter would pick out the hue, transparency, tint, and viscosity of the pigment chosen to place on top of the canvas. However, the “pigment� I wish to employ cannot be purchased readily from local art supply stores. Knowledge of the intricate palette will be gained through experimentation and creative use of photography, painting, computergenerated images, laser-cutting fabrication and graphic design. While most photograms are two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects, I choose to focus on the photogram not as representation, but as imprint. These imprints are the products of my daily thoughts and imagination, shapes and forms that I find emblematic. Instead of imprinting outlines of man-made objects, the forms I propose are entirely sui generis. The form of each composition presents prototypical images that have taken on meaning internally. Instead of creating something new, the process is more akin to recording what has always existed: forms and images that I find at once enigmatic and familiar. Some resemble plants with soft tendrils; others are more harsh, mechanical, and obstinate in nature. As often occurs with visual synesthesia, each prototype associates with certain hues, just as nature assigns colors to every object of its creation. The photogram is the most appropriate medium, showing the full spectrum, and also the luminosity and the depth of each delicate form.
Photogram Prototypes E-I Design 2003-2006 Fine Arts
Senior Thesis
PROCESS Draft To compose the basic prototypes five to ten detailed 16” x 20” drawings are produced. Each drawing is assigned a specific hue and demonstrates meticulous composition in order to map out the development of a secondary “negative.” Palette To determine the specific hue, saturation, and luminosity of the final product, a palette must be constructed. This palette ensures that the final print will aptly represent the original drawings and amplify the three-dimensionality of the forms. Using principles of color photography, I will construct a palette that contains the full spectrum of colors by layering the CMYK and RBG colors. The materials chosen to represent the negative are colored gels, acrylic sheets and monochromatic digital printouts of the basic hues. The process could be simplified by scanning the drawings and printing them in inverted hues; however, this process would greatly limit the depth of the final image. To ensure the three-dimensionality of the final print, the negative demands the layering of the primary colors to create the sense of depth and perspective. The combination of primary colors, tint, and shade result in calibrated and vibrant hues. Construction The construction of the negative is a mechanical process, instead of the chemical one typical of photography. The basic shapes are transformed into cutouts. These cutouts outline thin layers of color transparency which are coded, numbered and layered according to the palette. Print Following the normal procedures for producing a photogram, the constructed negatives are exposed according to the coded time, aperture, and color correction. Each print requires six to fifteen unique layers of exposure to achieve a final image. The Product The project and its process are not only horizontal, i.e. charting the expansion and metamorphoses of the shape, but also vertical: the transformation from the original drawing to the negative then to the final print is also part of its organic growth. It is not only an evolution from the mechanical [drawing] to the chemical [printing] process, but it also illustrates the growth of an idea from conception to imprint.