Portfolio 2017 by Amber Shen

a r c h i t e c t u r e Xinran Shen (Amber)

XINRAN (AMBER) SHEN B.A. Architectural Studies - UCLA amberkid013@gmail.com +1 213 344-7049

Contents

Architectural Studio Works Events 01 The Fit Out 1.0 02 The Fit Out 2.0

p. 01-04 p. 05-08

Atmosphere 03 This is Not a Party Wall

p. 09-12

Digital Technology 04 Chunk

p. 13-16

Other Works 05 Others

p. 17-18

Site Location: 17487 Gilette Avenue, Irvine, CA 92614 Site Size: 250 ft x 400 ft

The Fit Out 1.0 UCLA WINTER QUARTER 2017 CLASS: ARCH&UD 121 - Studio I: Events INSTRUCTOR: ERIN D. BESLER

This project shows an interest in examining the gap between disciplinary problems and practical problems and attempts to refit things that have been relegated to practice into a conceptual framework. It aims to investigate the relationship between the content and its container: loose fit tight fit, or misfit; more specifically, the contractual delieations between base building and fit out.

This project demonstrates the relationship between the positive and negative structure developed from a circle. The two structures are of the same volume, while seemingly unequal. Through lifting, stretching, and reconnecting, the two structures interlock like LEGO blocks.

1/8” = 1’-0” Model MATERIAL: 2ply museum board & duralar/PETG

330.00’ Roof 310.00’ Floor 18 292.00’ Floor 17 274.00’ Floor 16 256.00’ Floor 15 238.00’ Floor 14 220.00’ Floor 13 202.00’ Floor 12 184.00’ Floor 11 166.00’ Floor 10 148.00’ Floor 9 130.00’ Floor 8 112.00’ Floor 7 94.00’ Floor 6 76.00’ Floor 5 58.00’ Floor 4 40.00’ Floor 3 22.00’ Floor 2 0.00’ Floor 1

Elevation NE

Elevation NW

Elevation SE

Elevation SW

Plans The coexistence of negative and positive spaces shows a balance: while the two structures form a continues unity, they focus on two different centers, which distinguishes them from each other.

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Furnished Plans To highlight the overlapped spaces between the negative and positive structure, the core and the meeting rooms, where people from the two sides can interact, are located there. Also, corresponding to the shifted spacial relationship of the two large structures, I shifted the bathrooms. The arrangement of the functions of spaces show what is called a “tight fit.” The lines of the furnitures in each functional area are aligned with the column grid lines (the radiuses of the two circles) and the structure’s shell.

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While a bulding has been thought of by many to be fixed, its uses and occupancies might change. In this project, a paper company replaces the tenants - law firm - for the office building designed by my classmate Dania Ghuneim. In contemporary architectural design, there occurs a trend to transform physical objects into abstract concepts. In this project, I attempted to do the reverse: making an abstraction solid and explicit. The furniture fit out of the office organized based on the conception of time - clock - aims to reflect the characteristics of paper company. At the same time, it attempts to bring in spaces and to introduce new working style that allows office workers to break away from regular office life.

The Fit Out 2.0 UCLA WINTER QUARTER 2017 CLASS: ARCH&UD 121 - Studio I: Events INSTRUCTOR: ERIN D. BESLER

Rending of 3rd Floor Interior 05

02 Dania Gheneim’s office building shows her exploration of a system of parts derived from a complete form that was manipulated in order to fit within a container. She aims to express how a whole object can be divided and restructured in order to attain a new type of fit within itself. Gheneim’s Tenent Agreements expound her strong opposition against alteration to the existing building design. Moreover, strict constraints such no addition of floor spaces, designated area for certain programs, dense organization of associates’ work spaces and hardwood floor material should be followed.

Core & Shell by Dania Ghuneim

1/8” = 1’-0” Model Demonstrating 3rd Floor Interior

Based on the observation of people following certain patterns in their daily routine, I came up with the idea setting the office building as a giant clock, with each of the floors representing a specific time, increasing vertically from the bottom to the top of the building, that corresponds to a person’s working schedule.

Partial Views of 1/8” = 1’-0” Model Demonstrating 3rd Floor Interior

On each level, the area bounded by the hands of the clock is designated to serve one special activity that helps restore energy or enhances productivity. For instance, the clock on lobby level points at 8:30 am, where people are welcomed into the building with a morning coffee cafe to fresh their minds; the third floor represents 10:30 am, and it holds a snack bar for those who needs to support their brain with energy; and 3:00 pm on the 8th floor, reflecting the time when conferences concentrate.

Isometric 3rd Floor 10:30 AM

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Overall, the fit out of the building aims to provide a space balanced with work and leisure, which would ultimately improve the efficiency and effectivity of working.

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135.00 6th Floor 1:00 PM 1/16” = 1’ - 0”

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6th Floor 1:00 PM

The rest of the floor plate are divided into 3 by the dial—each organized in a package of associates working in open plan, managers and executives in private of ce and closed meeting spaces, attempting to provide my tenant—paper company—with an effcient and dynamic working environment.

27.00 18th Floor After Work 1/32” = 1’ - 0”

18th Floor After Work

Photo Collage of 3 Perspective Photographs of Project Model

This is Not a Party Wall UCLA Fall QUARTER 2017

CLASS: ARCH&UD 122 - Studio II: Atmosphere INSTRUCTOR: Katy Barkan

This project explores what makes the party wall a unique architectural element in its dual role of simutaneously separating and adjoining adjacent spaces. More specifically, the project studies the sidedness of the dual program within an infill building by manipulating its indoor experience: the contrasting experience of inward and outward view are organized alongside of the diagonal party walls in the forms of slabs and interlocking volumes.

The party wall not only provides spaces for a dense circulation that separates the inward-looking programs from the outward-looking programs, but also serves as a reference for the sidedness of each wall and floor plate. This allows the project to be read as a structure with continuous surfaces that can be unfolded to a flat surface with positive and negative sides.

In the cooking school, both culinary education and restaurant service requires supervision of food preparation and division of space for good ventilation, which inspires the inward-looking program made possible by the interlocking volumns. While the spa provides a place for relaxation extending the indoor experience beyond the physical floor plates - which determines it as an outward-looking program.

Study Model Showing Sidedness of Wall at 1/16” = 1’-0” 09

Plywood Model of Project at 1/4” = 1’-0”

Preliminary Study Models Showing Reading of Sectional Possibilities out of Planimetric Flatness (Given Drawing)

Given Drawing By reading the lines of the given drawing, the pictures of the sectional possibility of the infill building are generated. 3 preliminary iterations show the study of division, volume, stacking, contrasts between side & side, and solid & void.

Model Opened to Reveal Circulation

Axonometric Showing Sidedness The hatched surfaces demonstrate the inside - negative side - of the walls; while the unhatched surfaces indicate the outside - positive side - of the walls.

bath Cafe

Treatment Rooms

bath

Lab Kitchen

Axonometric Showing Programs The hatched area shows the outward-looking programs; while the unhatched area represents the inward-looking programs.

Outdoor Area

Locker Room

library bath Sauna + Steam

Storage Lab Kitchen

Communal Loundge Outdoor Area

Demonstration Kitchen Sauna + Steam

Storage

Restaurant

Office

The plywood model demonstrates an ambiguous version of the project with single-layer material; while the image establishes the double sidedness of the project with two materials.

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Circulation Diagram Inward-looking: 1. Cooking School Entrance 2. Restaurant 3. Demonstration Kitchen 4. Storage 5. Lab Kitchen 6. Outdoor Area 7. Cafe 8. Treatment Room 9. Library 10. Office

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Outward-looking: 11. Spa Entrance 12. Communal Lounge 13. Locker Room 14. Sauna + Steam 15. Bath

Unfolded Diagram The body of the two programs and the core can be unfolded separately into two flat surfaces.

Section Showing Distinction Between Sides and Programs

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Plan Showing Distinction Between Sides +25’

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Photo Collage Showing Sidedness and Programs

20” x 20” x 20” Model MATERIAL: 4ply museum board & duralar/PETG

Chunk

UCLA SPRING QUARTER 2017 CLASS: ARCH&UD 143 - Tech III: Digital Technology INSTRUCTOR: Julia Koerner In Collaboration with Erina Lay

Oval Form This Project attempts to reinterpret and express the surfaces of a chunk taken out of an existing sculpture with the constraints of switching between various digital modeling techniques. Through surface analysis with the aid of digital technology and multiple experimentations of surface expression, the final part to remodel and the most ideal modeling technique and materials are selected to reflect both the accuracy of digital scanning and remodeling which challeges conventional practice and the ideas retain from the original sculpture. The final chunk demonstrates the continuation of the layering and continuous characteristics of the sculpture through the adoption of eggcrate modeling technique and the use of contrasting opaque and transparent materials.

The chunk comes from Oval Form, a sculpture by British artist Barbara Hepworth. She has a major interest in Biomorphic form, which is a form that imitates the shape of the nature. Through this sculpture she tries to convey 2 different ideas. The first one is that this sculpture was made from nature and for nature, and the other one is evident in her saying that “I, the sculptor, is the landscape,” which means that she wants people to touch her work and experience it inside out.

Modeling Process

3D Scan

Chunk Area

Start with a Plane

This particular chunk was chosen because it shows the main characteristics of the sculpture: layers of thin circles and the dynamic movement extending out from the base. Moreover, it includes three legs which enables the sculpture to stand stably when upside down, and let it demonstrate both lightness and mass at the same time.

Chunk Area with Lower Density

Maya Remodeled Chunk

3D Printing Model

04 To highlight the quality of openness and continuity, we use the contrast of opaque and transparent materials. The opaque materials allows us to show the wild dynamic movement of each layer. Especially the part on the interior which we extended from the exterior. These layers are created to embrace more complexity on the inside. Extended from the top part of the eggcrate, they create a natural curve correspond to the side of the inside space.

Maya Remodeled Chunk

Using the technique of Eggcrate allows us to see the structure as one architectural building, which is the theater/opera house. The eggcrate at the bottom level allows us to see it as the rows of chairs inside a theater, while the side of the layer, resembles soundproof and sound-absorbing structure, and gives us the interior complexity to it. Furthermore, the eggcrate on the top part creates an open ceiling, which brings natural lights into the inside space.

Keyshot Rendering of Eggcrate Model at 0.25” Density of Opaque & Transparent Materials

The adoption of various density of the transparent layers is intended to convey the idea of visual connections from outside to the inside space. These layers were then positioned in a diagonal way, creating a sense of continuity from the inside space to the outside tail and also expansion to the entire chunk, resulting an architecture that’s emotional and experiential.

Eggcrate Study Model at 0.25” Density (Interior Revealed)

What’s more, through the study of our previous model, we decided to add an experimental tail on one side. The tail, together with the original structure, forms a continuous line that follows our idea of continuity. It prevents the chunk from being seen as one solid structure, but instead as an open void and continuous space.

Eggcrate Study Model

Keyshot Rendering of Final Model

Exploded Axonometric Drawing Chunk

High Density Transparent Eggcrate Dense transparent eggcrate blurs out the lines of the structure, allowing a gradual transition between different materials. Density: 0.5”. Material: 0.041” Duralar/PETG.

High Density Opaque Eggcrate Dense opaque eggcrate structure shows dynamic movement. Top of interior extended to emphasize wild structure, and to invite viewers to focus on the interior. Hollowed-out sides presents an idea of open space relative to the whole structure. Density: 0.5”. Material: 0.048” Picture Mount Board. Low Density Transparent Eggcrate Transparent eggcrate brings openness to the chunk, allowing viewers to peek inside. Density: 1”. Material: 0.041” Duralar/PETG.

Eggcrate Tail Experimental structure to open up the entire structure, and to avoid the structure being seen as a complete solid. Gives the chunk a continuous appearance, also serves as support to the structure so it would stand. Density: 0.5”. Material: 0.048” Picture Mount Board.

Others Non-architectural-studio works done at various times and locations

A City in a Bottle (Pencil)

MEDIUM: Colored pencil, charcoal ORIGINAL SIZE: 9”x 8.5” The Village School Houston Fall SEMESTER 2013 CLASS: IB Visual Arts HL INSTRUCTOR: Kittie Lopez AWARD: ScholasticArt&WritingAwards 2014, Silver Key This project investigates the Shikumen vernacular of my hometown Shanghai inspired by the book The Shanghai Alleyway House: A Vanishing Urban Vernacualr by Gregory Bracken. It expresses the younger generation’s ignorance of the rich history and culture of a city with a story of a girl in the bottle who lives in the traditional Shikumen household in Shanghai. Like all modern, city-dwellers, she has constrained herself to a place where she can maintain a safe distance from the people around her, but can still look out and feel like part of the world. She reaches up to the light post that infuses her with the color that she does not have in the old, black and white building in the background.

Lose Me (Colored Pencil Self Portrait)

MEDIUM: Colored pencil on black paper ORIGINAL SIZE: 13.75”x 13.5” The Village School Houston Fall SEMESTER 2013 CLASS: IB Visual Arts HL INSTRUCTOR: Kittie Lopez AWARD: ScholasticArt&WritingAwards 2014, Gold Key

The colored pencil self portrait aims at showing my fear and excitement as this stage of my life ends and I move closer to college, to my dreams, and to moving independently in the world.

Travel Sketches 2009-2016 MEDIUM: Indian Ink Personal Works

Somewhere in Russia

London Bridge

The Color of Innocence

MEDIUM: Watercolor, ink, card paper, watercolor paper ORIGINAL SIZE: 8.3” x 11.7” x 1” The Village School Houston Fall SEMESTER 2013 CLASS: IB Visual Arts HL INSTRUCTOR: Kittie Lopez

Sydney Opera House

A Building in Boston, MA

Kremlin

Scarborough Castle Bike outside a Cafe in Oxford

Random Place in Kyoto

A Bridge Connecting Oak Harbor and Seattle

Somewhere in Washington D. C.

This project presents the world from a kids’ point of view–pure, big and colorful. Sitting inside the simple two-colored room, the child’s innocence allows her to explore a world of colors too vivid and sizes too large for the adults who would, instead, consider it strange.

Footprints

MEDIUM: Digital Illustration Winter 2014 Personal Work