Ace Nguyen_Portfolio

ACE NGU Y E N Architecture Portfolio

TABLE OF CONTENTS 01.

Oft Garden

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Rail Deck Park

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Big Toronto

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Theatrum

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New Kcp

001 OFT GARDEN type status

conservatory finished

Rested on a special site at Ontario Food Terminal, the garden provides a new identity, connecting its natural characteristic with existing programs. Sit at a quiet corner of the site, the building with its sun-exposure optimal shell soars from the entrance towards Gardiner Expressway, bringing attention to one of the most important building in Toronto in regards of food circulation. In contrast of its interior, hosting tropical vegetation, its surrounding is covered with birch trees, bridging wetlands on the South slope to the ground level, and providing an opposition to a lively environment inside the shell. The garden seeks to provide a growing experience from the beginning, with a 5-meter entrance. It slowly increases in size, leading to three platforms that join a 50-meter facade, facing the highway as a statement of existence.

Inside the shell, visitors are greeted with several raised platforms leading to a higher view.

They also created multiple gathering spaces.

Vegetation is planted based on the amount of sunlight that they need, as well as their heights.

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There are a few main spaces inside the shell.

The ramps, the mountain, the ground path, and the platforms. In the section, the mountain hosts vegetation that would need high moisture environment, and less sunlight exposure. The ramp leads people through space, stopping at vegetation height levels. The ground path leads visitors through shaded space, cover by trees and elevated platforms. Three platforms are at different heights: 15-meter, 30-meter, and 45-meter. Facade treatment creates multiple “windows�, replicating nearby blooming high-rise development across the highway. It attracts the attention of drivers, also presenting the interior in smaller vignettes manner.

Long Section Curved Through The Shell and Interior

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Sun Study

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Physical Model 3D Printed

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002 THE MACHINE type status

master planning architecture finished

Team member : Siri Hermaski, Tara Castator, Vinaya Mani, Waiyee Chou Rail Deck Park has been a controversial topic of discussion in Toronto for a few years. The project tackles to find a solution for involving constituents: Nature Conservancy, Build Toronto, Ontario Food Network, and Metrolinx. The Machine is an integrated answer that involves four main elements: transit station, residential, aquaponics, and public park. One is there to serve another and the general community. The residential is connected to its own aquaponic units, providing enough crops to support multiple small families. An isolated level of commercial aquaponics feeds produces to one of the transit stations, circulate towards the North and connect the food network. The other transit serves general customers of the city. On top of everything, there is a public park. It does not only act as a green space for the city but also helps to collect grey water for the aquaponics level below. Overall, the machine hopes to function as a united entity, even though it has come to provide its constituent.

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Park / Orchard

Housing / Bridge Residential Aquaponics

Food Station Commercial Aquaponics

Commercial / Retail

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Ground Plan

Bridge - Interior

Bridge - Exterior

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Master Plan Model

Sectional Model through Housing Units and Rail Deck Park

Laser cut base x 3D print x Wax

Laser Cut Basswood - Hardwood

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003 BIG TORONTO type status year

exhibition drawing completed 2017

Team member : Sommer, Piper, Byrne, Phiffer, Quiros, Freeman, Degirolamo, Madan, Marshall, Poon, Presentey, Roy Taylor, Tymchuk, Ying “What is the big picture, Toronto?” is a large, detailed 25 - foot - long drawing of future of Toronto, looking South to the lake from Steeles Avenue. This image was on display at EDIT Design Expo in late 2017.

One would think that in the age of Google Earth and Big Data, there would be some big pictures that might help people understand their cities beyond the specific lens of their own experience. Pictures that might place the parts of the city we believe are important to us within a more complex whole. The image was not only part of the EDIT exhibition, it was also brought into one of the architecture studios as part of the exercise. Students would put their visions on how Toronto would become in the future. After, their drawings were put on display at 1 Spadina, new home of University of Toronto’s Architecture Faculty. Being brought on early in the production of this drawing, I helped create a base drawing that would allow other students to work on, through data collection and grasshopper codes.

After that, I moved on to generating details for the drawing. Partially, I helped lead a small team of students to organize the workflow and schedule to make sure the project moves in the right direction.

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004 THEATRUM type status year

social housing closed 2017

Team member : Adrian Phiffer, Diana Franco Camacho, Dimitrios Karapoulos, Chloe Leung The theme of productive city can be interpreted in many ways, but in association with housing it mostly means: working from home. What excites us here is the idea of proximity of the work space to the living space. But while working from home is definitely an efficient form of living, in the contemporary city it can easily turn into a sad reality. Facilitated by the digital revolution, this reality implies a clear cancellation of social interactions that happen by going to work or by working together. In this context, the proximity is at level zero, and therefore meaningless beyond its empirical qualities. Our project is a play on what that proximity can be.

Theatrum is a simple strategy for organizing a space in order to facilitate visual connections.

Given the peculiar topography of the Canyelles site, as well as the large program requirements for open spaces dedicated to farming and sports, this seems to be a strategy that can satisfy all senses. The open space is the space of spectacle.

The built form is the space to watch the spectacle from. Our proposal is a form of “social bowl�.

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Section Through Sports And Public Space Plateau

Section Through Farming Plateau

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005 NEW KCP type status year

convention centre closed 2017

Team member : Phiffer,Balagengatharadilak, Camacho, DeGirolamo, Karapoulos, Macdonald The project was an international competition for a new convention centre in Prague. It was part of the six team finalist for stage two. It starts with a very simple ambition: to recuperate the idea of civic-ness usually associated with the construction of large buildings in an European urban context. Taking position vis-a-vis the current urban configuration of the KCP site, which features a clear separation of vehicular and pedestrian circulations, is straightforward - we believe that all types of circulation flows should happen in the same plane: on the ground. Based on observation of other precedents, a well-defined plaza is also a simple stone paved surface that allows for various activities throughout the day.

The architectural design solution is based on a functional determination: the exhibition hall should be one continuous level with optimal dimensions: 40m x 125m x 14m. As part of the team, I helped producing drawingsdetails.

However, most of my time was spent creating the physical model, which were 3D printed with a laser cut base. The model was carefully created to fir perfectly on the site, provided by the organizer.

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Project Overview

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