ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO
YI WEI SELECTED WORKS 2017 - 2020
01 URBAN WILDNESS Academic Project PennDesign Crit: Nate Hume
02 UNFOLDING HORIZON
Academic Project PennDesign Crit: Marion Weiss | Michael Manfredi
03 MEGA-BLOCKS REDUX Academic Project PennDesign Crit: Kutan Ayata
04 THEATER AQUA
Academic Project PennDesign Crit: Georgina Huljich | Marcelo Spina
05 MODERN BAROQUE Nonlinear Research PennDesign Crit: Ali Rahim
06 BLACK BOX THEATER Academic Project UC Berkeley CED Crit: Darell Fields
07 CENTRAL CITY OFFICE Revit Work Sample PennDesign Crit: Franca Trubiano
01. URBAN WILDNESS
From farm to table is the most popular concept in modern dining, which is a social movement that promotes serving fresh, safe and economic dining experience. Also, this concpet promotes serving local food at restaurants and school cafeterias, preferably through direct acquisition from the producer. An urban wilderness refers to the inclusion of biodiversity in urban neighborhoods as a part of new Urbanism movement. Key traits of urban wilderness that differentiate it from lawns and other ecologically questionable forms of plantings are: Biodiversity-a wide range of species, both of plants and animals. By combining this two contecpt together, we would like to create a space that attract people to pay more attention on the environment development and surranding contexts. Therefore, This project is aiming to explore the relationship between site, algae growth, algae byproduct and consumers.
Academic Project Cooperative with Xiaotong Jiang PennDesign//Arch602 Crit: Nate Hume
Texture
Mapping
Material Study A series of casting process is aiming to figure out the most successful material combination such as concrete and color pigments, resin and plaster, wax and water color. We also applied some other components to make creative texture such as nuts, glitters, coffee grounds.According to the casting details and result shown above, we create our own material and texture mapping for further usage on facade.
Formation Analysis
Human Activities
Tectonics
Algae Tanks
Glazed “Scallops”
Form/Function Algae growth and its relative byproduct as one of the urban wildness symbol evokes people’s attention. We are questioned that why we not to grow algae in the site. Thus, we would like to design a building that could fulfill algae growth requirement, which including growing tanks, dryness frame, and byproduct producing space.
Site Plan
Elevation
Texture Application According to our cast study on the material, we decide to combine regular brick and scallop shape golden glazed tiles together. The large area usage of glazed tile ensures enough sunlight inside the building. The algae tanks are also located under the glazed tiles in order to absorb enough fresh air and sunlight to make algae growing well. Furthermore, the HVAC system and irregular opening on the facade also guarantee the air flow inside the building. We also apply water idea outside the building. We design several ponds with different sizes for public use.
1�-1/4� Section Model
Interior Sequence 1. Algae Growth Tank 2. Public Bath 3. Auditorium 4. Algae dryness 5. Research Studio 6. Entrance
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Details
Facade + Tank Connection
Facade + Wall Insulation
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Human Path
1. Algae Growth Tank 2. Public Bath 3. Conference Room 4. Algae dryness 5. Research Studio 6. Balcony 7. Auditorium 8. Dining Hall
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1”-1/4” Section Model
Floor Slab
Skylight Window
1”-1/4” Section Model Detail
02. UNFOLDING HORIZON
Los Angeles is a city of paradoxes, committed to the invented, yet to be imagined future and nurturing both real and fictional histories. La Brea Tar Pits, the largest urban paleontological research site in the world, is located on Wilshire Boulevard, the city’s “Miracle Mile” and embodies these diametrically oppositional identities. This project is focused on the creation of a new, international research center on climate evolution, informing a paradigmatic transformation of the Natural History museum into a place that can also expand its scientific mission to engage the urgent questions climate change provokes. Together, the climate research center, museum and park will offer a new hybrid place of science, culture and recreation, with productive intersections that have yet to be invented. Without predetermined answers, the creation of this new hybrid raises critical questions: How can the recasting of park and museum models inform a new form of cultural infrastructure? What are the systems that inform the subsurface, surface and silhouette of this hybrid? How can the discoveries literally inform the identity of this collaborative center for research that draws insights from the prehistoric past? What new symmetries between these prehistoric artifacts and contemporary science can be revealed? Through the lens of active research, how can the specificity of this place of science, located in the heart of Wilshire Boulevard’s “Miracle Mile”, be leveraged to tell a globally pressing story?
Academic Project Cooperative with Jingwen Luo PennDesign//Arch704 Crit: Marion Weiss
La Brea Tar Pits As Active Excavation Site & Urba Oasis: Located in the heart of L.A., The La Brea “tar pits,” discovered on August 3, 1769, by Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola, exemplify the many natural oil seeps of southern California. Asphalt deposits or “tar pits” present a unique opportunity to study past ecosystems because they preserve many different kinds of fossils. La Brea Tar Pits are one of the world’s most famous fossil localities, where more than 100 excavations have been made. After Hancock Park was established in 1924, little in the way of formal excavation was accomplished for the next 45 years. In 1945, systematic coring was undertaken to locate more fossiliferous sites within the park.
As one of the world’s most active excavating fossil site, researchers here still go down to the dig pits and excavate the deposits nowadays. In urban context. Hancock Park and Page museum are established to facilitate formal excavation and exhibition. They would then remove the dirt and use matrix to document the location of each fossil before sending to the fossil lab. This whole process of digging the deposits, removing dirt, further analyzing the fossils are displayed at museum’s various location. The idea of the museum is to inform the visitors the whole process of excavation. Beside being an active excavating site, the museum also provides green space for the adjacent urban community.
The Resnick Pavillion
The Academy Museum
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
The Petersen Museum
Urban Fabric: In 1921, the stretch of Wilshire Boulevard now known as the Miracle Mile was a 20-foot-wide dirt road, flanked by oil wells and barley fields. Ross’s insight was that the form and scale of his Wilshire strip should attract and serve automobile traffic rather than pedestrian shoppers. Ross ordered that all building facades along Wilshire be engineered so as to be best seen through a windshield. They also had to be oriented toward the boulevard and architectural ornamentation. The preponderance of shopping malls and the development in the 1960s of financial and business districts in downtown and century city lessened the Miracle Mile’s importance as a retail and business center. Today the strip is a busy thoroughfare, home to museums, including The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Petersen Automotive Museum, A+D Museum, Craft and Folk Art Museum, George C. Page Museum, and La Brea Tar Pits Pavilions, among others, the Miracle Mile has gained a reputation today as LA’s “Museum Row”. The story of the Miracle Mile’s stunning transformation from cow path to commercial artery is part of the larger narrative of LA’s decentralization, as electric railways and automobiles encourage sprawl and drained the downtown retail district of its vitality.
Site Analysis & Formal Logic:
Based on the research, we would like to rethink the circulation in La Brea area, and try to make a closer connection between Miracle Miles and its surrounding context. In terms of site analysis, we draw axises along 6th street, new LACMA, and Curson ave. Then combined these axises with an attempt to connect Wilshire Boulevard and Michael Heiser’s Leviatted Mass, and respond to the LACMA and subway line. Path Connect Wilshir Blvd. and Michael Heiser’s Levitted Mass
Roof Top Garden Lawn Next to the Backbone
This project aims to establish an urban pathway
that
responds
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adjacent
cultural landmark and subway line. The design elevates ground circulation to roof level, which unfolds the horizon of “Museum Row�. It also unfolds the story of the L.A. City by creating various viewing platforms and pathways that engage visitors with the process of finding, excavating, and preserving fossils. Gallery Space Public Wing Excavation Station Research Center
Excavation Station Secondary Circulation
Long Section o
This section perspective cuts through the public wing and shows the building is elevated above Lake Tar Pits and visitors from represent the landscape change from entrance of the “backbone� to the Lake Tar Pits.
Ariel View from Wilshire Street and LACMA
of Public Wing
m the roof could go down to the interior through staircase and embark on the grand theatrical staircase in the front. It also
Ariel View from “backbone� and W.6th Street
Excavation Station: This is the excavation station, which is the oriented toward the New LACMA. The excavation station will provide an engaging experience between the visitors and researchers, fossils are being excavated underground, and cleaned fossil is suspended by the pavilion, visitor will get a better understanding of the journey of the fossil through this vertical connection.
Gallery Space: The exhibition space, which is located towards Michael Heiser’s installation. The gallery space presents a dark high ceiling space for the skeletons. By cutting out a sliding pathway on the rooftop garden, People from the roof will also be able to look inside at the exhibition without going in the interior.
Public Wing: Next to the excavation station, is the community center for people living around. People could access this space 24/7 through the roof top garden from Wilshire blvd. This is the day view of the community center. There is cafĂŠ, gift shops, and outdoor theater in this wing and people could have a rest here during their museum visiting as well.
Public Wing Night View
After sunset, the Public Wing and including surrounding green landscape will serve as a public and outdoor theater for people living in this area. There will be some educational and documentary movies about wild animals projecting on the roof.
Active Excavation Site and Research Center
Next to the Gallery Space is the Active Excavation Site and the Research Center right above the Excavation Site. This design is aiming to connect these two spaces both in physical and visual aspect. Also, it also attempt to show that visitors could have a closed view and understanding of the entire research process.
02. MEGA-BLOCK REDUX
One of the most significant impacts of 20th Century modernist urbanism in dense urban environment was the implementation of Mega-locks. Mega-blocks can be described as very large urban blocks comprised of combined (regular scale) urban blocks to enable large scale interventions, originally for social housing ambitions within densifying urban areas through the means of welfare state, later for concentrated expansion of private capital through the channels of neo-liberal economic policies. Majority of these realized projects can be seen as black holes in the city, sucking out all potential urban life in and around them. They are products of our own discipline, occupying a significant territory in the discourse of architecture and urbanism. This project was aiming to transform the current condition of Stuyvesant Town, an 18 block territory in New York City, and imagine an alternative course for its future. Unlike the modernist strategy of tabula-rasa to replace what has been previously implemented, I will look to fully embrace the permanence of the physical context and accept all that it has as a 3D site to operate on. I will use different method to redevelop the current typology to produce new masses and character.
Academic Project Individual Work PennDesign//Arch601 Crit: Kutan Ayata
FORM FINDING
According to the research, large percent of residents are elder people and they would like to stay in a quieter space. However, this site is next to the highway, which is noisy for people who live here. Thus, designing an enclosure courtyard is aiming to create a relative quiet and peaceful space.
Massing Formation
Collaborative Site Map
Transformation Diagram
Facade/Communal Space This chunk model represents how the new curve side attached to the existing building showing the material continuity and reveals the interlocking relationship among different units. Furthermore, this model also shows the balcony and communal spaces between neighboring apartments. Also, the usage of perforated brick wall help to let more sunlight in and brighten the interior space.
Chunk Detail
Level 6 Plan
Corridor/Privacy This chunk model represents the flat side of facade and reveals the diverse window sizes on the facade surface as well. Furthermore, the cutting section represents the relationship between apartment on adjacent floors and the corridors on every two floors. It is easy to figure out that all the public space such as dining area is located next to the entrance and public corridor.
Chunk Detail
Level 7 Plan
Interior Space In order to maximum the interior space, I decided to use “L”shape to organize the interior spaces. That is to say, two floors will share one corridor. This “L” shape design also enhances the air flow and natural lighting inside. Furthermore, this arrangement also guarantees the privacy of clients since public area including dining and living space is located next to the entrance door.
Courtyard View
Drone View
03. AQUA
One makes an aggregate fuzzy, instead of defining the fuzzy aggregate by the operations of consistency or consolidation pertaining to it. For this is the essential thing: a fuzzy aggregate, a synthesis of disparate elements, is defined only by a degree of consistency that makes it possible to distinguish the disparate elements constituting that aggregate [discernibility]. This project will center on the tension between multiple, discrete, even disparate parts or elements and indeterminately vague and even mysterious fuzzy aggregates. Rather than only understanding parts as essential, we will also imagine them as physical agents within both architectural volumes and surfaces. These two large and maybe opposing tendencies will arise in this project, and will work in against of each other.
Academic Project Cooperative with Yuqing Ye PennDesign//Arch701 Crit: Georgina Hulrich & Marcelo Spina
Igualada Cemetery
Xanadu
Precedent Parts
Precedents Research First, we chose Xanadu by Ricardo Bofill and Igualada Cemetery by Miralles as our research precedents. Then based on the 2D drawings, we remodeled these two precedents. After that, by using cutting, slicing and other methods, we picked up multiply parts that we interested in. Next, we tried to combined two or more parts together by using boolean and nesting. After we figure out the new essential components, we repeated parts to aggregate in order to create an articulate formal logic.
Aggregation Picking up and recombining essential parts from precedents is one of the mosting impotant step for our final form. How to create logic and harmony form with proper funtion sequence is our key focus.
Axon View
Formal Analysis This diagram express how different components aggregated together. Furthermore, this diagram also expresses the logic that how interior spaces look like and the relationship between each program.
Night Bird’s Eye View
Elevation
Oblique View
Site Analysis
- This plan diagram demonstrates interior space arrangement.
- Through the main street next to the designed landscape, people could have marine view on the site. - We redesigned the landscape around the building and let it connected to the park closely. Thus, visitors could come in either from the park or the roof top garden.
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Section Cut 1. Entrance 2. Library 3. Auditorium 4. Gallery 5. Dining Hall 6. Garage
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Facade Material/Pattern Study The double glazed facade is aiming to reflect the coastline of Barcelona since the it is adjacent to the Barcelona beach. Furthermore, we designed our own pattern based on the precedents research in order to blurring the glass surface and created frosted effect.
Sunset Exterior View
Sunset Backyard Entrance
Roof Garden Entrance
Roof Garden View
04. MODERN AESTHETICFACADE STUDY
This facade study explore cultural progression, digital design techniques and aesthetics that yield contemporary architecture details that contribute to Architectural Design Innovation. Architecture design innovation is dependent on design techniques that form the pivot between culture and its progression. Design techniques affect the technical that influences technology and as technology improves it progresses culture and techniques are reinvented to continue cultural progression. As techniques change so does culture and as culture changes so do the aesthetics. In addition to aesthetics, cultural and technological innovations establish new status quos and updated platforms from which to operate and launch further innovations to stay ahead of cultural developments. Architecture practices continually re-invent themselves and guide these innovations to stay ahead of cultural developments. It is important for architects to identify technological trajectories that have potential for yielding new horizons and directives. Technological advances lead to the evolution of new technologies, which give rise to new formal and material possibility leading to a contemporary aesthetic. In this seminar we expose some of these ways of thinking that directly feeds into design innovation.
Research Project Cooperative with Yuting Qian PennDesign//Arch741 Crit: Ali Rahim
Mare =Ballerina Oil on canvas Gino Severini
Ornament detail Baroque Architecture
This art work is combined and created by the upper two photos using Artificial Intelligence tool-Ostagram.
Formal Analysis By using lines and different sizes of circles to understanding and simplify the original image. According to the guided lines, arcs and original profile, we redesign and redraw the diagram with particular angles.
After simplifying and classifying the original image, we studied the seams and picked up five differernt elements as the basic ingredients of our final design. After that, we nested these parts together with differernt height in order to create hierachy change when you look from side. Also, we put fins on the back side to control the sunlight and create dynamic shades inside the buiding. We also seperated the entire facade into eight different pieces for pre-fabricated and save assembly time.
Pre-fabricated GRC Board Matte Metal Metal Fins with Glaze behind
Elevation with different materials
Elevation with background light
Height Difference
Height Difference
Physical Model with Height Difference
Physical Model
This model detail clearly shows how the creases controlling the form precisely and how different parts nesting and interlocking together. And the well distributed fins help us to understand how do these facade work in reality.
Physical Model Detail
05. Black Box Theater
The black box theater integrate art, advocacy, and technology. The theater propose a temporary, modular black box theater for the San Francisco Film Museum. This concept is aiming to corporate with the expressionist theater idea and provide a space that convey the emotional experience rather than physical reality with an urgent sense of the here and now. Art walk in San Francisco is an annual art event that is held by San Francisco Art Dealer Association (SFADA). It is a 4 week free self tour art event that let every people can participate in art creation and performance process. During the Art Walk, all the art studios and museums that participate in the Art Walk will hold open studio events and let people understand their design closely.
Academic Project Individual Work UC Berkeley//Arch100D Crit: Darrel Fields
Formal Analysis In terms of the expressionist theatre and projection concept, carving the frame to create positive space and negative space is the key point to the arrangement of inside space. In the negative space, the audience can feel the column, however, the positive space is a blank and pure space without structure. Furthermore, since the patron is French Photographer Robert Doisneau, in addition to the exhibition space, leaving a positive space as for the dark room is another distinct element.
Axon View
Bridge Entrance View
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2 A302
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Level 13 153' - 6"
2 A311
Level 12 141' - 6"
Level 11 129' - 6"
Level 10 117' - 6"
Level 9 105' - 6"
Level 8 93' - 6"
Level 7 81' - 6"
Level 6 69' - 6"
Level 5 57' - 6"
Level 4 45' - 0"
Level 3 32' - 0"
Mezz 20' - 0"
Level 1 0' - 0"
Level B1 -12' - 0"
Level B2 -24' - 0"
Level B3 -36' - 0"
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transverse building section 1/8" = 1'-0"
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transverse building section 2 1/8" = 1'-0"
A3
06. CENTRAL CITY OFFICE REVIT WORK SAMPLE INDIVIDUAL PROJECT LOCATION: 1900 WALLNUT ST. PHILADELPHIA, PA SITE AREA: 13600 SQFT CRIT: FRANCA TRUBIANO
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68/WSFF
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Level 4 1/8" = 1'-0"
A201
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Level 5 1/8" = 1'-0
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Level 7 81' - 6"
Level 6 69' - 6"
Level 5 57' - 6"
Level 4 45' - 0"
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StairSection1 1/4" = 1'-0"
StairSection2 1/4" = 1'-0"
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Level 6 69' - 6" STAINLESS STEEL HANDRAIL
GLASS GUARDRAIL
GLASS GUARDRAIL
CURTAINWALL
PRECAST CONCRETE TREAD
1 A602
GLASS GUARDRAIL
ALIGN
Level 5 57' - 6"
CONCRETE AND METAL DECK
1' - 0" TYP
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STEEL STRINGER
PRECAST CONCRETE TREAD CONCRETE AND METAL DECK
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CONCRETE AND METAL DECK
STEEL BEAM
STEEL STRUCTURE
STEEL BEAM
Level 4 45' - 0"
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Stair Detail 1 1/2" = 1'-0"
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StairSection 3 1/4" = 1'-0"
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Stair Detail 1 1/2" = 1'-0"
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Stair Detail 1 1/2" = 1'-0"
Assignment 2.0 Deliverables YI WEI
Interconnected s Detail
Date
YI WEI yiwei629@gmail.com 510-703-1008