BAOYING LUO UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO SELECTED WORKS 2022
Applying For Master of Architecture The Bartlett School of Architecture
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STUDENT HOUSING PROJECT Winter 2021
BREAKTHROUGH URBAN VILLAGE RENOVATION Fall 2022
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PREDICTION PARK RENOVATION PROPOSAL Fall 2021
INTEGRATION THE ZERO_MEDITATION MINE Summer 2022 OTHER WORKS
URBAN MISHMASH BORDER INDEX Fall 2022
Nature: Academic Role: 100% Individual Course: ARC362 - Architecture Studio IV Instructor: Lukas Pauer
Date: Jan. 2022-Apr. 2022 Location: Spadina Avenue, Toronto
The University of Toronto student housing project is my first composition of a fugue between the old and new elements and materials. The pandemic has witnessed the growth in students' demands for a lively environment, a sense of belonging, and social interactions in their dormitory experience. However, it had been ten years since the UoT had last built a new residence hall. The cramped, aging, and single function imposed a sense of depression on students. In my renovation project, I strived to add freshness and vitality to the accommodation while preserving the historical building. In such a context, a rich spiritual life is spontaneously generated: students can freely read, draw, sing, and communicate here. I was glad to see a new passion for life germinate around the new residence hall.
Most Canadians feel the COVID-19 pandemic has brought some degree of psychological distress to them.
Students are now paying 25% more for housing than the average Canadian renter, and that’s pushing rents up for everyone.
By providing a variety of room types to meet the needs of different students, which creates a friendly community by providing them with a healthy, safe and comfortable living environment and atmosphere while having open spaces and facilities for learning and communication for students and others in the community. Designed through three dimensions: public space, semi-public space, and private space, interweaving with the natural green environment, the residence serves as an intermediary between student solitude and unity.
CONNECTION ACTIVE COMMUNICATION: Open and carved out part of the building space, and provides the possibility of vertical and horizontal expansion of the open public space for cummunity.
AFFORDABILITY AND AGENCY: Owners can model their desired home according to financial status and preferred floor layout
NATURAL LIGHT ENTRY: Access through public areas allows connection to the community and gradual integration into private areas to respect and respond to the community.
EXTRACT ARCH ELEMENTS FROM HERITAGE BUILDING ： Combined with the preservation of the old building reflects the preservation of the community culture without being eliminated.
This type of unit consists of a living room, kitchen, balcony and bedroom. This type of room is more suitable for students who prefer to live alone and maximizes the need for private space.
The second room type is a transformation from the first one, adding an extra bedroom with the same area, and is suitable for students with dependents or those who wish to share a suite between two people. The placement of a balcony allows for a more open form of space with a private outdoor space.
Unit type three is the largest in the design and runs through both ends of the apartment. This room type is suitable for group accommodation, with four separate bedrooms, a shared living room, and a kitchen, which can accommodate 4-8 people. This type of room suits students who like to live together and has a huge shared space.
This unit type is the most common type of single and double room in the apartment, which is relatively small and does not have a living room and kitchen, but it is the most cost-effective room type for students.
The lecture room was renovated from the original historic building with the retaining original brick material, and concrete was added, blending old and new cultures. The renovated classroom provides a space for students and faculty to teach and hold events in the apartment.
The atrium on this level is accompanied by a ramp entry and turns into a large gathering place. A small library is located on this level, along with an open courtyard on both sides, providing students with more natural light and a space to relax and unwind.
The roof garden is connected to the open outdoor space to the south, eventually reaching the roof as the floors rise, becoming the largest area of greenery in the building. There are arched corridors and steps, along with planting and seating, to provide maximum green space for students to relax.
Nature: Personal Work Role: 100% Individual Date: Sep. 2022- Dec. 2022 Location: Foshan, China
How to balance trade-offs, symbiosis, and co-prosperity of the new and old buildings? This is what I desire to address in the renovation project of the Qijian urban village. Located in the CBD of Foshan, Qijian Village is distinctly fragmented and alienated from the bustling perimeter. My project sought to connect the village on both sides to the city and merge villagers into the city.
If an urban village is a heterogeneous fragment embedded in the city, collage is an echo of the city's complexity and plurality as well as an extension of local history. Therefore, having addressed the chaotic environment and property disputes, I have retained some representative heritages. They will provide valuable spatial clues for future urban readers, including the residents, tourists, and researchers, to track spatial changes. The cascading accumulation of different periods of the city leads to a historical continuum.
The first node is the renovated farmer's market, which connects the neighborhood above to the village through the vertical axis of the roof
The second node enters and crosses the community through two differently located entrances, spiralling up through staircases at both ends and eventually converging.
The air corridor runs through the entire design and ultimately converges here. As a cultural and artistic block, the different small volumes are integrated into the architectural axis of the village and eventually reach the city.
The three nodes of the building are scattered in the site through the distribution of entrances in different directions. The axis's form and the corridor's inclusion can attract people from all sides to enter the site and use it as a transit point to connect the neibourhoods.
The roof and structure of the market utilize vertical axes extracted from the site and incorporate different functional zones and undulating floor plates based on the size of the roof, creating a light and open form.
The main logic of the maker center is to spiral and converge from the two entrances, accompanied by a corridor interspersed in the middle of the building and the placement of an atrium, which increases people's accessibility without interfering with the passage of the road between the buildings, while ensuring light. Furthermore, it provides a good space for the white-collar workers in the urban village to start their businesses and work and activates the commercial possibilities of the whole community.
The third node of scattered buildings is the cultural and art center area, which is also designed according to the original diagonal axis of the site. The functions include a traditional culture museum, a creative goods store, a children's library, and some public facilities and corridors, which eventually lead to the Qiandeng Lake Park across the street. The site is designed as an open area to provide maximum public space for public activities, while preserve some of the local cultures, and actively disseminate it.
The market functions are distributed according to roof logic through the design of the vertical axis and undulating roof folds, while the translucent roof can give better light. In addition to the vegetable, meat, and fresh food areas, independent stores are added to the platforms at different heights. At the same time, there are rest areas and corridors between the partitions connecting each open entrance and passage. The building acts as a hub between the first part of the community, drawing people passing here.
Nature: Academic Role: 100% Individual Course: ARC363 - Landscape Architecture Studio III Instructor: Behnaz Assadi Date: Sep. 2021- Dec. 2021 Location: Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
The site is the Museum of Modern Art, located in the Flamengo Park of Rio de Janeiro. By understanding the history of the site and its current condition and analyzing environmental data, we know the biggest challenges facing the site in the future are global warming, sea level rise, and pollution. Furthermore, this land which came from reclaim will be submerged in 80 years through prediction. Therefore, the project plans to transform the park into a new wetland landscape park with a new vegetation strategy while attempting to preserve the museum and monuments of cultural and artistic significance.
The future plan and section can see the new wetland park with new circulation system to face the flooding, and replanting phytoremediation aquatic plants with rich mangrove forests along the site to clean the water.The two main buildings, MAM Museum and the Pracinius Monument will be kept becoming a cultural and art center in the park. Areas around the buildings became public gathering green spaces on site with landscape, with an additional public square beside the bay.
There is a clearer view of how the wetland gardens work with the circulation paths above in this detailed plan, and through the section cutting through the wetland, we can see all the details of the perennial and aquatic plants, such as rich cattails, hornwort, duckweeds, water lilies and mangroves.
Through the design of this wetland park responding to future environmental change, a variety of plants and marine life combine with the circulation system and urban landscape to create a harmonious wetland landscape.
In this park, visitors can view a landscape that combines nature and human design while visiting museums and monuments to learn more about local art and history. Although we cannot completely stop environmental change, we can respond to it as best we can through strategies to improve and maintain it, enriching the ecosystem, raising ecological awareness in the city, and continuing the possibilities of the modern landscape.
Renovation Strategies: Trenching of various depths & Glass WallsNature: Personal Work for competition Role: Main Building Design +50% Graphic Design Competition: Young Architects Competition Collaborators: Yitian Xiao, Zixuan Zhou Date: Jul. 2022-Aug. 2022 Location: Allihies, Ireland
Landmark buildings, as a medium of cultural memory, are the products of history and the present. They reflect the historical characteristics of the construction, preserve the material fragments of memory, and attest to the majestic stories of heroism or ordinariness. At the Ireland Meditation Mine Competition, aiming to turn an Irish industrial archeology masterpiece into a meditation resort, we attempted to create a dialogue between the unique landform and the heritage building.
The project comprises three parts: a comprehensive functional building, an "isolated" meditation center, and a series of residential suites. Through innovation in form and material, the Irish mines' distinctive landforms and heritage architecture, which are key elements, have been incorporated into the design.
The main building is the closest one connected to the heritage building. Viewed from its plane, it takes the “windmill” as the core idea, takes four independent spaces (four windmill blades) as the original point, and then radiates to the surroundings. These four built-in spaces are surrounded by radiated and expanded volumes, thus forming secret and independent meditation spaces within the integrated space. Through the unique trapezoidal shape and the use of red brick materials, it resonates with the heritage, especially its chimney part. By adding an outdoor plank road, the expanded spaces are skillfully connected with the space within the existing historical building.
A series of residential suites include three difffferent divisions of spaces, which meet the needs of three difffferent suites. The material includes splicing of stone, concrete, glass, and metal. The wall close to the mountain is completely covered by stone, while the other side of the house (panoramic glass surface) is mainly made of modern materials.
The meditation center is the purest interpretation of “escape from civilization.” Stripshaped windows at the top of the building make the incoming natural light quieter. The building is partially embedded in the mountain, and its elevation looks like cut rocks, blending with the surrounding natural landforms. Two trapezoidal spaces correspond to the chimney part of the historic building.
Beyond the structural innovation within the architecture, the meditation center also acts as a healer from the suffocating and alienating urban environment. People are expecting a temporary escape from the hustle and bustle and dwell in solitude and silence of intriguing scenarios. We expect the sense of connection between the building, the human body, and nature consolidates the visitors’ identities as escapees from civilization.
Spadina Ave.
Queen Street West University Ave.
Border Index
Nature: Academic Role: 50% Research and Drawings Course: ARC465 Collaborators: Yitian Xiao, Zixuan Zhou Instructor: Anne-Marie Armstrong Date: Sep. 2022- Dec. 2022 Location: Queen St West, Toronto
On the south side of Downtown Toronto, Queen Street West serves as a popular thoroughfare that forms a hub of commercial, business, and residential areas. The mixeduse houses along the street state their unique position in the city, instilling the city with dynamic energy. The project focuses on Queen St West from University Ave to Euclid Ave, which contains the Heritage Conservation District.
Looking into the urban pattern of mixed-use buildings along the street, one can observe the horizontal rhythm of the architectural elements, which forms a division of commercial uses on the lower level and business or residential areas on the upper level. We start to think about reconciling the balance between the busy commercial and tranquil residential areas.
Through the street elevation, we can see the area at the junction of Queen St West and Bathurst Street is a typical mixed-use neighbourhood. From the horizontal division, there is a mix of retail stores below, such as supermarkets, repair stores, coffee shops and bars, while above is the office and residential area where people work and live daily.
From a vertical perspective, the dividing line between the buildings creates a distinction with architectural styles, which incorporate some historic and newly renovated buildings.
At the same time, various entrances on the ground floor level are one of the features of the mixeduse neighbourhood. Public entrances to stores and private entrances to upper residential areas and offices are divided here, creating different territories.
The physical segmentation pattern of mixed housing predestines the intersection of commercial and residential users, which inevitably creates conflicts in the division of areas.
The additional occupancy in the back lane for commercial uses will largely affect the residents on the upper level when they transit through the overlayed pathway in the backyard.There needs to be a proper balance between the various needs of different land users and the solution need to be compatible with the surrounding context.
Commercial uses generate a greater amount of waste than residential uses. Lack of adequate waste facilities can result in unpleasant views and odors of commercial dumpster areas.
Commercial users require adequate loading and docking areas, which may produce noise, dirt, and unpleasant aesthetics. There are conflicts with occupied back yards and lanes.
Residents of mixed-use projects are concerned about having available parking spaces. The lack of parking areas may cause conflicts among car owners in houses with multiple units.
Due to the continuity of mixed-use houses, the backyard cannot be accessed directly through the front door. The route connecting the second and first floor in the backyard may cause conflicts with rare doors for commercial uses on the ground level.
Mix-used constructions have physical design challenges and invisible conflicts among inhabitants. These conflicts are more distinct in the traditional town houses, where the structural design and applied materials are not able to buffer the influences that casued by human activities in the adjacent room. These include noise, smoke/smell, vibration, and security.
Floor plates and party wall can only block part of the smell and oily fume from the restaurant below. Many restaurants place exhaust pipes at the back of the building. Through the pipe, oil fume will be emitted and enter the residential part by the windows above.
Resident’s expectations for a quiet home sometimes cannot be balanced with the realities of commercial uses. For example, if the retail part is a bar, its commercial, operational hours till midnight will cause serious noise problems.
When there is a retail repair shop, using extensive repair tools such as electric drills are inevitable. Noise, high-frequency vibration can be generated during the repair process and transmitted to the residential area above through the walls and floors.
The security of the residential area is weak.There are many daily customers, drunk people and homeless on Queen Street West.The only security measure is an original door lock which is not safe enough.
Conflicts between incompatible land use exist in such a special area which are resulted from the intersection of different groups of people. Rather than residents in the surrounding neighbourhoods who live in a reassuring community, the ones in the mixeduse housing shared the public spaces with commercial uses. The border between different uses of space is often blurred due to overlapping transitions.
Nature: Academic Course: JAV101
Instructor: Luke Duross
Date: Winter 2020
Location: Kensington Market, Toronto
Nature:
Course: ARC280
