Hou, Rui
2007-2013 Portfolio
University of California Berkeley CED & Harbin Istitute of Technology SOA
contents [Graduate Works]
Womb of after Life
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Architecture and the Technological Artifact
Proposition Phase I Neo-indigenous Language Phase II Aggregated Assemblies Phase III Synthesis - Columbarium of the Pacific Gyre
2 8 14 24
[Undergraduate Works]
The Wall
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Celebration of Bayonne
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City Memory and Drama Space
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Evolution
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[other Works]
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A New Activity Center for HIT School of Architecture
A Habitable Bridge to Arouse An Old City
Commercial Neighborhoods and A Civic Center in Old Town Harbin
A Museum in A Natural Environment
I have a rational yet emotional mind which always tries to find a balance between objective environments and subjective humans’ inward. I endeavor in designing architectures that situate on the boundaries between all kinds of contradictions, neutralizing conflicts to make both the natural and urban environments better places for the mankind. My works are full of humane considerations and always searching for contemporary resolutions. Architecture to me is not only a powerful tool to get involved in the ongoing changes of the world, but more importantly a perspective to calmly observe the surroundings and a path to inspect my own heart.
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Technologies and human behaviors have been mutually interacting with each other and affecting the paths they each evolve through since the time the first tool was invented. 3D print potentially as a powerful tool to re-shape the human world and a fascinating method to redesign almost everything will tremendously change our perceptions of life, as well as death. As what this era has turned out to be, the domination of mass production is gradually altered by the appearance of mass customization. 3D print, as an acceleration of this process, gives individuals huge amounts of chances to get involved into the transformations of the world. As the other side of life, death is usually ignored when people talking about how a person can change the world. Deaths, especially those of ordinary people were given much less notice during and before the era of mass production, when only those spirits of powerful elites could be written into books and passed on in histories; when only gravestones were left behind and vestiges of the mortal would fade away and vanish anonymously. 2
Funerals should never have been the end of spirits. Cemeteries are for remembrance, instead of oblivion. It is time to reconsider the issue that whether we should keep dying faintly in old conventional ways or should we find a new fashion that involves every decedent into the continuity of life. WOMB OF AFTER LIFE is such a project that tries to discover new relationships concealing between technology and death. It re-imagines the Berkeley Pier as a columbarium, which is fabricated from plastic harvested from the Pacific Garbage Patch, and which stores the remains of people in the Bay Area in urns made of the same material. The urns, like drift bottles, eventually find their new lives after being put back into the ocean and picked up by other people, thereby transforming the immense Pacific plastic garbage gyre into a massive columbarium itself. The world-wide oceanic columbarium gives a chance to both the alive and the dead to communicate, heart to heart; to continue our own legends, step by step; to birth our future, on and on.
Womb of after Life
University of California Berkeley, M.Arch / Instructors: Ronald Rael, Marco Cenzatti, Mark Anderson, Luisa Caldas / Fall 2012 - Spring 2013
“Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.� -David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
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Life could be considered as a process from birth to death, from the combination of matter, which is flesh, and spirit, which is soul, to the separation of the two. Only during this period, a person can be treated alive, when he or she is part of the functioning living world. Not long after the flesh is depleted, the person forever leaves the world and no longer changes anything. But very few of us can have a chance to make the spirit combined to a second matter - something like books, songs, films, paintings, etc. Thus to a certain extent, part of their lives continue existing on the earth. This fact implicates a possibility of transmitting a spirit to a second life - if there is a proper matter that can carry everything which represents a person’s spirit, the person could be taken back to the world again. From both subjective and objective aspects, memories consist of vision, audition, olfaction, gustation and tactus, among which the first three senses in most of the time compose a lively person in front of others. But only such integration of spirit and matter is not enough to bring back a person to “life” - to the human world, a person only exists when he or she is seen, heard, smelled, tasted or touched by other beings, otherwise it makes no difference whether it is alive or dead or even is real - it has to change something. There hence needs to be a process to accomplish the transition to the second life, a process that assures the spirit of being known by others.
Julia Morgan’s columbarium is a significant inspiration to creating the matter and the process. Urns as vessels contain the remains of the dead, and the architecture makes it possible for the remains to be memorized by others. If the urns could carry instead of ashes, memories, which are able to interact with the alive, they would be an ideal matter to carry lives. Further, the columbarium that consists of those memory receptacles becomes a place that allows dead spirits back to life. With the help of multi-media, all the three senses are able to be contained into a physical vessel that plays the movie of the person’s life and the songs he loves most. Also perfumes give it a chance to put in the smell of him. Then when a person approaches his face to the receptacle, he feels the decedent, he knows what kind of person the decedent used to be, he learns lessons from the stories that are told, he gets inspired when starting a new journey of his own life. Berkeley Pier is such a great place in Bay Area to be renovated into a neo-columbarium. It stretches out into the water for 3000 feet with the ambition to elongate farther more. The extension of the line would reach the edge of the pacific gyre which allows the process of interacting with living people to expand into the world. Also Berkeley Pier as a heterotopia is a place of neither land nor sea, part of the city but a deviation from urban lives. The pier makes it possible for the memory receptacles to be at an in-between condition - neither dead nor alive.
left to right: the Pacific Garbage Patch; the Columbarium - Chapel of Chimes, by Julia Morgan; vessel model that contains memories; the Berkeley Pier 4
PACIFIC GYRE
THE WORLD SPIRIT
BIRTH
MATTER
DEATH TACTUS
MATTER
SPIRIT
GUSTATION
VISION
AUDITION
OLFACATION
MATTER X
MEMORY RECEPTACLE WOMB OF AFTER LIFE
COLUMBARIUM
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top: the section of the cactus flower prototype left: double-skin systems opposite: first generation of the physical prototyping
Neo-indigenous Language At the beginning of the Womb of after Life, a new architectural language was introduced evolving from a digital design methodology which was woven with digital fabrication methods including laser cut and 3D print. In this case, a neo-indigenous form language is created, with which a coherent vernacular design process was able to be accomplished. The form development began with the obsession of a locally grown cactus flower indicating a variety of spatial potentials which could be further refined as architectural spaces. With the help of Modo, multiple morphs of the original model were generated maintaining the same geometrical logic abstracted from the vegetation. Hereafter a series of double skin systems were generated from the research, with multiple fascinating combinations of different skin forms. 8
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second generations of the physical prototyping - double skin system section models
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Space Potentials These patterns and forms created by different combinations of skins opened a gate to a new language. Testing the models in different scales placed several interesting positions for an architect to rethink what a form can achieve. By enlarging the spaces inside the cactus flower, varieties increased amazingly. No matter what size it was, landscapes, architectures or even chairs, there was always a room for the next transformation. Laser-cut boards also helped tremendously generate a secondary creation. The stacked slices in the real world indicated a lot of possibilities one could hardly imagine on a computer screen. The experiment on different materials as well enhanced very much on the prosperity of the language. After all these, the form language was ready to continue moving forward to be subdivided into real architecture.
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components generated from different combinations of skins and the pattern studys of each possibility 14
Aggregated Assemblies After the discovery of different double-skin systems, the prosperity of this new form language indicated an intriguing prospect of being translated into aggregated assemblies which could be mass-produced and made of components generated from previous models. I used cutting, slipping and reintegrating to alter the forms into components. The translation was followed by a pattern study from which one of the components was chosen to move on to evolve into an enclosure system. The workflow we chose was composed of CNC milling and slip-casting. Beyond a simple aggregation, I tried to explore the relationships and boundaries between handicraft and technological products which in this process are blurred into each other. The means to materialize the form of the object was simple and conventional - slip-casting, but the moulds were made of CNC milled plaster ingots instead of hand-sculptured ones. And the metal frames which were usually produced in factories were manufactured totally by hand. The connection between those two different materials is the most interesting part containing all the conflicts: it has to be soft and adjustable to hold the organic shape of ceramic, in the meantime part of the gelid and rigid elongation of the metal frames. The aggregation assembly is part of the prototype of a moveable wall which could be further applied to a real building. The wall finally should be able to be fabricated in 3D print way, which is a more customized method to construct. In order to develop a secondary language that allows 3D print to realize a macro scale fabrication, the receptacles were redesigned as bricks, with performing structures around which created a gap space and a hexagon shape, not only to meet the assembly requirements, but also to decorate the space from the beginning. After the two aggregation systems were designed, the metal-ceramic system transformed to the real urns and the junctions between them and the wall. The ornamental brick system altered to be the structure that creates the space and light. In this way, the whole architecture language was created and finished coherently to represent the Womb of after Life.
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top four: one of the component prototypes was chosen to be further developed, finalized through slip-casting and heating bottom: four of the chosen components were set up in moveable iron frames as a demonstration of the interactive wall system opposite: details of the junction design and the moveable frames illustrations 16
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top: from the design of the iron-ceramic model, a 3D printed holding hand is derived with a refined shape of memory receptacle bottom: light permeation and reflection studys on different receptacle materials of salt, ceramic, PLA and wood 18
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interior space of the columbarium with memory receptacles 20
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top: evolutions of the brick with performing structures (secondary language). the third one was chosen to move forward bottom left and opposite: 3D printed nylon model of the performing structures with a huge variety of space potentials which in the next phase developed into the structure of the columbarium bottom right: one of the applications that the enclosure system can be used at
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top: a study model of one half of the performing structure - 3D printed wood powder; a reductive version of a possible assembled figure of the aggregated wall
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Synthesis - Columbarium of the Pacific Gyre The urns that contain memories are the crucial elements in not only construction, but more importantly also in giving life to the architecture. The mortality of the bay area influences the columbarium’s growth - it extends as people die. During the time the urns are kept in the columbarium, they are shown to people who pay visits here. They tell stories of their own, changing the local social environments. After a certain period of time, when the columbarium is long enough to reach the gyre, it matures, meaning that “the first generations” are ready to be spread into the world and new urns can come in. The matured urns will float with the pacific gyre travelling to their destinations where their fate leads them, picked up by people who are going to
have the stories as part of their own lives. The life cycle is completed only after this process. Referred to Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, the Womb of after Life is a place of deviation and crisis in both physical and conscious aspects. The location is part of the city, but deviates from everyday urban life; it is a man-made existence in the middle of nature; it is neither land nor sea; the “people” inhabiting in the architecture are not alive or dead - they are in transition from death to life. It is an in-between zone, like the womb where the unborn are not independent to be called a baby.
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Typically, the whole structure is made of repetitive cells composed by elements of the performing structure, abstracted and reunited in different positions and in variable scales to adapt differentiated functioning spaces. During the construction process, the main structure which is more customized is 3D printed with plastic gathered from the pacific garbage patch, meanwhile the floors which are much easier mass produced are CNC milled. In order to integrate those two means, a series of one-of-a-kind junctions are designed, which would be 3D printed with the main structure together. In the construction process, the foundation and bottom part of the main structure is printed firstly, then lower half of the timber frames are set in the junctions. Following is the upper half of the frames and floor planks, and then the paused 3D printer would go on finishing the rest.
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top: interior renderings showing the inner spaces fabricated in the two methods opposite: top view of the detail model with membrane roofs 28
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the structural model of library showing library spaces, corridor and deck spaces
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the structural models of auditorium and exhibation, showing roof structures, exterior forms, and auditorium space
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The Wall
Harbin Institute of Technology, B.Arch / Independent Work / Fall 2011 / Educational / Harbin, China In response to the expanding demands of HIT School of Architecture, the new activity center with functions of experiment, research, studio, workshop and library, is located in a very complex urban environment close to the center of Harbin, bringing about a major problem of integrating an academic building with the vibrant urban context. The wall, as an interface that selectively adjusting the activities taking place in both sides, is created to reconcile the conflicts of privacy and publicity, academy and street life, the school and the city. The whole architecture is designed based on the wall concept, allowing differentiated spaces to generate their own forms, creating intriguing experiences for both the students and citizens.
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,
Sc Ar ho HIT chi ol o te f ctu re
hi
aZ
tD
W es .
St
Ha igu
Be ijin
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g St . an St .
Ea s
tD aZ hi St .
Conflicts Between the School and the City The site is so close to the traffic hub that the new activity center is unavoidably facing the problems caused by the citizens including noise, dirty air, trash on the ground and unexpected visits. The strategy the old school of architecture uses is extracting itself from urban activities: it stands back from the street with a rigid facade and constraints its teacher and student circulations in the building, separately functioning from citizens’ lives. Although this strategy keeps the school as an uncontaminated place, it severely cuts off the stimulus from outside of the school which are strongly helpful to its own growth. Hence my proposal of the new activity center uses the wall to turn conflicts into harmony on the purpose of improving both the school and the city.
typical student activities in a day: dormitory-special classroom-dining hall; sometimes library, model lab or lecture theater
typical teacher activities in a day: parking-special classroom-office-sometimes dining hall
typical citizen activities in a day: houses-offices-restaurants-markets-banks-...
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undecomposed project
split the wall
make a protective screen insert a cafe
...but its a little grim to a citizen transude through both sides
make a neutral connection a gallery
...hmm, it’s a good start, what’s next? magnetized by the wall
make a mutual connection an auditorium
...that’s kind, people can feel something interesting inside
move outward to meet public demands
more than a visual connection, functional
...lectures can be seen and listened to, influence is expending
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a library
extrude fluidly
create a friendly ouline studios
...then they needn’t go too far to get to a library select the most visual part to elongate
model making is visible activity rooms, offices, labs ...works seen, studios unreachable, citizens aware, students undisturbed
transform due to functional requirements
stay still without public functions
Space Logic Each kind of permeation needs transformations and adjustments in accordance with its own urban-related spatial characteristics. Based on the research into different features of every space considering sociality, privacy, functions, influences, etc., the process diagrams of transformations and adjustments are listed above. In this way, The Wall has become more than a wall. It alters into a spatial object that contains interactions between citizens and building users. It becomes a introduction to the institution and an open gate to the city. 43
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1 2 3 4
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level b1
materials laboratories library storage rooms architechure study storage rooms machanical rooms
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6 5
1 2 3 4 5 6
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entrance for the school of architecture faculty’s offices gallery auditorium the hall for citizens kiosk
level 1
street view, looking to the school 47
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3 2
5 4
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1 2 3 4 5 6
level 2
carrels audiovisual materials reading rooms librarian’s office & scanning/copying room reference desk electronic resources reading area general reading area
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1 2
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activity rooms classrooms
level 3
the main staircase, from library 49
2 1
5
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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students working area temporary conference area modeling machine room modeling area lounge/small meeting area cafe kitchen & sale area
level 4
the main staircase, from roof 51
section 1
section 2
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section 3
section 4
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southeast elevation 54
Floating Spaces In the center of the building is situated the main staircase, which is the critical part that integrates all functional rooms as a whole. On the first floor it backs to the citizen entrance in order to decrease unnecessary visits, in reverse welcomes people who work and study here coming inside from the “real“ entrance. Also walls and turns are intersected with the circulation here to limit eye contacts and noise interference. But light is designed to irradiate from the roof to the underground level penetrating each floor to make the space flow and to illuminate connections among all the spaces, at the same time playing a role of artery.
northwest elevation 55
Celebration of Bayonne Harbin Institute of Technology, B.Arch / Instructors: Eric Dubosc, Xiaopeng Bai / Fall 2010 / Commercial / Bayonne, France This design of a habitable bridge begins with the purpose of joining separate parts of Bayonne, a beautiful city in south-western France at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers which divide the small city into several parts Grand Bayonne, Petit Bayonne, Saint-Esprit, etc. Trying to solve the problems occurred in the city’s development, a plaza on the river is designed to unite the scattered cultural areas and to balance different economic growths. All spaces are integrated in a round shape with delicate circulations weaving together residential areas, commercial areas and cultural areas.
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Old Fortification
New Railway Station
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Saint-Esprit Ad
ou
Dwelling District
Petit Bayonne
Grand Bayonne
ve
Ni ve Ri r
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rR
ive
r
FĂŞtes de Bayonne The FĂŞtes de Bayonne is a series of festivals in the Northern Basque Country in the town of Bayonne. The festivals last 5 days and they are the largest festivals in France. In the eighties, participants started to dress in white with a red scarf and a red belt after the colors of the city of Pamplona. The festivals include musical and street performances, traditional dances, parades, and fireworks. However, during the festivals, the only place where can hold all people of this area is the small square in front of the city hall. Thus the situation turns out to be hot in the southern parts and cold in the northern parts.
Space Strategies The inspiration of a mix-use habitable bridge came from the sections of the Colosseum and the residential buildings along the river bank. In the Colosseum, the building with spaces inside acts as an enclosed circular wall standing between the city and a particular space - the arena, while the spaces are a buffer trying to adapt peostand ple from urban lives to the furious combats. space The residences along the bank play a role more than a buffer - it is not only the interface between the city and the river, but also the expression of the city, like the appearance of a lady. residentialcities standthe textures in Europe Studies on brought about the logic of creating the hub space residential space. Streets with a feature of centrality would lead people to the core,commercial and a circular form of the core causes disappearance of directionality. As a result, citizens gather from all around the city and interact with each other in the hub. Concerning the facade, we need to make a familiar and attractive outward appearance to stand in the city, just as the old Romans did.
stand
residential residential
space
commercial
view residential residential commercial
view
Combing the three characteristics mentioned above, the hub on the river should act as the first amazing look of the city of Bayonne while introducing both the citizens and the tourists into the fantastic plaza it encloses with the in-between spaces telling the stories of Bayonne.
Scale Comparisons with Other Plazas
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Program Distribution seats & stairs auditorium exhibation hall restaurants, cafes & bars hotel offices houses retail & boutiques platform/ plaza & radial “roads�
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 3 2
entrance hall of the auditorium bicycle parking commercial area residential area offices hotel entrance of the exhibition hall exhibition hall restaurants
3 7 2 3
3 4
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3
6 2 3
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5
2 4
level 1
perspectives on plaza 64
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level 2
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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auditorium restaurants commercial area residential area offices hotel exhibition hall
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level 3
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roof plan
model pictures showing the spaces of stand, house, retail, balcony, corridor and plaza 67
section 1
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section 2
section 3
section 4
section 5
section 6
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Design of the Houses
windows small balcony shutters
conventional houses’ outlines
windows large balcony improved shutters
houses on the HUB
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90 m2 plan A
90 m2 plan B
45 m2 plan
65 m2 plan
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City Memory and Drama Space Harbin Institute of Technology, B.Arch / Instructor: Chong Bu / Spring 2010 / Commercial / Harbin, China Located at the edge of the Nangang District Commercial Area, this region has been growing together with Harbin City for decades. A very old church is still in use; one of the most famous middle schools has been standing here since the 1970’s; but most residences are out of protection. The renovation is arisen because of the construction of a subway station. As the urban development requires, this block would turn into a new complex, and become an extension of the existing commercial area. This proposal initiates with the protection of the city memory, which lies deep in every individual’s perception of the urban environments. In order to moderate the alteration, the facades of the old residences are kept and opened in some places trying to introduce spaces of both sides to each other. Meanwhile transforming the courtyards into certain functional areas like drama spaces surrounded by spectator seats.
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Garden St.
East Dazhi St.
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Longjiang St.
Anshan St. Buildings and courts are seperate
Buildings and courts become a theater
Zhongshan Rd. West Dazhi St.
Insert small private spaces, e.g. work shops, offices, hotels
Insert public spaces, e.g. stores, banks, post offices
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From left to right:
Multi-functional House, Restaurants & Cafes, Management, Movie Theater, Exhibition Hall, Information Center, Game Zone & DIY Lab
From top to buttom: Section, Facade 1, Facade 2, 2nd floor plan \ Roof plan, 1st floor plan
Opposite page:
Separated Functioning Spaces
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Restaurants & Cafes
Multi-functional House
Game Zone & DIY Lab
Movie Theater
Integrated Form
Management
Information Center
Exhibition Hall
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Multi-functional House
Game Zone & DIY Lab
Management
Information Center
Restaurants & Cafes
Movie Theater
Exhibition Hall
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Evolution
Harbin Institute of Technology, B.Arch / Instructor: Chong Bu / Spring 2010 / Cultural / Harbin, China The museum is sited on the north bank of Songhua River, which flows through Harbin. Displaying and explaining the ecological environment of the river, the museum provides assistances to ecological researches. The project aims to build up a connection between nature and human’s world in an architectural method. Respecting both human and nature, an evolutionary city-to-nature experience for the tourists is designed. In a humble attitude, this museum is inserted into the land and shattered to fit the locale, with every route leading to the nature, and the roof for everyone to walk on. The journey begins from a straight lined facade, and ends by the river.
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The Sun Island (North Part)
Harbin City (South Part)
diagrams of the form evolution
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site plan
The nature, as we perceive it, is filled with chaos, potentials, diversities and uncertainties. That is why we humans created architecture - to control the small space that belongs to our own and to live better. So the forms of architecture from the beginning are essential and simple: we use straight lines to fight against wild curves, we integrate scattered functions under one roof. That is what a human’s architecture looks like. In this case, the museum of natural ecology of the Songhua River is an introduction for people to the nature. In architectural words, the spaces and the forms that suit this purpose should be an interface between the man-made and the natural. Consequently a clean shape is created, with all functions arranged well inside. Then as the power of nature, erosion intervened in the form causing cracking and scattering, making the form gradually fade away on the bank. Paths are created in the cracks, after organization leading to one end - the river. During this erosion, several exhibition rooms are arranged showing people the story of the Songhua River and finally leading people from the man-made building to the great nature. The inspiration came from the first fish which struggled its best to land on the bank. It gradually abandoned the uncontrollable parts and eventually evolved into a clean shape.
circulations of visitors, auditors, and stuff
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storage rooms research offices offices information desk lounge hall lecture hall machanical room showrooms the lookout
-2.3m level
+0.4m level
+7.3m level
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8 5
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Basement Level
Gound Level
Exhibition Level
Landscape
Roof 85
section 2
section 1
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Avulsion
Harbin Institute of Technology, B.Arch / Instructor: Dawei Li / Fall 2010 / High-rise Hotel / Harbin, China
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Miami Festival
Harbin Institute of Technology, B.Arch / Collaborator: Lijin Zhu / Spring 2011 / Floating Stage / Miami, FL
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Harbin Cultural Center for Ice and Snow Harbin Institute of Technology, B.Arch / Instructor: Dawei Li / Spring 2012 / Cultural / Harbin, China
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Jilin Agricultural University Arts Laboratory Harbin Institute of Technology, B.Arch / Instructor: Qingjun Sun / Fall 2010 / Educational / Jilin, China
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The Spiretec Competition
Harbin Institute of Technology, B.Arch / Collaborator: Lijin Zhu, Chong Bu / 2010 / Mix-use / India
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Chinese Baroque District Renovation 2nd Phase
WIN Architecture and Environment Design Office, Intern / Collaborator: Shuting Tao & Lijin Zhu / In Construction (Expected Finishing Date: 2013) / concept proposal, planning, modeling (TEAM LEADER) / Harbin, China
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Shuangyashan City Reception Center
Independent Professional Project / Collaborator: Lijin Zhu / Design: 2011 / Construction: 2012 / Heilongjiang, China
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Students Activity Center - Renovation
Independent Professional Project/ Elected Implementary Proposal / Construction: 2011 / Harbin, China / Photo by Linbo Xie
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Liaoning Medical University, New Campus
Architectural Design and Research Institute of HIT, Intern / Collaborator: Lu Fan, Zhenxing Li, Bin Liang, Lijin Zhu / floor plans, AutoCAD drawings, animation modeling, graphical expression / Liaoning, China
New Stadium of Harbin Oriental College FZJZ Architects, Intern / Collaborator: Lijin Zhu / 2011 / Professional Project / Harbin, China
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Fabrication of Dougong
Harbin Institute of Technology, B.Arch / Collaborators: Fangfei Liu, Linbo Xie, Lijin Zhu / Fall 2010
Animation Work - Graphical Partita UC Berkeley, M.Arch / Instructor: Ronald Rael / Fall 2012 - Spring 2013
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