selected architectural works
carlos mo wu
Carlos Mo Wu Selected works The City College of New York The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture 2017 Graduate Candidate
table of contents SELECTED WORKS
SACRED ARCHITECTURE 02
HIGHBRIDGE POOL 14
INTERCROPPING RESEARCH 24
AUDUBON ART MUSEUM 34
PERSHING SQUARE GARDEN 44
SACRED ARCHITECTURE HART ISLAND, NEW YORK ADVANCE DESIGN STUDIO FALL 2016
02
Hart Island has been a public cemetery for unclaimed bodies since the Civil War accompanied by other institutional program thus making the site inaccessible from the public. The site houses several abandoned structures and nearly half of the land is filled with bodies. According to a survey conducted by a landscape architect, the burial practice has been damaging the landscape by exhausting the soil with inadequate treatment. Further, the burial method is regarded as disrespect to the dead and mourners due to inappropriate handling of the caskets by leaving them exposed until the burial area is completed. Hence, families of the dead are not able to pay respect and claim the remains of their loved ones. On this notion, cremation will be able address to the damage of the landscape as well as keeping the mourners connected to their loved ones. At the site, the crematorium complex is located adjacent to the proposed public plaza with a formal gesture that embraces the gathering of visitors and mourners coming to claim the cremains of their relatives. The complex houses a meditation/congregational space of flexible usable space along with a columbarium and crematorium. A transient dwelling unit addresses mourners’ need for prolonged rituals in memory of their loved ones. By enacting a moral solution to the land, the dead buried on the island and the accessibility to the burials, the proposed structures naturally transcends itself to a sacred state.
03 03
044
05 05
The composition of the crematorium complex started to define its organization with the meditation/congregational space as it is the most publicly engaged by visitors and mourners. The geometric construct accentuates on exaggerating the depth of field of a centered vantage point out-looking the golden light of sunset. Thus, skewed geometries are employed with the intent of framing vistas and articulating the character of programmed spaces throughout the complex, the transient dwelling structure and water burial. Given the flexibility of the meditation space, a roof terrace level is added providing an overall vista of the island. The orientation encourages visual connection to the past burials as an act of remembering the dead. To depict a tranquil connection between the complex and the transient dwelling structure, a canal from the main waterway is brought in to the site performing as a water burial. Located both outside the columbarium and the mourners’ living quarters the canal allows the cremains to be dissipated back to the ocean.
0 06
ARTIFICIAL FOREST As Louis Kahn argues that light is the giver of all presence, the design concept begins with the character of a forest-like structure that brings forth a play of light and shadow. The densely populated wooden columns define the meditation space as a clearing a forest. These columns converge from top to bottom as a choreography of density and dispersion creating an effect of levitation. A wooden space frame imitates a similar construct of the columns perform as a light filtering device similar to a tree canopy. Within the colonnaded density is a circulation structure connecting the roof terrace and the meditation space. Hence, the experience of walking in between the density seemingly creates the sensation of experiencing the drama of light and silence.
08
COLUMBARIUM The design inspiration of the columbarium is taken from the meditation space/artificial forest articulating a seamless transition from one enclosure to another. Lighter variations of the columns are transposed onto the columbarium where the cremains await to be claimed. Bathing the space with light is an act to rid of the negatives of past burial methods and simultaneously celebrates the moment of encounter between mourners and the dead. Thus, a gridded order of columns naturally resolves itself with a light roofscape allowing the passage of a greater quantity of light. The travertine flooring emulates the expression of the roof structure and thus the atmosphere becomes much monolithic. In essence, the contained cremains and the columns indulge on an intimate dialogue of lightness.
0 09
10
At the CREMATORUM, the concrete furnaces differentiate themselves from the complex as free-standing objects - embodying the importance of cremation as an ethical burial process for both the dead and the island. Its wooden roof structure defines vertical shadows to deepen the relationship between the columns of the columbarium and the artificial forest.
111
122
HIGHBRIDGE POOL WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NEW YORK ADVANCE DESIGN STUDIO SPRING 2016 TEAM MEMBER: JORGE BURGOS 14
FORM FINDING Highbridge pool anticipates the opening of a new roofed intervention offering the community a year-round swimming opportunity. The scale of the pool asked for a long-span structure accommodating a wading pool and regular pool. An intense exploration of structural forms results in a conclusion of tensile structures resolving its forces through tension and compression. A series of studies on tensile structure models are investigated in utilizing suspended struts that carry and transfer internal loads down to the masts and foundation. The richness of pattern and modules further carried the investigation onto a much more complex framework of structural resolution. By networking a field of suspended struts, spans become much more generous in responding the scale of the project.
15
CONTEXT Located on the edge of the city, the highbridge pool embodies the characteristics of a progressive era in new york city. Moses’s advocacy sparked great interest and investment to public recreational spaces. Today, children of the city anticipate the opening of the pool, longing to experience their important summer leisure of swimming. In light of these factors, we proposed to further immerse this focal setting to the roots of the community by expanding its operation all year long. The site will have a dual program through the summer: as the sun rises the space will be transformed into a book fair that bridges different generations through the act of reading. As the sun sets, bleachers ďŹ lled with excited community member from Harlem and Washington Heights will enjoy performances as the moonlight illuminates the stage. The piazza typology reinforces the framing of the pools, enhancing the built language of the programming and function of the site. Using tensile as a structural system offers a material palette that complements the scenery and beauty of the landscape. To sustain a yearlong operation, the lightweight canopy is suspended by a network of ying masts.
Balanced ten B t ssio ioon-c n omp omppre res e sion analysis fro rom mill ro il ip ipe ppeede graassh sshopper
17
18
STRUCTURAL DETAILS 1. Tensile membrane ground connection 2. Glazing and membrane connection 3. Flying mast with dome-shaped skylight 4. 3D section detail
1
2
199
3
4
20 20
21
22
INTERCROPPING RESEARCH CENTER HARLEM, NEW YORK ADVANCE DESIGN STUDIO FALL 2015
24
The lack of biodiversity in our BIOSPHERE is due to the fact that monocropping has been the source of our food industry. Since this phenomenon could bring serious famine and the degradation of diversification in our biosphere, it is essential that intercropping systems must be the focus and further investigated in order to bring back the rich biosphere we used to inhabit. Thus, the symbiotic relationship of plants is the scientific study that takes place in the biosphere for scientists to further investigate how the coupling of different spieces promote growth to one and other. In order to program this study, a series of "planters" are scattered throughout the biosphere as testing grounds which are anchored by a vertical core making a connection of the viaduct and the street level (12th avenue). This vertical circulation within the biosphere would not only resolve the connection of both viaduct and 12th Avenue but also encourages the public to explore the research as they travel from and to either level. 25
5TH FLOOR
4TH FLOOR
3RD FLOOR
2ND FLOOR
GROUND FLOOR
26
WINTER MODE - WEST ELEVATION
27
SUMMER MODE - WEST ELEVATION
28
1 2 3 BIOSPHERE BUILDING DETAILS
4
1. Double glazed roof with photovoltaic 5 2. Pratt truss roof system 3.Operable window 4. Interior roller blinds 6 5. Structural glazing 6. Two-inch thick soil container
7 8
7. Four-foot engineered soil 8. 12"x 12"HSS steel beam 9. Moisture content sensor 11. Insulated spandrel unit 12. Four-inch drainage mat
9 10 11
13. 12"x12" HSS steel column beyond 12 14. Operable window 13 15. Two-inch rock tile 14 16. Concrete foundation wall 15
29
30
WATER RECLYING
STACK VENTILATION
BIOSPHERE BIOSPH ERE RE REIM IMAGINED WITH GRO WITH GROW OW LI LIGHT G
SOLAR ENERGY HARVESTING
31
32
AUDUBON ART MUSEUM AUDUBON TERRACE HISTORIC DISTRICT , NEW YORK COMPREHENSIVE DESIGN STUDIO SPRING 2015 TEAM MEMBER: CHARLES LENT 34
AUDUBON ART MUSEUM The design approach of the museum was based on Brick as the main material. Based on this notion, the design process seeks to express bricks as a light material. Consequently, a brick screen wall was developed to diffuse direct sunlight into the museum spaces to create dramatic lighting effects as an architectural experience in the proposed intervention at Audubon Terrace Museum Complex. By completing the empty lot of the complex with an annex of the existing museum, the intention is always to for the community. The objective was to create a dialogue with the existing museum exhibitions and extend to contemporary art galleries to narrate the experience of past, present and future. This chronological order of art exhibition became the parti of the design which was then expressed as a series of ascending platforms to suggest space over time. Once the users reached the last sequence of the chronology, they would arrive in a workshop space in which they could draw out their experience and enjoy a vista from which they entered the cultural complex.
SUNKEN COURTYARD FLOOR PLAN
35
LOBBY FLOOR PLAN
GALLERY FLOOR PLAN
36
BRICK SCREEN WALL
37
3D SECTION DETAIL
38
1 SCREEN WALL DETAIL 1. Utility brick screen wall 8" above parapet
2 3 4
2. Aluminum flashing 5 3. Two-inch rigid insulation 4. Four-inch concrete on roof metal decking 5. W16x57 steel beam
6
7
6. Structural mullion with shelf angle to support screen wall 7. W16x57 steel column beyond
8
8. 1/2" perforated metal platform
9
9. Metal channel to support platform
10
10. Double glazed curtain wall 11. Four-inch concrete on metal decking 12. Insulated glass unit 13. Stainless steel water container to be used as water feature. 14. Four-inch pebble stone
11 12 13 14
39
LONGITUDINAL SECTION
40
STRUCTURAL DETAILS 1. Aluminum flashing 2. Waterproof membrane 3. Two-inch rigid insulation 4. Four-inch concrete on roof metal decking 1
5. W16x57 steel beam
2
7 8
3
6. Norman brick masonry wall
4
7. Double glazed skylight
9
8. Typical roof drain on roof metal decking 5 9. Two layers of gypsum boards as fireproofing
10
10. Bolted steel rod connection 6 11. Structural CMU wall 11
12. Cast on site concrete slab 13. Rebars coupler
12
14. L shape channel to support metal platform
14
13
15. Typical masonry wall
15
16. C shape channel bolted to metal platform 17. Six-inch concrete slab on grade 18. Four-inch crushed stone 17 16 18
41
CROSS SECTION
42
PERSHING SQUARE GARDEN GRAND CENTRAL STATION, NEW YORK LANDSCAPE DESIGN SPRING 2014
44
The existing conditions of Pershing Square offers no actual public space to the daily pedestrians especially when the area demands for such space to soften the busy street. Grand Central Station developers have been struggling to re-purpose the square for pedestrian use only. It was also reported that closing the square for pedestrian access would not affect vehicular traffic. Thus, it becomes an opportunity to implement a pedestrian street prototype to improve the quality of the public.
45
By using greenery as a device, the goal seeks to soften the hardscape of frequent traffic congestions. The project uses tensioned steel cables to allow creepers to grow along the installation providing "green" pedestrian street. This green installation forms canopies to provide shade for the public . Eventually the project would serve as a prototype to improve other streets in the city that would soon become pedestrian friendly.
46
thank you!