Portfolio of Chong Li

POWER THE STATIC | PORTFOLIO OF CHONG LI Selected Works 2011-2015 Applying for MSc Architectural Computation University College London

Chong Li B.Arch, Tongji University Email: catacil@163.com Tel: +86 18817598543 Student Number: 16108784

Power the Static

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Preface Architecture evolves constantly. While what presents to us is the concrete and motionless form, the hidden dimension is always dynamic, where architecture is influenced by the links and crossovers between disciplines. To “Power the Static� is to approach the generative moment when the rhythm of architecture echoes harmoniously with architects, inhabitants and its ambiances.

The theme is presented by five works, in which element, architecture, and city are discussed- ranging from the micro exploration into timber joint to the macro research on urban issues. The macro-scope elements discusses transience and duration of elements in the new age of information wave, where computation and new structures are implemented. The architectural works explore the latency in architecture - how people influence the physical tangibleness through emerging technologies and traditional building techniques. The works concerning urban issues deal with the macro-scope of architecture - how the fragmented contributes a synthetic, flexible, and homogeneous superimposition.

By the means of computation, lighting, vernacular techniques, and emerging technologies, I go beyond architecture to find various mediums reaching the essence of architecture. This portfolio presents my cross-disciplinary explorations to find the unknown and power the static.

Contents Scripted Timber --Exploration of Traditional Tenon-and-Mortise

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Interrelating Mask --Longchang Building Renovation Design

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Media Topography

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Overlapped River --Urban Design For North Bund

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Synecdoche Lujiazui --Research in the CBD of Shanghai : Lujiazui

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--Tongji University Campus Club Design

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Scripted Timber Exploration of Tenon-and-Mortise | 1-week Construction, 3-week Design | Instructor : Gao Yan | Summer 2015 Collaborator : Zhou Shu | Contribution : Concept 60%, Programming 50%, Drawing 70%, Analysis 60% Fabrication Team : Hu Yuqing, Wu Di, Jia Dianxin, Zhong Zhenxi, Li Yizhe, Xie Shujie, Zheng Jingyun With the development of technology, the relationship between material and fabrication has changed drastically. Traditional crafts require familiarity with the material contingencies while modern fabrication changes the character of the material to customize mass-production.

Scripted Timber is a synthetic platform for Chinese Tenon-and-mortise timber joint, where the empirical hand-craft is combined with the computational generation. By the means of computation, the durational presenting and the exploration of new structure system are incorporated to promote the visualization and applicability of timber joint.

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Virtual Matching of Timber Joint

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Traditional Craftsmanship Wood in China witnessed long-standing priority to other materials used in architecture. And the invention of Tenon-mortise structure is crucial to the advantages of timber. From the chronology of Chinese timber structure below, the way of organizing timber changes drastically, during which the advantages of traditional joint are lost due to mass-production and reinforced timber.

Modern Structure

- Riveting

- Bending

- Bolting

Ancient Structure

- Dougong (10th Century)

- Pegging (6th Century)

- Weaving (3th Century B.C.)

- Piling (11th Century B.C.)

- Binding (5000 B.C.)

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Hand-craft Evaluation of Traditional Tenon-mortise Joint The analysis right shows typical timber Tenon-mortise joints as different structural elements. The force&durability evaluation examines the vulnerable parts which need advancing.

Beam End Joint

Planar Middle Joint

Planar Corner Joint

Beam Corner Joint

Beam Middle Joint

Intersection Joint

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Digital Craftsmanship In the digital age, CNC machines has greatly improved the efficiency of producing more precise joints. However, the limitation is that every joint still need to be designed accordingly. The scripted timber seeks to synthesize digital fabrication, autonomous structure, and material contingency and generating new joint syntax. [ Structure Optimization ] Reciprocal Assembled

[ Fabrication Evolution ] Hand-craft

Independant Identical

Customized

Mass-production Disassembled

saw

chisel

gauge

plane

Adhesive

Recycled

Autonomous

Industrialization

Convergent Joint

User

User Maker

Scripted Synthethis

Ope rator

Separated Durational Visualization

Fabri cator

Overlap

Combined

Mechanism and Robotics Coder CAM

[ Material Exploration ]

GH

Fabricator CNC

Design

Character of Timber Accessible

Visualized Fabrication Base

Flexible

Product

Component Class

Processable Vertical

Horizontal Diagonal

Changeable

Joint Combination BUNDLE-WOOD

Slab

Column

Slab

Column

TENON-MORTISE POLY-WOOD DIGITAL-WOOD

[ Computational Production ] Simplex

Mutiple (limited) Existing type

Permutation Combination

Empiricism

Virtual model

Process Presentation

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KUKA

Mutiple (unlimited) Inexistent Duration Computational script

Digital Fabrication Fabrication & Joint Experiment CNC Cutting

Typical Joint

Joint Assembly

Oblique Joint

Oblique Joint

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Cyber Craftsmanship There are four digital inputs in the Scripted Timber system - time, material, fabrication and structure. Four input together controls the outcome of the system. The system is durational, which runs and presents all the possibilities. At the same time, the best outcome is chosen and optimized through the process, which corporate the empirical hand-craft with the durational presenting and architectural computation.

Virtual System

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r ’s S

el e

c ti

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a ti o

Virt u

r ic

al

i

ti o n

b Fa

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za mi

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res en ting

Through the visualization of the convoluted coding process, the Virtual system enables individuals without professional knowledge to access and control the whole process and customize unique timber joint.

ng lizi ua Vis

Virtual Fabrication

In ter fac e

sP ult s e R

g

Vi

su alized Codin

Virtual System

Virtual Optimization Through the distortion of the timber, the weak direction of timber fiber could be avoided. The structural input can help filter the material contingencies and achieve diverse application.

Distortion

Virtual Cut

Joint Optimization

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Computational Presenting & Designer's Selection The system presents various possibilites of timber structure with optimized joints. Power is back to individuals who choose according to their aethetics and needs.

Timber as beam

Timber as column

Timber as enclosure

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Possible Joint

Base Point Sub Structure Main Structure Virtual Generation Timber Simulation

Virtual system

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2012

Interrelating Mask Longchang Building Renovation Design | 12-week Studio Work | Instructor : Peter Sim | Spring 2014 Each time I visited Longchang Building, I would find the inner facade different. The changing life scenarios and gradual additions which compensated for absent programs contribute to the dynamic mask for the inner facade. With increasing desire for improving living standards, this project explores how the medium - time and emerging technology - works with the residents to generate the future mask.

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2015

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Inner Facade

Longchang Apartment Built in the 1920s 1920s - Jail 1950s - Office Building 1980s - Residence 2004 - Historical Site

Inner Facade

Longchang Road

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Chronology of Inner Facade Unlike the exterior facade facing the street, which is not allowed to add addition, the interior facade shows more precisely how the residents live and make use of the building. Time plays an important role in the dynamics the mask.

30 20

15 20

10 20

05 20

95 19

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Problem-solving Mask The future mask will work functionally to solve the problem of circulation, sunlight, and greenery by the means of reflection and re-orientation.

Existing Problems

Vertical Circulation

Shaded Area

Point Greenery

Light the Shaded

Vertical Gardens

Problem-solving

Vertical Circulations

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Mask Generation Through adding new blocks according to the existing axis and rotating the blocks to reflect sunlight, the static facade becomes fluid and provides new living scenarios in the coming future.

Original Facade

Affiliated Blocks

Light Re-orientation

Greenery and Circulation

Static Plan

Fluid Plan

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Living Mask

Lighting Mask

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Mask Composition For the evolving facade, different programs are integrated. The blocks are the same, while the way to integrate the blocks contributes to the diversity of the compositions according to the residents’ needs.

7 7 5

3

4

2

4

Top Joint

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Continuous Section

6

4

1

1

1

2

1 3. Lounge1. Kitchen 5. Library 4. Toilet 2. Study 6. Fitness

7. Greenery 8. Bedroom

Ground Floor Plan

Tectonics Axonometric

Bottom Joint

Joint with the Frame

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Facade Superimposition Facades of different time are properly connected under time. Every facade separately stands for its own time, while together reflects the history which the building have gone through. Despite the discrepancy of material and building technology, the juxtaposition ironically shows how social activities orient and link the differences. This is how architecture evolves in time.

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Blocks

Frame

Scaffold

Addition

Original Facade

Block

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Media Topography Campus Performance Center | 8-week Studio Work | Instructor : Xu Gan | Spring, 2013 Lighting Research Members: Zhang Yuchuan, Shi Hao, Luo Junlin, Zhou Shu | Contribution : 25% With the development of digital interaction, the physical propaganda is greatly weakened, whereas the need for real experience never stops. This project examined the application of lighting in shaping a new topography which acted reflectively and synthesizing the disparate activities happening.

By the means of lighting, the activities happening and the links in-between could be shown by the building. Therefore, the generation is a participatory process during which individuals become inseparable from the sensational experience, and become part of architecture.

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Plan of information flow and circulation

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Topography Evolution The connections between high-spots on campus influence the latent topography of the site.

Evolving from box to reflective pixel, the emerging ground acts as an inviting, multi-purpose, and dynamic architecture for students’ activities.

Lan

s

ink

eL

ap dsc

Campus Path

Cam

pu sP a th

Box

Slope

Reflective Pixel

Multi-purpose Hall

Campus Club

Grass Lawn

Main Sports Field

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Light as Media In the transformation between scenarios, lighting acts as a media to perform different topography on the same ground. Upon responding to the activities, different lighting shapes people as well as landscape.

Gravity

Acoustic

Lighting Experiments Experiments are conducted to explore the combination of lighting and how it influences plants, people, objects.

The results are incorporated into the ground lighting assembly.

Mix-lighting

Landscape

Greenery

Objects

People

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Fluid Topography on Different Occasions Different circulation flows and activities influence the lighting scenarios on the reflective pixel, thus creating various media topography on the same ground. The reflective, changing topography is a self propaganda for the campus center and people become part of the architecture.

Circulation Oriented

Activity Oriented

Mixed Programs

Multi-Influential Points

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On the Topography

Under the Topography

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Overlapped River North Bund Urban Design | 8-week Studio Work | Instructor : Xu Kai| Winter 2014 Collaborator : Mi Murong, Liu Xinwen | Contribution : Concept 40%, Block 4, Model 35%, Drawing 60% This project focuses on the renewal of waterfront typologies in the North Bund, Shanghai. Here, multiple layers are implemented to solve various problems. These layers focus on the river, which works as landscape, infrastructure or facilities.

By overlapping the layers, the system is flexible, always evolving to accommodate local contingencies while maintaining overall continuity. The Overlapped River works as artificial ecology, which enhances the urban space in a discrete while synthetic approach.

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Rivers System in Shanghai The site is located on the intersection of two most important rivers in Shanghai, forming a triangle with the CBD and the bund.

Bus

Metro Cruise

Hongkou Creek

Transportation Huangpu River

Yuhang Rd. Park

Site

Magnolia Plaza

Suzhou Creek

North Bund Park

Public Space 1933 Shanghai Hospital

Church Commercial Complex Cruise Terminal Art Museum

Points of Interest

The Main River Systems

Hongkou Creek Hongkou Creek

The Site

Suzhou Creek Suzhou Creek

Huangpu River Huangpu River

Inaccessibility to Riverfront

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River as Catalyst Even though the river resource is abundant in Shanghai, the sections show the separation between river and social activities. The scale of Hongkou Creek on site is the most suitable for water-friendly design in the main rivers.

Lujiazui

Hongkou Creek

Given the unpleasant conditions of the riverside in Shanghai, the strategy is to regenerate the obsolescent river. The concave river will be the new landscape and infrastructure for city life and serve as the catalyst to promote the riverside from downstream to upstream.

Program

Connection

Circulation

Residential Cultural

Residential Cultural

Commercial

Commercial

Business

Business

Multi-purpose

Tourists

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Through the renewal of typologies, the river wor The flexibility of the system is a bridging process, which straddles the a

New Riverfront Typology

Concave River

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Waterfront Layer

Landscap

rks as landscape, social space and public facilities. abstraction of planning and the site specificity of architectural practice.

pe Layer

Social Activity Layer

Facility Layer

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Overlapping on the River

Buildings

Facilities

Social Activities

Landscape

Waterfront

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Synecdoche Lujiazui Research on Shanghai CBD | West Bund Biennale | Leader : Li Danfeng, Zhou Jianjia | Fall 2015 Contribution : Concept 40%, Research 30%, 3D Modeling 50%, Drawings 80% Other Team Members : Pan Yixin, Hu Nan, Wang Yuze, He Yujing, Zhao Yuetong Realistic

Rhetoric

Figurative

Futuristic Collective Intersection

Mapping

Hotspot

Professional Chaos Architect Chronology

Visualization

Governor Analysis

Interpretation

Tourist

Jusxtaposition

Synecdoche

Birth of City

Overlapping

Workers Labyrinth

Amateur Needle

Sphere

Ring

Individual

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Grid

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Lujiazui History In one century, Lujiazui grows from industrial land, farm, slums, to one of the most prosperous CBDs in the world, during which the huge leap in the 1990s brought prestige as well as various problems to this land. Architects, planners, policy makers and people who live, work or travel constantly reshape Lujiazui in their own way, physically or virtually. The figure below provides the historical background for the anticipatory synecdoche.

Typology

Program Distribution

Status Fluctuation

R

Concession Era

War of Liberation

Cultural Revolution

Chronological Collage

Agriculture

1905

40

1910

1915

1920

1925

1930

1935

1940

Industry

1945

1950

Office

1955

1960

Commerce

1965

1970

197

Lujiazui as CBD

Last Skyscraper

Mass Construction

Reform and Opening

75

Residence

1980

Hotel

1985

1990

1995

1997

1999

2001

2003

2005

2007

2009

2011

2013

2015

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Visualized Lujiazui in 2015 The lack of diversity in the hot-spots shows the improperness of city disperse. Visualized Lujiazui is based on the activity of different groups in Lujiazui and presents the various figurative interpretation which generates the new image of the CBD.

Workday - Heat Map from 0:00 to 24:00

Weekend - Heat Map from 0:00 to 24:00

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Workday

07:00

09:00

11:00

13:00

15:00

17:00

19:00

21:00

Weekend

07:00

09:00

11:00

13:00

15:00

17:00

19:00

21:00

The irregular crossroad typology is one of the most notorious “features� in Lujiazui where no intersection is perpendicular. Cars, buses, and pedestrians all have difficulty in the flowing.

5-intersection Road

4-intersection Road

3-intersection Road

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Figurative Interpretation of Individuals Just like Venice in Calvino’s world, vagueness never obstructs the reading of a city, instead, its complexity and change do. Synecdoche, the figurative way of interpretations, explores a new way to capture the essence of Lujiazui between the individual and the collective, the partial and the whole, the abstract and the concrete, the realistic and the futuristic, thus myriad of cities birthed.

Labyrinth City The system - twisted intersections of non-perpendicular roads - is like a labyrinth, which acquires Lujiazui with the uniqueness for touring experience.

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Grid City The extreme superimposition of the perpendicular grid shows the desire of better circulation system.

The equity is achieved through multiple layers.

Ring City The ring creates the communal space in CBD, connecting the unreachable air, which is the desire for the workers inside.

Needle City The needle occupies the least area while provides maximum space.

The emerging of needle fuses the difference and creates homogeneousness.

Sphere City Sphere helps obtain most volume with least surface. The canopy is a civic manifesto for the elite high-rise.

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Birth of New City

Overlapping Base With the built of the last skyscraper Shanghai tower, there is no space left for further construction in Lujiazui.

The way for generating new image for the CBD is the figurative overlapping of different interpretations.

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Pedestrian Path The superimposition of Manhattan grid provides an alternative to the chaotic and impassable transportation system.

Light Tower The light tower is the phantom manifestation of the latent geometric order. The labyrinthine Lujiazui is re-oriented to homogeneousness and the heat map thus more dynamic.

Canopy for the Central Green Hard to reach and lack of program, the central green is overlapped by the sphere surface. The conservatory is an ironic construct to the elite fiscal skyscraper.

Super Overpass The enlargement of the original ring not only connects the main high-rises vehicularly, but also envelops the central green.

Urban Parasite The urban parasite is the historical remnant of previous slums.

The layered blocks match and provoking the new built highrises.

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Acknowledgements I would like to thank all that have helped me with my work in this portfolio, especially my studio advisors Prof. Zhendong WANG and Prof. Quinsan CIAO, for their valuable criticisms and great support on my works. Besides, I sincerely appreciate the help from Mrs. Jianjia ZHOU and Dr. Danfeng LI during my internship. They helped me better understand myself and encouraged me to move forward.

Lastly, I would like to dedicate this portfolio to my parents, for their selfless support, encouragement and understanding.

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