CHEN CHEN
PORTFOLIO
1:00
Z VILLA Muscat, Oman
2:00
TONGLU VILLAGE HOTEL
3:00
LA CAFFERIA
Tonglu, Zhejiang, China
Chengdu, Sichuan, China
4:00
SAINT LAURENT - ION POP-UP STORE Singapore
5:00
SAINT LAURENT - ION MAIN STORE
6:00
ENVIRONMENTAL THINK TANK
Singapore
Berkeley, CA
7:00
SAN FRANCISCO FERRY PLAZA San Francisco, CA
MDO Z-Villa Architecture render by SSH
Z-VILLA Location: Muscat, Oman Designers: Justin Bridgland, Jaycee Chui, Chen Chen Area: 2000 sqm Year: 2018 TBC
Z-Villa is the first oversea interior design job that MDO has ever undertaken. Situated on the hills in Muscat, Oman, the villa has breathtaking views of the mountains and cityscape all around. The architect of this residential project, SSH, aspires to create a strong inside-outside, built-landscape relationship for this house, and MDO, as the interior designer, respects and respond to this concept by creating simple and linear design in line with the architecture itself, and employing various natural materials and colors with a touch of Middle Eastern character to finish the interior.
LOBBY The Entrance lobby of this house is finished with white Carrara terrazzo on floor, light travertine on wall, punctuated with bronze wall trims, handrails and elaborately carved door leading to the master bedroom. The dark walnut timber helical staircase becomes the focal point of the full height lobby space.
FAMILY LIVING ROOM With a ceiling height of almost 8 meters and width 12, we seek to introduce a more domestic scale into the supposed-to-be intimate family living room. Seating area is divided into 2 sections, each containg a much cozier area, and client’s pendant lights are hung from the ceiling and stop at a comfortable 3m height.
MASTER BEDROOM The master bedroom of the house inherits the minimal and elegant linear design throughout the building, and yet seek to have a resort-like feeling by incorporating elements such as leather rotating doors, jade wall lamps and window seats.
WALK-IN WARDROBE The master bedroom’s walk-in wardrobe intends to create a calm and comfortable atmosphere for the clients. All hanging and storage units have a homogenous language, maximizing the flexibility of the wardrobe.
FORMAL LIVING ROOM
LAUNDRY ROOM
MDO Tonglu Village Hotel
TONGLU VILLAGE HOTEL Location: Tonglu, Zhejiang Province, China Designers: Justin Bridgland, Kelsy Alexander, Chen Chen Area: 1200 sqm Year: 2017
Tonglu Village hotel is a newly developed Bed&Breakfast hotel located in the countryside of Southeast China. The location is home to a group of old rammed earth buildings, whose structure is no longer stable, and yet whose outlook represents a strong local identity. What we aim to achieve in this project is to retain the existing outlook of the old buildings as much as possible while reinforcing them structurally, and in the meanwhile imbuing new energy into them by introducing new architectural elements.
Raise Roof
New Structure for Wall and Roof
New Walls and Floor
Existing Building
Raise roof by 400mm min. to receive more natural light Enlarge existing window wholes for new window Introduce new exterior staircase
Slice up the existing wall to introduce windows and skylights
Insert modern interior into existing buildings
MDO La Cafferia Chengdu
LA CAFFERIA Location: Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Designers: Justin Bridgland, Kelsy Alexander, Chen Chen Area: 200 sqm Year: 2017
La Cafferia is a coffee brand originated in Lulnio, a city in Northern Italy. To differenciate this brand from other cafes and chain stores, we drew inspiration from the Italian architecture, especially the arches, and the rich colors commonly seen in that area.
SAINT LAURENT Singapore ION Pop-up Store Photo by Jonathan Leijonhufvud
SAINT LAURENT SINGAPORE ION POP-UP STORE Singapore, June - October 2015
With the appointment of French designer Hedi Slimane as the Creative Director of SAINT LAURENT in 2012, the brand was revolutionized. The spirit of the historical couture house suddenly became young, cool, rock-n-roll and even rebelious.
SAINT LAURENT’s pop-up store in Singapore ION (June 2015 - October 2015) was a very experimental attempt to establish a new image for the brand in terms of store design. Until today, ION pop-up store’s design concept is still one of a kind and has not been executed elsewhere by the brand. One of the architects from SAINT LAURENT’s in-house design team, Ghislain Delfieu, was the main designer for this project. I, as the project manager for this store, worked with him on finalizing the design details, figuring out the structural issues and supervising the construction eventually. With a good understanding of Hedi Slimane’s vision for the brand in mind, Ghislain intended to create a very industrial look for the store, and had inevitably found inspiration in the designs of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The vast use of black columns and beams, as well as the use of glass as the dominant surface material formed the spirit of this store.
SAINT LAURENT Campaign photos Photos by Hedi Slimane
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, Germany
Layout Plan
Since this is a pop-up store, the whole structure must be free-standing. And since we wanted to fight for an earliest opening date, we have set a timeframe to only allow one week for on-site installation. For a 90 sqm store, it was for sure a big challenge. We worked with a factory in China in developing this Mies van der Rohe - eque perimeter structure. Due to the limitation of installation schedule, we banned the possibility of any on-site welding or any use of big machinery. We finally decided on a very effective screw fixing for every corner detail. In this way, the workers only needed to use the IKEA-like screws and “screw drivers� to install all the columns, beams, and the glass panels.
Corner Details
Ceiling Beam & Vertical Columns Connection Detail
The second big challenge with the structure was the suspended fixtures. For a free-standing store with such thin-lined structures, this seemed impossible. With the factory, we spent a week to develop the structural system by adding more supporting structure behind the back wall, and extending the horizontal structure for the cantilevered parts.
Suspended Counter Structure Detail
Suspended Sofa Structure Detail
SAINT LAURENT Singapore ION Pop-up Store Photo by Jonathan Leijonhufvud
SAINT LAURENT Singapore ION Main Store Photo by Jonathan Leijonhufvud
SAINT LAURENT SINGAPORE ION MAIN STORE Singapore, October 2015 - Present
The Creative Director of SAINT LAURENT also reformed the concept of all stores. The red color used by the previous Creative Director, Stefano Pilati, was replaced by luxury and elegant looking Black Marquina marble and White Statuario marble. Furnished by polished stainless steel fixtures, the new concept has a timless overall look yet infused with 60s vibe. The design of ION main store, like any other SAINT LAURENT new concept store in the world, is extremely minimalist. And because of that, the lines of architecture become very obvious. The seam lines of the marble floor tiles, wall tiles, ceiling coves, counters and shelves are all dictated by the same rhythm, and within this rigorous frame, the diagonal veins of the marbles become vivid artworks.
Layout Plan
The location of this project is very interesting. Despite the medium-sized square footage, the shop contains a very long and curved lease line. The architect for this project, Jules Liscia, had the idea of utilizing this giant area to integrate a very futuristic, faceted shopdront design to create a very attractive image for customers. The surface of this facade is still glass, however they are regularly punctuated by mirror fins. The fins’ profiles are bracketed by mirrored polished stainless steel, while the sides holding glass panels are mirror panels, which creates millions of reflections. To maintain the crispness of this design, I worked with the local contractor to develop the detail. No silicone or glue was used to fix the glasses. Instead, all the interfaces all had grooves, which was lined with stainless steel U-channels to receive the glass.
Storefront Elevation
30
40
40
1
1 2
25
2
40
2
Varies
8
46
8
8 12
12
40
18
25
18
1 18
6
3500
2
485
2
17
Varies
469
523
469
485
1 18
3452
Varies
6
20
20
8
8
46
22°
ÂąVOS
8
Varies
25
40
30
40
110 40
Storefront facet detail
30 110
40
SAINT LAURENT Singapore ION Main Store Photo by Jonathan Leijonhufvud
SAINT LAURENT Singapore ION Main Store Photo by Jonathan Leijonhufvud
4
ENVIRONMENTAL THINK TANK ASHBY BART University of California Berkeley Spring 2012 Instructor Ajay Manthripragada
This project starts off by investigating the movement in and around Ashby Bart station, Berkeley, CA. Representing pedestrian movement with red dots and cars with blue, it is found that there is a lack of pedestrian traffic on the site, and even though on Saturdays and Sundays when the site is occupied by the flea market, there is still a huge inequality in terms of land use. The project continues with creating various surfaces for both cars and pedestrians, and continuing the language of the proto-site to the building itself.
FLOOR PLAN, TOP LEVEL 1/64”=1’
FLOOR PLAN, ADELINE LEVEL 1/64”=1’
STRUCTURE
PARTITION
PUBLIC
THINK TANK ENLOYEES
CIRCULATION
PUBLIC TEACHING LAB CAFE
LOBBY OFFICES & CONFERENCE ROOMS LABS & INCUBATORS
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.
LECTURE HALL MUSEUM
PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION
GROUNDPLANE THRESHOLD
FLOOR PLAN, GROUND LEVEL, 1/100”=1’
MAIN ENTRY LOBBY & RECEPTION LECTURE HALL SEMINAR ROOMS RESTROOMS STORAGE MECHANICAL ROOM BOOKSTORE MUSEUM LAB STAFF OFFICE SPECIMEN LAB PHOTO ANALYSIS LAB TOXICOLOGY LAB INCUBATORS PUBLIC TEACHING LAB CAFE CONFERENCE ROOM
18
EXECUTIVE OFFICES
SOUTH
EAST
WEST
SOUTH
NORTH
WEST
EAST
SOUTH
WEST
NORTH
NORTH
WEST
WEST
EAST
SOUTH
WE
NORTH
SOUTH
EAST
SOUTH
NORTH
EAST
SECTION A-A’, 1/64’’=1’ EAST
SECTION B-B’, 1/64’’=1’
EST
NORTH
EAST
EAST
SECTION C-C’, 1/64’’=1’
SELF SIMILARITY: LINES AND SURFACES SAN FRANCISCO FERRY TERMINAL AND PLAZA University of California Berkeley Spring 2013 Instructor Lisa Iwamoto
Self similarity is ubiquitous in nature. The macro system dominates the micro system, and the micro system informs the macro system.
The using of similar language in various scales is evident in many artworks during the Autonomous Art Movement - Jackson Pollock was among the most prominent. In that case, the self similarity was usually created through the unconscious and irrational expression of the artists. However, it could also be rational and deliberately composed and executed by the artists, such as the sculpture made out of toothpicks by Tom Friedman.
The site for this project locates in San Francisco,a city surrounded by water. The flow of the water self-similarizes, and the transportation happens above water also exists in similar ways, although in various scales
The movement on land also happens in multiple scales, and yet, they are all dictated by the same system.
Analytical Drawing Pattern
Pedestrian occupiable
Semi-enclosed public terraces
Semi-occupiable
Ferry Terminal/ Docking
Wall
Parking/Restaurant
Ticketing
Parking/Restaurant