Changzhe Xu University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design Master of Architecture 2019-2023
re-com-posed
The Reveal Public high rise
The New Old Toy A Community Center
Novel Nature Within Itself a study of monumentality and homunculus nature
Accessory Dwelling Unit
Modular Housing Construction
Parametric Housing Solutions
Grasshopper application on modular housing construction
Metropolitan Museum of Manila Museum
Professional Other Works
Weave-in
3d-printed bio-materials using robotics
Island Design Assembly
A recreational shelter
‘Frame’
Installation work with wood frames, prints and sculptures
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Academics
Pavilion
World Expo
re-com-posed
World Expo Pavilion
This pavilion seeks to spread awareness around global food waste. In spatial translation of this concept, the form explores the process of decomposition, incarnated architecturally in a system of structural ‘bones,’ wrapped in degrading, paneled ‘tissue,’ which degrades and sheds itself over the course of the Fair’s tenure.
602 Design Studio IV - University of Pennsylvania Spring 2021
In collaboration with: John Nedeau, Weiting Zhang
Instructor: Ben Krone
Site Location: Osaka, Japan
The concept of DECOMPOSITION is how the given form experiences more than one ‘life’ related to how it’s physically comprised. In this vein, our architectural experiments plays with the relationship between structure - the ‘bones’ so to speak - and facade - the ‘skin’ or ‘tissue’.
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This pavilion compiles multiple layers of wall/facades. On the exterior, it is a biodegradable multi-ply fabric that is applied in panels, which provides a different shading for the plants growing on the inside. Ramps are supported with exposed corten steel that would later provide another level of rusting and decomposition.
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INTERIOR RENDER (UPPER LEFT) | CHUNK MODEL - DAY 1 (UPPER RIGHT) EXTERIOR RENDER (LOWER)
WALL SECTION DETAIL (BELOW)
The facade itself is biodegradable abaca fabric engineered to weather and wither over the pavilion’s lifetime at the fair. The fabric would be clasped within Barrisols and adhere to the corten steel structural system.
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BARRISOL FABRIC CONNECTION DETAIL (ABOVE) WALL SECTION (LEFT)
The process of choreograph its progression from tidiness and order into its ‘After Life’ of decay and natural overgrowth that could be explored and occupied by exploration-minded individuals for years to come.
CHUNK MODEL - YEAR 10 (LEFT) INTERIOR RENDER (BELOW)
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The Reveal Public high rise
This project aims to reveal, for a chance of seeing the community, sharing a public common space, and bringing a sense of ownership of the outside. By opening a large space that allows for both vertical and horizontal visual communication, it brings a chance for residents to enjoy public amenities off their doorstep, and more importantly, enjoy them with their neighbors.
Fall 2020
Individual Work
Instructor: Scott Erdy
Site Location: Philadelphia
The intricate aggregation of the renewed units provides a new, dynamic interior space. In contrast to the existing units, the renovated units allows shared access to the exterior as balconies. The design of duplex units provides a easier differentiation between private and public spaces. The reveal itself then offers many possibilities of occupancy on different levels.
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601 Design Studio III - University of Pennsylvania
UNIT AGGREGATION AND SUN SHADE DIAGRAM
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Direct access from residential areas to public common space
Public common spaces utilized on both sides of the reveal
Small double height common space within unit clusters
The sense of ownership could break through the limitation of walls and height, connects the resident with not only their neighbors, but also the outside world.
A reveal that opens the enclosed; open space that infiltrates from the ground onto the high rise.
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Accessory Dwelling Unit
Modular Housing Construction
May 2021 - August 2021
Working closely with the biggest prefabrication company in the northern United States, ADU is a customizable design scheme that uses existing production capabilities, supply chains, and customer-service infrastructure. These integrations mean that a customized home could be ordered online, delivered, and installed on-site within weeks. The two prototypes—a studio unit and a one-bedroom unit—can serve as a self-use office, an intergenerational home, or a rental investment.
The prototype is the first ADU to receive an Energy Star rating. Roof-top solar panels generate energy to power the unit, strategically located windows maximize cross-ventilation, and the exterior walls support plantings. Sliding glass panels allow residents to open the house directly to a deck or garden, creating indoor-outdoor living environments.
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CAZA Architect
Worked with: Carlos Arnaiz, Xiao Tan, Queenie Xu in DD
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Parametric Housing Solutions
Grasshopper application on modular housing construction
Uses grasshopper python to generate solutions of site analysis, massing, floor plans and fabrication cost estimations with flexible inputs and parametric controls, bridging the gap between architects, clients and construction teams in modular construction.
July 2021 - February 2022
CAZA Architect
Worked with: Carlos Arnaiz, Ignacio
Revenga Design Consultant/Program Developer
Working closely with the modular construction company Guerdon, based on the previous ADU projects, this program can bring modular housing to a new stage with more efficiency.
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site analysis massing unit design parking option unit composition feedback and cost estimate PROCESS DISPLAY
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DESIGN OUTPUTS GRASSHOPPER INPUTS
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PROGRAM DEMO
PROGRAM APPLICATION IN DESIGN PROJECTS
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Metropolitan Museum of Manila
Museum - landscape, lobby, main gallery space
The design pays homage to the landscapes of the Philippines, inspired by the country’s forests, volcanic history, and the geological qualities of the archipelagos. Movable wooden decks and table tables fill the palm-planted entrance with centers of gathering, echoing the geographic form of the islands of the Philippines.
May 2021 - August 2022
CAZA Architect
Worked with: Carlos Arnaiz, Xiao Tan, Queenie Xu SD, DD, and CD, Built Completion: February 2023
An arcade of green steel tubes envelops the grand double-height reception area, calling the cover of trees and the visual effect of looking through the forest canopy. The reception lounge is finished in mossy grey, and concrete floors and walls the color of volcanic ash, imbuing the space with an air of solemnity.
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The Sky Room is a lighter and more ethereal space than the earthy reception lounge, and where bluer hues and softer materials predominate. Conceived as a place of reflection and solitary contemplation, the Sky Room offers islands of seating that emerge out of a sculpted terrazzo floorscape with screens for projecting art on two sides.
The design recalls the rippling forms of karesansui, traditional Japanese rock gardens. A staircase enclosed in a folding translucent mesh rises from the Sky Room, adding a sculptural presence and inviting visitors to the upper galleries. Climbing up, visitors are enclosed by its mesh folds, an airy moment of transition to the art above.
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The New Old Toy
A Community Center
As toy industry develops rapidly, the taste and need of kids are changing rapidly as well. The generational updates of toy industry are now suffocating the lower-end of the production. More and more high tech and low-quality toys, less and less repair and lasting of toys. The toy recycling industry is still under-development in the United States, while the gap between supply and demand is becoming larger.
Instructor: Maya Alam
Site Location: Callowhill, Philadelphia
The idea of Eccentricity occurs between spheres and cubes, where one nest into the other, one stretch the other, therefore creates tangency and seams. Through lenses of materials and textures, curve and linear misconceptions, and the idea of eccentricity, the Callowhill neighborhood is awaiting something new.
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Spring 2020 Individual Work
Ramps circulating the market space bring the playground up high. With walking area and resting areas spreading the entire site, all generations can enjoy the outdoors.
The playground also extend to the viaduct park, on which seating areas and playground areas have a weather-proof overhang, which is more adequate for the Callowhill residents.
Focusing on relationships between curves and lines, between what we understand as straight and proper and curved and crooked, this market utilizes the concept of eccentricity to nest program and form into the neighborhood.
23 A. A. B. B. C. D. D. D. D. E. E. E. E. F. F. F. F. F. F. F. F. F. F. E. D. E. H. I. G. G. G. J. J. J. E. F. D. E. C. H. I. E. D. D. D. 0 5 10 20 40 N A. Commercial Market (Exterior) B. Free/Exchange Market (Interior) C. Studio/Workshop Space D. Playground E. Walking Area F. Outdoor Seating G. Reception Area H. O ce Area I. Restaurant J. Daycare Center LEGEND EL. -9.80’
Novel Natures Within Itself
a study of monumentality and homunculus nature
701 Design Studio IV - University of Pennsylvania Fall 2022
In collaboration with: Cherie Wan
Instructor: Simon Kim
Site Location: Los Angeles
There is an architecture that travels Los Angeles. It collects and it curates. The following series of referenced works are formulated solely by this homunculi. Its emergence in the landscape of Los Angeles’ urban fabric began its role as a collector. As it traverses across disparate environments, it collects human waste materials that makes up its own body and functioning system. The body is an incubator for a new world.
As it accumulates material, new hybrid environments are created until it longer has the capacity for it. When it reaches this state of death, it deposits new hybrid environments where novel natures are ultimately curated. Through the lens of it, we are reminded that we must find new, critical ways to reflect on the architecture and monuments we have inherited and to imagine those we have yet to build.
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MONUMENT
Formerly objects placed in space by selected groups of individuals that impose narratives intended to be spread as knowledge. Curated historical identifications given from single perspectives despite paradox to larger communities.
Seen by homunculi’s as objects placed in space with no particular meaning or purpose - objects with no narrative.
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Weave-in
3d-printed bio-materials using robotics
With extensive practice of printings and studies of decade and maintenance of bio-materials, a long-term intervention of installing pre-fab stations and building up sediment levels was proposed to preserve an unique bogged lake ecosystem.
704 Design Studio IV - University of Pennsylvania Spring 2023
In collaboration with: Yiran Zhao
Instructor: Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen
Site Location: Læsø, Denmark
Selected for Venice Biennale 2023 online exhibtion
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Island Design Assembly
A recreational shelter
10 - day design and built experience on Hurricane Island, designed and constructed a recreational shelter with wood panels that allows for easier transportation and installation.
Summer 2019
Group Design and Construction Work
Worked with: McLeod Kredell Architects
Site Location: Islesbro Island, ME
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‘Frame’
Installation work with wood frames, prints and sculptures
A discovery of aesthetics and self-identity through the process of prints, sculptures, and re-production of familiar space using wood-frames.
Photopolymer Plates on silk
Reduction woodcut on silk
Wood, prints
6’8” - 2’6” frames
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Spring 2019 Individual Exhibition Work
Instructor: Scott Johnson, Jean Gumpper, Ruth Kolarik
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Reduction woodcut on silk
7’8” - 3’0”
Wood, prints 6’8” - 2’6” frames
Wood 6’8” - 2’6” frames
Limestone H-W-L :7.5”- 5”- 5”
Oxy-Acetylene Welded Steel 16 Gauge H-W-L :12”- 8”- 7”
Changzhe Xu
University of Pennsylvania
Master of Architecture
2019-2023
