Ruichen Xu Portfolio 2021

Ruichen XU

Architecture Design Portfolio 2021

University of Pennsylvania | Master of Architecture 2021

McGill University | Bachelor of Science (Architecture) 2018

Instructor: Ben Krone

Microplastic Research & Communication Center (PennDesign 2020)

Instructor: Hina Jamelle

An apartment in NYC (PennDesign 2019)

Instructor: Homa Farjadi

Urban habitable bridge on River Thames (PennDesign 2020)

Instructor: Andrew Saunders

Urban Market (PennDesign 2019)

Intern projects (2020)

Second Place|Visions de Mars Charrette Multidisciplinaire de Design (McGill 2017)

Honorable Mention|F. Schenk-Henry Gillette Woodman Competition (PennDesign 2019)

Evolo proposal (McGill 2018)

Second Place|2016 Tongji Construction Festival (McGill 2016)

Healthcare design (PennDesign 2020)

Visual Studies (PennDesign 2018-2019)

01 Umbrellas

Design Studio 602

Spring 2019

Instructor: Ben Krone

Team with Yu Qiao

Skills: Maya, Rhino, Vray, Keyshot, Adobe suites.

Contributions: Research, Design, Drawings, Renderings, Model making.

Microplastics that pollute the environment and threaten both marine and terrestrial organisms are created through photodegradation of plastic debris. The amount of methane, which makes up 20% of all greenhouse gases, released during the breaking down process is one of the factors that deteriorate climate change. A microplastics research and communication center on the Governor’s island researching on possible ways of microplastic collection and reproduction can help raise the public’s awareness of the pollution as well as the importance of plastic reuse and recycle.

Based on the photodegradation and reproduction of the microplastic reuse cycle, we select two tectonic terms to create spatial organizational strategies of this project, subdivision, and reformation. It sits on the edge of the island breaks down into two pieces to adapt to the ocean currents. A dynamic central piece that stimulates active public engagement bonds them together and reforms to a new structure. The whole functions together as a gigantic machine that filters microplastics inside both seawater and rainwater. Public can enjoy the space and pockets created by the umbrella collectors in different scales and on different levels.

Ground floor rendering

including visitors and researchers.

1 Research lab

2 Conference room

3 Classroom for kids

4 Storage

5 Lounge

6 Outdoor lecture space

7 Bathroom 8 Circulation

Research lab renderings

Educational spaces are included in the project and visitors are could enjoy lab experience with the researchers and immersiveinvolveexperience.

The research lab is way beyond the building itself, but a

are led by the microplastic research and recycle workflow. Kids involve in the process in person. The meandering facade provides experience.

space educate people for reducing plastic consumption.

Ground floor rendering

including visitors and researchers.

02Bifurcate the City

Residential Design Studio 601 Fall 2019

Instructor: Hina Jamellle

Individual work

Skills: Maya, Rhino, Keyshot, Adobe suites.

Since the popularization of smartphones and portable electronics, the world is becoming a screen and videos are turning into a new method of recording lives. Based on the many video production companies within the one-mile radius of Sunshine Theater, the building seeks to serve one of the most flourishing populations in the next ten years in the video production industry. Designed to accommodate the specific needs of video production, both online streaming, and offline video production, this building houses video production incubators including essential facilities and equipment, community space, a render farm, and auditoriums. It also contains flexible unit types for different populations according to specific needs and provides new live & work typology.

By rearranging the exsiting auditoriums into three new ones, the two in the basement serve as usual auditoriums open to the public while the third one on the third floor provides a more intimate space for the tenants to communicate. The building not only allows the energetic interations happening among the tenants but also leads the public to learn more about the industry and then create a more dynamic community.The building explores and challenges the interactions of generations in film.

Elevation

Typical residential floor plan

Detail texture rendering

03Bridge as A Breach

Design Studio 701 Fall 2020

Instructor: Homa Farjadi

Team with Yunshi Chen

Skills: Rhino, Enscape, Adobe suites, Premiere.

Contributions: Research, Design, Drawings, Renderings, Model making, Animation. Our bridge borns as a vision for the new living patterns in the postpandemic era after 2020. With openness and flexibility in any of the spaces on the bridge to accommodate people’s new behavior and help to keep social distancing which may remain as a new fashion. We envision our bridge as a [breach space] that could provide safe ways for people to enjoy the world as usual.

All spaces are flexible, [ambiguous], and lack of domain. It functions as an extended urban fabric, and a living bridge.

Bracing Tension

Octahedron Structure

Flexible framework with double structural system

Tension

Compression

Monkey Saddle Structure

Large-span surface. Frame as structural support.

Based on our selection of Le Ricolais’ [monkey saddle] and [octahedron] structures, we envision the saddle structure as a large-space surface carries by octahedron as the framwork. This parallel model allows possibilities of modularity, in which we melt the saddle surface into different conditions guided by the parameters based on the rephrased [Klein Diagram].

StructureFrame as structural members

LandscapeMore interaction with environment

ArchitectureInterweaving surfaces create enclosure

Non-StructureFrame is not load-bearing

Non-LandscapeLess interaction with environment

Non-ArchitectureNo enclosure

LANDSCAPE

Programmed Environments

Structural Field Conditions

Structural Field ConditionsLandscape+Structure

STRUCTURE

Experiential Tectonics

Habitable TopographyArchitecture+Landscape

Our key takeaway from Roselynn’s Klein Diagram is to resist defining a domain. The tensions between the pair happen at the periphery where architecture, non-architecture, landscape, non-landscape, structure and, non-structure coexist.The ambiguity between each of the two terms generates the concept that what a mixture of landscape, structure, and architecture can be in a formal expression. When rewriting the Klein diagram, we start with defining landscape as programmed environments, structure as experiential tectonics, and architecture as a spatial enclosure. ARCHITECTURE

Habitable Topography

Tectonic Space

Tectonic SpaceArchitecture+Structure

Klein Diagram - [Ambiguity]

Parameters

At the collision where the three pairs of terms intersect, degrees of inclination, continuity, and enclosure become the paramters that dominate the difference. These parameters become the guide of our space manipulation. Using the parameters as a language, the bridge speaks for a rich meaning of habitable topography on a spatial structure.

Upper surface inclination

Lower surface inclination

Modularity

We standardized and visulized the parameters into our module design. A variety of parameters derived from the Klein diagram guide us to shape the experience. The nine typical modules are architectural reactions to the Klein diagram, which are the breach spaces we want to achieve. The nine typical modules become the prototype which could be applied to any other locations in different scale in the post-pandemic era. The six selected modules are the most developed spaces.

(365m)

MILLENNIUM DOME

GREENWICH PENINSULA

North-south branch

Water Park (sunny)

Elevated Pool

Water Park (rainy)

Jogging

Street Busking Theater

04 Music Market [Urban Relief]

Market

Design Studio 502 Spring 2019

Instructor: Andrew Saunders

Individual work

Skills: Rhino, Vray, Adobe suites, Keyshot, 3d print.

"One can say that the city itself is the collective memory of its people, and like memory it is associated with objects and places. The city is the locus if the collective memory."

— Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City

By analyzing both the existing and historical urban artifects from Manayunk, a post-industrial area in north of Philadelphia, the simple Euclidean profiles from the historic industrial building stocks become my fundamental components in the relief. Then a connection between the past and the present has been drawn. The industrial buidling elements including the roofs are amplified and multiplied, then the quilt building stacks are created in a regular grid system. In the relief, a higher level of figural Euclidean shapes generate an entirely different dialogue with the quilt work below. They operate to carve through, create the linkage, and extend to the city.

To reflect the past, and revive the memories. Changing Manayunk from the industrial atmosphere into a vivid atmosphere and modern century, with this urban music market.

Relief study

Isometric

Final Plan of final destination

The Stars Over Manayunk Honorable mention

Competition Spring 2019

Team with:Kyunghyun Kim & Peik Shelton

Contribution:

Research, Design, Diagram, Drawings, Renders, Modelling.

Skills: Rhino, Vray, Adobe suites, Laser cut, 3d print.

Start

This Pop-up structure is aimming to gentrificate this post-industrial area, Manayunk. We are imagining to build this structure during the local festivals on the Main street and then attract people to explore this historic district. People would get to know the history of each historic buildings when they walk into each of the small alleys. The drone system and the projectors installed on the 'Stars' could bring playability and tangibility. The stars above Manayunk pop up event aims to use the advent of the "instagrammable moment" to deeply connect us to our physical contexts: an extity that all too often loses our attention to the digital context of our smart phones.

Technology changes us, both in the past and now.

Tour sequences

Drone storage tower detail

Drone storage model

Drone performance

08

Visual Studies