P O R T F O L I O Qiyuan Cao Master of Arcthitecture University of Pennsylvania 2018 - 2021
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01 AESTHETICS OF CONCEALMENT
Instructor: Ali Rahim women empowerment project through farming and conce
02 FLOW
Instructor: Scott Erdy combination of self-sustaining green house system and a
03 THE DIVE-HOUSE
Instructor: Kutan Ayata explore outdoor activity in an interior space in urban life (
04 URBAN PENINSULA
Instructor: Thom Mayne cultural and innovative center in Dongguan, china by com
05 MANAYUSPOLY
Instructor: Eduardo Rega Calvo movement of anti-gentrification to benefit more (Penndes
06 OTHER WORK
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ealment (Penndesign, 2021, Spring)
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architecture (Penndesign, 2019, fall)
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(Penndeisgn 2020, spring)
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mbinatory model (Penndeisgn 2020, fall)
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sign, 2019, spring)
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01 AESTHETICS OF CONCEALMENT
Site: Baltistan, Pakistan Team: Yuhao Zhang (2021) Instructor: Ali Rahim (University of Pennsylvania)
Pakistan is currently short of food and farming is one of the most important industries in this country, so we need to enlarge the scale of the farming in this region. Besides, women are not allowed to farm due to some cultural reasons, we are giving them the opportunities, skills and wealth to let them farm.In this regard, we can help equip them with all the skills and knowledge they need. Specifically, this building tries to camouflage itself with the surrounding condition as a relic in a deceptive way. However, the material strategy of different metals would show the inner power of this building and females. Last but not least, the concealment of this project is the hydroponics system, which includes advanced technic cultivation system, agricultural product processing system and water disposal system. Each system with diverse scales would occupy and integrate the project. This project does not only improve the local economy under the CEPC but also enables the female’s cutting-edge status in current society.
Bridge This elevated bridge is the main entrance of the building including feight and storage entrance. Connect with the hills on the back.
Reservoir The reservoir can store big amout of water on this side of building to breed the plants and crops. Unlike water tank behind, it can help process the water directly.
Pumps Being part of the water treatment systems, pump helps absorb and expel water.
Water Tank The water tank behind the building can store unused treated water for future usage. Some are at outside location, some are in interior.
Hydroponic (Exposed) As a farming-orient women empowerment project, exterior has hydroponic systems for certain special types of plants, though we want to camouflage it as a relic.
Glazing There are many circular glazings on the exterior. Because we want to conceal most things inside the building, so we make the limited amout of glazings circular to allow more sunlight to go in.
Aerial Perspective In formal language, we adopted a Pakistan caligrapher Bin Qulander’s art work and military amour. From the exterior, mainly made of rustic metal, a nicely built relic architecture likes a shelter, a bunker or a fortress that has strong relation to the chaotic situation in this area. It performs as a deceptive structure mixing with the surronding to protect local females.
Hydroponic System (Main) The central hydroponic system breeds big amounts of crops and plants. Linear lighting systems serve as artificial light and plants are circulating around these pilars.
Water Tank
Workshop In order to help female equip with the fundamental knowlege of farming, workshop can help them familarize with farming by conducting real farming practice.
Hydroponic System (Sub) There are also many sub-hydroponic systems breeding crops and plants. These slabs are filled with soil giving plants place to grow, and the pipes help transport nutients including water, oxygen, mineral elements...
Longtitude Section
Lab To create better crops and farming technics, we need advanced experimental labs to test these things. Real practice matters.
Dormitory In order to accomondate more girls in the dorms, we adopt bunk beds to achieve this. Meanwhile, people feel comfortable and safe when they are grouping with friendly companies.
Hydroponic System (Sub)
Pumps
Water Treatment Water will be filtered and cleaned in this place, then transported to hydroponic systems or the water tanks for future usage.
Start with 2d drawings to guide our 3d dimensional design, with the elevational model, we are able to extract some parts to generate small chunks as the primitive blocks. On the other side, most of the hydroponic systems
Workshop
In order to help female damental knowlege of can help them familari conducting real farming
in this side are slabs and floors, which can help us save the cost and space compared to cylinder systems with the water circulation system. Meanwhile, these hydroponic systems serve as another layer of concealment to form classroom, dormitory and many other space for female. People are greenery are organically connected with each other.
Classroom
Formal Language
On the ground floor, a huge open space for gathering many students is essential. It serves as the education center to help teach girls farming skills and knowledge.
Wa
Section Perspective
Water will be filtered a place, then transported tems or the water tanks
equip with the funfarming, workshop ize with farming by g practice.
Dormitory
Lab
In order to accomondate more girls in the dorms, we adopt bunk beds to achieve this. Meanwhile, people feel comfortable and safe when they are grouping with friendly companies.
To create better crops and farming technics, we need advanced experimental labs to test these things. Real practice matters.
ater Treatment
Storage
and cleaned in this to hydroponic sysfor future usage.
Collecting and storing crops and plants, also many other technical equipment are put here.
Cross Section
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1 Classroom 2 Reservoir 0
3 Storage1 4 Entrance 5 Experimental Lab
Ground Floor
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20m
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1 Dormitory 2 Workshop 0
3 Restroom 4 Experimental Lab 5 Central Hydroponic
Top Floor
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20m
Central Hydroponic
Contrast Unlike exterior, the strong lush feeling gives us a futuristic, peaceful and safe place to ensure the female are well protected and educated. Women can conduct real farming practice and experiment here which was never possible in the past. Still, there are some relic elements inherited from the exterior to link both sides as an entity.
Experimental Lab
02 FLOW (Urban Farming)
Site: Spring Garden St & 9th Street, Philadelphia, PA Individual work (2019) Instructor: Scott Erdy (University of Pennsylvania)
Nowadays, unevenly development of city is bringing multiple problems to our society, in terms of education resources distribution, growing gap between rich and poor, land shortage…. Undoubtedly, with the growing population, urban issues will continue to be serious. In order to capture the essence of this problem, we need to dig into a deeper level of our city. It is easy to find the potential of city of accommodating more and more people when we find a lot of negative space in city which is being abandoned, and current developed land is being expected not sufficient for more people.
This project is composed by multiple parts including facade, structure, housing..., which is a multi-function building. Each part has its own system but all of them are still organically connected.
Aggregation
Glass Facade
Glass Facade
Housing Units
Structure
Program on Viaduct
Circulation
Green Space
Stores
Viaduct
Glass Faca
ade
Columns Horizontal Circulation
Glass Facade
Truss
Housing Units Greenhouse
Greenhouse
Housing Units
Elevator
Viaduct
LONG-TERM
Green House
Green House
SHORT-TERM MEDIUM-TERM
UNITS COMBINATION
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Floor Plan 1 - 1
Floor Plan 2 - 1
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Floor Plan 1 - 2
Floor Plan 2 - 2
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Floor Plan 1 - 3
Floor Plan 2 - 3
1. Medium-term 2. Long-term 3. Short-term 4. Main Circulation 5. Fire Stairs 6. Glass Facade
Largely because clients don’t want to buy the land near a landfill, under a bridge or above an abandoned viaduct. Therefore, firstly finding a solution of transforming such negative space into positive is of vital importance, to attract attention from the public, and that would be a trend due to the overly crowded city space. Secondly, buying such negative space doesn’t cost too much which paves the way to fine design and construction. Such an action not only assisting to accommodate more people and release pressure of land use, but also letting us transform space in poor condition into well designed and comfortable.
03 THE DIVE HOUSE
Site: The Viaduct Rail Park, Philadelphia, PA Team: Yangkenan Li (2020) Instructor: Kutan Ayata (University of Pennsylvania)
As our cities grow, the demands of contemporary urban life diminish the chance to explore outdoors on a regular basis. Certain outdoor recreational activities such as cycling, rowing, climbing, diving (and others) find new appropriations within the bounds of the city in the confines of constructed environments. These are building types which provide specific physical conditions as determined by the activity, enabling variety of challenges to be “tackled by users.” Architecture’s battle with nature is old and historically rich. The discipline of architecture has always been preoccupied with questions of representing/recreating/redefining/ embodying “nature” through various strains of its histories. We are going to explore a freediving and bathhouse facility next to the Viaduct Rail Park. We will speculate on an alternative building type next to it to enforce its nature-artifice tensions.
ng ssing Study Study
The project aim to capture the essence of water flow and celebrate this essential natural element with an artificial expression. We extract the basic geometry from water tower which is circle as our initial logic. It was developed from cluster of cylinders but with multiple organic manipulation. We explore the opportunity of the facility not only a container for water but it also transformed by an active engagement of people diving into water. It inspired people water flow is not a linger process.
WATER LEVEL FLOOR
GROUND FLOOR
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GROUND FLOOR 9
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2. RECREATIONAL POOL 3. LOBBY 4. ROCK CLIMBING
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5. CIRCULATION
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6. RESTROOM 7. MALE DRESSING ROOM 8. FEMALE DRESSING ROOM 9. SHOWERING
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WATER LEVEL FLOOR 6
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1. 60 FT DIVING POOL 2. 90 FT DIVING POOL 3. 120 FT DIVING POOL 4. CIRCULATION 5. EUIPMENT ROOM 6. PUBLIC AREA 7. SERVICE AREA 8. STAIRS 9. VIADUCT
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Same as the initial idea of our overall volume, we hope interior space w
to the bottom, tiles also vary. Besides, instead of diving to dark as goes
encourageme
would also inherit the essence of water flow. Transition from water level
s deeper, we prefer to offer brightness to divers at bottom symbolizing
ent and hoper.
WINDOW-CONCRETE WALL DETAIL
NOZZLE DETAIL
ANTI GRAVITY DOUBLE-GLAZING DETAIL
Water is the main language of the dive house. The house flows like water from top to the viaduct and then to the wide nature.
04 URBAN PENINSULA
Site: Songshan Lake, Dongguan, China Team: Yu Qiao (2020) Instructor: Thom Mayne (University of Pennsylvania)
Never static, the contemporary city is dynamic, unstable, and increasingly difficult to trace as a linear process. Cities have traditionally provided stable and hierarchical spatial organizations. This phenomenon has been appropriate to the once relatively uniform nature of social composition, and concentrated political power. Now, the contemporary city has liquefied into dispersed urbanity and a constellation of polynucleated attractors. These attractors, or downtowns, host architecture as a network with infrastructure as its center of mobility. Extending from the complex urban context and with circulation and programs, our project serves as urban peninsula as an extension of urban infrastructure, fullfilling various function required by surronding urban area. Our program is standing for technological and educational development and becomes the core engine promiting the regional economy.
China
Guangdong
Dongguan
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1. Conference Hall 2. Hotel 3. Banquet Hall 4. Exhibition Hall 5. Concert Hall 6. Exhibition Hall
SITE PLAN
Site
Edge
Peninsula
Program Distribution This architectural peninsula extends the urban contect to Songshan Lake, the programs on the island serve as infrastructure to bridge the gap between it and urban. Rational program layout is required for viability.
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2. Hotel 3. Banquet Hall 4. Sports Facility 5. Connecting space 6. Exhibition Hall
Exhibition Hall Conference Hall
Hotel
Banquet Hall
Connection
Sports
Concert Hall Green Plaza
7. Green Plaza 8. Concert Hall
Green Space Surface is one of the most important language in this project, many systems and programs are hidden beneath it. Some are accessible, some are not, some are part of the program, some are purely for landscape.
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2 1. Green Canopy 2. Program Green Canopy 3. Green plaza Green Canopy
4. Vehicle Circulation
Program Green Canopy Green Plaza
12,861 sqm
9,530 sqm
6,908 sqm
Circulation The circulation system is the key to connect the project with urban context. Besides, inside the site, multiple transportation system have made every program accessible.
1. Car 2. Pedestrian 3. Elevated Pedestrian 4. Intersection
Concert Hall
Green Plaza Central Plaza
Main Road
Exhibition
Hotel A
Conference
Banquet
Hotel B
Massing
Each program is aggressively reshaping the territory they occupy, claimng the uniqueness of themself. At the same time, according to their function and area, they have different volumes. For example, hotels have unifomly seperated space so it is long linear structure to accomodate 200 rooms.
Massing Distribution
This project is mainly composed by 5 systems, the volumes(programs), lines(circulation), surface(green canopy) and ground. The fifth is point system but hidden in the building serving as inner circulations system or traffic cores.
Program
Circulation
Each part is connected to other ones, the project is not matter of form or plan layout, it is a matter of viability and accessibility.
Surface
Ground 1. Vehicle Circulation 2. Pedestrian Circulation 3. Elevated Pedestrian
1. Conference Hall 2. Hotel 3. Banquet Hall 4. Sports Facility 5. Ground 6. Green Canopy
HOTEL
BANQUET HA
CONCERT HALL
Banquet
Conference
HO
Hotel
ALL
HOTEL
GREEN CANOPY
CONCERT HALL
EXHIBITION HALL
OTEL
GREEN CANOPY
Exhibition
Concert
ROAD
HOTEL
Plaza
05 MANAYUNKSPOLY Site: Manayunk, Philadelphia, PA Team: Matt Kohman (Matt focuses on Phase I, me on Phase II. Overall concept by both of us) 2019 Instructor: Eduardo Rega Calvo (University of Pennsylvania)
What is Manayunkspoly, Commoning Manayunk? It is a cooperation game designed to understand how Manayunk’s socio-economic conditions work. In order to win, all the players must be willing to cooperate. It ia a board game inspired by Commonspoly. After reading this guide, you will be able to act as the Game Master of Manayunkspoly. Also, you will become familiar with Manayunk’s goods and urban resources and how the city can be retought as a cooperative and community oriented one. The Game & Manayunk Manayunk’s version of commonspoly is a result of a mapping process of the game’s good in the context of Manayunk. All the goods in the game are real places and institutions in the neoghborhood.
LET’S COOPERATE
MANAYUNKSP
LY
COMMONING MANAYUNK
A GAME
A PROPOSAL s
PLAYER BOOKLET
O M E P L AY E R S
1 Existing organizational infrastructure informing programmatic considerations and providing funding through municipal grants towards.
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2 Organizational economic structure and hierarchies for WCRP, Youth United for Change, Vision 2020, and Greenspace.
3 Organizations aggregate and unify under the cooperative land trust framework as a generator for urban components.
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4 Commonspoly precedent studies for spacial tactics and programmatic integration.
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5 Components deployed on mass transport to vacant lands locally (phase 1) and regionally (phase 2)
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Festival deployment throughout city on vacant lands
7 Successful festival facilitates communal ownership and activation of vacant lands as proof of concept.
8 Integrate different functional building and transform them into a standardized, easy-deployed nad easymanufactured building blocks.
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9 Cooperative Land Trust established, optimizing generation of components for broader network
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Transverse Section
Longtitude Section
Size 1 Thinnest
Size 2 Medium Unit Plan
Unit Section
Size 3 Thickest
PROGRAMMATIC DIAGRAM Building Component In order to manufacture these components in a simple way, each component’s dimension is similar to the furniture in order to minimize the massing and complexity of each building component. For instance, the width of a “bathroom component” is similar to a toilet, the width of a “bedroom component” is similar to a full-size bed. Besides, all the components are stacked one by one along the “walls” waiting for further deployment. Through umbers of rails on the “walls”, components could be deployed by them as soon as possible.
Classroom
House
Office
House
SITE PLAN Final Steps With the establishment of a cooperative land trust the Cooperative for Building Components builds an infrastructure to unitize and optimize programmatic chunks for adaptable aggregatory combinations and a greater network of distribution. When we begin to build our project in modes, central Agora becomes a factory accomodating all the manufaction and fabrication process.
MEGA FA
The whole project has a uniform language in terms of the wa
method of rails. Some components are waiting for further dep
platforms to generate several architecture programs like class
on the ground near the rail which is to make
ACTORY
all structure, and a uniform strategy in terms of the shipping
ployment and some would remain in the site, together with the
ssroom, theater, playground etc. Manufacturing space locates
e the transporting process more convenient.
ENTRANCE
HUMAN PER
From Depoyed Compon
RSPECTIVE I
nents Outside the Site
OTHER WORK (REVIT PRACTICE)
Perspective
OTHER WORK 501 PAVALLION CHAMBER (Group Work, Studio Work, 2018)
TEX - T POP (Group Work, Competition, 2019)
HOK FUTURES DESIGN CHALLENGE 2020 (Group Work, Competition, 2020)