// DEBBY CHUNG
DEBBY CHUNG
// STAGE III ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO
// SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE . PLANNING & LANDSCAPE
// NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY
// INFRASTRUCTURE & RITUALS
// SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE . PLANNING & LANDSCAPE
// NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY
// selected architectural works
PORTFOLIO. 15/16.
// debbychung.cy @ gmail.com
// PART I ARCHITECTURE
// DEBBY CHUNG
15 . 16
YEAR DESIGN REPORT.
The final year in architecture school has been a real challenge, in terms of both the complexity of design projects, as well as the efficiency of time management. My studio, Infrastructure and Ritual, focuses on how architecture can improve our daily life, and to a larger extent, the operation of our society. I can therefore relate closely to my own living experience, which makes me think more thoroughly during my design process. To start the year, we began with a primer project that involved four intense but enjoyable weeks. Our studio divided the primer with three main parts – dismantle, daily ritual diagram and contraption. Unlike typical architectural projects, these three tasks are totally unrelated to building designs. Instead, they looked more into smaller parts of our daily life and what we see every day. Taking ‘Dismantle’ as an example, we were asked to disassemble an everyday object. Through this exercise, I had a chance to understand the tiny details that we usually neglect when we use the objects. This inspires my thoughts in architectural design and latter design work in my graduation project. When we usually focus on the exterior form of a building, the details of structure and finishing are in fact even more important in a design. Our studio also has a general interest in graphics representation and focuses a lot on how to present our ideas in creative ways. ‘Daily Ritual’ was a diagramming exercise to represent our daily ritual in diagrams. It was a good practice of our representation skills, and through sharing our own rituals we were able to understand some common everyday needs of people. I think it is very helpful
in the design process as architecture is created for people, therefore as a designer, we should know their basic needs before we can fulfil them in the design. Following the primer was the graduation project that took part in the entire second semester. In this studio, we are allowed to choose our own site and set our own brief. This set me the challenge right at the beginning before the project actually starts. Unlike previous projects with a list of set requirements, I need to do a lot of research and explore myself to find out what the site or the city truly needs. I think this process of exploration is very helpful and important in reality as architecture should be aiming to fulfil peoples’ needs and improve the society. I eventually managed to finalise a project brief I really like, that is about providing nomadic living on the waterways.Yet, it is an extremely challenging project as it involves many mechanisms and engineering details. In other words, in addition to designing spaces, I have to solve a lot of technical problems of the building structure that caused me many struggles during the design process. However, this projects led me into deeper thoughts of the technical aspects of a building, and at the same time the fun of architecture. To conclude, this year has brought me to the more reality side of architecture; the explorations of smaller parts of our daily life has also inspired my way of thinking in architectural design. After three years in the architecture school, it has get me more ready to face the projects in the real world and I am excited for the upcoming challenges in my architectural career.
by D. Chung
// contraption
// daily ritual
// dismantle
[ PRIMER ]
01 22 start small.
THINK BIG.
23 62 // environmental strategy
// floor plan + technical section
// model
// building form + structure
// parking + charging system
// narrow boat + nomadic living
// design strategy
// site
// issue
[ PROJECT ]
// PRIMER was a four-week design project followed
by a studio exhibition. My studio divided the project into three parts - ‘dismantle’, ‘daily ritual’ and ‘contraption’. All three tasks are not direclty related to architecture, yet they focused more on the smaller aspects of our daily life.
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ARC 3001
PRIMER // DISMANTLE
// phase one
DISMANTLE. -
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To start by dismantling an everyday object, we were asked to document and record our dismantling process. The object that I dismantled was a mechanical metronome. It works by a winding mechanism and uses an adjustable weight on the end of an inverted pendulum rod to control the tempo. It was interesting to find out there was only a small number of components inside the case. They are, however, connected and joint precisely in order to produce the accurate movements of the pendulum.
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PRIMER // DISMANTLE
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PRIMER // DISMANTLE
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// dismantling
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‘process’
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PRIMER // DISMANTLE
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PRIMER // DISMANTLE
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// dismantled
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PRIMER // DAILY RITUAL
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// phase two
DAILY RITUAL. -
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This exercise was an exploration of ways of diagramming day to day habits and rituals that are personal to us. I looked into different types of diagram and different ways of presenting ideas in simple ways. My daily ritual is folding clothes every morning with the purpose of waking myself up. I decided to present my ritual in comic form in order to show the sequence of movements and the consequence of the exercise.
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PRIMER // DAILY RITUAL
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PRIMER // CONTRAPTION
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// phase three
CONTRAPTION. -
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The main activity for the primer process was to build my own ‘contraption’ or mechanism to articulate my daily ritual. In order to answer my daily ritual, I designed a folding machine that is intended to exaggerate every movements of clothes folding. It is controlled by two mechanisms: one is turning the control wheels and the other is stepping the pedal. Both mechanisms control the folding board fixed on top of the structural frame.
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// concept model
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PRIMER // CONTRAPTION
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琀栀攀 昀漀氀搀椀渀最 戀椀欀攀
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// from conception to reality
PRIMER // CONTRAPTION
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// This project involved building a 1:1 contraption model. The hardest part was to collect materials and to connect different components to make the contraption functional.
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‘model making’
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PRIMER // CONTRAPTION
// 1:1 MODEL -
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These photos show different components of the contraption model, which involces bicycle gears, copper rod, folding board, turning wheels - and the suppporting structure.They are connected together with great considerations to allow the mechanisms work.
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PRIMER // CONTRAPTION
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// MATERIALS INFRASTRUCTURE & RITUALS STUDIO
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PRIMER // CONTRAPTION
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PRIMER // CONTRAPTION
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PRIMER // CONTRAPTION
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PROJECT // ISSUE
URGES TO ALLOW MORE MOORINGS ON THE WATERWAYS
‘‘
Housing Minister says new moorings could be eligible for the New Homes Bonus, which sees the government match council tax from new-build homes. He says houseboats could allow people to live in areas that otherwise might be out of their financial reach...
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“Around 15,000 people live on our waterways and many more would like to do so. The government’s commitment to localism could be an opportunity for living on boats to be given a new lease of life.”... Half the population lives within five miles one of Britain’s waterways, while water based recreation and tourism is thought to generate more than £1bn for local economies and support 24,000 jobs. Creating more residential long-term moorings, in addition, could reduce the number of boats overstaying on the towpaths of canals and waterways... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14690157
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’’
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PROJECT // ISSUE
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ARC 3001
// to begin
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THE SITE.
PROJECT // SITE
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[ BRENTFORD ] Brentford is a town in west London, England, historic county town of Middlesex and part of the London Borough of Hounslow, at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings which mark the start of the M4 corridor; in transport it also has two railway stations and the Boston Manor tube station on its north-west border with Hanwell. Brentford has a convenience shopping and dining venue grid of streets at its centre. Brentford at the start of its 21st century attracted regeneration of its little-used warehouse premises and docks including the re-modelling of the waterfront to provide more economically active shops, townhouses and apartments, some of which comprises Brentford Dock.The image on the left is a histrical photo of Brentford, where the railway station can still be seen. It is now removed and the area is currently the Brentfrod Dock Estates. The area in blue frame indicates the location of my building. It is located in between the Estates and the High Street, where is the town centre of Brentford.
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PROJECT // SITE
[ LOCATION ] // The site locates at the downstream of River Brent, near its confluence with the Thames.
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PROJECT // SITE
SITE PHOTOS The series of photos shows the existing Jupps Warehouse from different perspectives
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PROJECT // SITE
1.
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4.
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1
3.
5.
6.
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2.
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PROJECT // EXTERIOR
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PROJECT // EXTERIOR
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PROJECT // DESIGN
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// key theme
DESIGN STRATEGY.
ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO 2015/16
The key theme of the building is to provide parking spaces for the narrowboats. With a limited space on the waterways, my concept to solve this problem is to multiply spaces by stacking the boats up. As shown in the diagram, when a canal can allow four narrowboats to park along; by stacking up the boats upwards, the same space area could allow fours times the number of parking spaces. Therefore, my idea of the building is to create stacked up parking spaces for the boats; hence spaces can be created vertically upwards, and that in turns allow more narrownboats to be parked on the waterways.
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PROJECT // NARROWBOAT
ARC 3001
[ NARROWBOAT ] Narrowboat refers to the original working boats built in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries for carrying goods and cargo on the narrow canal. It is made to fit the narrow canals of the United Kingdom; its width must be less than 2.13m to navigate British narrow canals.
ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO 2015/16
Today, modern “narrow boats� used for recreation and more and more as homes, whose design and dimensions are an interpretation of the old boats for modern purposes and modern materials.They are used for holidays, weekend breaks, touring, or as permanent or part-time residences. There are about 27000 boats on the waterways in 2006, risen to 30000 in 2014 and rising. Plus 5000 or more unlicensed boats. Some boats are lived on permanently, based in one place or continuously moving around the network.
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PROJECT // NARROWBOAT
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// narrowboat proposal
[ NEW TYPE ]
// traditional
18m
2.1 m
m 8.5
2.1 m
A new type of narrowboat is proposed to fit in with the building design. As the function of the boat is no longer for carrying cargo, its length is reduced with the aim to reduce the size and the weight of the boat. The reduced size can also allow the canals and waterways to hold a larger amount of narrowboats.
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// future
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PROJECT // NARROWBOAT
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The key feature of the newly proposed narrow boat is its seperable hull and living capsule. This function allows only the ligthweight living capsule to be parked in the building.The load of the heavy hull can therefore be eliminated, such that the building can support the load of a large amount of living capsule. The hull, in addition, is operated by electricity; hence can be charged up instead of filling fuels.
// narrowboat proposal
[ SEPARATION ] INFRASTRUCTURE & RITUALS STUDIO
PROJECT // NOMADIC LIVING
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NOMADIC LIVING ON THE WATERWAYS
The building would limit the length of stay of the living capsule. In other words, people can only have a maximum parking of two months. This can provide opportunities for other narrowboat residents to use the facilities of the building, while at the same time retain the feature of the constantly changing environment of living on a boat.
ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO 2015/16
With separable hulls and living capsules, people only need to have their own capsules. The hull acts as a public ‘taxi’ to be stored and recharged in the buiding - residents return a hull when they arrive a building, they would then be randomly allocated with a fully charged hull after their stay and continue their navigation. Imagining a network of this type of building stands along the waterways in London, it would form a nomadic living system on the waterways, where people can park their living capsules in different buildings at different times.
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PROJECT // PARKING
// mechanism
[ PARKING SYSTEM ] -
The parking system of the building is inspired by robotic carparking , where cars are lifted up by a lift and being transferred to its parking space.The two concept images illustrate the idea of stacking up boats on the water; it is however not feasible as it would be too heavy to park the entire boats and there would be problems lifting it up. Seperable living capsules are therefore the solution to allow the functioning of the parking system.
// concept image
PROJECT // PARKING
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// concept image
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PROJECT // PARKING
ARC 3001
4.
3.
2.
1.
1.The electronic hulls can be lifted and recharged in the tower. 2. After separated from the hull, the living capsule is first lifted to its corresponding floor. ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO 2015/16
3. The capsule then meets the rail system on each floor. 4. It then moves along the rail to its corresponding parking space. 5. Another lift is located at the end of level 2 to move the capsule to the lower floor.
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PROJECT // PARKING
5.
PARKING & CHARGING SYSTEM
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PROJECT // ENTRANCE
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PROJECT // ENTRANCE
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PROJECT // BUILDING FORM
PROJECT // BUILDING FORM
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// design strategy
[ BUILDING FORM ] My strategy is to reuse an abandoned warehouse at the riverside as a starting point of my building. The existing building constitutes the framework and defines the form of the newly designed building parts.
ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO 2015/16
In addition to simply follow the shape of warehouses, the building also continues the original functionality and definition of warehouses. When warehouses in the past were built to store good and cargos of boats along the river, with the recession of good transportation on the waterways, the warehouse is now used to store living capsules instead. It reflects the development and social issues of the city, and the meaning of ‘storage’ is therefore retained.
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PROJECT // BUILDING STRUCTURE
// STRUCTURE //
// steel roof structure The steel frame structure follows the structure of the original warehouse
// core circulations
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Two main circulation towers are located at both sides of the building
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PROJECT // BUILDING STRUCTURE
The framework structure is then covered by steel panals, forming the roof of the building
// charging tower The charging tower is used to charge up the electronic hulls
// building structure A heavy steel frame structure is used in the building structure, in order to support the parking of living capules
// indoor communal blocks The entire building is a covered outdoor space except these communal blocks, which are insulated indoor spaces.
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// steel roof
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PROJECT // MODEL
[ CONTEXT ]
site model // 1:500
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The model shows the massing of the building sitting on the site in Brentford.
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PROJECT // MODEL
SITE MODEL
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PROJECT // FLOOR PLAN
2
3
1 4
6
7 5
1. repairing workshop 2. main entrance 3. lobby cafe 4. reception 5. reading room 6. staircase to ground floor parking spaces 7. ground floor parking spaces
ground floor // 1 : 300 INFRASTRUCTURE & RITUALS STUDIO
PROJECT // FLOOR PLAN
/first & second floor are entirely parking spaces.
first & second floor // 1 : 300
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PROJECT // FLOOR PLAN
1
3
4
2
5
1. communal kitchen 2. communial kitchen 3. roof garden 4. movie room 5. gym
third floor // 1 : 300 INFRASTRUCTURE & RITUALS STUDIO
PROJECT // FLOOR PLAN
1
2
3
1. communal kitchen 2. communial kitchen 3. sky lounge
fourth floor // 1 : 300
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PROJECT // DETAIL
section // 1:80
[ TECHNICAL DETAILS ]
PROJECT // ENVITONMENTAL ISSUE
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ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY
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Taking the advantage of =, the running water of River Brent can be used to generate hydroelectric power to the building. The electricity can be transferred to the charging tower to charge up the electronic hulls.
site model // 1:500
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PROJECT // CROSS SECTION
PROJECT // CROSS SECTION
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// visualisation
[ CROSS SECTION ]
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The cross section cuts the part of the existing warehouse. It shows how different zones are allocated vertically inside the building. The bottom floor is a workshop where the hulls can be repaired. Two floors in the middle are the parking spaces, where living capsules are parked along two sides, with the rail and corridor in between.The block on top shows a common kitchen, forming one of the indoor communal spaces. These social area are put on higher levels with the purpose to increase the privacy of the residents. They can also provide a more pleasant view when people are enjoying their relaxed time in the building.
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PROJECT // VISUAL
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PROJECT // MODEL
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EXTRA // CHARRETTE
CHARRETTE WEEK
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EXTRA // CHARRETTE
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‘experiment’ -
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// We placed a board written ‘I’m an artist, I need space’ and hid the camera at two sides of the street to observe how people react to the installation.
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EXTRA // CHARRETTE
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EXTRA // CHARRETTE
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// FINAL EXHIBITION ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO 2015/16
The exhibition celebrates all the works done by the whole school during the charrette week.
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THINKING THROUGH MAKING
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//Thinking through making week is a week-long ‘festival’ focused
on thinking, making and materials, with workshops from casting concrete to creating space by foam. It was a good opportunity to open us up to new ways of thinking and increase our understanding of working with materials.
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EXTRA // TTM
15/16.
// debbychung.cy @ gmail.com
// PART I ARCHITECTURE
// DEBBY CHUNG
[ TO BE CONTINUED... ]