Portfolio | Metropolis Future 100 - Dongqi Chen

A LT E R NAT I V E CONNECTION SELECTED WORK 2019-2021 DONGQI CHEN

“Dancing with the alternative choices for people inhabiting the city to connect to the collective psychic ambiances they project.”

Selected Works 2019-2021 DONGQI CHEN Master of Architecture University of Pennsylvania

CONTENT + BIG WALL 04

I N NOV ATI V E REU S E OF TH E SU NS H I NE TH EATER

L owe r E a s t S ide , M a n h a t t a n | S e p - D e c , 2 0 2 0

+ ARK OF RELIEF 16

A M ARKET AS AN ANI MAL S H ELTER

C a l lo wh ill, P h ila de lp h ia | F e b - M a y , 2 0 2 0

+ A C L IN I C VEI L 30

P ENN MU S EU M ARCH I V E EXTENSI ON

Un i v e r s it y o f P e n n s y lv a n ia , P h ila de lph ia | O c t - D e c , 2 0 1 9

+ WEDGE FOREST 40

C H I LDCARE CENTER W I TH GREEN P LAY S CAP ES

Mi l l R iv e r P a r k, S t a mf o r d, Co n n e c t ic u t | F e b - M a y , 2 0 2 1

BIG WALL

INNOVATIVE R EUSE OF THE SUNSHINE THEATER

R

ising as an extension of a street playground, the big wall, a climbing term refering to especially high cliff for multi-

pitch climbing, circulate the new residential tower and invites all generations to participate in the equity of sport, transforming architecture into a public tool bringing people together.

Transforming tumultuous events into a creative opportunity, the tower appears as a multilayer fabric drawn on an urban scale. Amorphous, it translates the form generated by the urban regulation. Its openings, of various sizes, hold the memory of the past Sunshine Theatre and offer multiple framings of new urban views from the inside. The big wall appears in the communal spaces as an earthly emergence. Projected earth, cement, and fibers, its skin is combed, and its material transitions make the common space a host of memory recalling the publicity.

Taking its roots from the past theatre and the pre-existing context, this new tower portrays the capacity of architecture to act as a public tool and an active player in building resilience at times of renovation.

CORE 601: SHIFTING HYBRIDS Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York Instructed by H. Jamelle An indivisual work. fall 2020

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Chapter I - Innovative Reuse of the Sunshine Theatre

Alternative Connection

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Chapter I - Innovative Reuse of the Sunshine Theatre

Main Facade (Left) / Study of Bifurcation (Above) BIG WALL STEMMING FROM THE THEATRE Bifurcating frames become a transition between the street and the new construction, the pre-existing facade of the Sunshine Theatre and the residential levels. Studying from the edge profiles of the schizophyllum commune, multilayer frameworks extracted from the theatre envision the shifting hybrids as a growing public wall.

Alternative Connection

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Frontage Axon (Above) / Typical Residential Floor Plan (right) Framing & Connecting the Residents and Climbing Walls Elements stemming from the pre-existing theatre, including multilayer frames, scaffolds, and glazings, are climbing up the facades and stretching into the interior. A upper level climbing wall can be monitored on the residential levels, and the dynamic bifurcation language activates the corridors.

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Chapter I - Innovative Reuse of the Sunshine Theatre

Alternative Connection

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Chapter I - Innovative Reuse of the Sunshine Theatre

Longitudinal Section (Left) / 3d Section (Above) Publicity as an Urban Landmark The multiple-level high lobby connects the climbing walls and the lounge, which can be seen and passed through from the street. As the organic facades curving inside the common space, the publicity is also projected onto the interior.

Alternative Connection

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Main Facade (Left) / At Night (Right) Live Connection at Different Levels

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Chapter I - Innovative Reuse of the Sunshine Theatre

Alternative Connection

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ARK OF RELIEF A MARKET AS AN ANIMAL SHELTER

T

his market project constructs defamiliarized manners for tectonic relief moments under Callowhill’s artificial con-

texts and creates new public space as a salute for the efforts in the chronological transition of animal protection.

The market place reponds to people’s condemnation of the wildlife that brought the pandemic and reiterates the moral doubts over the cruel usage of animals. A comprehensive living cycle and preservation system is designed to protect the animals, and allows organizations to devote to enforcing those laws. Ramps and bridges are performing as connectors between chunks and the sunken gardens while the relief elements extracted from the Callowhill neighborhood blur the edges between them. The Ark, a sustainable combination of animal crematorium, pet industry, gene engineering, is fully integrated to celebrate and enhance synergetic possibilities of the future zoological conservation.

FOUNDATION 502: URBAN RELIEF & MARKET PLACE

Callowhill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Instructed by A. Saunders An indivisual work. spring 2020

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Chapter II - A MARKET AS AN ANIMAL SHELTER

Alternative Connection

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Chapter II - A MARKET AS AN ANIMAL SHELTER

Site Relief (Left) / Axon (Above) Reliefs Healing the Abandoned Land The Ark acquires territory with flat bas relief. Surrounded by the streets and the railroad viaduct, every relief is designed to adjust accessibility and the compositional thinking of the abandoned land.

Alternative Connection

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Chapter II - A MARKET AS AN ANIMAL SHELTER

Alternative Connection

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Chunk of Habitat (Above) / Ground Floor Zones (Right) Animal Habitat inside Urban Reliefs The living habitat constructs manners for tectonic relief moments under Callowhill’s artificial contexts and creates new public space as a salute for the efforts in the chronological transition of animal care and protection. In the ark, animal and reliefs converged into immersive mechanical visual experience.

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Chapter II - A MARKET AS AN ANIMAL SHELTER

Alternative Connection

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Chapter II - A MARKET AS AN ANIMAL SHELTER

The Ark (Left) / Animal Crematorium (Above) Rest in Relief The ark becomes a complex of three zones that act as animal service and lab space for species conservation studies. Ramps and bridges are performing as connectors between chunks and the sunken gardens while the relief elements blur the edges between them.

Alternative Connection

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Axon(left) / Vignettes of Reliefs(right) Connectors and Shelters Growing bas reliefs convey the circulations, connects the street and the animal corridors. High reliefs act as strong figures on the urban scale, forming an integrated pet market. Figure reliefs rise mildly from the land and shelter the animal crematorium and gene lab.

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Chapter II - A MARKET AS AN ANIMAL SHELTER

Alternative Connection

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Chapter II - A MARKET AS AN ANIMAL SHELTER

Entrance (Left) / On the Railroad Viaduct (Above) An Alternative Connection to the City An “unimpressive” ark covered with Callowhill reliefs, links the railroad viaduct and the abandoned land. New entrances and living habitats are presented as an alternative connection to heal the decays. The promenade encourages the visitors to interact with the other lives and the neighborhood city landscapes.

Alternative Connection

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ACLINIC VEIL PENN MUSEUM ARCHIVE EXTENSION

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he neighborhood urban morphology gives the idea of forms. The structural veil acquires territory with flat

horizontal bridge sitting on the rooftop of the existing wings of the Penn Museum. This bridge, rather than connecting the wings, aims to create a new entrance of the pre-existing garden below the underbelly.

Surrounded by the South St and the courtyard, the aclinc bridge is designed to adjust accessibility and the compositional thinking of the new entrance. The veil becomes a complex of three zones that act as archive, exhibition space and education rooms. Fluid, organic circulation inside the architecture ensures new air views of the Penn campus from the exhibition level. The language that dominates the project is a result of calibrating what is obstructed and what is connected, a process that assimilates and ultimately ends with a new understanding of the aclinic structural veil.

FOUNDATION 501: MUSEUM ARCHIVE EXTENSION

UPenn Campus, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Instructed by D. Markiewicz An indivisual work. fall 2019

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Chapter III - PENN MUSEUM ARCHIVE EXTENSION

Alternative Connection

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Chapter III - PENN MUSEUM ARCHIVE EXTENSION

Rod Model (Left) / Choisy (Above) The Structural Horizon Structurally supported by three traffic cores, the horizontal construction performs as a new floating horizon of the campus. The triangular framing system minimizes the necessary structural elements and maximize the fluidity of circulations and the sight in the air.

Alternative Connection

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Chapter III - PENN MUSEUM ARCHIVE EXTENSION

Alternative Connection

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Street Perspective (Above) / Plan & Transverse Section (Right) An Open Veil Unveiling the Courtyard The white space serves as a new public entrance of the museum, which unveils the courtyard to open its landscape to the pedestrian from the campus. The ground level landscape, the cores, and the aclinic body contain different programs required by the extension demand, while leaving enough space for the pre-existing courtyard to breathe.

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Chapter III - PENN MUSEUM ARCHIVE EXTENSION

Alternative Connection

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WED GE FOREST

CHILDCARE CENTER WITH GREEN PLAYSCAPES

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n a vast grassland, kids will be carefree to play and healthy to grow in an architecture that invites the nature

to design the interior.

Challenged by a myriad of socioeconomic, technological and physical constraints, children today are engaged in radically different modes of education, play, and ways of experiencing life. Play is an itegral part of the urban fabric. The open function of kid’s play equipment mean to stimulate imagination, tapping into children’s ability to transform and invent new uses for common objects. Natural and artificial playscapes are organically connected in the Wedge Forest to proposes a playful place with wedge landscapes germinating from the interstitial places between cluster modules inspired by Isamu Noguchi. The wedges tightly connect the playrooms to the vast grassland contexts and branch out a landscape system which keeps over 90% of the existing trees. A forest with diverse plants growing on the wedges reinterpret an assemblage of soft and hard natural landscape for kids to play, wander, and learn.

CORE 602: CHILDCARE CENTER & COMMUNITY CENTER

Mill River Park, Stamford, Connecticut

Instructed by M. Brooks Collaboration with T.Xiong. spring 2021 All Renders and Drawings are completed by Dongqi Chen

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Chapter IV - Childcare Center with Green Playscapes

Alternative Connection

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rock & Noguchi cluster

Module Inspired by Isamu Noguchi | Sharp vs Round Corners to Reinterpret Wedge Relationship

1p

2p

3p

4p

bar with wedge openings

Planar Iteration of the Modules

“I think of playgrounds as a primer of shapes and functions; simple, mysterious, and evocative; thus educational.”

-Isamu Noguchi

42 Chapter IV - Childcare Center with Green Playscapes

Form Iterations (Left) / Exterior View of Cluster Joints (Above) Rocks Dropped on Green Playscapes With the reinterpretation of natural rocks, the clusters merged together with exterior playscapes. Bricks and stuccos on the facades jointed with material seams and provided an transition from roughness to smoothness. The curves and corners of the form, the extension of the landscape, propose a cluster of playful rocks on the green playscapes.

Alternative Connection

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Roof View of the Site (Right) Softness & Hardness Growing on Wedges The architecture lies on the undulating grassland with multiple wedge openings that invite sunlight and exterior soft/hard playscapes to penetrate the linear spatial sequence. In order to accommodate the playful and carefree circulations for kids to run around, the hard pass ways are lightened with bright colors, and there are minimum fixed separations in the interior in response to the domination of natural plants.

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Chapter IV - Childcare Center with Green Playscapes

Alternative Connection

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Chapter IV - Childcare Center with Green Playscapes

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Chapter IV - Childcare Center with Green Playscapes

Typical Wall Section (Left) / Skylight Detail (Top Right) Interior Green Floor Detail (Bottom Right) Accommodating the Sun & the Plants The construction emphasizes the joints of material transitions, and the penetration of sun radiance and greenery wedges. Multiple material joints prvent the stuccos and bricks from cracking. Skylights are generated from the geometric logic of the clusters. Interior green floors are efficiently designed with double water-proofing system and minimum visible components.

Alternative Connection

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Interior View (Left) / Axonometric 3D Section (Right) Inside vs. Outside?

The multiple-level high and continuous interior space proposes a natural transition of interior and exterior. The smooth transitions from nature to artificial greenery enable the kids to explore more actively with free circulations. With minimum occupation of the site, the bar provides a new connection between inside and outside, street and river bank, people and architecture.

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Chapter IV - Childcare Center with Green Playscapes

Alternative Connection

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Exterior View from Street (Above) Seeing through the Rolling Grassland

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Chapter IV - Childcare Center with Green Playscapes

Interior View in Playroom (Above) Alive on Wedges Different floor textures are penetrating from exterior playscapes. Sunlight, trees and insects draw the kids outside to enjoy the natural air.

Days are alive on the wedges and the forest of hope is growing.

Alternative Connection

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A

rchitecture lives on the connections to the pre-existing contexts. A new plan, a new program, and a new facade

give the alternative choices to activate the sense of place.

“Whatever space and time mean, place and occasion mean more. For space in the image of man is place, and time in the image of man is occasion”.

-Aldo van Eyck

The contents of this book hope to speculate alternative connections between the place and occasion. The ideas on interstitial space, non-hierarchical composition, and participative planning hope to lead to an architecture that could easily mold into the existing tissue of the neighborhood.