Architecture Portfolio 2021 (short)

YUNZI SHI ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO 2019 2021

Film Shed for Tenet Instructor: Sean Canty I Spring 2021 This project includes entails the individual design of a flexible and iconic film shed that contributes to the formation of a flexible and iconic campus (or mini-city) of sheds, which is designed in a group of five. The film Tenet, directed by Christopher Nolan, was specified in identifying the specific sets, sheds, and studio lot needs to accommodate it. Each shed houses one large sound stage (24,000 SF), two small sound stages (8,000 SF each), and cellular supporting programs. Besides the film sheds, the studio lot contains supporting facilities, shops, and open spaces.

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The site is an expansive wedged shaped area of approximately 1.3M SF (30 acres) at the East end of the Seaport District in Boston.

On-site features are a north facing shoreline, a public road running through and an enormous functioning dry-dock used for servicing ships. It is a constructed landscape, built over existing water and over time, infilled and refilled and subject to severe change vis-a-vis climate change and the rising tides.

Top: Exterior View of the Main Entrance Bottom: 3D Site Massing (group collaboration)

Top: Geometric Inversion Diagram; Bottom: Film Lot Site Plan (group collaboration) Time inversion is a central concept to the movie Interpreting the symmetry and inversion of linear time as a spatial strategy, we studied geometric inversion, a mathematical construct that basically turns space inside-out about a circle of reference.

Each shed shape consists of a regular geometry and its inverted geometry according to a circle as indicated in red and blue respectively. The inversion follows a set of parameters to keep the shapes familial.

OP = 1 / OP’

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Top: Site Plan; Bottom: Roof and Floor Plans

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The shed focuses on the highway chasing scene in Tenet. As a spatial apparatus of manipulating time, the highway speeds one up by elevating one above urban traffice. This inspires the shed to recreate a conceptual highway with catwalks suspended above the sound stages that serve as shortcuts between the dressing rooms and the sound stages while providing spectacular views from the above.

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Section A-A’

Section B-B’

Section C-C’

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West Elevation

East Elevation

North Elevation

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Encircling the sound stages, the catwalk creates a nesting gesture between them and the envelope of the shed. From standing seam to frosted glass panels, facade materials with varying transparency become a double screen with different degrees of public exposure.

As the diagram below shows, each sound stage is enclosed by both opaque dry walls and translucent glass panels. When it gets dark, the translucent panels above the main entrance and above the central courtyard turn the sound stages into light boxes, animating the exterior of the shed and interacting with the public.

Top: Light Screen Diagram; Bottom: Exterior View of the Main Entrance

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Top: Interior Perspective of the Catwalk Bottom: The Central Courtyard

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An Architect’s Home-Studio Instructor: Marshall Brown I Fall 2019

This project seeks to design an architect’s home and studio in the neighborhood of Pilsen in Chicago.

The proposal imagines an architect’s home studio as a kaleidoscope. Changing daily and seasonally, the immaterial and transient light admitted in the kaleidoscope interacts with the material and unchanging concrete, making the home-studio a source of inspiration and theatricality.

Conceptual Collages

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The site, Pilsen, is a historically industrial workingclass neighborhood that is now enlivened by a Latinx population. The street art and diverse demographics provide a rich context for the architect to respond to.

Top: Site Plan, 1”=30’; Bottom: Site Section, 1”=20’; Pencil on Tracing Paper

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Sections, Pencil on Tracing Paper 1/4” = 1’

The fenestration on the four facades create dappled light effects when there is direct sunlight. The shape is derived from an eagle’s eye from the local street art - a motif that stands for the desire of communication. When lit up from the inside, the home-studio become performative with the facades in dialogue with the neighborhood.

Detail Models, Plaster and Acrylic, 1/2’ = 1’

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Floor Plans and Diagram, Pencil on Tracing Paper, 1/4” = 1’

As another strategy of admitting light, double height lightwells are introduced for light to diffuse at the lower level. They are slanted towards the south so that light bounces off from the concrete before falling, creating more gentle effects.

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Structure Model, 1/8” = 1’

Site Model made by students of ARC404 studio students collaboratively.

The south side of the site is blocked off by the adjacent building, so the only places where direct sunlight can penetrate through is on the east and west sides, as well as through the void volume on the second level of the adjacent building. The four perforated facades are oriented accordingly.

Elevations, Photomontage, 1/4” = 1’

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Section Model, Foam Core and Chipboard, 1/4” = 1’

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Parametric Surface Instructor: Iman Fayyad I Fall 2020 Collaborator: Thomas Delahouliere

In this formfinding exercise, complex surfaces are discretized by subdivision to construct curved surface topologies out of planar parts in response to an architectural or programmatic motivation. Here, two enneper fragments with different lobe counts were stitched together and creates a continuous profile curve.

Through assigning material and tectonic details, the geometry accommodates a pavilion embedded in landscape, framing views and lending structural support.

Plans

Gaussian Curvature Analysis

Sections

Geometry Formulation

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Tectonic Details

Renderings with applied materials

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Academic Work Architecture - Film Shed for Tenet 2 - An Architect’s Home-Studio 10 - Artist Residence of Extremities 16 Landscape and Urbanism - Climate Park of Brick Monuments 24 Fabrication - Parametric Surface 32 Personal Work Films and Video Installations 34 Drawings and Sketches 36