EDWARD BENEDICT YAN
EXPLORING ARCHI(TECH)URE A SERIES OF SHORT STUDIES THAT HAVE SHAPED MY DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
CO NTE NT 1. 0 DU RH A M S TO N E MUS EUM DESIGNING FROM MICRO TO MACRO, AND BACK AGAIN 2.0 ( E C O ) S Y S T E M S T H I N K I N G TOWARDS A MULTI DISCIPLINARY ARCHITECTURE 2 .1 T H E C R E A T U R E O F V E N I C E RETHINKING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT, THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT, AND THE ROLE OF THE ARCHITECT.
ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO 2016-2019
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TH E B RI E F The Durham Stone Museum proposes to consolidate, catalogue, and preserve Dr Rosemary Cramp’s Anglo Saxon Stone Collection in a bespoke architecture. The architecture is inspired by the process of working stone, from raw quarry to final polished finish. Working from a micro scale to a macro scale.
1.0 DURHAM STONE MUSEUM
It is sited in Durham City, UK, where stone and slate are part of the vernacular. I sought to respect its heritage, yet reinterpret this traditional material through the lens of a more technologically savvy design method. Just as the Gothic stone masons have done with Durham Cathedral, I sought to push the limits of this building material in the year 2018. Rethinking archi(tech)ure with extensive 3D modeling. This project was completed in Year 2, Sem 2 of my undergraduate program at Newcastle University. It was supervised by Dr Maria Mitsoula.
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MATERIAL INFORMS DETAIL
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1:10 “Light doesn’t shine from behind the stone, nor does it reflect off the stone, it almost seems to glow from within”. Lustre is the language that this design intent attempts to articulate. The geometry of the slate tiles, and the structure of a slate rain screen creates plays of light and shadows. The resulting perforated screen integrates into windows, and creates flexible and permeable thresholds. This detail takes a conventionally heavy material, and creates atmospheres of light and air.
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DETAIL CREATES ATMOSPHERE
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We balance atmospheres of light and air with a place that is connected with the earth. The landscape is carved out, and the lustrous gem embedded into the rock. Subtraction. The process of working with stone is subtractive and destructive. For one to produce a positive form, one first has to understand the negative forms. The process of subtraction builds a physical form.
ATMOSPHERE MAKES A PLACE
And conversely, the process of addition builds the architecture’s place. Details are layered with program, slowly building up the Museum’s place in the community. The entrance of the museum is located in the Boathouse. Visitors travel downwards, and enter the work-yard. Stone artifacts are being repaired and curated. Moving inwards, the basement of the Museum houses its service spaces. The second and third floor are for gallery spaces.
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PLACE-MAKING INFORMS BUILDING STRATEGY
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BUILDING STRATEGY CREATES A LANDSCAPE
In the future, when the entire collection has been curated and placed on the retaining walls, the museum structure will no longer need to exist. The museum becomes the landscape. The phenomenology of place is constantly changing, and does not necessarily need to be housed within a building. Designing from micro to macro allows the Durham Stone Museum to resonate with its visitors and its community across scales, from individual museum pieces, to its place, to its landscape. This project has extensively employed Using 3D modeling and V-ray to reinterpret a largely traditional and vernacular material. These archi(tech)ure methods have allowed me to work through cycles of iterations of the design, and to challenge the scales of the project. An opportunity that would have otherwise been very costly, for the very nature of stone as a material, is to be only worked once.
TH E B RI E F (Eco)Systems Thinking and The Creature of Venice are two parts to a year long study on the effects of climate change, and in turn, a challenge of our values as architects. Part One - (Eco)Systems Thinking sets the investigation in Venice, where I study the impact of rising sea levels and how it threatens the physical and cultural preservation of Venice. Part Two - the Creature of Venice, is my architectural response. I develop a design which re-frames the Venice Biennale through an environmental perspective, and this experiences challenges visiting architecture professionals. This project was completed in Year 3, Sem 2 of my undergraduate program at Newcastle University, and was nominated for the RIBA Bronze Medal 2019. It was supervised by Professor Rachel Armstrong.
2.0 (ECO) SYSTEMS THINKING
A SPECULATIVE DESIGN THAT COMBINES BIOLOGY WITH STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING TO ADDRESS RISING SEA LEVELS
Rising sea levels causes greater wave action, resulting in an increase in sedimentary erosion in the Venetian Lagoon. Starting with Kate Orff’s Oyster-tecture in Hudson Bay as an inspiration. This project further develops a speculative modular structural system for Orff’s Oyster-tecture to be systematically installed across the scale of the Venetian Lagoon. It will be installed on Venetian sandbanks. Where in several decades, the structures will accrete in exo-skeleton of bivalve mass. This may help to addresses the physical preservation of the City of Venice.
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DESIGN IS SCALED TO A SPECULATIVE MASTER-PLAN FOR THE PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL PRESERVATION OF VENICE
THE PAVILION IS: A GALLERY FOR THE VENICE BIENNALE MAY - NOV
GIARDINI PUBLIC GARDENS
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CURRENT BIENNALE ENTRANCE
H I S TO R I C A L C A R LO S C A R PA B I E N N A L E T I C K E T I N G B O OT H
S W I S S PAV I L I O N
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BIENNALE
SOUTH BOUND SHIPPING ROUTE
H I S TO R I C A L S A N D B A N K
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2.1 THE CREATURE OF VENICE
THE PAVILLION IS: A WORKSHOP FOR THE CITY OF VENICE DEC - APR
ITS STRUCTUR AL SKIN
The Creature of Venice pavilion was designed to address the cultural preservation of the city. “Pavilions embody and project the ambitions of their time”. The Creature of Venice was developed to project the ecological aspirations of this generation. In opposition to industrialism and capitalism, the 21st architect may have to accept the role of a mediator between built and natural environments, and the role of a mediator between micro and macro eco systems.
CANOPY STRUCTURE
L E V E L +1 WORKSHOP CONTROL ROOM VENETIAN RAMPS O U T D O O R S E AT I N G A R E A
AN ARCHITECTURAL FORM INSPIRED BY ITS CURRENT PHYSICAL & CULTURAL CONTEXT
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LEVEL 0 GALLERY ROOMS OY S T E R L A B O R ATO R Y RECEPTION
The Creature of Venice is positioned at an intersection of disconnected micro landscapes - both man-made and natural environments. This proposal seeks to use a roof and plinth strategy to bridge these environments. Firstly, an Italian vernacular response is used to treat the site - a public ramp is created and stretches all three landscapes. Secondly, the plinth creates a waterproof base that reaches out into the lagoon like a pier, and its canopy is suggestive of sails, inspired by Carlo Scarpa’s Biennale Ticketting Booth. And thirdly, pavilion and workshop is reorganized as a landscape, creating an architectural form inspired from its topographical context. With reference to, and lessons from Jorn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House,
L E V E L -1 PL ANT ROOMS SERVICE CORRIDOR D R Y W O R K S H O P F LO O R D R Y LO C K A N D G AT E M A C H I N E R Y W E T W O R K S H O P F LO O R PUMP ROOMS TO I L E T S S TA I R C O R E
CANOPY STRUCTURE
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WITH A PROGRAM TO SHAPE ITS FUTURE LANDSCAPES The modular structural skin is built within the Creature of Venice. It’s spaces are designed to be efficient and functional, to be used as a workshop.
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From the Gondola Boatyards to the Arsenale, the typology of the workshop is not new or unique to Venice. Venice’s interaction with its waterscape and land reclamation techniques have also helped to inform the construction sequence of this workshop. And to complete its narrative, once a year, the Creature of Venice sheds its skin, and with water, the skin becomes a creature of its own.
L AG O O N W E T S C A P E
I N T E R T I D A L ZO N E
G I A R D I N I : N A P O L E A N ’ S C U R AT E D N AT U R E
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TO CHALLENGE THE MEANING OF THE BIENNALE In an attempt to preserve Venice’s cultural landscapes. This pavilion sits at the edge of the Venice Biennale. The Biennale’s current entrance runs parallel to the waterfront. Visitors arrive on foot. The Creature reorientates the entire site, returning the Biennale’s entrance to the water’s edge. The visitor arrives by boat, and arrives at the Creature’s pier. The visitor then walks up the venetian steeped ramps and into the Creature. The gentle incline slows his pace, giving the visitor more time to consider and appreciate the creature’s spine. The visitor first has to pass the entire length of the creature, before he comes to the boulevard of the Biennale. Ramp and Canopy work together. When architecture professionals or other Biennale visitors come to the celebration of the built environment, they first have to celebrate the natural environment, reframing the context of the entire Architectural Biennale.
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E X T E R I O R WA L L TO E AV E S J U N C T I O N D I A M E T E R 710 m m C H S P O W D E R - C O AT E D 6 0 m m S T E E L F L AT C A P P L AT E 3 5 0 m m D I S C F I E L D W E L D E D TO G I R D E R C O N N E C T I O N TO T E N S I O N E L E M E N T: 2 0 m m S T E E L F L AT SHEET STEEL GUT TER AT TA C H M E N T O F M E M B R A N E TO L A C I N G T U B E : D I A M E T E R 6 0 m m C H S MEMBR ANE L ACING E T F E M E M B R A N E 1m m U P P E R C H O R D O F T R U S S : D I A M E T E R 12 9 m m S T E E L C H S 60mm STEEL CHS LO W E R C H O R D O F T R U S S : D I A M E T E R 16 8 m m S T E E L C H S S T E E L C A B L E T E N S I O N E L E M E N T 12 m m
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I N T E R M E D I AT E F LO O R TO E X T E R I O R WA L L J U N C T I O N 8 m m TO U G H E N E D G L A S S 12 . 7m m C AV I T Y 2 x 8 m m H E AT- S T R E N GT H E N E D L A M I N AT E S A F E T Y G L A S S PA R Q U E T W I T H O A K F I N I S H 3 8 m m SCREED 40mm S E PA R AT I N G L AY E R 1m m P L A S T I C S H E E T I M PA C T S O U N D I N S U L AT I O N 2 0 m m R E I N F O R C E D C O N C R E T E TO P P I N G 14 0 m m T R A P E ZO I D P R O F I L E M E TA L S H E E T I N G 4 0 m m U N I V E R S A L B E A M U B 2 5 4 x 14 6 x 37 P R E FA B R I C AT E D S U S P E N D E D A C O U S T I C S O F F I T U N I V E R S A L C O L U M N U C 2 5 4 x 2 5 4 x 73 U N I V E R S A L B E A M U B 2 5 4 x 14 6 x 37 EUROPEAN L ARCH PILE FINISHING
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F O U N DAT I O N TO G R O U N D F LO O R J U N C T I O N BACKFILL G E OT E X T I L E M AT, F L E E C E C O A R S E G R AV E L DR AINAGE, POROUS PIPE POROUS BOARDS 6 0 mm B I T U M E N PA I N T C O N C R E T E C A I S S O N W I T H E FA WAT E R R E P E L L I N G A D M I X T U R E 350mm T H E R M A L I N S U L AT I O N , C E L L U L A R G L A S S A N D VA P O U R P R O O F 15 0 m m GYPSUM BOARDS, PL ASTER FI N ISH 6 0 mm C A S T E L L AT E D B E A M F O R S E R V I C E P I P E S C E M E N T F I N I S H I N G 15 m m S C R E E D W I T H U N D E R F LO O R H E AT I N G 8 0 m m S E PA R AT I N G L AY E R 1m m T H E R M A L I N S U L AT I O N WAT E R P R O O F C E L L U L A R G L A S S 15 0 m m D A M P- P R O O F M E M B R A N E ( R O B I T ) C O N C R E T E C A I S S O N U N I T, E FA WAT E R R E P E L L I N G A D M I X T U R E 450mm LEAN CONCRETE 50mm
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SO THAT WHEN VISITORS ARRIVE AT THE BIENNALE TO CELEBRATE THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
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THEY WILL FIRST BE CONFRONTED BY A CELEBRATION OF THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT The Pavilion follows the schedule of the tide and city. From the months of May to November, its spaces are leased out the Venice Biennale, and it functions as a gallery space. From the months of December to April, its spaces are returned to the City of Venice, and it functions as a workshop space for the manufacturing of the structural skin. These half yearly cycles of change challenge architects to think of architecture in terms of both space and time. These ideas are furthered explored in detail, direction of circulation and in section.
E XHIBITION GALLERY
WORKSHOP GALLERY
WORKSHOP NE T ARE A
J A PA N E S E PAV I L I O N
C R A N E C O N T R O L TO W E R
J A PA N E S E PAV I L I O N
CRANE J A PA N E S E PAV I L I O N
DRY PRODUC TION J A PA N E S E PAV I L I O N
J A PA N E S E PAV I L I O N
J A PA N E S E PAV I L I O N
WET PRODUCTION
J A PA N E S E PAV I L I O N
W E T A S S E M B LY
J A PA N E S E PAV I L I O N
WET DOCK PUMPS AND M AC H I N ERY
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CEMENTING OY S T E R L A R VA E ON STRUCTURE
W E T A S S E M B LY OF NETS
D RY DOC K M AC H I N ERY AND PUMPS
TENSIONING OF CABLES
KUK A ARM A S S E M B LY O F STRUTS
CUTTING OF STRUTS AND TENSION CABLES
GROWING OF B I VA LV E C U LT U R E IN LAB
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THE CREATURE CHALLENGES THE ARCHITECTURE PROFESSION: “WHAT DO YOU VALUE?”