Landscape Architecture Portfolio_Elaine Khor

ABOUT ME CONTENTS

Spline

eco-district | systematic site design

Seattle, WA

The Floating Eelgrass ecological studies | art installation design

Low Easy Chair furniture design

Layer / Lair cultural heritage | contested landscape

ykhor@uw.edu

(206) 419-0180

Coming from a background studying the Japanese Language and literature, I am intrigued by the concepts of Wabi and Sabi, which emphasized the harmonious coexistence of nature beings. I firmly believe to fulfill the euphonious world, systematic thinking toward a site and the design for livings are important for facing unpredictable climate change, which are the values I want to bring to every project.

Groove Park stormwater treatment | park

15-minute city mapping

Daniel Winterbottom:Sketching as Witness exhibition design

Yi-Lin (Elaine) Khor

Spline

Waterfront | Systematic Design | Streetscape

Group Work | 3 month | City of Bellingham, WA

SCAN Design Foundation Studio | Instructor: Nancy Rottle

Rhino Building | iPad Drawing | Adobe Suite

The Bellingham waterfront is characterized by severe environmental degradation beginning when this land was formed through the dredging of the Whatcom canal, followed by a century of industrial pollution. We see this project as an opportunity to mend the green and blue ecology of this space through the creation of a Living Industry eco-district.

A spline is a woodworking joint where a secondary wood is inserted between two unmatched surfaces resulting in the strengthening of disparate parts. We envision green industry as a spline that joins and strengthens the ecologies of land and water allowing us to address our three primary historical challenges: i. single-use industry ii. separation of people from the waterfront area. iii. environmental degredation.

We bring our vision to life by expanding on the existing area plan and context. Just south of the planned housing, green space and hotel areas, this industry district requires lowered noise and accessible spaces that are healthy for people and the environment.

The group agreed with the concept together, then each of us take on different part of focus area: Akeo Maifeld-Carucci focus on the system of the site, Lauren Corn focus on the Hawk Hill, , Seyyada Burney focus on the Tidal Garden, I focus on the middle symbiosis district area, the Spline, also researching on phytoremediation methods and vegetation, and the flow of the industry.

Strategies

Multi-modal ‘spline’ path centers access, moving the train to its historic line along bluff

We lift the bluff side and drop the water edge, reducing train noise and connecting the city to the waterfront

This creates a palette on which we build our symbiotic living industry

(Site History Credit to Burney)

(Plan Credit to Burney)

External Flow Diagram

Our proposal uses our conceptual Land, Industry and Water stakeholders to create three overlapping regions, joined and strengthened by our industrial spline:

i. Hawk Hill covers the train, contains and remediates contaminated soil, while adding connection to the waterfront.

ii. The central industry spline, creates a lively working zone where symbiotic industry connects land and water in an experiential public space.

iii. The Tidal Garden processes stormwater and dry-dock effluent to release clean water into a softened, resilient shoreline.

ykhor@uw.edu

The view southwest down the multi-modal spline path from in between the Food Campus and Green Incubator. Railroad planter beds on the left and open display windows connect people to the past and current industry.

Carbon sequestration

Camassia quamash Roemer’s fescue Lupinus polyphyllus

Prairie Planting Palette

Populous nigra

Forest Planting Palette Helianthus annuus

Carbon sequestration potential

View from next to the Greenhouse looking in between the Food Campus and Office through the semi-public worker’s space and up at Hawk Hill and Bellingham. Yi-Lin Khor

(Section Drawing Credit to Corn)

Looking from the spline across at Footprint Plaza, the education center and the Mass Timber plant behind. The Plaza is shown being used for a mass timber demonstration and a temporary food truck stop.

View of the southern end of the spline with the biomass and biochar plants on the left. Ahead, the shipping container passage connects people from the berm to the Mass Timber Plant’s public green roof.

(Section Drawing Credit to Corn)

ProjectArea

The Floating Eelgrass

Ecological Studies | Art Installation Design

Individual Work | 2 months | Seattle, WA

Ecological Systems Studio | Instructor:Julie Johnson, Brook Sullivan, Tim Lehman

ArcGIS Research | Illustrator & Photoshop Rendering

The Floating Eelgrass project aims to bridge the existing continuous/non-continuous eelgrass habitat, making the smallest modification to the sensitive nearshore bluff habitat in Discovery Park, yet preserving the perceptible art structure for future education. Retrieving from the Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership Report and other resources, the study visualizes the species that currently exist in Puget Sound, focusing on the Discovery Park and their relationship with the Feeders Bluff, the natural landscape that has formed since the glacier retreat. Eelgrass provides a spawning area for forage fish such as Pacific herring, an important food source for the Chinook salmon, between the saltwater Puget Sound and the freshwater Lake Union. The Discovery Park located at the mouth of Lake Washington, happens to be the entrance to the Chinook salmon's migration path. The indivisible relationship of existing sediment, algae, invertebrate, fish, and mammals make the bluff landscape vulnerable but precious.

Target species analysis

Bluff and Nearshore’s Habitat and Relationships

Floating Eelgrass Implementation

KayakRoutefromWestPoint

TheFloatingEelgrass

A. Floating Eelgrass and Eelgrass Restoration

The Floating Eelgrass itself is a magnified eelgrass shape buoy, made with a biodegradable biomatrix foam that provides algae growing on top. At the same time, kelp growing below the water provides functions such as decreasing wave energy, infiltrating the nearshore polluted water, and providing potential nutritious resources. Acting as not only the educational demonstration, the Flooding Eelgrass Project is designed to adapt to any daily ebb and flow water level difference and to accommodate future sea-level rise.

B. Wayfinding OLED Light

Small interventions by adding wayfinding OLED lighting, a type of light that does not effect the various creature’s habit during night time. By reusing wood debris picked up throughout the Discovery Park, the structure becomes part of the forest and not impacting creatures such as the Barn Owl hunting down rodents at night.

Floating Eelgrass

Extending Eelgrass Bed

Woody Debris (WD)

Barn Owl

Barreled Owl

Low Easy Chair

Furniture Design

Individual Work | 3 month | City of Seattle, WA

Advanced Studio | Instructor: Kimo Griggs

Handdrawing | Rhino Modeling | Carpentry | Woodmaking

“Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context, a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.” ~ Eero Saarinen

The journey set off from the need of enjoying a short period of sunshine outside while in Seattle, often temporary rain might strike. The moving pattern of humans shifts and fluxes based on political, religious, economic, and environmental issues. As people transfer into spaces to find their comfort area, the kit of furniture that can face the unpredictable may come in handy. The piece thus focuses on a compact, ability to assemble on-site, affordable, functional yet aesthetically delightful approach.

Work in progress photos

Concept Sketch

Mock-ups Sketch

Layer / Lair

Cultural Heritage | Contested Landscape

Individual Work | 3 month | Taipei City, Taiwan

Advanced Studio | Instructor: Jeff Hou and Selina Chiu

Rhino Modeling | Illustrator & Photoshop Rendering | Model Making

Layer/Lair is a project to re-envision the previous military dictator memorial space, Chaing Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (CKS Memorial Hall), by transforming the site’s narrative from homogenous to heterogeneous. Layers act as spaces for breathing air from the supreme authority, distractions for the admiration underlying the design of the main building, and provide welcoming areas for new thoughts of usage in the future.

The etymology of the word, Layer, has long been argued to be a respelling of an obsolete agricultural use of lair. The old English of the word, Lair, origins in Germanic origin, means a resting or sleeping place.

Layer/Lair can mean “layer-layer”, to arrange a single thickness of the material covering a surface in order. Or it can means layer lair, to arrange the layers of different resting places. Although the authoritarian rule has ended in Taiwan, the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall remains in the center of Taipei City and has become one of the main tourist spots. The evidence of authoritarian existence has lived in one’s memories ever since.after years of democratic transition, the story of CKS Memorial Hall is no longer just to commemorate a past ruler. Instead, it has become a place where people gather for demonstrations and protests. Stories with more diverse voices are being told here. Now, a chance to reform the narrative of the space is given, yet there are still untold stories lying beneath.

Strategies

Historical Contexts and Issues

The platforms provide more usages toward the surrounding vacant space and given more breathing for people who want to showcase their thoughts.

Yi-Lin Khor

Section C

Section B

Section A

Section A Section B Section C

People eyesight is distracted by the layered platform, creating disorientation toward the original “Admiration and Worship” feeling from the main CKS memorial building.

Layered platforms are intruding towards the structure itself, increasing accessibilities and new viewpoints to the once milatary dicator Chiang Kai-Shek.

Sako Elementary School

Historic Preservation | Campus

Group Work | 2 month | Nagasaki City, Japan

Seminar in Environmental Policy A | Instructor: Seiko Goto

Site Analysis | Photoshop Rendering | Multilingual Translation

The site locates in the residential area of downtown Nagasaki City, Japan, near famous tourist spots such as Toujin Yashiki Ato (Former Chinese Quater) and Chinatown.

In 1857, Dr. J.L.C Pompe van Meerdevoort established a school of western medicine. He then became the first person to perform a recorded human autopsy in Japan. Due to the widespread cholera outbreak in Japan, Pompe van Meerdevoort asked about the need for a hospital to control the disease spreading. The hospital has become Japan’s first western-style hospital, Kojima Yojosho. The rich historical meaning of the building makes it become buried cultural property of Japan.

After discovering the original ruins of Kojima Yojosho (Kojima Health Center), the Nagasaki City Hall decide to bring the ruins back to light and maintain the function of the current Nita Sako Elementary School at the same time. The task is to create a student activity space and consider the tourist sightseeing spots. Furthermore, the aim is to preserve the historical ruins as comprehensively as possible

The new Nita Sako Elementary School’s new campus is officially opened in Feburary 25, 2020.

The new school building is built above the previous building's ruins

Previous topography turned from three to two levels

Spacial relationship of the ruins and the new school buildings

The discovered ruins of the original buildings

Groove Park

Stormwater Treatment | Park

Group Work | 3 month | City of Seattle, WA

Design Implementation | Instructor: Aaron Luoma

Handdrawing | Grading & Drainage | CAD Drawing

The site locates at 12004 31st Ave. NE, Seattle City, WA 98125. The project is a site improvement and demonstration area for stormwater treatment. Given the premise that in a team of two, we are an imaginary company hired by the Seattle Public Utilities & Seattle Parks & Recreation. The goal is to solve the significant flows of untreated stormwater directed to the Thornton Creek to the south, and the site is selected to capture a large portion of water to store and treat the water before naturally infiltrating.

Other requirements such as a low-maintenance design with a planting scheme that is relatively drought-tolerant, 40% of the site area is an accounted for stormwater treatment, two large conifers trees are preserved on-site, and a minimum of one ADA compliant pedestrian connection between 31st Ave. NE to NE 120th St.

The park design aims to create as much habitat for the urban creature as possible by bridging the main crossing pathway. Moreover, viewpoints and experiences when transferring through the site are also considered in the design. The pedestrian bridge comes with two sides seating benches. In addition, the middle area is designed for more seating areas with canopy from the tree planted beneath. Visitors can either rest and enjoy the rain garden view when facing southwest or enjoy the sun in the lawn area at the northeast of the pedestrian bridge.

Perspective View Drawing looking from the 31st Ave. NE path toward the pedestrian bridge.

Yi-Lin Khor

Idea Sketch of relationship between space created by pedestrian bridge and the sidewalks on both sides

Schematic Design Plan from the second week

Grading Plan of the Groove Park

15-min city

Mapping

Individual Work | 2 weeks | Seattle, WA

Mapping of the Duwamish | Instructor: Julie Parret

Mapping

South Park neighborhood have endured lack of accessibilities from public transits and safe pedestrian walkways historically, being seperated by route 99. The aim for this short project is to showcase the 15 minute accessibility in the neighborhood, with red indicates the bus and people footage.

Daniel Winterbottom: Sketching as Witness

Exhibit Design | Installation

Individual Work | Jan-Feb 2023 | In-person in Seattle, WA

Work Experience | Daniel Winterbottom

Model Making | Video Shooting | Adobe Suite

This exhibit features the sketches and watercolor works of Daniel Winterbottom from his neighborhood wanderings and observations of pandemic life: “deserted streets, businesses closing overnight, and a dramatic increase of homeless encampments.”