Elpis Wong Portfolio 2016

Portfolio Architecture

Elpis Laipan Wong CUHK BSSc Architectural Studies

Table of Content Community

01 Project Little Dream

Academic

02 Ocean of Books

Community Architecture - Construction of schools in Rural Cambodia Library in Ma Wan Chung, Hong Kong

03 Yuen Long Farming Village

Residence in Yuen Long, housing design as collective living

04 The Mobile Cooking School

Local food x Education, in Pai Tou Village, Shatin

Research Project

05 The Green Line

active preservation of nature through a imaginary line

06 Bamboo Pavilion

light weight, bending active, bamboo shell structures for Hong Kong, using live physics engines

07 UD Rural Toilet 1:1 scheme built project

Practise

08 Provision of Columbarium at Wo Hop Shek Cemetry

Columbarium built at Wo Hop Shek, Hong Kong by DLN Architects & Engineers Ltd.

09 Hibinosekkei + Youji no Shiro Internship Japanese firm specialized in architectural design for kids

PROJECT LITTLE DREAM Ltd.

“Education should be available to all, not just to a privileged few.” -Aung San Suu Kyi, 2011

2012 - Present (Ongoing)

Community Construction Architectural Officer all pictures belong to Project Little Dream Project Little Dream (PLD) is a student registered charity, started by 15 college students that share the same dream: to promote education in the rural Cambodia. Since its establishment in 2009, 3 schools were completed and they are current providing education for over 500 students in the underprivileged part of the country.

I joined PLD in 2013. I commited myself to the organization as an Architectural Officer, involving in the design, planning, coordination and the construction of the Thnouh Village School, as well maintaining the operating schools in Prey Run, Thun Mun, Kh’na Rong.

Every year during winter and summer break, my team and I fly to Cambodia to supervise and carry our design of the schools or have site visits and maintainance.In winter, together we also bring with us 60 volunteers from Hong Kong who would asist in the construction.

Everytime we go back, all we wish to see is the kids we played with still go to school.

We design, build and run school in rural Cambodia. Three school has been completed since the establishment of PLD. The Prey Run Village School (2010), Kh’na Rong Village School (2011) and Thun Mun Village School (2012), as well subsequently supporting facilities. (http://www.littledream.org)

The architectural team

Getting Public involvement by exhibition

fund raising with local brand

sharing on radio

Perspective award 2014

Thnouh Village School Children PLAY Children in the rural area are inventive and fillef with curiosity. We spend a lot of time researching on themes around children. They are the primary driver of the design concept of the school. The play of level and geometry response to curiosity and advaenture. Beside the main school building, we have also done a few smaller projects like playground and landscape.

Ramp earth playscape

Children playing with our construction materials every day.

A simple playscape made from blocks of different height.

Earth-cast platform, made for concrete testing in summer trip 2013, as a common resting place.

TWO Year Plan

Under One Roof

The forth project we are embarking on this 2 years is by far the most ambitious project of PLD. One hour drive from the city center of Takeo, is Thnouh Village, a humble village with 600 household. Built on a 160 sqm site, we proposed a two-story school complex with two classrooms, a kindergarten, a library and washroom, for 150 children and 4 staff members. The construction begun in Dec 2013 and is completed by early 2015.

As a staff member of Architecture Division, I design, plan and construct the school with my team, 5-7 architectural students from 2013 till now.

Me and my team will continue visiting the school this coming December for the utilities construction.

One single roof will shelter the space as one unity.

The Thnouh School is more than just a place to learn. We wanted it to become a hub of the community where villages would also gather for their daily activities and major event.

We work closely with local workers in every single step...

Construction of the school till August 2014

Construction of the school till January 2014

Working with volunteers

Constructing Foundation

Me sanding fins

Our local workers

Formwork scaffolding

Me adjusting school’s signage

Constructing Ground Platform

Our wood carpenter Mr Wei

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1 Completing last phrase of the project in April 2015 with polycarbonate facade fixed on 2 A villager making use of the platform to prepare meal 3,6 Students having English class 4 After class 5 Completing last phrase of the project with a tree plated at the courtyard

Ocean Of Books

Library in Ma Wan Chung, Hong Kong

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2015 Spring YR 3 Design Studio U6 Individual Instructor: Minjung Miang

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While Yat Tung Estate has habitants like most of Hong Kong citizens, working in office or studying in school days and nights, Ma Wan Chung fishing village has a very different living style. It is once very important in this site and giving its value. Though there are only a few villagers left habiting there, they worth our respect in terms of their relationship to the nature, daily routine and living condition.

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The library therefore rethinks the relationship between people and the water body,nature through a library, as well aiming to achieve a proper relationship between the old fishing village and Yat Tung citizens through the library. This project challenges library-visiting as a social, nature and knowledge reconnection.

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1 Library 2 Seminar Room 3 Peparation Room 4 Pantry 5 Storage 6 Book Sorting 7 Exhibition 8 Cafe’s library 9 Lobby 10 Terrace 11 Interactive Archive

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STORY “A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.” ― C.S. Lewis “No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.” ― C.S. Lewis HABIT “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird CULTURE “You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” ― Ray Bradbury READ “Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.” ― Francis Bacon “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” ― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

“One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.” ― Carl Sagan DARK “You get a little moody sometimes but I think that's because you like to read. People that like to read are always a little fucked up.” ― Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides “Sleep is good, he said, And books are better.” ― George R.R. Martin “A short story is a different thing all together - a short story is like a kiss in the dark from a stranger.” ― Stephen King, Skeleton Crew COMTEMPLATE “Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head.” ― Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies “Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one's hand.” ― Ezra Pound AMUSE “Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.” ― Voltaire “We read to know we're not alone.” ― William Nicholson, Shadowlands SEQUENCE “Think before you speak. Read before you think.” ― Fran Lebowitz, The Fran Lebowitz Reader COMFORT “A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them.”

LIBRARY “That perfect tranquility of life, which is nowhere to be found but in retreat, a faithful friend and a good library.” ― Aphra Behn, The Lucky Chance, Or, the Alderman's Bargain BOOK “What a blessing it is to love books as I love them;- to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal!” ― Thomas Babington Macaulay, The Selected Letters Of Thomas Babington Macaulay

Testing for stripping in massing model

Treatment to each strip acoording to interior and exterior quality

Testing on openings to create appropriate lighting, as well indoor/outdoor juxtaposition

exploring stairs, as the soul in the library, the important furniture and the director of the jorney

Detail section of Ramp above Exhibition Area` 1:20

1. Spliting of mass with respect to the village housing , as well mainly considering the larger population from estate penetrating through the library to the water body.

2. Orienting and angled respect to specific programmes in relation to the site environment as well in relation to each other, providing proper visual and physical connection .

Detail section of Roof Opening

3. Further openings pointing towards the sea just as pier, not only providing platform for communication, indoor and outdoor juxtaposition , as well penetration across the building from one side towards the other along the shoreline, through the journey of the ocean of books.

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Sections Detail section of Cafe’s library wall

Yuen Long Farming Village Residence in Yuen Long

Farming as basic of living return back into everydaylife

2014 Autumn YR 3 Design Studio U5 Individual Instructor: TC Yuet

圓塱 | a well developed extensive lowland along a river or lake and surrounded by hills

Being an agricultural and fishery centre with a very fertile land in the old days, Yuen Long has faced dramatic changes after the Hong Kong government started to develop new towns in the New Territories after 1970s. Urban development of Yuen Long has proceeded in full swing, leaving closely no trace and respect of its origin, lot of arable farmland in Hong Kong has rapidly disappeared to make way for urban development. Relationship between people and the land has also been greatly changed.

By rethinking the relationship between human and nature, as well identity of the site, the scheme aims to provide juxtaposition of indoor and outdoor spaces. Without clear boundaries, it adds further ambiguity between nature and urban, and offers myriad opportunities for living with nature even in a relatively urban setting. It allows myriad opportunities for living with nature even in a relatively urban setting.

In the 1960s and 1970s, mountain water was intercepted and used for drinking water as urbanization began accelerating. Irrigation of farmland was affected, says Professor Lam. The older generation of farmers migrated overseas. The younger ones abandoned the countryside to find jobs in urban areas, leading to dramatic decrease of workforce on farmland.

耕 farming | 住 living

田 farm | 市 city

Hong Kong doesn’t strike people as a city that promotes a back-to-nature lifestyle and the brutal truth is younger generations here don’t always have the luxury of interacting with nature. Many have “probably never been to a farmland,” according to Sandy Chan, an amateur environmental advocate.`

Collective | Value Not only a farm in the city, but rootly a farm for the people, in harmony, between the church, the kindergarten and the residential units.

Residential area spread through the lower ground, Residential units neither scatter as individ- ual leaving the coomunal farm at up- per ground beside village houses, nor in building form, but arranged in 5 N-S faced clusters which allowing penetrathe church in harmony. tion from the city to the communal farm.

Further arranged so that different hier- archy of spaces are formed, building up proper relationship with the kinergarden, road side pedestrian and church, as well within the clusters themselves.

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Existing Communal Center

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Teahouse

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Parti Models . ratio . connections . spatial quality . light

short sections

plan

when people shuts themselves inside their appartment after work without knowing the name of neighbour for ten years?

Collective encourages positive relationships to be formed between its inhabitants, establishing a communal and neighborly atmosphere.

Defined Module Balconies and small cultivation spaces enrich the landscape. Colouring the village to be a lively one.

With variation and multications, therefore, allowing the dwelling to develop iteratively.

Area 2x2 m sq.

The module sets ground rules for the organization of interiors, while providing flexibility for several possible typologies, as essential element in village housing.

30 m sq. unit

Each room directly respond to the wished of the residents and the dynamic mutant capacity transform the neighbourhood into a moving platform. Balconies and small cultivation spaces enrich the landscape. Colouring the village to be a lively one.

50 m sq. unit

70 m sq. unit

Spacescape

As if a casual and natural manner back into the home farmland.

Like any other natural village, it offers myriad opportunities for living with nature and close relationship with neighbours even in a relatively urban setting. Encourages positive relationships to be formed between its inhabitants through farming practise, establishing a communal and neighbourly atmosphere.

Materials makes reference to the traditional village house in Hong Kong, at the same time, use of locally available materials in Yuen Long.

30 m sq. unit

50 m sq. unit

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Possible Unit Typology With variation and multications, therefore, allowing the dwelling to develop iteratively.

70 m2 unit 1F

The Mobile Cooking School Local food x Education in Pai Tou Village, Shatin 2013 Autumn YR 2 Design Studio U3 Individual Instructor: Johnny Wong This unit designs a cooking school, teaching students both globally and locally the delicacies of Hong Kong cuisine.

The project will be phased to expand local knowledge of Hong Kong and its culinary delight’s.

Researching the operation of a local food: Mobile Softee in Hong Kong, the value of education, public engagement and also local food has been rethink.

Effort

Satisfaction

Memory

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R ESPO N SE F R O M A R M - L EN GTH SC A L E Habbit

D R I V E R PLU GS I NTO MOBI LE S OFT E E

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Call

Show

Thoughtfulness

Respon

Interaction

Platform

1 Response in arm-length scale, driver plugs into mobile softee 2 Mapping of pedestrian’s route and driver’s action Short video on the research of local food is attached in the CD

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SITE ISSUES + LOCAL ISSUES > MOBILE COOKINGSCHOOL

MEDIATOR Between The 2 Extreme Of Urban Life

DESTINATION For The 2 Extreme Of Urban Life

SITE STRATEGIES 01 Creating Intermined Space For Flexibility And Diversity Of Activities Over Time village houses Shatin MTR New Town Plaza bus stop 1:600 Temple

Narrow and Dense

Sports Ground

Commercial Malls

Wide but less acceseble

Three blind departments finally act on hijacked Sha Tin land Government bodies agree to stop playing pass the buck on state-owned New

Territories site used illegally by hawkers and as a car park

The Tai Hang area has been hard hit by soaring rents due to its close proximity to Causeway Bay, resulting in the departure of many small businesses. Photo: Bloomberg

Three government departments have finally pledged to tackle the illegal activity on a piece of official land - after ignoring its misuse for 30 years.

The Lands, Transport, and Home Affairs departments are all responsible for the site in the New Territories in different ways.

However, none has moved to stop the land being illegally used as a car park and hawking area. Residents living by the site have even put up drying racks there to hang out their clothes.

Spokesmen from the departments told the Post yesterday that they are already liaising on possible temporary and long-term use of the land.

Sha Tin District Councillor Cheng Cho-kwong has been aware of the problem of unlawful occupation for years. "The residents living there have no right to occupy the land," he said.

SCMP

04 Stitching The Commercial and Cultural Fabric

03 Due With Site Problemetric Issue, Show Respect To Both Locals And Society

02 Reconstructing The Vehicle And Pedestrian Network For Comfortness Of Both Parties

The Tai Hang area has been hard hit by soaring rents due to its close proximity to Causeway Bay, resulting in the departure of many small buisness. (SCMP)

Playground as Classroom installations and games for kids to aquire basic cooking knowledge

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pm Kitchen as Classroom learning cooking through real-time practise

Plug-in icecream stall

Market as Classroom learning cooking from the very begining: marketing proper raw ingredients

Gathering Space as Classroom learning the essence of cooking through close interaction between the chef and the customer

Stage as Classroom perform and showcase to share the joy of cooking through sight and smell

Story of the Grown-up Girl

Allowing every possibility for every single exciting moment to happen, the school provides ground for passionated chefs who are willing to share their sweetest cooking experience in a daipai-dong like environment.

The school serves for the live and work of ordinary people. It refines the once un- comfortable edge of the site and acts as the mediator between the pedestrians and transportation.

To teach the whole of cooking, the school is as a glucostte pier lying on the edge.

It is a rudimentary collections of food stalls divided in mainly 6 themes along the edge such that it teaches from raw food choos- ing to food waste treatment: market, play- ground, stage, gathering area, tutorial kitchen, greenline.

Story of the Teacher

Story of the Tree

Story of the Hawker

Story of the Passenger

Story of the Student Story of the Grandma

The Green Line

vv on construction materials 2013 Summer Research vv Project Little Dream Ltd. Self intiated; Paired with Zipu

The Green Line We inhabit a city submerged in noises, entrenched in lifeless confinements and suffocating smog. We sense an unceasing yet incomprehensible suppression, a feeling that we are out of place everywhere we go. We are stuck in this bustling constancy. We have a burning urge to purge.

Until, we are surrounded by nature once again. We could finally purge the uneasiness and smoothen the edges. We dazzle in the sight of a labyrinth of greeneries. We are rejuvenated from the gentle touch of breeze.

Architecture was once defined to provide “a small sheltering space that separate us from the natural environment”. Yet the scale of our development has altered nature so much that all its former glory has reduced to a rare sight. Ironically, while nature could sustain itself and us, the artificial environment we tried to perfect over the course of human history cannot live off its own.

To be in touch with nature is the only way we can feel at home. It is encoded in our genes. We evolve from a natural environment instead of an artificial shelter. It is only natural that we need a life that reconnects with nature, that enables us to keep in touch with our inner serenity timely. It is therefore, no longer possible “to draw a line between natural environment and man’s artificial environment in our concept of architecture” to provide a “livable” enclosure.

The Epidermis Skin The epidermis is composed of the outermost layers of cells in the skin, "epi" in Greek meaning "over" or "upon", which together with the dermis forms the cutis.

The epidermis is a stratified squamous epithelium, composed of proliferating basal and differentiated suprabasal keratinocytes which acts as the body's major barrier against an inhospitable environment, by preventing pathogens from entering, making the skin a natural barrier to infection. It also regulates the amount of water released from the body into the atmosphere through transepidermal water loss.

The concept of a green line is set and based on the balance between ruthless development and the active preservation of nature in the architectural project. It is an exploration of attitude and sustainability. It is a thresholds that redefines our human need to expand and sustain, a constant fluctuation between rationality and intuition.

This imaginary line is drawn and could be architecturally defined in construction materials. To illustrate this theme of struggle, the project explores the Green Line through continuous modelling and fabrication of material.

Resin formwork

Top View

Front View

Final 1:4 display at PLD PACE reception Axonometric

to be continue...

UD Rural Toilet

Practise 2015 August- Present Provision of Columbarium at Wo Hop Shek Cemetry

prototype design

2013 Spring YR 1 Building Technology Group Instructor: Jiangxiang, Zhu

Site Area: 16,400 sq. m; GFA: 10,400 sq. m all pictures belong to DLN Architects & Engineers Ltd.

Mockup scale: 1:1 Supply Information Material: Plywood Size: 2.4 x 1.2 x 0.025m Material specification: Grade 01 Material supplier: Wing Cheong Construction Material Supplier Co. Standard Unit Cost: 18 HK$ per m2 Logistic cost: 130 HK$ Logistic top-up per material unit: 13 HK$ per unit Erection Information Construction Period: 05/02-06/02 Labour time Material Preperation: 11 hrs Assembly: 1 hr

Plan PLAN

Other Features Dismount ability Mechanical Property Adaptability to various uses Section

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Hibinosekkei + Youji no shiro

March 2016 Internship

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Hibinosekkei + Youji no Shiro is a Japanese firm professioned in architectural design for kids.

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I joined the company for a month of internship in March 2016. During the internship, I assist in architectural drawings, presentations and model making, but also have chance to join building construction, inspection, client’s meeting and neighbourhood meeting.

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Second Floor Plan

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classroom sign making

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building inspection

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1. Dining Room 2. Dining Terrace 3. Kitchen 4. Entrance 5. Office 6. Playroom 7. Terrace 8. Restroom 9. Children Room 10. Sea View Terrace 11. Corridor 12. Aterier 13. Play Rope 14. Play Corner 15. Solar Panel

First Floor Plan Site Plan

model making

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presentation drawings