ERIKA CHOW ARCHITECTURAL PORTFOLIO
｜ 2018 - 2020
SELECTED PROJECTS
Co-Housing Site Analysis｜Sheung Wan Design Ethos ｜Co-living 2018, Year 2
SELECTED PROJECTS
Coastline Site Analysis｜Wan Chai Design Ethos ｜Live-Work 2019, Year 2
SELECTED PROJECTS Walled Site Analysis｜Fanling Design Ethos ｜Sawmill 2020, Year 3
CO-HOUSING SCHOOL WORK: YEAR 2, 2018 TYPE: CO-LIVING HOUSING SITE: SHEUNG WAN, HONG KONG
Narkomfin
Building (Russian: ПОДЛИННИК) was the lst apartment in Moscow, Russia, built in 1930s. The building was designed to embody the early-Soviet ideal of communal living, with shared bathrooms and kitchens for all residents who lived in this building and the residents at the time were committee members of People’s Commissariat for Finance (Russian: Народный комиссариат финансов), shorten to Narkomfin.
01 Sp Nark by M
Narkomfin is a 6-storey with roof apartment building, made from reinforced concrete and is set in a park. It is a white long block building with ribbon windows and combined by 2 blocks, demostic block and communal block, connected by an enclosed bridge to a smaller, glazed block of collective facilities. It has over 50 units with a tiny kitchen that means the room is purely for sleep and study. Also it can be divided to Cell K type room (with double-height living room) and Cell F type room connecting to an outdoor gallery. The ground floor was public area and suspended with pilotis. After the study, I selected the Cell F type room as the mainly study target.
The building in the p
patial Study komfin Building Moisei Ginzburg
photo was refurbished in 2017 (sourced from internet)
Floor Plan & Circulation - orange colour: Public Area - blue colour : Domestic Units
Cell K
C
C
Cell F
Cell K
Cell F
Cell F
Cell K
3/F
4/
Room Plan
/F
n of Cell F
5/F
Isometric of
Room Cell F
I tried to draw some furnitures, and find the size of room is just fit, suitable for 1-2 person to live. And one zone for different use, for example, living room, study room, dinning area at the same place.
Section with Room
h furniture of m Cell F
Privacy and Leveling: The original design of room of narkomfin is no any partition walls, but the architect use the leveling to define the different zones and privacy.
Double volumn with large window for common area use
Privacy and Room
d Leveling of m Cell F
Lower ceiling with small window for bedroom
02 Project City Sheung Wan
Sheung
Wan is one of a early development cities in Hong Kong, It was a small finishing valley, and in 1950s, a large number of people from China came to Hong Kong because of Taiping Rebellion. Among the refugees there were business along with the wealth and knowledge. Shortly after, they founded many Nam Pak Hong to run the port trades and transhipment business. Dried seafood was one of the dominant goods in Nam Pak Hong and it was the reason why Wing Lok Wharf became famous in Sheung Wan at that time. At now, Sheung Wan has become the place for business, residence and tourism.
<< From the plan shows that the buildings and buildings are very dense. Compared with Kowloon, it has few rear lane, but the pavement is narrow. And full of the curvilinear street that is create a lot of round corner sites because of the contour issue.
Figure Ground Plan
Urban Pattern of Sheung Wan
RESIDENCE
G. I. C
COMMERCIAL
SCHO
PARK / GREEN BELT
RELIGI
C.
OOL
ION / CHURCH
It is shown the Sheung Wan urban pattern, development and arrangement. It combined into few parts, commercial, residential, green belt, community services (temple and church), travel spot (landmark building), Public buildings (school, government dept), you can see Sheung Wan is a mature city, can find all dairy services and activity in this city.
LANDMARK
COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY RESIDENCE DISTRIBUTION
According to 2 graphics, the site is located in residential zone and close to commercial area which is busy at morning, because of a lot of worker people or residents going to work by the ladder street that is a main and famous circulation in Sheung Wan. On the other hand, the site near with the travel spot, the shop open in morning that might create the noise. In night, there is become more quiet since the shop will be closed around at 7 p.m. These informations might effect the building programme and orientation.
GREEN BELT / PARK
Historic Building & Travel Spot in Sheung Wan
As a early developed city, we can find many historic buildings in this area, most of the buildings are grade I historic buildings and declared monument building with their iconic architecture style. It is a part of histories in Sheung Wan, also is a famous travel spot in this area, so that I try to pick the spots and study the traveler movement when they arrived to Sheung Wan. and the relationship with our site.
One of the characteristics of Sheung Wan is its contour, because of it to create a lot of ramp and staircase, those path is a important element to link up the community. Also it might the risk of our site, because it creates 3 level different on our site. Therefore, the lower level should be opened to public, and the private area should place on the top level.
CONTOUR WITH SITE LOCATION
After that, tried to find out the potential values from the room of Narkomfin Building and apply it to the co-housing. As below diagram,
Double volumn with large window for
Lower ceiling with small window for bedroom
Privacy and Leveling: The original design of room of narkomfin is no any partition walls, but the architect use the leveling to define the different zones and privacy.
I think the room is suitable for my site, so I directly to put the rooms and reshape the new form.
Co-h Sheu
housing + Atelier ung Wan
Site Str
rategy
LG/F
M/F
G/F
M
M2/F
2/F
M3/F
3/F M4/F
4/F
Section with
Site Contour
South-Elevation
North-Elevation
COASTLINE FORGOTTEN MEMORIES, DISAPPEARING COASTLINE SCHOOL WORK: YEAR 2, 2019 TYPE: LIVE-WORK HOUSING SITE: WAN CHAI, HONG KONG
01 SITE ANALYSIS WAN CHAI
Wan
Islan Kong
After city with trave inter bay.
As an chan of th
n Chai is placed on northern shore of Hong Kong There is shown the major building types on Wan Chai, and its nd, as one of the earliest developed areas in Hong development arragement. It can be seen that the southern is mainly used for residential and eductational fucntions, g along the Victoria Harbour. it was because this part was developed before the land r many years of development, it became a mature reclamation, only for people live. with a large population movement. Integrated commercial, residential, shopping, entertainment, After few years, Hong Kong’s economy has grown rapidly, el and school, etc. building types. It is also a traffic causing population expansion, but the land resource-limited rsection between in Central district and Causeway because of Hong Kong Island is hilly and mountainous areas that would restrict development. .
n earliest developed city, there are many things have Land reclamation has become the only way to provide nged and accidentally created the characteristics new land for urban development. Therefore, the northern is mainly used for commercial with less residential his place.
LEGEND commercial
residential
school
empty site
religion
declared mounment
g.i.c.
COMMERCIAL
GIC & SCHOOL
RESIDENCE & EMPTY SITE
RELIGIOUS & LANDMARK
LAND RECLAMATION HISTORY It is shown the disappeared coastline and proved over 80% land of Wan Chai is got from land reclamation. It is interesting that the land reclamation created the curved roads. It was because the early reclamation was along the shape of the coastline that can prove the place used to be a sea. Besides, it also created different shapes of land. Coincidentally, the selected triangular site also is reclamation area.
Besides, the triangular tip is a strong point of the site, thus, the triangular tip to be preserved for museum use.
02 DESIGN ETHOS
PALAZZO｜MUSEUM
The palazzo is a multi-functions residental building and designing for young artists to live-work and staffs whose work in museum. The location of the housing is at Wan Chai where is a early developted city for 100 years. Because of the land reclamation, the site rendered the triangular-shaped. The site is located in a busy section of Wan Chai and surrounded by 3 vehicle roads. Among them, Johnston Road and Wan Chai Road are the way to and from Admiralty and Causeway Bay. Thus, the traffic is basically busy every day. At the same time, the triangular tip of the site is a busy pavement for pedestrians that is the divided line between commercial district and old city district. Besides, at the tip there is a tree that high 2 to 3-storey, and it was planted by deceased singer John Denver that has a certain historical significance, the tree to be preserved. In conclusion of this triangular tip is a narrow waiting area with a lot of people. Such an environment can generate polluted air and noise, which can affect the quiet living space of the artists.
On the other hand, there is a quieter street to the east of this site, Burrows Street. There located the gallery called 7 Mallory Street which is grade II historic building. It was formerly a pre-war Tong Lau (also known as tenement house or Shop-house), built in before 1920s, then rebuilt and reopened in 2013. However, due to the changes of times, the Grade II historic building is surrounded by high-rise buildings, which is not very eye-catching. Therefore, I will also make it one of my considerations when designing. For example, the flow of people at the triangular tip is directly taken to Burrows Street, which will create new shortcuts or paths.
02 DESIGN ETHOS PALAZZO ｜ MUSEUM Interior Sculpture Name: Arkhitekon Artist: Kazimir Malevich Year: 1924 Material: Plaster Size: 570H x 260D x 360Wmm
Museum
P
For the museum, it requires to preserve the place for displaying 2 avant-garde sculptures, one is exterior, another one for interior.
I selected the Arkhitekton (1924) by Kazimir Malevich as a permanental interior sculpture, the exterior sculpture is L’Homme qui marche I (1961) by Alberto Giacometti.
Exterior Sculpture Name: L’Homme qui marche I Artist: Alberto Giacometti Year: 1961 Material: Bronze Size: 1830H x 255D x 950Wmm
Palazzo
Top View
G/F PLA
AN 1:400(A3)
1/F PLA
AN 1:400(A3)
WALLED
TO CELEBRATE THE CHAOTIC VILLAGE CONTEXT TO ENCOURAGE SPATIAL EXPLORATION SCHOOL WORK: YEAR 3, 2020 TYPE: WOODERN AWMILL, EXHIBIT & STUDIO SITE: FANLING, HONG KONG
FAN LING
SITE ANALYSIS｜URDAN ARRANGEMENT
FAN LING SITE ANALYSIS｜BUILDING TYPE
Fanling Wai (1573) • Walled-Village • Peng clan’s (彭氏) settlement location
Lung Yeuk Tau (~800 year) • walled-village • combined by 6 villages • one of the settlement point of TANG clan (鄧氏)
SITE ANALYSIS｜BUILDING TYPE HISTORY IN FANLING
THE PAST WALL-VILLAGE IN FANLING
Fanling / Fan Leng (粉嶺) is located in the New Territories East of Hong Kong, very close to Mainland China.
According to the above mapping, the urban development is focus on internal development and balanced, with factory areas on one side and residential areas on the other side. In history, it was one of the earlier settlements for the walled-villagers. The walled-village is a special living place and style in traditional chinese culture. The villagers all from the same family, they have a same blood, same surname, live and farm together. Until to 1950s, a Chinese Civil War broke out and a large number of people fled from the mainland to Fanling. At that time, Hong Kong’s economy was transformed from agriculture to industry that required a lot of manpower. The civil war brought a huge of foregin population and craftsmanship, and built many factories which led to the demand for housing. After that, in the 90s, Hong Kong completely abandoned agriculture, resulting in a large number of vacant land in Fanling. In addition, Hong Kong had already transformed its financial and tourism industries at that time. In order to make the New Territories more convenient, Fanling began to develop. At the same time, due to insufficient land in the early development of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, a large number of housing projects are still underway in Fanling until now. Therefore, the residential development has witnessed changes in Fanling.
SITE ANALYSIS｜RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT RESIDENTIAL SCALE (FROM PAST TO NOW) Walled-Village 1570s
Tong Lau 1950s
• small scale • 1 house serve for 1 family • 2 to 3 storeys
• medium scale • 1 floor serve for 2-4 houses • below 10 storeys
Housing 1990s
• mega • 1 floor serve for ≥ 10 houses • over 25 storeys
RESIDENTIAL GRID (FROM PAST TO NOW)
Traditionally, the farmers living in walled-village were the earlier residents of Fanling. They all come from the same family, the same surname, and are related by blood. And the WALL is protection. A village has 2 different grids, the regular grid but not align and the irregular grid. After the research, at start, the residents of the village made a living from agriculture. But with economic transformation and development, the farming is declining, the farmland/ cultivated land converted to residential land use. The irregular grid is an evidence to proof it.
In the early 1950s, the mainland civil war broke out and Fanling was close to the mainland border. Therefore, a large number of people from the mainland came to Fanling, which caused a large housing demand.
Nowadays, buildings are getting bigger and bigger, taller and taller. A building can provide for life needs, such as a market, library, swimming pool, transportation, etc. But the living space has become very small.
Tong Lau is a common building in this period, the ground floor is usually a shop, 1 floor can serve for 2-4 houses.
And the grid conversion became boring.
DESIGN CONCEPT｜WALLED-VILLAGE After the site visit and finding, I took the walled-village as my concept. Because the village has hundreds years of history and still exsits today. Some traditional chinese houses are still remain in the village. And the grids of the village is more insteresting than others. Having a lot of vernacular elements.
The 2 grids are the evdient to proof the walled-willage development. • The regular grid (old grid) is constructed at the OLD GRID beginning for living. • The irregular grid (new grid) is farmland at past. Besides, in this semester, I learned the House Series by Peter Eisenman. His axonometric drawing provided the new view in architecture and created the insteresting space. Therefore, I used his method to explore the new NEW GRID VIEW of a walled-village.
CONCEPT STATAMENT
“TO CELEBRATE THE CHAOTIC VILLAGE CONTEXT OF FANLING TO ENCOURAGE SPATIAL EXPLORATION”
DESIGN CONCEPT｜WALLED-VILLAGE
REGULAR GRID
IRREGULAR GRID
AXONOMETRIC BUILDING
PICK WALL & SLAB
DESIGN CONCEPT｜WALLED-VILLAGE
REGULAR GRID
IRREGULAR GRID
WITH GRID
REGULAR GRID + IRREGULAR GRID
SPLIT OUT, MERGENCE AND PROJECTION
STUDIO
MA
IN C
IRC U
LA
TIO
N
DESIGN CONCEPT｜WALLED-VILLAGE
EXHIBIT
SAWMILL
SAWMILL
EXHIBIT
STUDIO
Because the model is so fragmented, thus, I use a main corridor to link up three different spaces.
BUILDING｜ZONING
GO
DIO
GO
T
TU OS
OUT
STUDIO
SECTIONAL PRESPECTIVE AND SPATIAL RELATIONSHIP
DN
FROM FOOTBRIDGE
SEE
GO
TO
LL
SA
I WM
IN
IT
HIB
EX
SAWMILL
EXHIBIT
BUILDING｜MASTER LAYOUT PLAN
T
PANTRY
SAWMILL
WORKSHOP SHOP SHOP
STUDIO LOBBY
TOILET
ENTRANCE RELAXATION
L
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
BUILDING｜LAYOUT PLAN
STUDIO
M
A IN
C
IR C
UL A TIO N
STUDIO
TOILET EXHIBIT
EXHIBIT SIDE ENTRANCE
2ND FLOOR PLAN
STUDIO
O O R O UT D
STUDIO
EXHIBIT
EXHIBIT
D
O
O
R
3 RD FLOOR PLAN
O
UT
STUDIO
STUDIO
EXHIBIT
2.5 FLOOR PLAN
BUILDING｜ELEVATIONS & SECTIONS
SOUTH-EAST ELEVATION (FRONT ELEVATION)
SOUTH-WEST ELEVATION
SAWMILL SAWMILL
(SIDE ELEVATION)
NORTH-WEST ELEVATION (BACK ELEVATION)
NORTH-EAST ELEVATION (SIDE ELEVATION)
STUDIO STUDIO
EXHIBIT
EXHIBIT
STUDIO
SAWMILL
FRONT ELEVATION PERSPECTIVE ｜MATERIAL APPLICATION FOR FACADE
FAIRFACED CONCRETE (STRUCTURAL MATERIAL)
TRANSPARENT ROLLER SHUTTER
Based on my concept model and drawing, the building should be half in solid, half in void. Therefore, I applied a lot of translucent material, transparent roller shutter, curtain wall and glass block. The shutter was learnt from Japanese Architect, Shigeru Ban. His architectural work has always used the shutter as a facade design, that reducing the boundary between outdoor and indoor. It can be used for security purposes when necessary.
CURTAIN WALL
GLASS BLOCK / GLASS BRICK