Gabriel H Li | Portfolio 2014

Gabriel H. Li Portfolio B.A (hons.) M.Arch

Newcastle University

GABRIEL H. LI 16 Claremont Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE2 4AN

Date of Birth: Gender: Nationality:

+44 (0) 7877661967

gabriellihk@gmail.com

17 May 1989 Male British Citizen / Hong Kong Citizen

SKILLS & ABILITY: Language: Computer: Artistic:

Native fluency in English, Cantonese and Mandarin AutoCAD, Sketchup, Rhinocero, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Microsoft Office Suite Model making, laser-cutting, CNC milling, basic film making, acrylic painting, monoprinting, furniture design, graphic design

EDUCATION:

2012 - 2014 Master of Architecture (RIBA Part 2) / Merit Newcastle University, UK 2013 Jan - June Erasmus Exchange KTH - Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

2011 July French Language Certificate Cours de Civilisation Française de la Sorbonne, Paris 2010 July - Aug Architecture Summer Programme L’Ecoles d’Art Americaine de Fontainebleau, France 2008 - 2011 B.A. (Hon.) in Architectural Studies (RIBA Part 1) / Upper Second Class honours Newcastle University, UK 2006 - 2008 International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma / 35 points (7 - Visual Arts HL , 6 - Economics HL , 5 - Maths HL) Oakham School, Rutland, UK

2001 - 2006 Hong Kong Certificate of Education St. Paul’s Co-educational College, Hong Kong PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: 2013 July - Aug

Ronald Lu & Partners, Hong Kong Architectural Assistant (summer placement) Completed a research assignment on Transit Oriented Development (TOD) study and participated in designing, preparing presentation works and project coordinating for a design competition for a hotel/office comprehensive development in Nansha, Guangzhou, China.

2011 - 2012

Architectural Assistant (RIBA Part I) Participated in preparing presentation works, tender drawings and rendering works for the project of New Annex of Ko Shan Theatre, The Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department Headquarters and several design competitions for educational, residential and institutional complexes in Hong Kong and China. Assisting architects on project coordination with consultants, contractors and suppliers.

2010 Aug - Sept

Summer Trainee Completed a research assignment on building envelope technology and participated in preparing tender drawings and rendering works for the project of the Hong Kong civil Aviation Department Headquarters.

2009 July - Aug

Aedas, Hong Kong Summer Trainee Participated in preparing presentation works, technical drawings, rendering works and study models for the redevelopment project of St. Paul’s Co-educational College in Hong Kong.

RESPONSIBILITIES: 2011 - 2012 Committee member of Estate Department of St. Paul’s Church, Hong Kong Participated in the interior design of the renovation for St. Paul’s Church Kindergarten.

2009 - 2010 Secretary of Newcastle University Architectural Society Responsible for coordination between university student union, minutes taking and event organising.

Flautist of Newcastle University Student Orchestra

2008 - 2009

Member of the Student-Staff Committee in Newcastle University School of APL

2009 June

Teaching Assistant at IBICUS teacher training workshop Manchester Grammar School, UK

RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS & ACTIVITIES: 2011 Participated in the production of ‘Anastasia, the musical concert’ in People’s Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne Tenor Chorus 2008 2008 2008

‘Richard Bull Art Award’ – Oakham School Shortlisted Artist, A-level Summer Exhibition – The Royal Academy ‘International Undergraduate Merit Scholarship’ – Newcastle University

PERSONAL INTEREST: As a creative individual, my fascination with art has been evident from early age; I have engaged myself in various art projects since primary school and later focused on arcylic/oil painting and multi-media collage in high school. From a young age, I have learnt to play the flute and the piano, which I still play for pleasure. Once a professionally-trained tenor, I often sing as a member of my church choir and once participated in an amateur musical production.

I enjoy travelling as it allows me to get out of my comfort zone and to immerse myself in a different culture and built environment, which often inspires my approach to design. I find great pleasure in recording my inspirations with handsketches or photography.

I like to stay healthy and active by swimming and rowing regularly. When possible, I love to do apline and cross country skiing in Scandinavia or the Alps.

REFERENCE: Mr. Guymo Wong Director/Head of Studio

Mr. Colin Ross Stage 6- Unit Leader

Ronald Lu & Partners (Hong Kong) Ltd. 33rd Floor Wu Chung House, 213 Queen’s Road East Wanchai, Hong Kong +852 2891 2212

School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape University of Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, NE1 7RU +44 (0)7766702177

guymowong@rlphk.com

colin@colinrossworkshop.com

The model shows how the viaduct cuts across the city in conjunction with the city’s transport/ movement network.

This model is a 3D depiction of the character of the viaduct as a series of gateways.

1/ BEYOND THE VIADUCT Re-imagine the viaduct as a new gateway to city integration & youth culture 2014 / stage 6 / Graduation thesis

The thesis studio is based in the medieval city of Girona in the North east of Spain with the simple proposition to explore people and place beyond the city’s obvious surface phyiscal charms and outward wealth.

The viaduct in Girona is often hiddden in the background of people’s experience of the city. When people arrives in Girona, people are naturally attracted to the old town for its historical heritage.

The part of the city which is more related to its day to day operation is often neglected.

The thesis questions the spatial significance of the viaduct beyond its function as a traffic infrastructure.

The goal of the thesis is to seek for an architectural and urban design response to bring the viaduct back to the city’s foreground and provide the city with a new image to its visitors and local residents.

Responding to the rising population of young people in Girona, the design address the reality of youth culture : brave, daring, exploring the uninhabited, fast pased and ever-changing etc. A youth culture hub to allow for young people to experience and test their creativity within a historical city.

Service core

Public route

Public access

Building enclosure

Ceramic fins facade

White mesh facade

galvanizd angle support system anchored to steel I-Beam with ceramic fins bolted to it

356 mm x 171 mm steel I -beam suspended acoustic tile ceiling

triple glazing (U value = 0.6 W/m2L) : 6mm toughened glass + 4mm float glass + 6mm toughened glass + 4 mm float glass with 2x 14mm cavities

internal floor construction: 10mm screed 5mm impact sound insulation 150 mm Reinforecd concrete slab

"Sarnafil" membrane with integral colour exterior sheathing breather membrane

Batt insulation with framing fire resistant plasterboard

fire safing insulation with firestop sealant over surface

window wall + ceramic fins shading facade (original scale 1: 10)

Layout plan

TO NORRA HAMMARBYHAMNEN

2/ GOING pUBLIC micRo-uRbanism : public space cReation ResuRRection of the tRain tRack Spring 2013 / stage 5 / KTH - Erasmus / Landscape Urbanism

The project asked for an architectural design to enhance the quality of public realm at urban context inspired by concepts in contemporary art and landscape strategies.

The site for the project is at Skanstull on the south side of Stockholm. Skanstull is quite a chaotic site strongly influenced by heavy infrastructure elements like bridges, motorways, railway, underground, boat traffic, locks etc. In this interesting urban landscape you will find a lot of different functions like hotel, allotment gardens, music club, swimming hall, outdoor swimming pool, harbor for pleasure boats, parks etc.

Inspired by the curves of the train track and its original nature of connection, the project attempts to connect the ‘shores’ of the valley by walkways along the original train lines in multiple levels.The space under and in between the walkways are planted with shrubs, grass, trees and bamboos of various heights.

This allows one to view this sunken garden from different levels; to enter the garden and walk down paths through the groves of nature. More importantly, allows public to move around the site, between different locations in a pleasant and relaxed way.

The walk ways can be regarded as un ‘usable sculpture made of metal’ connecting people between manmade and nature.

TO ALLOTMENT GARDEN

model/

‘Another surface of activitiy’

This is a model conceptualise the massing of the buildings in Kottbusser Tor, reducing it to reveal solely the roof it aims to explore the level of the roofs and the relationship between each other

3/ ALTERNATIVE kREUZBERG eXploRe the possibility to utiliZe Roofscape as an alteRnative layeR of ciRculation + gatheRing spaces

winter 2012 / stage 5 / Berlin studio

Reunification and Kreuzberg’s return to the city center made the area quite desirable and ripe for gentrification, leading to new kinds of frictions between the long-term residents who had been living there since its marginal days and the newcomers who found its bohemian/artsy atmosphere and convenient location quite appealing.

Although Kreuzberg still is one of the most impoverished districts in the city of Berlin, with the highest rate of unemployment and low rates of employability, the district’s demographic make up and socio-spatial character is changing quite rapidly.

Said transformation becomes manifest not only in the occupancy and consumption patterns seen in the residential and commercial areas, but also in tactical interventions that insinuate themselves into the urban space, calling attention to the visible and invisible violence of this change.

The project seeks to explore the hidden / underused space elevated from the ground, i.e. roofscape/terraces.

The project focuses at the area near Kreuzberger Zentrium Estate (NKZ) in Kottbusser Tor, where the ground level is often very congested with all sort of activities and movement.

As an area popular with immigrants and young people, the area lacks of public spaces for leisure congregate and use. The goal of the project is to explore the possibility to utilize roofscape as an alternative layer of circulation + gathering spaces.

4/ AFTER IMAGE resurrection of a carpark

Spring 2011 / stage 3 / BA graduation project

This project is about producing a design for a new building on the site of the recently demolished Gateshead car-park that acted as an afterimage of the old structure.

Through studies of the volumetrics and morphology of the previous building, and its architectural relations with the city, proposals were developed for a new architecture that worked through a kind of oscillation between past and present. The task was to design a cyclists ’hotel ‘cyclotel’, velodrome, and associated facilities on the site.

More generally, the project aimed to encourage speculation on how a change in the user of architecture (who is no longer just a person, but an assemblage of person and bicycle) could lead to new forms of programmatic thinking and spatial composition.

The after image propositiong is to recreate the image essence of a passed away multi-storey carpark landmark in a new cycotel.

I attempt to search the essence of the carpark through its form, usage and movement...

5/ furniture design ‘It’s all about sightseeing’

Winter 2013 / stage 6 / Thesis primer

“Vision is central to tourism experience.

People linger over such a gaze which is then normally visually objectified or captured through photographs etc.

These enable the gaze to be endlessly reproduced and recaptured.”

- John Urry This is a 3D response to my personal journey in Girona, that people are attracted to landmarks that stands out from the context but knows little about the untold story behind them.

The furniture design embodies 3 concepts: Gothic / Cathedral / Cathedra Gothic Cathedral has been the main inspiration to the furniture design, because [1] it is usually a key touristic attraction/urban monument in a city [2] research has shown that in the14th Century, the wealth of Jewish community had been the main source of funding for most of the city constructions and fortification. Gothic architecture as a 14th century architectural style, it makes me wonder how much Jewish wealth has been put into it, allowing the Spanish Christians at the time to sustain their glamour.

The chair is designed to be monumental, like a Gothic Cathedral, it embodies mutiple viewpoint and requires appreciation at different scale.

This stimulates the development of the thesis: Viewing the city from multiple scale and perspective, trying to address on issues of place and people that is neglected or forgotten.

6/ Interference: Fabricating the Volumetric Tile

Spring 2013 / stage 5 / Erasmus project

The seminar aims at studying aspects of interference in relation to fabrication. How can the production of interference; when different design logics meet, different material properties have to negotiate, different fabrication procedures interfere, be an impetus for architectural design innovation and exploration.

Interference – can be described as two items or objects, whether material or not, attempting to occupy the same space, or something that disrupts, disturbs, alters or modifies something else. An addition of something unwanted.

The seminar studies the possibility of moving away from a tiling logic of flat or semi flat surfaces, towards volumetric tile logic.

2D visualisation + material selection : Ko Shan Theatre annex building, Hong Kong

3D visualisation + design development : New Campus of Technological and Higher Education Institute (THEI) , Hong Kong

Landscape Design : NanSha JinZhuWan Comprehensive Development, China Masterplan Concept Design Proposal

7/ work experience Ronald Lu & Partners, Hong Kong July - September 2013 / Summer Placement 2011 - 2012 / Part 1 Architectural Assistant

Upon graduation from my B.A degree at Newcastle, I joined Ronald Lu and Partners in Hong Kong as an architectural assistant. I participated in the conceptual design and design development of several competition scheme on institutional projects.

Asa member of the design team, I helped on the conceptual design and mainly on the development of sketchup study models. The renderings were used in internal/external meetings and tender submission.

This exercise has polished my digital modelling skills, enriched my knowledge about building and facade details.

I also helped on some project administration works on on-going projects. These experiences gave me insights into the relationship between a building’s space and its functionality.

3D visualisation + design development : Fire Services Training School cum Driving Training School , Hong Kong

Interior Design : Ko Shan Theatre annex building, Hong Kong - exhibition hall

Gabriel Li Š 2014