Zhitao Hu_Portfolio_2020 by Zhitao Hu

POR TFO LI O Z H I TA O H U SELECTED W O R K

BEING THE MOUNTAIN

COLLIONS PLACE

High Density Residential Housing Proposal in Mexico City

Repurpose of 45 Collins St, Melbourne for Homeless People

INTERIOR NOMADISM

CZECH EMBASSY

Large Scale Mixed-use Urban Project in Panama Canal

Proposal for Czech Embassy in Addis Ababa

III

VII

INSIGNIFICANT OTHER

FEEDBACK ARCHITECTURE +

Renovation Project

Wearable Instrument Fabrication

West Melbourne Community Urban

MUSIC

VIII

IDEA FACTORY

308 EXHIBITION ST

University of Melbourne

Documentation Practice

Proposal for New Biology Building at

Commercial Highrise Design and

I BEING THE MOUNTAIN Undergraduate Studio Project Instructor: PRODUCTORA The city works as an agent of change of different urban and social conditions. Searching for new models to understand, developing and solving city problems while rethinking individual and collective metropolitan experiences, the studio explores the relationship between topography and architecture through the design of a housing program with mixed use additional programs on a steep site. Rethinking habitat implies debate about urban politics, new social relationships, programs, new forms of habitation among other things. The Studio encourages students to achieve real breakthroughs in the creation of a new habitat.

PROJECT SITE Av.Prolongacion Vasco de Quiroga, Santa Fe District

EXERCISE FORMAL SOLUTIONS The project kicked off with the exercise to explore and to create formal solutions. Iterations of pattern/ repetition were made in order to find the most ideal way populating the slope provided by the site.

EXERCISE FORMAL SOLUTIONS Different geometries and combinations were tested to help developing an inventory of solutions which would inspire the final proposal.

HIGH-DENSE RESIDENTIAL + GROUND LEVEL RETAIL To take the most advantage of site, retails and other programs are placed on the bottom level of the complex which can be accessed from the street while apartments are stacked on top.

EXERCISE FORMAL SOLUTIONS Different geometries and combinations were tested to help developing an inventory of solutions which would inspire the final proposal.

HOUSING UNIT LEVEL 1 Living Space and Patio

HOUSING UNIT LEVEL 2 Double height living space and private patio in each unit provide maximum natural lighting and ventilation.

ADAPTING TO MOUNTAIN The slope of the site presents challenges as well as opportunities to explore unconventional ways of programming vertically. The patios and platforms offer both private and public spaces for gathering.

ACCESSIBILITY FROM STREET Pathways crave through the complex allowing vertical circulation for the public, making the mountain accessible from both top and bottom.

VERTICAL CIRCULATION Giving the mountain back to its people by creating public vertical circulation .

FAÃ&#x2021;ADE PERFORATION Giving the mountain back to its people by creating public vertical circulation .

II INTERIOR NOMADISM Undergraduate Studio Project Instructor: LuĂs Ortega Our generation moves through life as travelers in a changing landscape, across places, jobs, partners, creating a permanent state of inbetween. Acknowledging that cities need to accommodate various populations, lifestyles, temporalities, we examine, catalog, and explore interiority as a potential urban and architectural territory. Reclaiming the interior cannot be a naĂŻve movement, rather it opens up an understanding of interiority as a new means of exploring these variations within the urban fabric by replacing generic space with highly differentiated space.

PANAMA CANAL In Panama, this binary figure ground urban condition is challenged by the increasing influx of mobile population of tourists, temporary workers and so on. Their territorial claim overlap onto each other and their movement pattern changes over time. They need neither points of permanent stay nor fixed paths between points.

FIGURE GROUND CONDITION The common principle of ordering cities by grid, throughout history, offers variations of the same scheme which regulates the conditions of function distribution and accessibility on modulated land plots. This amounted to extreme fragmentation and stabilization of urban uses. As a result, urban interiors are separated by figure ground like hard boundaries and zoned by specialized functions. As global mobilization increase, nomad populations in constant movement challenge the stabilization and permanence of urban functions, and demand new types of urban interiors that are not constrained by the figure ground boundaries.

PATH CREATION STRATEGY In response to that, the in-between city organizes urban spaces in linear continuity instead of gridded fragmentation. It differentiates urban functions linearly in smooth gradients, therefore accommodates nomad populations with different temporalities.

Interior Nomadism Interior Nomadism IIT College of Architecture IITProfessor: College ofLluis Architecture Ortega Professor: Lluis with Ortega Collaboration Universidad Torcuato di Tella Collaboration withHu, Universidad Torcuato di Tella Student: Zhitao Wenda Wei, Renyi Zhang Student: Hu, Wenda Wei, Renyi Zhang InteriorZhitao Nomadism The In-Between City Interior Nomadism Interior 2016 Nomadism 2017

PATH CREATION PROCESS It blurs the figure ground boundaries and offers continuity between urban interiors. The new continuous urban interior is a linear integration of all types of regular segmented interiors. The integration is achieved by linearly connecting intensified interior types with infinite in-between conditions. 76

operation 1: horizontal change

degree 0

operation 2: vertical change

3 2 1 0

degree

TERRAIN OPERATION The city is generated from terracing reinforcement of a topography. It is a field of bands created by systematic formal operations. The overlapping and merging of the bands create a variety of urban interiors with smooth transitions in between.

Interior Nomadism IIT College of Architecture Professor: Lluis Ortega Collaboration with Universidad Torcuato di Tella Student: Zhitao Hu, Wenda Wei, Renyi Zhang The In-Between City Interior Nomadism 2017

100% terrace

operation 1

100% cave 100% terrace

operation 2

100% canyon 100% canyon

operation 1 +2

100% cave

TERRAIN OPERATION VARIATION 09

On the local scale, different in-between ground configurations from horizontal surface, steps, platforms to vertical walls offers smooth spatial change linearly and laterally. They offers great capacity to accommodate temporary activities by creating infinite hybrid conditions between living units and adjacent programs.

OPERATIONS AT LOCAL SCALE The inbetween city offers gradiance of urban differences by blurring the binary figure ground boundaries in a common urban context.

100% cave

100% canyon

HOTEL ACCOMMODATION

The city is generated from terracing reinforcement of a topography. It is a field of bands created by systematic formal operations. The overlapping and merging of the bands create a variety of urban interiors with smooth transition in between. On the local scale, different ground configurations from horizontal surface, steps , platforms to vertical walls offers smooth transitions within the linear direction of the band between public programs and laterally between units and public programs

100% terrace

100% canyon 100% canyon

14 16

RETAILS AND PUBLIC PROGRAMS The resulting field accommodates various temporarities within infinite in between conditions for inhabitation between intensified urban interiors.

ISOLATED SAMPLE OF BAND In a common urban context, inhabitants have a typical living 26 pattern of moving between several specific anchor points, namely their places of production, consumption and rest. The permanence of the points and the fixity of the paths between them strengthen the figure ground difference between interior and exterior, buildings and infrastructures, blocks and districts.

SHADING STUDY Public spaces are shaded by the stacking of bands to protect occupants from the blazing sun. 24

HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL CONTINUATION 27 Public spaces are shaded by the stacking of bands to protect occupants from the blazing sun.... The formal operations result in a field of bands.The field has its flexibility. The continuity of the bands allows for linear growth while the merging of the bands creates lateral expansion. When the bands aggregates in horizontal and vertical direction, they act as disturbance in the field, forming large urban interiors and points of growth.

COMPLETE SECTION OF BAND The field also has its limits. The organizational logic only allows for open ended banding with no encirclement. And there is minimum width of each band due to unit size and circulation requirement. It is a system with potential for growth, and limitations on the extents of different types of growth.

COMPLETE SECTION OF BAND In our design, systematic operations transform the existing terracing into a landscape of bands with a great variety of slope, curvature and solar conditions. The differentiated landscape qualities determine the hotel programs within while the adjacency and branching of the bands determine the transition and hybrid of the programs.

III INSIGNIFICANT OTHER Graduate Studio Project Instructor: DKO Melbourne Someone you are causally dating, while seeing others on the side. This person is almost always someone you would never consider dating exclusively, but, you keep around as a backup plan for free Saturday nights. The statement above can be used to describe the urban relationship between communities at west Melbourne and CBD area. West Melbourne is hardly considered as essential when it comes to urban planning and often times overlooked. By analyzing and reshaping samples of communities around West Melbourne, we shall rethink its role in relation to the rest of the city.

FISHERMANS BEND Fishermans Bend is Australia’s largest urban renewal project covering approximately 480 hectares in the heart of Melbourne. Fishermans Bend consists of five precincts across two municipalities – the City of Melbourne and the City of Port Phillip – and connects Melbourne’s CBD to the bay. By 2050, it will be home to approximately 80,000 residents and provide employment for up to 80,000 people.

URBAN CONTEXT STUDY Bend has been serving Melbourne as an important industrial and transportation hub. These factories left a heavy mark on the site in terms of urban context, and these distinctive figure ground condition once exist on the site becomes something that must be addressed while revitalizing the area.

REIMAGINE FISHERMANS BEND While the municipal has announced plan for its urban renewal, Fishermans Bend has come to people’s attention as part of Melbourne’s urban expansion promising to dwell more residences as well as business. The polemic for the projects explains the core concept of design – building the future on the past. By referencing both historical and existing urban context, a grid can be created to guide the key gesture.

LIVELY COMMUNITY The main programs of project include a children center, townhouses, open markets, and high-rise residential towers. Together these programs form a lively community that support the growing of Fishermans Bend as well as Melbourne. The markets and children center are placed on north side of the site for best accessibility, while towers are located over south side of the site for better views and avoiding casting shadows over other buildings on the site.

PEDESTRIAN FRIENDLY The entire community is extremely walking friendly because the design is pushed to create a lovely neighborhood within Fishermans Bend. There is a wide pedestrian street located at the main axis of the site, connecting north and south. Also, when you drive along the bridge to the west of the site, you will be able to observe the rich activities happen on public spaces through layers of structures.

IV IDEA FACTORY Graduate Studio Project Instructor: Nicole Allen Australian universities are growing, fast. Like the population they serve, these universities are also becoming more urban, more inclusive, denser and more diverse than ever before. Along with this unprecedented growth, there are massive incentives to broaden and enrich the culture and quality of STEM education within the university. We seek to answer critical questions about the role of architecture in shaping education: How does interdisciplinary interaction create academic vitality? How do we foster interaction, without drowning in distraction? How can a building manifest the pedagogy of the faculty it serves?

PRELIMINARY PROGRAMMATIC RESEARCH The biomaterial and tissue engineering is defined by its transdisciplinary research, design and eventually manufacture of synthetic as well as naturally derived materials which can be applied to support or improve living biological system. Biomaterials may be utilized to provide space in which biosystem can perform its function, and they could also participate in such performance to introduce additional feature into the system if necessary. The potential of biomaterials is manifested in diverse areas and every organ in our bodies have benefited from them in one form or another. The development of biomaterial requires intense research and collaboration across disciplines from material science, engineering to clinical experimentation. Researchers from different backgrounds comes together to tackle problems and discover new opportunities, therefore they need access to many equipment and space for their daily activities. Furthermore, the biomedical engineering curriculum covers subjects from a variety of majors such as math, computer science, biology and chemistry. However, the current state of biomedical engineering is that it shares teaching and study spaces with other engineering branches in several buildings located at the southeastern corner of the Parkville campus. And a majority of clinical trials and experimentation are undertaken in the Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien Institute which sits outside of the campus, leaving a spatial disconnection between the research and implementation activities.

PROGRAMMATIC PROPOSAL Therefore, the new institute will become a designate facility for biomaterial engineering department and accommodate spaces required by students, faculties and researchers.

PROGRAMMATIC PROPOSAL It is an all-in-one building for the department, integrating different facilities that used to scatter around the campus and greatly improving communication and collaboration efficiency.

MUTI-FUNCTIONAL SPACE INCUBATOR The gathering spaces that connect different functional programs are served as muti-functional space to host a variety of academic as well as social activities. These in between spaces allow students and faculties to work in a flexible environment setting which maximize their productivity and creativity.

MUTI-FUNCTIONAL SPACE INCUBATOR The incubator will help its occupants to challenge the conventional way of working and collaborating across disciplines. The combination of these spaces will spark new ideas and encourage exchange of ideas.

DETAIL LAYOUT OF THE INCUBATOR Occupants are allowed to arrange the space however they want in order to achieve the best teaching and learning experience. These incubator spaces are barrier-free to include anyone who comes across.

VERTICAL PROGRAMMATIC DETAIL In addition, the project aims to house clinical programs so practical experiment can be conducted under the same roof with rest of the facility

INCUBATOR SPACE DETAIL Ultimately, the architecture of a new medical building should enable great collaborate and empower the faculty to reach out to other disciplines on the larger university of Melbourne campus.

Another priority should be to create public space that engages the public and creates opportunities to showcase museum collections which currently only open to specific student groups.

INCUBATOR SPACE DETAIL

The new institute will allow its occupants to have better access to equipment and spaces which were separated before, and integrate relevant disciplines spatially to encourage the exchange of knowledge and to inspire new ideas. Lastly, the new facility will be designed to bring intimacy between academic and practical side of the subject by exposing and displaying one to the other spatially.

V COLLIONS PLACE Graduate Studio Project Instructor: Denton Corker Marshall Designed by I.M.Pei during the 70’s, Collions Place was Melbourne’s first and Australia’s largest mixed use project, including a shopping plaza in the lower levels, and offices and a high-rise hotel in a pair of towers (35 and 55 Collins Street) above. To reimagine Collins Place as a true “destination of contrasts,” by designing a public space which acknowledges the full social spectrum of Melbourne. You will be challenged to tackle this brief by investigating the issue of homelessness on our city’s streets within this prominent privately owned public space on Melbourne’s exclusive ‘Paris End.’

PRELIMINARY RESEARCH OF HOMELESS IN MELBOURNE To be able to understand the characteristics of public space, we conducted a series of researches and exercises base on Melbourne CBD area. The goal of this assignment was to define the boundary of public space within city as well as answering questions like “What is the role of civic spaces?” “What do they offer?” and “Are public spaces the same for everyone?”.

FIGURE GROUND STUDY We produced a figure-ground study mapping the public space from Collins and Bourke Streets, from Spring Street to Elizabeth Street; Swanston Street, from La Trobe Street to the Yarra River. The area highlighted are to be successful public spaces by everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own definition, and through this exercise we were expected to form a basic critical thinking towards public spaces.

PROGRAMMATIC ANALYSIS AND PROPOSAL Thus the goal of our design thus become clear: To create a positive and sustainable system improving the experience of public space and helping the underprivileged who were previously excluded by Collins Place; Conceptually incorporating a specific social enterprise program integrated with public function into the plaza which serves as a new destination for not only the public but also the underprivileged people; Moreover, to organize the rest of supporting and existing programs

around this hybrid space turning it into the absolute focal point of the project. Architecturally, transitional space shall be introduced to better serve the front court as the main entrance into Collins space. And the hybrid program shall manifest itself as a beacon alluring pedestrian flow by occupying the central space to the full height of the plaza being visible from the street.

GRAND SPACE AND PLAZA The Grand Space will be redesigned with uninterrupted circulation to open up the ground level and truly giving back the public space to everyone. Lastly, replacing the southern facade the plaza with a series of engaging amenities and supporting program(s) to give life to Flinders Lane side of the Collins Place creating an enjoyable experience from street level.

Though the first attempt of redesigning the plaza of Collins Space, initial concept was contested by the real physical constrains and concerns which provided a valuable lesson for the design to evolve. The feedback pointed out that to achieve the ultimate goal of making Collins Place a better place for public, something more aggressive and provocative needs to be happened in the design. Also, more needed to be done in terms of programs to allow better integration of homeless people with plaza.

GROUND FLOOR

SECOND FLOOR

FOURTH FLOOR

ROOFTOP

ASCENDING RAMPS AND SOCIAL HOUSING Collins Placeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s connectivity and accessibility to the public has been suffering from the arguably outdated design of limited entry points from streets and seemingly fortified exterior which undermines the purpose of public plaza. Moreover, Collins Place has been extremely unwelcoming to the underprivileged people by imposing restrictions for them to access the building. ASCENDING takes on the mission of rethink and redefine what it means for public space to be truly accessible

and enjoyable by everyone including those who were often overlooked by us in terms of public space occupants. The project addresses these issues by opening up the ground level to pedestrian traffic and incorporating affordable housing modules into the plaza providing comfort and sense of belonging to the underprivileged. Finally, a series of ramps were utilized to cement different spaces together, creating dynamic circulation within.

VI CZECH EMBASSY Graduate Studio Project Instructor: Ursula Chandler What do our buildings tell us about ourselves? Our countries, nations, populations and cultures are constantly changing. However, architecture, public space, the urban realm and environments have traditionally been more fixed – longer-term investments by governments and societies or more immovable objects. Using the competition brief requirements that the embassy be a ‘business card’ for the Czech Republic, we will negotiate both the Czech and Ethiopian/ African context – socially and physically.

ETHIOPIAN ECONOMIC RESEARCH A large portion of the population lives under the poverty line as the diagram displays. And many social-economic indicator such as access to health services, education and employment suggests that the country remains one of the most underdeveloped place in the world. When combining this statistics, the imbalance of development between regions is also obvious where southern and western provinces are the poorest place in Ethiopia.

ETHIOPIAN ECONOMIC RESEARCH In order to study the typology of embassy, a series of diagraming exercises were conducted to examine the embassy projects around the world. The basic layout of the embassy compounds were documented to compare and contrast. It is to one’s surprise that unlike other institutional or governmental architecture, embassy as an architecture typology can possess many forms and configurations. And the actual layout of the embassy is heavily influenced by the size, location and site condition rather than certain guidelines established by authorities. Although there aren’t necessary a superimposed guideline for each embassy design, as our studio’s interview with the project director of Australian Embassy in Jakarta further confirm this fact, there is, however, security concern and requirement for embassy. For example, US government has a strict guideline in terms of how embassy should approach its security set up in relation to its surrounding and even to some extend on program adjacency. But one must understand that US embassy is a heated target for terrorism, therefore this is a rather extreme example of how certain aspect of embassy will end up dictating the final design.

PROGRAMMATIC ARRANGEMENT AND SPACE LAYOUT Base on the founding provided by the research so far, it is save to conclude that the new embassy of Czech Republic in Addis Ababa symbolized the great economic interest of Czech Republic in Ethiopia’s market and industry. Moreover it won’t be a far stretch to state that there are overlapping goals and efforts between local NGOs in Ethiopia and that of Czech’s. But it should be reemphasized that a design thesis shall not rest on these claims and stop questioning the brief’s potion. To

better appreciate the compressive research conducted above, an educated design leap shall take place â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the new embassy of Czech Republic in Addis Ababa should challenge the conventional way of diplomacy by integrating NGO activities into its physical space to optimize its efficiency in achieving the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s goal. Therefore the iterative process would be guided under this hypothesis and concept of hybrid diplomacy. And the first step is to touch the ground of programmatic design and massing concept to initiate the actual design process.

SYMBOLISM VALUE The key of representing Czech Republic through the classical style in the context of 21th century lies on how can particular design reflect both the past and present of its subject. Like Khan did in the parliament of Bangladesh, the proposal for the embassy seeks to revive the strength within traditional and vernacular architecture. Not only to bring nostalgia in design but also form a much solider modernism.

VIEWING QUALITY View study conducted to test the designâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visual relationship with its urban context. A sense of monumentality is established and indicates further modification required for building volumes.

DIPLOMATIC VALUE OF EMBASSY The final resolution for the proposal is the tectonic of the embassy buildings. As a governmental building, embassy carries the duty of properly displays a country’s image on the foreign ground. The brief also emphasized that the Czech Republic embassy in Addis Ababa will be a window for Ethiopian people to learn Czech’s national identity as well as its architectural heritage within Europe. Therefore a tectonic resembles that of traditional Czech architecture will serves this purpose accordingly. And based on the previous research, Czech people sees neo-renaissance style architecture as the symbol of their nation and they hold great pride to theses architectures. Hence the proposal chooses to depict this particular style in an unconventional way in order to create nuance as well as address the “nowaness” of the new embassy.

URBAN CONTEXT The urban context of the project is overwhelmingly interesting as well. The site situates with in the diplomatic zones within the city where many embassies are located. Within the walking distance, several embassies can be found. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is northwest to the site within driving distance. The site is also surrounded by stripes of high-dense residential areas, industrial precinct and commercial hub of the city. These surrounding context brought opportunities as well as challenges to the design as the site may anticipating great volume of traffic for it situates in a fairly busy area. The map also unveils the main roads of city which cutting into or surround the site indicating future vehicle traffic. And lastly, the site is captured between the international airport to the south and national part to its north creating a unique urban context on its own.

VII FEEDBACK ARCHITECTURE + MUSIC Graduate Studio Project Instructor: Ursula Chandler Feedback implies a mutual inflection of active bodies in a conductive milieu â&#x20AC;&#x201C; an awareness of perception related to movement that can become an enigmatic relationship between space, body and rhythm. There are corporeal consequences of feedback in architecture that naturally extends from the scale of the body to the atmosphere of space, defining its character and allowing for measured experiences to percolate through our collective engagement with it. The project aims to push this vision to its limit, fostering a reflection on the evolution of the human, its symbiosis and conflict with technology in possible futures.

SKETCH DESIGN OF INSTRUMENT As the technology advances, the demand for new forms of instrument and musical performance increases. Today, more and more pioneers in the field are exploring new territory and challenging the old perception of music by adopting cutting edge techniques such as 3D printing. OCTOPUS aims to go one step further by combining figurative structure and typical instrument mechanism to create a wearable musical artifact. The overall form is heavily influenced by scifi movies and artworks while the instrumental purpose is to become intimate with playerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body therefore blurring the boundary between each other. The shape of the OCTOPUS is also informed by the body profile to allow the player to perform as if it is an extension of his body and adding fashion value to the instrument.

CONCEPT DESIGN Conceptually, to produce sound, the player will blow air into the nose tube through the opening on the mask. And the air will travel through the nose to the backpack eventually escape from the tubes thus generating tunes like a series of minihorns attached to the back of body.

3D FABRICATION With the aid of 3d printing, we were able to fabricate our instrument prototype. It was a priceless lesson because we could practice an unconventional work flow as well as tinkering with new technologies and tools.

VIII 308 EXHIBITION ST Graduate Course Project Instructor: Anthony Blazquez This subject focuses on design development of complex building types (e.g. highly bespoke highrise, large commercial or institutional buildings), which generally are not studied in detail at graduate level. In this subject, students will explore and translate their own complex design propositions into an architectural proposal that considers: Economic feasibility; Programme-based technical requirements; Assembly of different construction systems; Environmental design; Building enclosure and materiality; Current industry practice; Innovation in architectural technology.

FEASIBILITY STUDY AND PRELIMINARY STRUCTURAL DESIGN Our feasibility study started from closely examining the urban context of the project, which is its unique location in the city. The site sits on the corner of the Melbourne CDB, next to the beautiful Carlton garden where the famous Royal Exhibition Hall and cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s museum is located. To acknowledge the loci, the orientation of the building is determined

to allow clear views from the tower to both CDB area and the garden. For the overall form of the tower, we decided to manifest the above mentioned situation which requires the tower to provide two major profile on each side of the building. Therefore we sculpt the massing into a seemingly two parts splitting from the middle to achieve the design intent. This formal strategy allows maximum views to both side of the city for the residents, also reduces high angle sunlight exposure during the day while promoting natural ventilation across.

STRUCTURAL STRATEGY DETAILING

The structural design began from plan configuration of the structural column and support beams. The idea of the structural design is to maximise the clear span space within the building therefore achieving maximum rental spaces for the tenants. The columns arrangement consists of two parts: exterior and interior columns.

FACADE DEVELOPMENT

For envelop, the tower body section adopted double layer curtain system and single layer for podium and crown. For double layer curtain wall, airs can flow within the intermediate space to maximize the ventilation without direct exposure to the exterior weather. The inside layer of the curtain wall is also designed to be able to open for fresh air intake. The outer layer of curtain system on mechanical floor is made of a series of glazed bar to allow natural ventilation without compromising the visual continuation of the tower from exterior. The mullion and columns together make up the vertically facade elements on the exterior.

PODIUM STRUCTURAL STRATEGY

On the podium, the ceiling is consist of glazing panels supported by timber framing which has an overlapping circular pattern on the plan. The inter level between the glazed ceiling and timber framing is a series of steel bars which carries the supporting steel framing for glaze fitting. And the vertical part of the glazing framing is diagonally supported by a

series of steel bars inspired by Asian Square in Singapore. For the vertical framing, the podium is supported by numbers of steel columns both on the perimeter and interior. And the enclosure is elevated from the ground to create a large public space therefore fulfilling the design intent of creating a public space and free path connecting CDB and Carlton garden on the ground. Lastly, the mechanical floor is support by the triangle steel truss to allow ventilation.

PODIUM STRUCTURE DETAILING The mullion and columns together make up the vertically facade elements on the exterior. Moreover, there are numbers of aluminium panels clapped on the facade painted in gold to achieve a premium looking to the tower on the exterior the In the meantime, the podium glazing is support by a carefully designed system. The glazing panels are supported by a

series of steel bars which are supported by the timber framing on the podium ceiling level and steel bars hanging from the horizontal steel beams which gives the entire podium a floating above ground visual effect. In addition, the entirely glazed podium also maximized the natural lighting for the public space below to create a delightful space. The selection of the glazing colour is lake blue to allow the tower blend into background on a sunny day.