GEORGE WANG SELECTED WORKS 2019
YEAR: 2018
LOCATION: TORONTO
TYPE: ACADEMIC
RESIDENTIAL HOUSING THE BALANCING MANSION
STACK: The three distinctive levels of space above ground revolves around a central core. The longest spanning level makes up the living and dining area while the two sorter levels are more intimate spaces for rest and work. The core suspends everything together while balancing all the floors towards the centre. The servant and the served becomes represented between the dense core and the open floor slabs. The mechanical, electrical, and plumbing are all integrated into the core while the rest of the house stay as an open concept, this simplifies the separation of programming spaces. A motor elevator located in the centre of the core allows for multilevel access for the wheelchair. WHEELCHAIR: One of the hypothetical client for this housing project is disabled so this design should accommodate for wheelchair accessibility. Maison à Bordeaux became the most reliable precedent because of it’s built-in elevator system for the wheelchair client. The ingenuity of the cantilever system in the Bordeaux house lead to a series of physical models which sparked the idea of the final design.
LEFT: Drone shot of existing site. RIGHT: Final Rendering of the front, showing scale and surroundings.
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PART 1: HOUSE PRECEDENT
STRUCTURE: The Maison Ă Bordeaux has a unique structural system comprised of three legs that act as a tripod. The U shaped steel member supports the East end of the structure. The cylinder supports the wide flange on the West end that cantilevers out towards the tensile cord counteracting the imbalance of the uncentered cylinder.
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TOP RIGHT: Three detachable components that make up the structural frame of the building. BOTTOM RIGHT: Ceramic model detail.
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PART 2: DESIGN LOGIC
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Existing Cantilever
Simplified Balance
Using the original structural system of the West end cantiliver on site.
Removing the cable, the weight could be translated ontop of the cantilever.
Buiding Division
Maximised Space
Three floors are created from distributing floor height and space evenly.
Maintaining the balance, bigger spaces are created for additional programming.
Daylight Angles
Recalculated Balance
Energy efficiency is maximised through slight rotational adjustments.
Balance is created through the core and the distribution of materials.
CIRCULATION DIAGRAM
WEST ELEVATION
SOUTH ELEVATION
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PART 3: REPLICATING BALANCE
BALANCE: The core of this building is what holds everything together and creates the balance necessary for this cantilivered form. It is also designed to hold all of the circulation from floor to floor connecting everyting together. This idea originated from the cylindrical staricase in Maison Ă Bordeaux which is both structural and functional for circulation.
LEFT: First two images are representing the weight distribution per floor, the second two are detail photos of the final ceramic model. RIGHT: Ceramic model showing the interior core together.
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YEAR: 2018
LOCATION: TORONTO
TYPE: ACADEMIC
DESIGN BULID THE BENTWAY STAGE
BENTWAY: The Bentway is a public space that transforms the bottom of the Gardner Expressway into a location for social gatherings and recreational activities. In the summer of 2019, they were in need of a stage for their new Sunday performances. As a team of 16, we were given the task to design a stage and completely build it all in under ten days. With the assistance of our instructors, the stage quickly came together with ease. MOVEMENT: The key idea became the task of mimicking movement through a non-moving object. Following through a similar representation of movement as Eadweard Muybridge, the stop motion frames translates into individual vertical elements changing incrementally. The flow of movement reads like an undulating wave, a motion vertically and horizontally through varying the length of particular wooden beams. This back of stage design activated the ramp in between the structure while providing a simple visual element for the performance.
LEFT: Drone shot of existing site under the Gardiner Expressway RIGHT: Image of the performance on the Bentway stage
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PART 1: DESIGN LOGIC
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Stage Area
Vertical Element
Stage crew and truck accessibility determined the general shape of the stage.
The back of stage dictated the vertical element as well as the ramp area.
Iconic Form
Up & Down Wave
The Bentway Logo becomes the shape across the vertical elements.
The first movement is represented through vertical push and pulls.
Front & Back Wave
Wooden Fabrication
The second movement is represented through horizontal push and pulls.
Avoiding oversimplification, the design is rationalised into two by fours.
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PART 2: SCHEMATIC BUILDING
DAY5: Vertical elements are fitted and secured, the build was finished with rough sanding.
DAY4: Wooden Trim and vertcial elements are placed into place.
DAY3: Decking boards and ramp completed, back support for the vertical elements are placed.
DAY2: Joists are secured to the base and the decking has begun
DAY1: All of the foundation blocks are leveled, the first wooden beams are secured to the blocks.
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Design Pitch by ALEX REINER
SKEW: The vertical elements act as a canvas for this optical illusion that became the final touch to this build. The marks on each vertical element invites spectators to figure out how the paint marks line up together. When looked at in the correct way, an illusion appears, creating a two dimensional image from three the dimensional objects.
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YEAR: 2018 LOCATION: TORONTO TYPE: PROFESSIONAL
OUTDOOR COMFORT GOOGLE SIDEWALK RAINCOAT
INNOVATION: Toronto’s eastern waterfront has been activated by Google Sidewalk Labs as the future of city living. Imagined as a climate positive district, it will also provide affordable and inclusive housing for all people of the community. The future of transportation in the city has also been innovated through pedestrian priority roads that are cars free. Without traffic in personal vehicles, there are a lot of space on the roads for social interactions. COMFORT: The populous city of Toronto has one of the worst weather conditions as a major city in the world. Partisans has pitched a lightweight architectural intervention which allows for better outdoor comfort. The raincoat structure provide shielding from wind and rain. The adaptable fabric also regulates the ultraviolet rays passing through the raincoat. This enables the public realm by dramatically increasing the amount of time it is comfortable outside.
TOP LEFT: Drone shot of Google Sidewalk Labs / 307. RIGHT: Photo of raincoat prototype at Sidewalk Labs with projections.
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HANDS-ON: I was a part of this project in the summer of 2018 when Partisans began to design outdoor comfort structures. I helped with creating visual drawings as well as building models for presentational meetings. Working with the head designer, I explored with different representational diagrams that showed modularity and deployability of the outdoor raincoat design.
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TOP LEFT: Collaborated sketch showing atmosphere. BOTTOM LEFT: Diagrams showing the raincoat usages. RIGHT: Scaled model using ETFE fabric material.
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YEAR: 2019
LOCATION: TORONTO
TYPE: ACADEMIC
EVERGROWTH VILLAGE PERMANENT DEPLOYABLE STRUCTURES
DISPLACED: According to UNHCR, by the end of 2019, 70.8 million individuals will have been forcefully displaced worldwide. That number has been growing in the thousands per year due to war and human rights violations. The purpose of this thesis is to create opportunities in inaccessible areas and provide an educational framework especially for countries with a high degree of displacement. By teaching modern agricultural systems to the poorest people, they will be able to quickly support their family and create excess produce to trade. The marketplace and trading posts maximize profits while more housing units can be built for future population growth. BOARDER-LESS: The permanent deployable structures put in place are designed to be modular enough to become grouped and joined up together into bigger units. The idea is for the citizens themselves to decide how to build out their village. The intention of the produced work is meant to show the continuity of the village that is ever-growing. Through the infinity room style, the model became the physical representation of space in which it is multiplied over and over again.
TOP LEFT: Photo of human scale close up in this repeating space. RIGHT: Photo of the infinity box containing the village structure.
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PHOTOGRAPHY LIGHT
MIRRORS
OPAQUE WALLS
INFINITY: This model follows a similar logic as the infinity room by Yayoi Kusama but instead of seeing the person’s own reflection, the two-way mirror creates a space without the subject. Comprised of four mirrors all around and one on top, the infinity box creates the illusion of an infinite space. The spectator side has a two-way interrogation mirror instead of a normal mirror so that the panel could both reflect light in and allow for the view from outside in. LEFT: The infinity mirror model with all of its components. RIGHT: Archigram style drawings of the plan and section of the village.
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YEAR: 2019
LOCATION: TORONTO
TYPE: ACADEMIC
STUDENT HOUSING PLUG-IN TOWER
Displayed in the Student Work Collection for 2019 Nuit Blanche Toronto Peter W. and Linda. Hamilton Award Nominee
MODULARIZE: The building is held together by this skyframe grid which is built up by the hydraulic crane that stays on top of the building for future interchangeable module purposes. As the building grows, the crane grows, it sits on top of the core of the building which holds the elevator shafts as well as the plumbing and mechanical spaces. With the plan of an ever changing facade building in the Toronto cityscape, the idea was to formulate a way in which the building itself could be constantly changing, evolving to adapt to the new. MINIMIZE: As a student housing project, the main goal was to make affordable housing that would still satisfy a student’s needs. This required some major compromises on what was actually personal spaces compared to public spaces. Typical apartments maximize the square footage of each apartment unit with every unit having the essentials and comfort of a real home. Most students on the contrary, only need a place to stay that makes going to school easily accessible. By having the living quarters being the only personal space for students, the square footage of the dorm becomes much smaller. While keeping the personal spaces small and affordable, there are more room for social gatherings and shared remedies. LEFT: Drone shot of existing site. RIGHT: Final Rendering of the front, showing scale and surroundings.
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PART 1: ROOM PRECEDENT
COMFORT: Based on my own room, the first precedent study focuses around the objects that are found in a room that makes the room special to the inhabitant. The main purpose of a bedroom is for sleep as well as having privacy away from the social spaces of a house. This idea of the bedroom was later traslated into the final design. OVERDRAWING: The produced drawings were created from photos taken at the eye level perspective. With this image represented in lineweights, it is simplified and reinvented into distinguishable objects. Rather than drawing as an abstraction of form, the traced linework adds towards the coherence of reality and the drawing realm.
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PART 2: DESIGN LOGIC
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Site & Area
Vertical Setback
The site sits at the junction of Spadina Ave. and Sussex Ave.
Working around the historical building, the podium took up the full property.
Building Division
Rationalizing Programming
The vertical extrusion from the setback extends towards the maximum height limit
The subdivision of mass depicts the different organization elements.
Daylight Angles
Capsule Aggrigation
Chamfered faces enhance the temperature efficiency throughout the building.
Using the central column as circulation, the building branches out into individual units.
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EFFICIENCY: With smaller unit sizes per person, the amount of occupants could be housed more than double of what a normal condominium could. By catering towards the certain necessities of students and their lifestyle, the amount of space a person needs is quite minimal. The modularized components of the building makes it easy to stay modern by replacing parts of the tower.
LEFT: Final rendering showing height comparison to neighbouring buildings UNIT PODS
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SOCIAL PODS
RIGHT: Standard unit floor plan and ground floor plan.
UNIT FLOOR PLAN
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
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PART 3: PREFABRICATION & PRODUCTION
PLUG-IN: The lattice frame structure holds the pods together in a uniform grid. This permanent scaffolding allows for a variety of interchangeable pods to be either put on or taken off with a crane.
LEFT: 3D printed skeleton model showing internal frame layers. RIGHT: Image of the main entrance showing structure and organization.
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COLLAPSE: With modularity comes the issue of how everything is moved onto the site, the prefabricated pods are still fairly large on the back of a shipping truck. Designed with transportation in mind, the units are brought on site as half pieces which stack perfectly on top of one another. Instead of transporting three whole pods at a time with a truck, the component method would be able to carry pieces that build up to more than double the original amount of pods.
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PODS: Modularity of the living quarters create unique living spaces that are interchangable and adaptable. The design of the compact space is mainly catered towards sleeping and working in solitude. Students spend most of their time in the library or in class so having a huge living space is both irellevant and expensive. The washrooms and laundry rooms are all shared spaces available for all the tenants to use. Downsizing personal space gives room to these large social spaces which encourages student interactions.
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YEAR: 2019
LOCATION: ICELAND
TYPE: PERSONAL
DIGITAL & FILM PHOTOGRAPHY THE ICELAND LANDSCAPE
DOCUMENTATION: This personal project was focused towards exploring with a more professional photography genre2. Being able to wake up in the middle of the night to hike up a mountain just to catch the first glimpse of sun was my everyday routine in Iceland. I have been a run-andgun photographer so planning out hikes for one photo was a different experieince in photography completely.Landscape photography demands the use of a tripod to take multiple exposures as well as keeping the image as sharp as possible. Now, I always bring the tripod for photos in my renderings.
TOP LEFT: My camera setup for landscape photography. BOTTOM LEFT: Dark room contact sheets and enlarging prints. RIGHT: 5 of 20 images of landscapes captures in Iceland.
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PANO: The grandness of these landscapes are impossible to capture with one framed shot. Stitching three photos together into this panorama creates the visual presence of this location.
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