Guanxi Chen Pratt Portfolio by Guanxi Chen

Guanxi Chen Pratt Institute

Portfolio

MS. Arch Works

Guanxi Chen chenguanxi1988@gmail.com 440 E 85th St, Apt 3J, New York, NY 10028 614-586-2811 (cell)

EDUCATION Pratt Institute, New York, USA, 05/2013—05/2014 Master of Science in Architecture Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology,

Xi’an, China, 09/2007—07/2012 Bachelor of Architecture

SKILLS - Revit, AutoCAD, Sketchup, Vray for Sketchup - Rhino, Maya, Grasshopper, Maya Mel Scripting, 3D Printing - Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Free-hand drawing

WORK EXPERIENCE Cerver Design Studio, New York Intern, 06/2014—current - Assisted in single and multi-family design, including site measurement, site modeling, zoning study, Schematic Design, Design Development and Construction Documents by Revit - Worked on site planning, building designing and modeling, plan developing for Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition using Maya, Rhino, Revit and Adobe Suite Pratt Institute, New York Mentor for William MacDonald’s Studio, 06/2014—08/2014 - Guided students on design methodology – “open-end systemic hybrids” - Tutored students Grasshopper, Maya, Rhino and digital presentation skills Archiwood Architects, Beijing, China Intern, 11/2011—01/2012 - Assisted in master planning and finished a series of landscape building design, modeling and rendering of villas and museums for Three-River Resort, Sichuan - Worked on modeling and elevation design for an 18-floor residential building of Jinzhou Manhattan Residential Community, Liaoning - Assisted in site planning and schematic design of a city complex - Star of Twin Towers, Sichuan Taiyuan Dadi Institute of Architectural Design, Taiyuan, China Intern, 07/2011—08/2011 - Developed plans of residential buildings and built the digital models for Zhong Xuan Residential Community, Hebei - Finished construction drawings for Baishui Middle School, Shaanxi COMPETITION & RESEARCH LEESER Architecture, New York Competition: Kinmen Ferry Terminal, Taiwan, 01/2014 - Contributed to building design and finished landscape design and site planning Michael Sorkin Studio, New York Research: NYC (Steady) State, New York, 03/2014-04/2014 - Assisted in researching New York City aqua environment and designed water-saving city furniture PUBLICATIONS & AWARDS - Excellence in Academic Achievement, Pratt Institute, 2014 - Featured work, Pratt Graduate Inprocess 19, 2014 - Senses of Suzhou Ancient Chinese Garden, Blink-Magazine, 2014. - 3D Printed Housing and Fruit, Blink-Magazine, 2014. - Art Village West to Daming Palace, XAUAT and Chongqing University Collaborative Graduation Design Portfolio, 2013. - Architecture and Movies, Archi-Garden, School of Architecture, XAUAT, 2011.

Alter_able architecture

3D Printed Housing

MS. Arch Vertical Studio

MS. Arch Option Design Studio

Flows, boundaries & the canalization of space

Exhibition Design MS. Arch Optional Course

MS. Arch Thesis Studio

Academic Work of Vertical Studio Critic: William Mac Donald Digital Instructor: Robert Cervellione Time: 2013 Summer

Background pattern is generated with grasshopper by Pratt 2014 Spring Architectural Exhibition team (names are listed in the Architectural Exhibition project) and graphically edited by author

Alter_able architecture: by land, air, sea + Time Site: Lower East Side Manhattan, NYC “The project was conceived to challenge anachronistic architectural and planning ideas of process and production which result in singular unique design solutions ‘freeze-framed’ in time. Our method was to investigate incremental and aggregative processes and systems in form/void/ volume. These studies which stemmed from a synthetic design research into complex adaptive geometries eventually yielded the potential of ‘open-ended systemic hybrids.’ These systemic hybrids lead to continually generative architectural solutions with the potential to respond to sponsored systemic change via ever evolving variables. An architecture which is able to be altered with time, for time, and by time. Of particular interest in the investigations was to address ecological issues pertaining to coastline flooding and the significance of the ideas concerning ‘resilience and robustness’ in architecture and transportation. The transportation hub was to provide for an idea of ‘seamless travel’ via arrival and destination points for land, air and sea travel. In essence to make continuous the latent relationship between existing discrete transportation infrastructures, architectures and publivc open spaces with the new proposals. Importantly, the studio considered and provided the ways inwhich the proposals could alter in time, size, shape, form, space and program according to projective conditions and changes in site, climate, program, economiv, cultural, legal or even political realities.” ----William Mac Donald, critic In downtown Manhattan, the relationships between architectural forms and their functions/programs are very paradoxical. Wall street office buildings could be high-end residential apartments, and many private owned public space is hidden in between the stocks. For a same architectural program, the forms are more and more diverse, while for the same form, the programs vary. In this project, it is the quality of space or the atmosphere is the first study object. Based on the research of existing qualities through time on site, I re-arrange the quality field which is a three dimensional hybrid system that changes by time. Also, flooding concern is embedded within this field. According to the projective field physical space intervene it to show the tendency of this hybrid field and keeps the dynamism. Topologically identical but distinguished minimal surface cells in terms of form are populated into the arrangement to enhance and help realize the spatial quality in the scale of human.

NORTHEAST VIEW 6

R FD Wa ll S t.

4 6

7 1 5

ort

lip

SITE

QUALITIES ON SITE

Paradox

Subtleness

Mutability

Ephemeral

8 7

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN 4 QUALITIES Week-day

Weekday evening

Ground Level

32 ft above Ground Level

105 ft above Ground Level

Weekend day

Weekend evening

Paradox Subtleness Mutability Ephemeral

PROJECTIVE QUALITY FIELD Week-Day

Paradox Extending!

Subtleness Sliding!

Mutability Lava System!

Ephemeral Extending & Contracting!

Weekday Evening

Weekend Day

Weekend Evening

SPATIAL ARRANGEMENT

Paradox Subtleness Mutability Ephemeral

SPATIAL ARRANGEMENT 2

Paradox Subtleness Mutability Ephemeral

INTERNET OFFICE - GALLERY INTERIOR 13

QUALITIES & CULTURES & PROGRAMS Working Culture Leisure Culture Residential Culture Traveling Culture Art Culture Art display--Retail Commute Culture Leisure Culture Residential Culture Cafe--Book store

Working Culture Leisure Culture Traveling Culture Commute Culture Heliport--sightseeing

Working Culture Traveling Culture Leisure Culture Residential Culture Parking--Hotel Working Culture Leisure Culture Sports club--ďŹ&#x201A;ood pier Commute Culture Working Culture Leisure Culture Traveling Culture Art Culture Subway station--Concert Hall

Working Culture Leisure Culture Traveling Culture Sports club--ďŹ&#x201A;ood pier

Paradox Subtleness Mutability Ephemeral

CELLULAR VARIATION

Working Culture Leisure Culture Art Culture Internet ofďŹ ce--Gallery Working Culture Leisure Culture Residential Culture Traveling Culture Afternoon bar--Park Working Culture Leisure Culture Traveling Culture Art Culture Commute Culture Short-distance ferry--Art display Leisure Culture Residential Culture Commute Culture Flood pier--Restaurant Working Culture Leisure Culture Residencial Culture Stadium--Restaurant Leisure Culture Commute Culture Traveling Culture Art Culture Theater--Playground

Leisure Culture Residencial Culture Traveling Culture Art Culture Wetland Park--Long-distance ferry Leisure Culture Residencial Culture Traveling Culture Art Culture Swimming pool--Park Leisure Culture Traveling Culture Art Culture Commute Culture Residencial Culture Parking--Theater--Diving

Paradox

Subtleness

Mutability

Ephemeral

Mixed Status

NORTH AERIAL 16 6

CROSS FDR SECTION 17 17

SHORT DISTANCE FERRY PIER - PERFORMANCE SPACE 18 18

ALONG FDR SECTION 19

EAST AERIAL 20 2 0

10 9 7

1. Art Display - Retail 2. The New York City Police Museum 3. 55 Water St Parking Garage 4. Internet Office - Gallery 5. Parking - Motel 6. Climbing/Kayaking Club - Flood Pier

8 6

7. Subway Stop - Auditorium 8. Stadium - Restaurant 9. Retail - Art Display 10. Flood Pier - Afternoon Bar 11. Short Distance Ferry Pier- Performance 12. Theater - Playground 13. Swimming Pool - Park 14. Wetland - Long Distance Ferry Pier

12 5

SECOND FLOOR PLAN 21 2

INTERNET OFFICE - GALLERY 22 2

TELECONFERENCING IN INTERNET OFFICE - GALLERY 23

ON FDR 24

Academic Work of Advanced Option Design Studio Critic: Thomas Leeser Digital Instructor: Hannibal Newsom Time: 2013 Fall

Background pattern is generated with grasshopper by Pratt 2014 Spring Architectural Exhibition team (names are listed in the Architectural Exhibition project) and graphically edited by author

3D Printed Housing Site: Anywhere (Lower Manhattan as an example) “3D printers are machines that can duplicate themselves.” ----Thomas Leeser, Critic 3D printers nowadays can print almost any form with various of materials in many different ways. Theoretically, a 3D printer can print every part that consists of itself. Those usual materials are all kind of plastic, concrete. Researches are being conducted to explore printing human organs with synthetic chemicals or even stem cells. Some printers can mix different colors of one material or different materials precisely as the object is designed. With a little bit outlook by combining 3d printers and machines that can destroy existing architectural structures to separate and recycle materials, a super 3D printer that can duplicate and destroy itself is not impossible in not far future. If this printer has a pre-designed interior and exterior structure in proper scale, it could be a living machine – Housing. A house that can produce itself and recycle the unwanted rooms through the life changes of the family who lives inside. Thus, this house like a human who were born and die, has its own life. With controllable and highly customized programming, the life cycle of the family could be accompanied with the house’s, reducing the waste of vacant space and the material that build it. This project is based on my urban fantasy in which space are mainly consists of two parts, the expandable living/bedroom/park/ public space and the essential fixtures like those in bathroom and kitchen. A smaller house could be a vehicle. When many vehicles gathered, public space generated. Houses are slowly moving as well to achieve the traffic need where there would be no physical road or bridge infrastructure. When people left, the “room” would be decayed and eventually disappear. To print a new house, one just need to inflate the initial embryo that was printed professionally, which is one way of printing and then install the printed bathroom/ kitchen as need. With the pre embedded easy-tear thin seam on the wall, openings can be easily created all over the room with several sizes. To build an addition, just print on the new openings or any existing openings of conventional buildings like a window with portable printer plugged with material inputs.

LOWER EAST MANHATTAN VIEW 28 2 8

Embryo A

Portable Printer

Embryo B + Kitchen3 + Bathroom3 + an Addition Embryo B + Kitchen2 + Bathroom2

Living Cell Vertical Traffic Space Embryo A

Kitchen Bathroom1

Installable Kitchen & Bathroom Inflating Nozzle

Printing Machine Embryo A+ KitchenBathroom1 + 3 Additions + Bathroom3

Embryo Printer Kitchen & Bathroom Embryo B

Embryo A +KitchenBathroom1 + Addition

URBAN CONCEPT 29

ADJUSTABLE PENETRATION

JOINT TECTONIC Exterior Layer Wire-net Layer

Inflated Furniture Interior Inflatable Furniture Layer Wire-net Layer Exterior Layer

Interior Inflatable Furniture Layer Sealing Adhesive Layer

GROWING ON CONVENTIONAL BUILDINGS

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Embryo B K003 B003 K003 B003

Embryo B Plan

Embryo B

Embryo B + K003 + B003 + an Addition Plan

Embryo B Section

Embryo B + K003 + B003 + an Addition

Embryo B + K003 + B003 + an Addition Plan

K = Kitchen, B = Bathroom 32

Addition

KB001 Embryo A Addition B003 Embryo A Plan

Embryo A+ KB001 + 3 Additions + B003 Addition

Embryo A+ KB001 + 3 Additions + B003 Plan

Embryo A Section

Embryo A

Embryo A+ KB001 + 3 Additions + B003 Section

EMBRYO A + KB001

KB001 Embryo A

Embryo A + KB001

EMBRYO B + KB001 + ADDITION INTERIOR

Addition

Embryo A

KB001

Embryo A + KB001+ 1 Addition

EMBRYO B + K002 + B002 INTERIOR

Embryo B K002 B002

Embryo B + K002 + B002

PRINTED PHYSICAL MODEL 40

AERIAL VIEW 42 2

3D printed housing

Instruction Manual

Equipment List Name of Each Part Ingredients Kitchen & Bathroom Equipments To Print the First Space To Print Additions To Combine

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Equipment List

Synthetic Elastic Material

Smart Glass

Adhesive

Alloy Liquid

Paint

Scent

1 45

Name of Each Part

Product Output Material Input

Inflating Nozzle Expansive Joggle

Touching Pad

(Embryo Printer)

App

Printing Machine/ Heater/CPU

For embryo types and settings. Input Cap

Touching Pad Material Input

Material Tube Jack

Printing Part/ Heater/ CPU Printing Nozzle (Portable Printer)

App 46

For Space types and settings.

Protective Cap

Ingredients

Indoor

Interior Inflatable Furniture Layer Smart Glass

Synthetic Adhesive Elastic Material

Scent

Outdoor

Wire-net Layer Alloy Liquid

Exterior Layer Smart Glass

Sythetic Adhesive Elastic Material

Paint

InďŹ&#x201A;atable-Furniture App

For furniture customizing and opening instruction.

3 47

Kitchen & Bathroom Equipments

Storage (KB-001)

Cabinet

Kitchen Sink

(Embryo A)

Operating Cabinet & Range Shower Room Sink Toilet

App 48

For more Kitchen & Bathroom Types. For Installing Instructions please go to App or see Chapter Combining

To Print the First Space 1 Select an embryo type

5 Inflating finished

Inflating the embryo

Print the embryo

3 Install the Inflating Nozzle

Open furniture

5 49

To Print Additions 1

Close all the furniture

Tear the wall

3 Opening finished

Thinner creases are pre-printed for different opening sizes and positions

Using Portable Printer

5 Printing

Open furniture

To Combine 1

Close all the furniture for all space(except for equipment)

Tear the wall

Using Portable Printer

Exterior Layer

Print the joint structure

Wire-net Layer Interior Inflatable Furniture Layer

5 Open furniture

Sealing Adhesive Layre Interior Inflatable Furniture Layer Wire-net Layer Exterior Layer 7

Academic Work of Thesis Studio Critic: Jason Vigneri-Beane, Jonas Coersmeier Digital Instructor: Cole Belmont, Stephen Ullman, Hannibal Newsom Time: 2014 Spring

Background pattern is generated with grasshopper by Pratt 2014 Spring Architectural Exhibition team (names are listed in the Architectural Exhibition project) and graphically edited by author

Flows, boundaries and the canalization of space Site: Coney Island, NYC Canals. Canals, since the ancient time, are important waterways that geographically connect separated water body, or even lands. A canal is a boundary that bound the either side of the bank but as well an trafﬁc connection that boost trading, preparing the army, promoting irrigation and more importantly for me making cultures meet, which drastically changed the destiny of the population living by canals, cities and to some degree countries. Canals are like communicating vessels that both blending and “balancing” the properties that two ends of them have, which also including side-effects. Expo Buildings. I am more interested in the reuse of expo building. For those well-known EXPO events, the sites of many of them were initially selected comparably open urban space. Not few of them were directly adopted from city public parks. Accordingly, those sites would be easily turned back to public space again after the events came to an end. However, many of the pavilions were designed for temporary use. There were some were meant to be reorganized and transformed into another type of building. Also, some examples of temporary pavilion that were so popular that were rebuild after being demolished. The renovation or reuse of the old expo buildings connects the old time’s properties and the new time ones together, which is another kind of communicating vessels that connects different cultures from different time through same or similar space. The olds and news interact with each other time by time so that they are now exactly what they any last second. Coney Island. Coney Island is one typical place that has so many boundaries and communications due to its unique historical development. The urgent intent to communicate with Manhattan, the rapidly updated generations of (sometimes they overlap) amusement parks, the audacious spirit of being contradictory to nature are all reasons of the remained boundaries on this site today. There are extremely sudden transitions between entertainment structures and the landscape, nature and un-nature, old and new. But there are also subtle transformed spatial qualities. The unbounded beach atmosphere that reaches subway station, the borrowed city view in beach area, the architects work that has this kind of quality are exist simultaneously. I would like to keep this kind of characteristic on site. Sudden or Subtle transitions are equally applaud-able, for them intertwine at the same time adding to the one-of-a-kind experience exploring the island for visitors. And everyone to Coney Island is a visitor no matter how long someone stays. 53

SUBWAY ENTRANCE 54 5 4

Surf Ave ve Stillwell A

ve rf A

ve Stillwell A

SITE, CONEY ISLAND 55

WAX RESEARCH Pour onto Liquid

Semi-Liquid

Solid

Pour + Blend

Drop into

Horizontal

WAX BOUNDARY STUDY Pour onto

Pour + Blend

Drop into

Horizontal

Liquid

Failed!

Semi-Liquid

Failed!

Solid

SIMULATION MATERIAL EXPLORATION

Before Inflation

Default

Lava

Honey

Silk

Water Volume

AERIAL VIEW (VIEW FROM SOUTHWEST) 59

INTERACTIVE PARAMETERS

Before Inflation

Regular

Half Origin Size

Half-Rate

Collider

Inside Another

Thickness

WRAPPING & CONNECTION

SITE INFLATION

CINEMA 62

ON SURF AVENUE WEST 63

PROGRAMS Properties Form Types

Programs Scale

Accessibility

Publicness

Natural Lighting Indoor Amusement Park Swimming Pool & Bathing Beach Circus Trapeze

Public Plaza Art Display Performing Space

Casino Restaurant Office/Incubator/Studio High-end Hotel Suite Auditorium Museum/Gallery Cafe Parking Cinema Theater Store/ Restaurant Office/ Studio/ Incubator Casino Hotel Theater Park Free Market

Gallery Retail Office Bar Free Market

Park Restaurant Cafe

Park Cafe Performing Space Heliport

Restaurant Park Performing Space Cafe

1. Swimming Pool & Artificial Bathing Beach

2. Indoor Amusement Park 3. Circus 4. Trapeze 5. Art Display 6. Performing Space 7. Restaurant 8. Office/Incubator/Art Studio 9. High-end Hotel Suite

10. Heliport 11. Museum/Gallery 12. Parking Cinema 13. Casino 14. Retail Store 15. Auditorium/ Theater 16. Park/Beach/Plaza 17. Cafe 18. Bar 19. Hotel 20. Free Market 21. Rock Climbing

10. Heliport 11. Museum/Gallery 12. Parking Cinema 13. Casino 14. Retail Store 15. Theater/ Auditorium 16. Park/Beach/Plaza 17. Cafe 18. Bar 19. Hotel 20. Free Market 21. Rock Climbing

Green Hotel Commercial Recreational Freak Show Culture Related Art Incubator Parking

1. Swimming Pool & Artificial Bathing Beach Recreational

2. Indoor Amusement Park 13. Casino 15. Theater/ Auditorium 21. Rock Climbing

Freak Show Culture Related 3. Circus 4. Trapeze 11. Museum/Gallery

7. Restaurant 14. Retail Store 17. Cafe 18. Bar 20. Free Market

Commercial

Art 5. Art Display 6. Performing Space

9. High-end Hotel Suite 19. Hotel 8. Office/Incubator/Art Studio

Incubator

Hotel

10. Heliport 12. Parking Cinema 16. Park/Beach/Plaza

Parking Green

PROGRAM STRATEGY

Basic Zoning

Organically Mixed

Inner space could be saved by exterior green space

Inner openings allow natural lights and eco-system of green space penetrate

GREEN SHELL

CIRCULATION

Train Visitor by Train

Vehicle

Green public space wrapping other programs

TOP OF HOTEL & RETIAL 67

PROGRAM RELATIONSHIPS & PROGRAM ARRANGEMENT RULES

Subtle Boundary

Sudden Boundary

13. Casino Entrance

16. Main Entrance 19. Hotel Lobby 8. Side Show School

11. Side Show Museum

19. Hotel

11. Side Show Museum Entrance

14. Souvenirs Store 16. Four Seasons Garden 3. Circus

13. Casino

18. Bar 16. Side show school Entrance 16. Artificial Bathing Beach 18. Bar 14. Retail Store

13. Casino VIP Room 21. Rock Climbing

17. Cafe 1. Swimming Pool 2. Indoor Amusement Park

1. Artificial Bathing Beach 2. Indoor Amusement Park 3. Circus

5. Art Display

9. High-end Hotel Suite

13. Casino

17. Cafe

6. Performing Space

10. Heliport

14. Retail Store

18. Bar

7. Restaurant

11. Museum/Gallery

15. Auditorium/ Theater

19. Hotel

4. Trapeze

8. Office/Incubator/Art Studio

12. Parking Cinema

16. Park/Beach/Plaza

20. Free Market 21. Rock Climbing

3. Circus

14. Retail Store 4. Trapeze 15. Theater

11. Museum/Gallery

19. Hotel 17. Cafe

21. Rock Climbing

16. Park/Beach/Plaza

20. Free Market 20. Free Market

18. Bar 20. Free Market

8. Incubator

13. Casino

18. Bar 13. Casino

8. Incubator 18. Bar

8. Art Studio

13. Casino

1. Artificial Bathing Beach

17. Cafe

19. Hotel

9. High-end Hotel Suite

12. Parking Cinema

1. Swimming Pool

2. Indoor Amusement Park

1 - 1 SECTION

2 - 2 SECTION 70

3 2

10 1 9 11

12 8

6 4 5 7

1 8

19 15

17 20

1. Hall 2. Parking 3. Casino Inn 4. Private Caisno 5. Casino Bar 6. Interior/Artificial Sun Bathing Beach 7. Swimming Pool 8. Public Park 9. Sideshow Museum Exhibition 10. Sideshow Museum Cafe 11. Sideshow School 12. Sideshow Museum Show Room 13. Circus 14. Climbing Club 15. Retail 16. Cinema 17. Hotel 18. Free Market 19. Incubator/Studio/Office 20. Interior Amusement Park

2ND FLOOR PLAN 71

AERIAL VIEW ( FROM NORTH TO SOUTH) 72

PROTOTYPE MODEL PHOTOS 74

“Canals: a tubular anatomical passage or channel; an artiﬁcial waterway for navigation or for draining or irrigating land.” --Webster’s Dictionary Canals have always been striking lines on the land. Whenever and wherever there is a canal, there would be cities boosting, economy prosperity, cultures integration and somehow declining of them all somewhere else. The Grand Canal in China and the Canal Istanbul are representative ones whose digging (will) have great inﬂuence to their countries or even the whole world, which some of them are similar but some of them are on different aspects.

It was in Song Dynasty(960-1279) that the Grand Canal stimulated most economy activities and commercial proﬁts when Kaifeng, a city has waterway and water city gate, was the capital and pound lock was invented that solve the problem of shipping to higher elevation.

ia Hungary Romania

Croatia

Even though the Grand Canal connects south and north merging the water bodies and cultures, the eco-systems along the canal still keep their identities so as the cultures. First of all, because of the topographic ups and downs, there are four important watersheds that divide canal into 4 sections. When it comes to the watershed, the stream runs into opposite directions. So some sections pollutions problem will spread to nearby same stream direction water, but some won’t. Also, if taking a boat ﬂoating along the canal, the culture scenery would be drastically different. Some sections are indulged in subtle and delicate south culture whereas some are gradually presenting straightforward but majestic north culture. The culture scenery could be sensed from the buildings of by the canal, the designs of boats, the shipping industrial on the water and the roaring voice from the throats of barge haulers. Two adjacent cultures barely extremely distinguished to each other, they must be inﬂuenced by each other even for the two on opposite sides of cultural “watersheds”. This kind of situation interests me that amount of diverse enough elements mixed together, but keeping some of their own identities by forming a new existence that have the traced of surrounding ones. On Coney Island, it is the similar circumstance but in different time span and spatial scale. Turkey has a strait that connects the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, but they proposed another connection, Kanal Istanbul. The purpose is to reduce the stress on the strait and having a safer and separate waterway for certain types of vessels.

Russia

ov.

Bos. & Herz.

Black Sea

Serb. & Mont. Burgas

Bulgaria Bosphorus

Maced. Alexandroupolis

Albania

Istanbul Ankara

Turkey

Greece

Aegean Sea

Syria

Lebanon Iraq Mediterranean Sea

1893 Chicago Expo was located by Michigan Lake and made full use of water. The master plan structure can be regarded as water contain green land (or public space like lawn and plaza) that wrap expo exhibition building. As the sea level rising, taking the future “water world” scenario into consideration is inevitable. According to a website that imitating the ﬂooded situation 100 years later, there would be only 3 isolated islands left on Coney Island. If the property of Coney Island would be a place of interest, showing the most advanced technologies especially on entertainment and freak show culture as it was 100 year ago, can we think of it as a huge expo park on water like 1893 Chicago Expo? The water to landscape to expo building form mode could be a possible prototype for future Coney Island.

As early as AC486, people start to connect two water bodies, the Yangtze River and Huai River, which is the predecessor of the Grand Canal. Early inland trading was promoted and also, the canal prepared emperors the supplements for wars, thus different cultures cross mountains and waters to meet no matter through frequent trading or wars. Afterwards, as the changing of the capitals, the canal waterway changed, extended, strengthened and abandoned accordingly, forming the longest canal ever starting from Beijing to Hangzhou whose total length is over 1,794 km. However, nowadays some parts of the Canal have lost its function of transportation but become a pure landscape element and some sections are just source of polluted environment. open

closed upper level

water flow lock area lower level

closed

water flow

closed

open

water flow

In addition, this new connection would spur the economy growth during the construction era and afterwards. By the time there will be two new satellite cities for Istanbul with “Manhattan-like” skyscrapers commercial districts and high-end villa residential districts since the canal brings not only the shortcut of trading but enjoyable river scenery. The site I picked on Coney Island is the route starting from the train station to the Boardwalk on beach, which is a must get through area for most visitors. On the cross of Stillwell Avenue and Surf Avenue, locate gift shops and popular franchises. One of them is Nathan’s restaurant that originated there where hot dogs originated. There are hot dogs eating competitions every year right outside the restaurant, which I can see more activity potentials and the potential that this route would be re-organized to revitalize this more or less desolated land.

Together with another grand event at that era, the 1896 Summer Olympics, the Chicago Expo and Coney Island in early 1990s are comparable in two respects. One is that they were all huge in scale. Every hour, the number of participated people was almost approximately 6000-7000, which shows that they were great successes during that time. The other is that many temporal or permanent buildings were built specially for the events for a certain short period of time (Coney Island buildings might be supposed to last longer) and there came the problem of how to manage the buildings remained. Most buildings played important roles in Chicago Expo even those temporary ones were taken advantages of by adjusting the program, renovation, been moved and so on. Because they had different scales and made of different materials, they could be easily transformed into gallery, private library or moved and rebuild. The Stadium of the I

Olympics had held numbers of performances, modern athletic games and concerts. As Bernard Tschumi said in his book “Architecture and Disjunction” and I quote: “As a whole, these texts reiterate that architecture is never autonomous, never pure form, and, similarly, that architecture is not a matter of style and cannot be reduced to a language... But these texts refuse the simplistic relation by which form follows function, or use, or socioeconomics. In contrast, they argue that in contemporary urban society, any causeand-effect relationship between form, use, function and socioeconomic structure has become both impossible and obsolete.”1

Surf Avenue and Boardwalk. Walking along the Boardwalk is no difference to appreciating a piece of barbola art work, through which the decaying of parts of history can be observed and the sprouts of sections of Coney Island culture can be foreseen as well. Despite the remains due to time axis, the harmonious and inharmonious activities are going on too. I call all of the disjunctions and joints sudden and subtle moments on Coney Island. Those mass elements, when meet, boundaries exist. Sometimes, the boundary is quite clear such as a farming field directly adjacent to a historical building, the Children’s Restaurant, the hard line edge between recreational facilities and landscape, a piece of suddenly cut-off wall, the rolling sink building and the parking lot that does not serve for the building, the abruptly raised steel tower, the unexpectedly exist artificial coconut trees in a beautiful beach scene, etc. While, some boundaries are too subtle that you can only feel something but cannot tell how exactly the transformation happen like a Surf Rescue’s watch chair and umbrella at the exit of subway station, the decorations on the wall of the station about monsters and Ferris wheel that exaggerate the freak and leisure atmosphere latter on, the borrowed view from the city while having hot dogs by the beach, the penetrated Atlantic Ocean view though the pavilion, the hided and turning entrance of aquarium entrance, the “Paul’s Daughter” ice-cream shop from which you can see a half face of the curious Ferris wheel and so on. In the early research step, I tried to strengthen those moments via hair dynamic. First of all, find out all the sudden and subtle moments on site. For the moments that have same property, sudden or subtle, they may have different intensity. Thus, a map of sudden and subtle moments can be drawn. Then, according to the existing moments map, adjust the moments field by designing the events and activities on site. There mainly three maneuvers to affect the existing conditions, adding a sudden/ subtle point, deleting a sudden/subtle point or change the intensity of that point.

Coney Island, a pioneer laboratory for people who seek novelty represented for the most advanced entertainment culture since late 19th century and started declined in 1960s right after its summit era. Looking back the history of Coney Island, there was nothing that was not one-of-the-kind. The horse riding facility brought people vivid experience of riding real horses, which could be professional master piece of entertainment. Later on, the in the Luna Park, people could go straight up in air and ﬂoat in outer space. Also in Dreamland, visitors of all classes enjoyed themselves in this new recreational world. There was nothing that didn’t exist, which the real world had surpassed people’s wildest dreams. Elephant shaped hotel, artiﬁcial sun lighting that provide visitors sun-bathing in evening, all kinds of freak/side shows, aquarium and babies in incubators as attractions were just one of the regular program on this wonder land. Hot dogs were invented in 1916 for those who spent a long day on beach to stuff their stomach. There was once casino was proposed to revitalize this land after the decay in 1960s, but for all kinds of reasons, gambling did not become legal in Coney and the land for casino just left vacant. A new small scaled recreational theme park with roller coasters reopened near the original Luna Park site. The aquarium is still there. The Coney Island museum striving to defend the honor of freak show culture through performing and educating existed 3 decades ago. In addition, Coney is now the home of Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball team. The Nathan’s hot dog eating competitions are held annually. However, it seems like that Coney Island cannot revive its past glory. Many vacant lots become the parking lots for sea birds of the bed for weeds. Through the near 100 years, Coney Island has boosted, suffered, and carried too much. At present, there are many historical remains on the island especially along Stillwell avenue beginning with the train station,

There are two properties of canals that I want to put emphasis on, one is its socioeconomic impacts, the other is its connectivity that connect and merge different water bodies but at the same time exhibit all properties of distinguished water bodies in the way they were highly intertwined. As for the second property of canals, activities should be mixed like not fully blended paints. I did the ﬁrst physical model experiment using playdough. Different colors represent for different activities. Lay all the colors in a conventional zoning way, at that stage, there were only sudden shifts. Then I blended all the color together by free hand, so the color won’t merge within each other fully or evenly. Stretched the playdough back to the same shape, but its texture has great change, thus the sudden and subtle moments are created by natural hand work.

Next, connect sudden points to surround the subtle ones because the sudden moments are sharp edges, like the edge between Chicago expo water and landscape, and the subtle moments are gradually experienced field that no obvious boundaries should be felt, so the sudden edges become “hair”, and the subtle fields are the forces that influence the “hair”. The fourth step would be the dynamic section, which is in general, to make the hair flow affected by the subtle forces. The intensity is related to the intensity of the forces. Last but not least, taking the city main roads into consideration together with the result of the haired network, finish the design of new road net. Hair dynamic is just one way to explore how the digital tool can express a materialized urban scale design. However, in the studio section, I applied physical experiments and nMesh, another dynamic system to generate the space condition that lots of programs, activities and cultures are mixed and influenced by each other but they still keep their own characteristics.

1. Tschumi, Bernard. Architecture and Disjunction. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1994. Print. 77

ON SURF AVENUE EAST 78

Optional Course: Architectural Exhibition Dean: Thomas Hanrahan Chair of the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design: William MacDonald Assistant Chairperson of the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design: Philip Parker Professor: Michael Szivos , Nitzan Bartov Design Team: Guanxi Chen, Yong-Chun Choi, Jeian Jeong, MinJi Jung, Che-Chung Lin, Yung-Fu Lin, Peter Liu, Sao-Wei Lu, Kesra Mansuri, So Jung Nam, Gee-Ana Sanchez, Thea Sarkissian, Fei Fei Song, Alaa Tarabzouni, Sean Whalen, Ryan Whitby Time: 2014 Spring

Background pattern is generated with grasshopper by Pratt 2014 Spring Architectural Exhibition team (names are listed in the Architectural Exhibition project) and graphically edited by author

Pratt GAUD Exhibition 2014 Site: Hazel and Robert H. Siegel Gallery (Pratt Institute), Brooklyn, New York “Pratt Institute’s graduate architecture & urban design exhibition of student work for 2014 is a large-scale installation at the Hazel and Robert H. Siegel gallery in Brooklyn, New York. Each year the course produces a sculpture that explores digital fabrication methods, while showcasing work from the previous edition. This time round, architectural models are displayed on floating platforms suspended by an engineered surface. Behaving as both structural support and also a cloud-like filter, the underside of each base was created with cardboard tubes that guide visitors to specific locations where they can look into the interior. Once inside these viewing zones, the models are positioned at an elevated street level, while images of student work from spring 2013 to fall 2014 are arranged underneath, as if projected from the tubes. The work is packed together in clusters to demonstrate the variety and organic nature of how projects are produced within the school’s pedagogical system.” ----designboom.com http://www.designboom.com/architecture/pratt-institutes-graduateexhibition-2014-floating-platform-04-23-2014/

CONCEPT & FORM GENERATING

OVERALL VIEW 1 83

DETAIL DESIGN

Mylar Fashion Snap

Conduit Eyelet Mylar Tyvek

Mylar

Mylar Eyelet

Eyelet Mylar Wood Frame

IN THE “CLOUD” PROJECTED IMAGE

TUBE DETAIL

THE FILTER AND TUBES (PHOTO BY ALAN TANSEY) 86

OVERALL VIEW 2 (PHOTO BY ALAN TANSEY) 87

VISITORS LOOKING AT MODELS (PHOTO BY ALAN TANSEY) 88

Cover: "GuanxiGraph" , 90

Maya MEL Scripting Drawing Instructor: Michael Szivos