? Trial and Error in architecture and interior design
Pei Ying Chen
“WHAT IF?”
CHAPTER 01
THREE STAGES
CHAPTER 02
REFRESH
CHAPTER 03
WORK PROJECTS
CHAPTER 04 - Short thesis
WHEN MEMORIES BECOME THE CONSTRUCTION PRINCIPLE IN THIS WORLD.
CHAPTER 01
THREE STAGES Individual project Graduate design project Autum 2018 - Summer 2019.
It has been thousands of years since the earliest space for performing art appeared, the way artists perform have evolved through time, however, the form of the theatres/ opera houses remain the same .(designing amongst Proscenium Arch, Center Stage, thrust stage etc. ) Three stages, a place where redefine how a performing space can be. It helps to ameliorate the obstacles artists and performing art industry in Taiwan facing nowadays, at the same time, post the new space that can evolove with the performings, and study how space can affect performance. Taichung City, according to the data from the national performing art industry researches, it shows that this a city with full of potentials for developing performing arts, especially around “Chin-Mei ” park lane, it is always on art events and surrounding by various art-related institutions, museums and markets which are more likely to attract people who might be interested in performing arts.
However, the artists in Taichung are facing several issues today, people tend to focus more on famous troupes that perform internationally, causing those smaller troupes to have fewer chances to be seen. Besides the traditional ways of increasing the popularity of people who attend performing art events, it is crucial to inspire both audience and artist with the thought of evolving of performing arts. Thus, Three Stages is an architecture that can help to introduce performing art, letting people have more opportunities to engage in it, to increase the population of individuals who can start to learn to appreciate and understand performing arts, even be a place where helps to develop a new form of performing, and also helping this area extend the horizon direction of art spaces and activities, make the art events be even more widely spread in this area.
Background Taichung is a city in which culture and performing art activities increase each year, and the citizens with the ability to afford extra leisure activities. The numbers of performers raised, however the income of them doesn’t increase which means there are actually many performanc es lack of audience. The composition of audiences can be separated into three different groups - Heavy watchers, medium watchers, and light watchers. The proportion of heavy watchers is the highest, and light watchers is the lowest, which means the income of small to medium troupes rely on established customer base who already watch performing arts. Thus, it’s important to widen the audience in order to maintain a stable income.* The reasons for the bottleneck of Taichung’s arts performance correspond to my topic, which related to Three Stages- Education Stage, Performing Stage, and Evolving Stage.
Site Analysis
west
national art museum
morden art museum shopping centre night market
science museum old city hall
civic square
art market
national theatre
city hall
university
shopping centre night market
main station
green belt
art market
Youth Family Officer Couple Single 1
attending art events
2
sports/ exercises
3
4
relax/ chilling
5
6
picnic
7
8
9
10
appreciating street arts
11
12
13
shopping
14
15
16
dinning
17
18
19
hanging out
20
21
22
23
walking dog
* Considering the limited pages, the data from the gov won’t be shown in this protfolio.
24
Digrams site
Commercial spaces are mostly located beside the main roads, residential spaces, however, are located in the alleys or behind the shops.
Temputure in each months (2017.10 - 2018.10)
average highest lowest
Attempt 5
Wind direction (2017 )
35 30 25 20
Art activities around here are mostly spread around CMP Block Museum of Arts, moreover, there is National Opera House at North, Shen Ji New Village, National Museum and Fantasystory Green Ray Project at South, and Calligraphy Greenway at South East.
Noise
Populous boisterous places. Street artists
Apr
Feb
15
Edge
Jun
The edges are bounded by plants, with both landscape and space dividing functions.
10 5
0
Aug
Oct
Height Levels
Dec
Guiding people in by landscape and building massing.
Space Nodes Intertwining the building withthe exterior landscape, to present the outdoor educational stages.
Edge
Digrams
Height Levels
Space Nodes (stages)
Most part of the architecture was designed to be half underground to enhance sound-proofing. and room temperature cooling without completely blocked out the sunlight.
F
vertical circulation evolving stage performing stage, virtical flow 2 performers’ lounge
waiting area
G
A
E
B
virtical indoor education stage, art event information centre, reading area, vertical flow 1 C
adjustable light well
Attempt 6
Education Stages
outdoor education stage
h
D
entrence
adjustable light well
RFL
layered rooftop
A
D
Attempt 2
Attempt 1 The civic square is the most populous boisterous part in this area, Education Stage is located at outdoors and the first space in the architecture to welcome people from the civic square, modern museum, Eslite Bookstore and connects with other street artists around the around. Stages like Performing Stage and Evolving Stage are located in the half underground space to keep the performing quality
After observing how to allow people to enter the base naturally, it was decided to use the shapes to create suggestive guidance and the gathering of people caused by the activity's node to attract more people to enter the base. Together with the configuration of the landscape, the flow of people on the site can be enhanced.
G
F
B
Performing Stages
E
Attempt 3
1FL-B1 A B C D E F G I
Virtical performing spcae and sight line
Flows create gathering space
Connact indoor and outdoor
Flexible architecture for performance
Easily-approachable space
C
Counter Information zone Waiting area Toilet Speech area Stroage / mechanical room Unloading Zone Lounge
Evolving Stages Outer Sidewalk.
Direction of pedestrian flow from the shape of building.
A two-level guide generated from the original recessed area.
Height variation and material division.
Plants Location
E
C
D
H G
FF
B2
Attempt 4 B
J
H
B C D E F G H I J
Information zone Waiting area Toilet Speech area Stroage / mechanical room Unloading Zone Practice rooms Lounge Shower
Education Stages
Performing Stage
-AuidencePeople tend to focus on famous Taiwanese troupes that perform internationally. The smaller local troupes who stayed in Taiwan seem to have a lesser chance to be seen. Education stages might cultivate a higher audience population and letting them start
from what is approachable, understanding the language in performing art might create chances for those troupes to be notcied, increase overall people’s average artistic level, and bost the population of people who attend art events.
Performing Stage,on the other hand, is to ameliorate the problem of lack of performance venues and rehearsal space caused by the lack of small and medium-sized performance space in Taichung, at the same time, giving the fixability of adjusting some certain part of equipments in the space.
Example combinations
Elements Stairs
Indoor performing stages
Supports (frames)
Seats
Type 1
vision
Type 2
back stage 1fl&2fl Evolving Stage
unloading
auidance
Type 3
Indoor performing stages
performance
back stage
Type 4
Outdoor performing stagesstages Type 5
Type 6
Indoor performing stages
Outdoor performing stages
Outdoor performing stages
-PerformersEducation Stages can also provide an opportunity for performing artists to practice and develop their own strength and performance tension. Many domestic performing arts groups have built up their own popularity through this way.
Evolving Stage
Other Spaces
Evolving Stage is an experimental theatre for creating new performances and expanding markets. It enables groups to create new performances and win government subsidies at the same time (the main source of funds). This space explores what changes will be brought out to the performance by the stages different from the past, with extremly high fixability, allow proformers to create a space that fits their all movenments and visual angles needs, and letting people to join the performing art with completely new experiences.
Spaces like information zone, main corridor, and the chosen of materials helps people build up the mood for art and provide the informations people need, while practice rooms, lounges and certain materials provide the spaces for artists’ needs.
Main corridor
Materials
Examples of different forms : Stage units
Sandwich glass
Calcium silicate (Pantone 11-0601TCX)
Shaped PVC layered with light blue mesh fabric
Shaped PVC layered with yellow mesh fabric
Shaped PVC layered with light blue mesh fabric
Layered by shock absorber pads and sound deadening paint
Layered by shock absorber pads and fireproof acoustic carpet
Furnitures Floor: oak floor with shock absorber pads underneath
Thin layer of White concrete painted on polished concrete
Polished concrete
H-beam baked paint (Pantone 13-0752 TCX ) (Pantone 13-4308 TCX )
shock absorber pads
Units : Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Type 4
Information zone
Lounge
Virtical flow 2
Practice rooms
Type 5
Sunlight will be able to enter the room when the door opened.
CHAPTER 02
REFRESH Individual project
Summer, 2018.
In the old days, the centre of people’s living in this area was the operation of the factory and the railway. “In the air, you could always smell the sweetness odour of sugar.” said by the locals. Now, the factories have become a part of the traditional market, but it’s role in people’s hearts remains. However, the sanitary and city renovation have became one of the major probelms of conservation. “This is where we live, without these architectures and the markets, we lost the centre of our living.” The factories were established in the early days of the Japanese Imperial Period to support the work of the Imperial Sugar Factory, and milling/storage of rice. It is one of the most important historical places in Taichung city. Taichung city conserves the largerst number of historical buildings from the Japan Imperial Period in Taiwan, that represent the history of major industries in the old days. The factories’ location is nearby the Taichung Train Station, which
is the place where all the developments began. However, according to the new urban planning the government released, they are planning to tear down the factories becasue of city’s development and sanitary improvement while conserve old train station. From the perspective of conservation of history, without these factories, the history seems to be incomplete. Refresh is a project try to connect the necessary elements from the past, present and future, conserving the factory, making its functions emerged with time, and finding out a way for local market vendors to survive. In Taiwan, these kinds of factories from the same area are mostly reused for exhibitions, however, most of them remain low usage rate after the renovation because most them aren’t where people will visit for arts. Refresh is a new attempt of a different way to utilise these kinds of architectures.
Other historical building A
Taichung Literature Pavilion
B
Taichung Martial Arts Hall’s Bath
C
Taichung Martial Arts Hall
D
Taichung Martial Arts Hall
E
Japanese Guesthouse
F
Japanese County Government Building
Site Analysis
Traffic stream
Noise / crowded spots
Taichung, also known as "Little Kyoto", has preserved many architectures from the Japanese Imperial Period around the Taichung train station. We can deliberate how the life at that time looks like by studying the relationships between the types and locations of each buildings.
G Japanese salone Directions of crowds
Flows designed for the new urban plan
Utilise the direction of the flow people coming around and the density of nearby areas as the reference to place the interior functions.
H
Japanese dormitory
I
Old clinic
J
Zhongshan bridge
K
Old train station Old Taichung City Hall
N
Taichung Shiyakusho
Trading centre
L
Bunker
M Theatre
A F
N
D
Mid-Lake Pavilion
B
C
G E
H
I
Imperial Sugar Factory
E
SIT
J K
L M Taichung Shiyakusho
Attempt I
Elements From Past and Present
Fresh foods and goods (including non-food items) in Refresh are going to be sourced by acquiring goods from vendors in the existing traditional morning market, also, it retains and runs the traditional market in the designed area at specific period of time. Society has changed gradually, in terms of how people connect over new experiences and how they see things, after design, this space not only serve in the morning for the market, but also with more variety choices and functions that fit different time frames and people.
-Past-
rail track
stones
metal wire
old industrial light
morning
smoke from trains
12:00
evening
Content Combining or transforming some of the combinable/ important elements from past and present, and reusing other small objects from both times as their original usages again to recreate the sense of the atmosphere which everyone familiar with.
Tourists
-Present-
trailer
carton
plastic chair
sunshade
wood panels
vender trolly
wood boxes
awning
folding chair
tray
bench
street stand
Locals
Cyclists
Passangers
Disables / Buys man
plastic box
concrete bricks
Look around
Just shopping
Food deilvery service
From picking recipe to dining
Just dining
Cooking class
Cycle’s takeout/ dingging
Recipe and knowledges
Diet Consultation
Diet Consultation
Recipe and knowledges
Recipe and knowledges
Counter
Food seiling
Above Vegetable selling area
Recipe and knowledges
Food packaging and delivery
Vegetable selling area
Cashier counter
Market
Dinning (optional)
Above Meat selling area
Vegetable selling area
Meat selling area
Cooking service
Cooking class
Outdoor walk paths
Meat selling area
Cashier counter
Dinning
Dinning
Walk paths above cooking class
Cashier counter
Cooking service
Maket
Market
Dinning
Souvenir shop
Souvenir shop
Souvenir shop
scale places that’s on red paths optional
Attempt II
The urban plans from the government also illustrated the conservation of culverts as it's going to be a part of the future bike route. The activities change through the vertical direction show a delightful scene in the city both in past and present. Refresh, extends/divide/enlarges the shape of culverts as the main feature in every space to indicate this exceptional circumstance.
Attempt III -Spital diagrams-
-Culverts’ variations-
From entrances to red routes, from concrete boxes to dining areas, they are layered to direct people go through diversifications spatial experience and sensation from culverts. The colour red also has been chosen to match and extend the colour of the old train station close to our site, linking the factories to their surroundings.
The landscape is also designed to be able to connect with the new urban plans that gov released, allow the bike routhes go directly throught the factories for creating a new experience for space and people. A-1：Service space - offce A-2：Service space - food deilivery packing room A-3：Service space - meeting room B：Meat selling area C：Juice shop
A-1 A-2
D：Vegetable selling area E：Diet consultation F：Counter G：Trolley returning spot H：Kitchen with cooks I：food selling
B
C
J：Kitchen with cooks (first floor) K：Bycicle parking area L：Cyclist dining area M：Plates returning area N：Plates washing area O：Dining area
D
P：Counter for cooking class Q：Cooking Class R：Market S：Souvenir shop with ingredients the kitchen use and handcrafts markets originally sells T：Storehouse
P
J
G
T
E
A-3
H
V F
U：Outdoor market V：Recipe and knowledges W：Visiting route of cooking class
UP
I
L
K M-1
O
Q
R
S
M-2 N U
bike
GROUND FLOOR
W DOWN
V
DOWN
FIRST FLOOR
ground floor
second floor
cooking class
bikes
venders
CHAPTER 03
WORK PROJECTS Waterfrom Design
Artfiled x Architerior Architects - Artfield meeting room renovation. -Taipei Social Housing exhibition interior design, assistant curating and graphic design.
-National Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Art renovation design competitioin -participated in concept development.
- Reception and Lobby, Wuhan, China, in charge in reception (individual project) architectural ceiling and interior design, participate in lobby design.
- Reception - individual project
- Tumgmen Market and Nanmen Market (Hsinchu City, Taiwan.) design competition - participated in desgin concept development and sturcture analysis. Architecture structure analysis
Houseplan Group projects - residential.
- Lobby - group project.
Individual projects - residential and office designs.
-Resendentail Design-Gallery House Requirements: The owner of the house is a painting collector, he wishes to make his home fullfilled his basic needs while having a sence of ‘art gallery’, at the same time, rearrange the space into a more open spatial.
entrance
g
ery all
ay llw
ha
living room
kitchen
ga
lle
ry
ha
llw ay
reading room
- Ongoing project, Sales centre, China, individual project, architecture formation.
- Ongoing project - Sales centre, Dongguan, China, group project, participated in architecture formation.
- Ongoing project - Residential design, Yilan, Taiwan.
- Sales centre, Liuzhou, China, group project, participated in architecture formation.
Other works : - Tian’s House, Residential design, Shilin, Taiwan. Praticipate in design, in chare of construction supervision. - Construction layouts and details drawing in various projects. -Koo’s House, Residential design, Daan, Taiwan. Praticipate in layout design.
CHAPTER 04 - Short thesis
WHEN MEMORIES BECOME THE ARCHITECTURE FORMATION PRINCIPLE IN THIS WORLD - THE PROTOTYPE OF MEMORIES MANIFEST CITY. Dec, 2021.
CONCEPT What will our world and cities look like if it is built by the principle of continually renewing architectures according to the people's memories who live in it, rather than just putting individuals into a new spatial? This theory is an introspection of ourselves and our world: People all start from this simple white box when they are born, where architecture begins to build based on one's memories and how the culture, the country and the family shape the individuals. Every experience is recorded, the spatial grow and is renewed by new memories every now and then, leading to the outcome of urban naturally shaped into different characters. Thus, all cities worldwide will no longer be developed the same BACKGROUND Our brain has started to develop itself by every incident that happened in the past and connect the neurons in our brain into a certain pattern, which shape us into who we are and how we respond to things that happen around us today. For those who created unhealthy development in the brain, is there anything we could do to rescue that? However, the way our brain stores memories make it hard for us to remember every detail and unconsciously trapped in the same way of making decisions in all aspects of life because of unchanging neuroplasticity.. Furthermore, we are born in this standardised environment where you accommodate the place by changing the space with objects that you consider representing "you" but never fully describe you. We see buildings and skyscrapers start to look similar around the cities in the world now. In the future, when each place on earth lose its attribute, then, from a small house to apartments, from a shop to skyscrapers, this world might gradually lose its characters and the ability to carry memories.
PROTOTYPE - INNER ASPECT "Things present themselves to you, and it's how you choose to deal with them that reveals who you are. We all say a lot of things, don't we, about who we are and how we think. But in the end, it's your actions, how you respond to circumstance that reveals your character."-Cate Blanchett. This project sculpts the world where individuals can go back to the spaces formed by their memories, observe the incidents and possibly reform the spaces because of the realisation that different attempts were possible. In other words - enable neuroplasticity in real life. The memories-based spatial that evolved ever since, in these same places, same memories that we are trapped in, when can we be free from the past constraints, and free our inner selves? ROTOTYPE - OUTER ASPECT In further imagination and looking at this project on a worldwide scale, cities are going to shape themselves according to their culture which naturally differentiates each city, and what's interesting is- when you travel to an exotic place, even the appearance of housing might seem different, however, you can somehow still find connections with them, because part of humans share similar experiences in life, which is why people around the world will never stop connecting and needing each other. The manifestation of memory will also reveal social hierarchies, and the embodiment of people's lifes in the neighbourhood might redefine how society defines the individual. Can such urban archetype inspire more reflections and empathy through manifest memory? Perhaps class, race, and various standards defined by society as better or worse in all aspects will never disappear from the human world, but if the environment we grow up in is fundamentally different from now, and is a composite of everyone's memories, perhaps we will be able to empathise more with what happens to others or who they have become.
IMAGINATION With this concept, will society advance to the way we never expect because we all reveal some of our vulnerabilities to others? Will it change the whole concept of society and human interaction? Will we bond easier?
10-17 years old, my enclosed teenage years.
18-22 years old, the time I thought fumbling through different kind of religions was the answer to inner peace, but I was never faithful and never felt peaceful. It gave me temporary saint, but couldn't rescue my loneliness. That's when I realised I'm the only person who can rescue myslef. This process was a response to my feelings of loneliness which caused my inability to settle in the same place for long periods of time at university. The process of awareness also took me back to my enclosed teenage years, when space began to dissolve at the entrance. which was the possibility of reformation.
18-24, the dorms and apartments I had been moving around beacuse of loneliness.
Billboards, a part of Taiwanese culture.
My hollow heart. It connects to all aspect in my life, until now.
I couldn't receive love in my family, so I moved my attention to my friends in the school.
The dissociation for reforming, to enable neuroplasticity in real life
6-14 years old, the time I was all alone. Family was falling apart and I was bullied at school.
When you want to be loved too much, you will change your behaviour unconsciously and people will notice, thats when everything started to go wrong. 1-10 years old, temple fair was one of the main activity we join because of my mum’s religions. The feeling of holy atmosphere emits peace.
1-5 years old, the fish farm we own in the south Taiwan. Our every aspect of life was surrounded by it.. that was the most content time in my entire life.
- MY OWN PROTOTYPE -
- ELEVATIONS -
_________________________
.
Are you still trying?
People might think we're crazy, or we might suffer on the way to our destination. But perhaps there is no destination? How our world would look like if we all brave enough to take a leap? On design, or simply just the things that we generally care about.
This book is not my works but attempts.
Thank you for your time.