Iris Li MLA Application Portfolio

REINTEGRATING CHRONICLES

A Gradual Reopening Plan to Reactivate the Post-mining Brownfield Graduation Thesis at University of Toronto

Date Completed: April 2022

Location: Fuxin, China

Area: 7.9km²

Type: Individual

When the coal ran out, the land lost its “productiveness”; for people of Fuxin, the eight-square-kilometer coal pit became a troublesome scar next to their city. Although the Fuxin government has proposed to develop livestock and ecological agriculture as its redevelopment plan, heavy pollution from the untreated coal pit obstructs the implemen tation of any new proposal for the surrounding communities.

Based on relevant regional studies, this thesis constructs a contaminant distribution mod el and an expected vegetation restoration model of the Haizhou coal pit, in which a major portion of the restored plant species consist of nectar plants or plants with forage poten tial. Thus, this thesis proposes honey-forage production as the ultimate program after remediating the contamination. The site will gradually reopen to the public as the trans formation becomes visible and allow people to reconnect to the land. In 35 years, the site will be restored to natural productiveness and reintegrate into the surrounding context, supporting the livestock redevelopment attempts of the local community.

Fuxin city growing next to the Haizhou coal pit

CURRENT REDEVELOPMENT ATTEMPTS

After the mines were closed, the Fuxin government proposed to develop livestock and ecological agriculture as a future plan. Under this policy, the former miners’ villages (Points A, B, and C on the left map) around the Haizhou coal pit began to breed cows and poultry. However, the heavy pollution from the untreated coal pit became an obstruction to their new industry.

A: Minxin Village Construction Material &

B: Gaodeyingzi Village

Livestock -- Poultry

C: Xishan Village

Livestock -- Cow & Meat Packing

MINING RESIDUE CAUSES 4 CONTAMINATIONS

Mining residue coal gangue - remains on site. Its combustion has caused 4 interrelated environmental issues: landslides, soil and water contamination, and, since the edge of the city is only 600m from the pit, toxic smoke that severely affects people’s health and life.

RESEARCH MODEL I: Contamination Zoning Model

The Contamination Zoning Model gathers data from several separate field studies and derives 6 risk layers, such as metal contamination measurement, landslide contours and coal gangue distribution. Overlapping these layers forms a unified risk zoning map of the Haizhou coal pit. Generally, different metal contaminated areas are located on the slope of the pit, with the north side having a higher landslide risk, and zone A being relatively less contaminated. This zoning becomes the basis of the remediation process.

RESEARCH MODEL II: Vegetation Restoration Model

In 25 years, more and more nectar plants will grow on the post-mining contaminated soil

The studied discharge site was used to dump the soil and gangue from the Haizhou coal pit, and stopped operation 25 years before the coal pit was abandoned. Since the two sites have the same soil and gangue composition, the study of restored vegetation on the dis charge site becomes a model to predict the vegetation restoration of the Haizhou coal pit.

Major Nectar Plants

Supplementary Nectar Plants

Site Study Location

Haizhou Coal pit

Studied Discharge Site

Coal Gangue

New Vegetation of +11~20 years

New Vegetation of +21~35 years

Lack of top soil, plants hardly survive

New Vegetation of +0~10 years

Dominated by annual plants

Pioneer plants appear, including some nectar plants

Arbors appear

Dominated by perennial plants, more nectar plants appear

Shrubs become the dominated plants

Zn²⁺ Cu²⁺

Operation Stops

Cd²⁺

+<8 years

Topsoil Thickness: 2-6 cm

Soil Organic Matter: 2.146%

Topsoil Thickness: 2-10 cm

+8~15 years Cd²⁺ Cr6⁺

Topsoil Thickness: 5-15 cm

Soil Organic Matter: 5.491%

+25~35 years

Topsoil Thickness: 15-28 cm

Soil Organic Matter: 8.710%

Topsoil Thickness Increased as Time Went by

PROPOSED MASTERPLAN

Site-wise remediation, circulation and drainage system completed in 3 phases

The proposed construction is completed in 3 phases, starting from the least contaminated area, followed by the drainage construction and planting of remediation vegetation. The site will then be gradually opened to the public. The drawing shows the completed masterplan by the end of phase 3, where the circulation forms a vertical path and horizontal loop network, and interceptors collect all the run-off and direct it into the lake for purification.

GRADUAL REOPENING: Start from the least contaminated area

Phase 3: 21~35 years

Goals: site-wise circulation / drainage systems; planting in contaminated areas; honey and forage production

Phase 2: 11~20 years

Goals: major remediation planting; address the landslide risk and runoff issues; reuse gangue bricks in construction

Phase 1: 0~10 years

Goals: remediate most urgent risks; make the transformation visible to the public

REMEDIATION PLANTING PROPOSAL

Phyto-enhancement: preference is given to plants with nectar/forage quality

35 YEARS LATER, HAIZHOU COAL PIT

Ecological Base & Honey-Forage Production

HONEY AND FORAGE PRODUCTION

LATERAL HABITAT

An Architectural Reflection on Post-Pandemic Public Space Course Work at University of Toronto

Date completed: April 2021

Location: Toronto, Canada

Area: 14000m²

Type: Individual

This project was designed during the worst months of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the indoor public spaces that constitute the city were perceived as ‘’life-threatening.’’

As a response to this situation, Lateral Habitat re-examines the private-public arrange ment in residential towers. It aims to bring city public spaces to residents more safely and playfully. By flipping the traditional vertical arrangement of the public podium and private units, this project provides two distinct vertical circulation paths from the ground floor to avoid unnecessarily passing through high-risk public space to get home. Instead, on each floor, there is an entrance to the public side, so people can go to the public pro grams directly from their units.

Flipping Public Programs’ Arrangement

TYPICAL FLOOR PLANS AND 3 TYPES OF UNITS

In the main volume, the public and private sides are separated by a screen; residents can go to the public side directly from their units through the screen.

Residence Type C Bunk bed for two people

Residence Type A For family - up to four people

Residence Type B Accessible unit for two people

A SEPARATE CIRCULATION FOR PUBLIC SPACES

In the main volume, the public and private sides are separated by a screen; both sides are equipped with vertical circulation systems. Residents can enter the public programs from the ground level by elevator and stairs or go to the public side directly from their units through the screen.

THREE-FOLD:

can I entice you to graffiti?

Place-Making in Mitigating Conflicts Between Graffitists and Residents

Assignment at Harvard GSD Design Discovery Virtual

Date Completed: July 2021

Location: Toronto, Canada

Area: 5600 m²

Type: Individual

Selection of Graffiti Complaints from this junction’s 311 calls (sample: 181,189 calls from 2021)

In Toronto West, there is a junction that has the severest battle between graffiti and neigh borhood “tidiness.” The data is astonishing -- more than 30% of 311 calls from here are graffiti complaints, 50 times higher than the city’s average 0.62% report rate. Graffiti occu pies infrastructure, residential walls, and almost all the on-site amenities. However, simply banning and removing graffiti could never solve the problem, nor does covering all public surfaces with grass, which is what the city has been attempting to do.

This proposal aims to legalize graffitists’ participation in urban landscapes and encourage the interaction between residents and the seemingly annoying graffiti culture. It proposes instead a three-fold public surface to substitute for flat lawns. While retaining the green area and maximizing their visibility from residents’ windows, designated vertical graffiti surfaces are erected in the park. Gravity pedals are installed in front of graffiti walls and connect to a pump-irrigation system. So every step of people observing or doing graffiti becomes vege tation-beneficial and community-beautifying.

GRAFFITI, GRAFFITI, GRAFFITI

The junction with the most graffiti compliants in Toronto

STRATEGY: FLAT LAWN THREE-FOLD GRAFFITI PARK

keep green space and legalize graffiti art

PUMP SYSTEM SIMULATION Frames from a video

These nine images are captured from the pump system simulation video. In this video, a concept hydraulic model is operated to show the irrigation-soak process when one person steps on the gravity pedals.

PROPOSED PLAN

The proposal retains the original green space while incorporating appropriate vertical surfaces for graffiti through the cutting and folding of terrain.

SEEING STILL GREEN FROM STILL VIEWS, SEEING DYNAMIC ON THE GO:

Graffiti walls are most visible to circulating viewers

The multi-view oblique unfolds along the park and shows still views to the condos on both sides of the road and moving views when people pass by the park in vehicles or on foot. Green areas are maximized for condo residents looking from their windows, creating a calm environment, while the graffiti walls are more visible to those who pass by, intriguing them to have a closer look.

Form Iteration A: Graffiti Wall& Path Connection

Form Iteration B: Retaining Wall

Stable View: Green Space

Stable View: Green Space

Traveller View: Graffiti Area

VIEW FOR THOSE WHO WALK BY THE PARK

As people walk through the park, they will see the fluctuating graffiti walls. If they choose to walk closer and observe the graphics, they will discover the secrets of the pedal-irrigation.

F(L)OOD

A Flood-resilient Terrace as a Response to Climate Change

Course Work at University of Toronto

Date completed: December 2020

Location: St. Cloud, France

Area: 0.284km²

Type: Individual

Areas where flooding will become more extreme, 2050

St. Cloud Park is located in the western suburb of Paris, overlooking the Seine. Since the 15th century, the park’s boundary has expanded from a backyard fountain, an nexing surrounding farmland, eventually becoming a 460-hectare royal garden. 500 years history of being a royal garden has left a unique path design and heritage wa ter features in the park. After the mid-19th century, the royal garden was opened to the public and became the current St. Cloud park. A tramline and a highway were constructed between the park and the river Seine to improve regional transit.

Flooding was a historical issue at the park. Since climate change is increasing the fre quency and magnitude of ten-year and fifty-year floods, by 2050, the expected flood plain will devour the highway, tramline, and the edge of the heritage part of the park.

This proposal transforms the current under-utilized construction site into a riverbank - a flood-resilient terrace with an homage to the site’s farming history. The tram line and highway are elevated to prevent them from flood impact while reconnecting the park to the riverbank. The historical gravity-driven fountain hydraulic networks are leveraged to irrigate the vegetation during the non-flood season. With the flood-resilient terrace, a fifty-year flood will be stopped before hitting the heritage areas of the park.

St. Cloud

SEINE RIVER FLOODPLAIN

Flooding has been a major problem in the Seine River basin. Since a 1294 flood was first recorded, the river Seine has flooded many times throughout history, with larger flooding events occurring on average every 10 years.

CLIMATE CHANGE INCREASES FLOOD MAGNITUDES

According to the IPCC, by 2050, the global average temperature will rise by 2 degrees Celsius. Climato logists point out that such warming could aggravate snow melt and intense rain, which increase flood magnitudes (over a 10-year and 50-year return period) significantly. In past centuries, while the park was being renovated, the floodplain was also gradually expanding from the riverbank and approach ing the park. In 2050, the expected floodplain will eat up the edges of St. Cloud Park’s heritage areas.

St. Cloud Park

ST. CLOUD CULTURAL HERITAGE:

Gravity-driven hydraulic networks

MEDIATORY FRAMEWORK TO CO-EXIST WITH FLOOD IN 2050

Factors to Mediate

Context Privileged Expansion and Annexation of Farmland

Mediation

History Urban Farm for Everyone

St. Cloud Park sits on sloped terrain. With a 76m height difference over 1.1km, the fountains at the park are all powered by gravity. This hidden cultural heritage an interconnected hydraulic network, guides the water down to the fountains, and eventually pours into the Seine.

Cultural Heritage Drip Irrigation

Gravity-driven Hydraulic Network Tram & Highway Separate the Park and Riverbank

Flood Inundation Causes Traffic Disruptions

Transit Elevate

Climate Change

Increase in Magnitude and Frequency of Flooding

Flood-resilient Terrace

To Seine River

Water From Fountains

FLOOD IMPACT COMPARISON

Existing Condition

Proposed Flood-Resilient Terrace

WHY TERRACE: Flood Impact Analysis

50-Year Flood Level in 2050 slope slope + dike

50-Year Flood Level in 2050

Terraced √

When floods hit, the terraced riverbank’s shape reduces the impact force of flood waves and protects the internal features of the park.

NO MAN’S LAND

An

First Survey Completed: September 2022

Location: Toronto, Canada

Area: 262m²

Type: Individual

This is a story taking place on an urban fallow lot. As an attitude in the fight against gentrification, the owners left their asphalt plaza, decent lawn, and gravel parking lot unattended for three years until it became an artificially-made “no man’s land.” Their decision to continue has made the lot a valuable site for studying ur ban ecology and pioneer plants and comparing species changes annually.

The study method of this project is inspired by archaeological sampling. After dividing the lot into 1m*1m grids, I took a picture of each grid and stitched them together to generate the image. Three samples were taken for comparison – one on asphalt, one on soil, and one on gravel. Horizontally, the study compares pioneer species’ amount and abundance on three different ground conditions; vertically, the study documents the grid under human control and the same grid after three years of natural resilience; and the grids’ condition will be documented and compared in following years.

Annual Field Study of the Ecosystem on Urban Fallow Lots

286 GRIDS

After taking pictures of individual grids within a week, 286 pictures were stitched together to document the plant recovery condition in the summer of 2022.

PLANT RECOVERY COMPARISON ON DIFFERENT SURFACE CONDITIONS

After three years of recovery, the first survey took H5, H12, and I32 to compare plants’ species and abundance in different ground conditions.

H12, Soil, 2019

I32, Gravel, 2019

H5, Asphalt, 2022

H12, Soil, 2022

I32, Gravel, 2022

SECTIONAL PROFILE OF SAMPLE GRIDS

The survey takes three diagonal sections on the three grids and documents their species, numbers of plants, plant height, and root length. For each ground condi tion, five of the most common species were collected and preserved for compari son in future years.

GROWING BETWEEN LEFTOVER

This project was initiated to make a home for 1, 368 leftover concrete bricks. They came from the concrete facades of several projects in the same neighborhood by an architecture office. Each project had some excess materials that were too little to re turn but too valuable to waste.

Since the house’s design used plenty of curves, the bricks’ layout summarized the prop erty’s geometrical language with circles. As the circular rows expand from the center, the gaps in between also widen, leaving more space for rainwater to penetrate while re maining walkable. Apart from the designated planting areas at each circle’s center, the gaps were intentionally left blank to welcome wild seeds. Here, the leftover materials and the unattended wild grasses co-habitate, as important as the house itself.

Reusing Leftover Construction Materials in Landscape Design

Professional Work at JA Architecture Studio

Construction in Progress

Location: Toronto, Canada

Area: 46m²

Role: Design Assistant, Drawing Production, Site Management

3 months after finishing the front yard, Oct. 8, 2022

Photograph Credit: Felix Michaud

REAR YARD PLAN AND STEPS’ SECTION

CONSTRUCTED FRONT YARD

Photograph Credit: Felix Michaud

MY SINCERE THANKS TO MY FAMILY, MY TEACHERS AND COLLEAGUES, MY FRIENDS, AND MY DOG.

Especially,

My four referees: Behnaz Assadi, Simon Rabyniuk, Fadi Masoud, Derek Liddington; When I initially decided to apply, I didn’t expect could get such recommendations.

And people who saved my sss during the past year: My friend and work partner, mischievous annoying fluffy sea otter -- Tianyu Zhang (Louis)

Ultimate Ph.D. material and star airbnb host-- Ameen Ahmed

Off-white house owners and cat feeders -- JA Architecture studio

Snowproof Korean soldier -- Daniel Hyunsu Kim

Cooper human laser cutter -- Tianyang Sun

Strongest Amazon coder -- Shashwat Pratap

My student ID landlords -- Jierui Chen, Teresa Ziyi Chen, Kiana Xingtian Gong, and Larissa Lok-tin Ho

My last-minute thesis saver -- Ariadne Kaperonis-Bountris

My model picture picker -- Maria Xuhan Wang