Zihan Xu - UCL Portfolio - Architecture and Historic Urban Environments

Portfolio For UCL

THE BARTLETT SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE Architecture and Historic Urban Environments Zihan Xu Student #: 21136952

Contents Contents

01

01 the Library of Babel

02

02 Adaptive Symbiosis City

10

03 Children-friendly Market

22

04 Secret Valley

26

05 Other Works

31 1

01 the Library of Babel | Beijing, China Individual Winter 2020 2

3

The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite, perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries. In the center of each gallery is a ventilation shaft, bounded by a low railing.

From any hexagon one can see the floors above and below-one after another, endlessly.

——Jorges Luis Borges, The Library of Babel

According to the New Collection of Barrier-free Architecture Design, spaces with high color clarity are more friendly to people with low vision. With regard to the blind, I decide to provide a variety of spatial experience by using their sense of hearing, smelling, touching and feeling.

Background:

More and more blind people have broadened their career choices through their own efforts, but there is still a lack of systematic vocational training resources for diversification. I designed some special spaces in the library to meet the needs of different career development.

Jorges Luis Borges is one of my favourite writers. In 1955, he became director of the Argentine National Library. However, he had become completely blind by the late 1950s and wrote a poem to describe his predicament: No one should read self-pity or reproach / Into this statement of the majesty / Of God; who with such splendid irony, / Granted me books and night at one touch.

So I decided to design a library for people with visual disability based on the archetype in the novel, The Library of Babel.

With further research, I find that the employment options of the blind people are very limited, most of the blind are engaged in traditional Chinese medicine massage industry. In 2018, 19,732 healthcare massagers and 10,160 medical massagers received professional training. The barely vocational training available in the school are massage, piano tuning and ceramics.

Beijing School for the Blind

Shanghai School for the Blind

Light

Dong Guangzhou School for the Blind

Nangjing School for the Blind

Chinese Zither Player

Zhejiang School for the Blind

Generally speaking, almost every massagist has some professional diseases, such as hands ache, legs ache.

Order

Flexibility Individuality

Light Silence

Height

Wang

I happened to meet some clients who were really obscene. In the begining, they said something obscene, and they messed thing up.

Before I lost my sight, my dream was to study at Central Academy of Fine Arts. I studied massage for a while, but I wasn’t happy. Luckily, I took the chance to become a makeup artist.

Order

Flexibility

Reporter

We are just like rats staying in that small room all day long. Massage offers us a livelihood, but it also stops us from ging around.

Silence

Height

Individuality

Light Silence

Height

Jin

Lawyer

Order

Flexibility Individuality

Light Silence

Height

Wu

Order

Flexibility

Psychological consultant

Individuality

Light

Reference:

Documentary Film, Being Blind ≠ Being a Massager

Silence

Height

1874-1919

Order

Flexibility

Xu

Individuality

Sculptor Light Silence

Height

1921-1945

Order

Flexibility Individuality

Lin 1954-2012

Singer & Songwriter

Light Silence

Height

Order

Flexibility

Beijing School for the Blind is the first modern special education institution in China. The school land of it has not moved on a large scale since it was reopened after the First World War. However, the school is far away from China Braille Library. Therefore, in order to continue the history of the school and in order to make it easier for the students to borrow books, I decided to design a new library in the open space in the north of the school.

Reference:

Zhou Donghua,Tang Fangting.Christianity and the Blind Education in Modern Peking[J].Study of Christianity,2019(01):199-226.

4

Individuality

2012-Now

Light Silence

Height

Li

Audio-editor

Flexibility

Order

Individuality

5

1

2 7

8

3 4 9

5

Bird View Perspective 10

6

11

12

the Mobile Concert

Site Plan

6

1. the Entrance Hall 2. Coffee Bar & Handicraft Shop 3. Music Hall 4. Artistic Creation Room

5. Reading Room 6. Library 7. Male Toilet 8. Female Toilet

9. Visitor Entrance Hall 10. Multifunction Space 11. Exhibition Hall 12. Relocatable Cube

7

the wooden grilles indicating the entrance

the smell of coffee made by people with visual disability

2.4m

the hanging ivy indicating people to turn

0.8m

0.8m

the smell of pigment & clay

Detail of Traffic Cube

the smell of flowers

2m

0.9m

12cm 1.2m

Reference: Xiaorong Wang,《 Barrier Free Design 》

Detail of the Stairs

Non-visual Guidance in the Architecture Section 0

6 3

8

24M 12

9

02 Adaptive Symbiosis City | Wuhan, China Half Collaboration with Sirui Yang Summer 2020 (Group) + Autumn 2020 (Individual) 10

11

Background:

1995

2005

2015

Wuhan has long been known as the “City of a hundred lakes”, where the water area is about a quarter of the administrative area. However, the number and the area of lakes have been decreased dramatically due to rapid urbanization in recent years. Without the regulating effect of the lake, the rainstorm waterlogging in Wuhan has become the main meteorological disaster.

Site

Rainstorm waterlogging numerical simulation for short-time (100mm in 6 hours) Waterlogging Depth 0.051-0.3 m 0.31-0.6 m Reference:

HONG Guoping,WAN Jun,LIU Jinghui,et al.Rainstorm waterlogging research on numerical simulation for short-duration in the urban area of Wuhan[J].Torrential Rain and Disaster,2018,37(1):83-89

12

13

Residential Space

Official Space

Commercial Space

We worked together on architecture design in the north part of our site, designing the shape of our building in the form that simulates the way water flows through the sand. Meanwhile, we allowed nature to penetrate into the building.

Individual Exploration In the begining, we used to reserve a portion of the landscape space allowing for the waterlogging in these areas. My further design aims to take measures to make use of waterlogging so that the site can provide various open spaces for people living in it.

N

Through dredging and grading, I hope to form a harmonious symbiosis space between the city and water. Meanwhile, considering the differences of water level between the dry season and the rainy season, we have also proposed some adaptive strategies in landscape design.

Site Plan 14

15

Residential Space

Official Space

Commercial Space

We worked together on architecture design in the north part of our site, designing the shape of our building in the form that simulates the way water flows through the sand. Meanwhile, we allowed nature to penetrate into the building.

Individual Exploration In the begining, we used to reserve a portion of the landscape space allowing for the waterlogging in these areas. My further design aims to take measures to make use of waterlogging so that the site can provide various open spaces for people living in it.

N

Through dredging and grading, I hope to form a harmonious symbiosis space between the city and water. Meanwhile, considering the differences of water level between the dry season and the rainy season, we have also proposed some adaptive strategies in landscape design.

Site Plan 16

17

Low Water-level

Mid Water-level

Hign Water-level

As water levels rise during the rainy season, meandering waterways provide urban residents with space to spend time on the water.

18

19

Changes of human activity during the dry and rainy seasons

20

21

03 Children-friendly Market | Wuhan, China Collaboration with Junzhu Chen Autumn 2018 22

23

Ground Floor Plan

Sectional View Second Floor Plan

Background: The site is in an old neighborhood, where most of the residents are self-employed retailers, some of whom don’t even work nearby. This has led to the children unattended in the holiday, bringing many security risks. Through combining commercial space with a children’s activity center, parents can be provided with temporary places to take care of their children while increasing their employment opportunities, adding more vitality to the old neighborhood.

24

25

04 Secret Valley | Athens,Greece Collaboration with Xi Zhang, Ruiqi Yang and Xiyao Lin July 2019 - October 2019 26

27

Reporter Dancing Aunties Cricket Boys Tramps

Buskers

Drug Dealer

1832

1862

N 1875 0 10

Background:

40m 30

Site Plan

In consideration of the kindergarten in use and the city gallery which used to be a nursery for the orphans, we targeted children as the square’s main audience. At the same time, the use of the site by the surrounding residents also inspired us to make the site a children’s activity center with both cultural and sport functions.

2019

20

3.7m 3.3m 1874

Queen Olga established a nursery for the orphans in Athens.

1878

Special sections had been set up in nursery for the treatment and research of children's diseases.

1892

The Queen built the St.Anargyron church to baptize abandoned babies.

1900s

There used to be the Nineth Gymnasium in Athens.However,it was destroyed soon.

1950s

A kindergarten had been set both for children in the nursery and kids living around.

Now

Hand Drawing Site Section

The nursery has now become the city gallery of Athens.

the Ancient Olympic Stadium in Nafplion, Greece

Section of the earth-sheltered architecture

During the time in Athens, we surveyed the topography of the site and took full advantage of the height difference to create an interesting environment for children. Eventually, a Secret Valley in the city has been formed, paying our respect to the Ancient Olympic Stadium.

28

29

Frottage, Collage and Sketch Spring 2017

Basketball Court

Children Recreation Facility

Entrance of the Underground Activity Centre

Children Recreation Facility

05 Other Works | Individual & Academic Application of Chinese Painting to Sketch and Waterlolor

Underground Activity Centre

30

31

Chinese Traditional Realistic Painting: Peony Summer 2016

Chinese Traditional Realistic Painting: Butterfly Lingering Over the Flower Summer 2016

Sketch | Fan Surface Painting: Lotus Pod & Porcelain Wuhan, Autumn 2016

Watercolor | Fan Surface Painting: Image of Dusk Suzhou, Summer 2018

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