Portfolio Jianing Zhang
Works 2016-2022
Master of Architecture, KU Leuven Email: jianingzhang432@gmail.com
Works 2016-2022
Master of Architecture, KU Leuven Email: jianingzhang432@gmail.com
Date of Birth: Sep.28. 1996
Email: jianingzhang432@gmail.com Tel: +86-18813296905
KU Leuven | Brussels, Belgium (Sep.2019-Jun. 2021)
Master of Architecture | Magna Cum Laude | ETCS Grade B
South China University of Technology | Guangzhou,China (Sep.2014-Jun.2019)
Bachelor of Architecture | GPA:3.70/4.00 | Major GPA: 4.46/5.00
Specialized in Historic Building Conservation
Urban Elephant Architects | Guangzhou, China (Oct.2021-Present)
Assistant Architect & Research Assistant
TA OFFICE | Guangzhou,China (Mar. 2022-Aug. 2022)
Part-time Assistant Architect
HIL Architects | Shenzhen,China (Jun.2019-Aug. 2019)
Intern Designer
2018 Peng Scholorship | 1st Prize (Dec.2018)
Renweal of the historical city in Daliang | Collaborate with Jiaqi Han & Dongrui Ma
2018 Asian Design Award | Finalist (Aug.2018)
Renweal of the historical city in Daliang | Collaborate with Jiaqi Han & Dongrui Ma
2017 Peng Scholorship | 3rd Prize (Dec.2017)
Conton Museum of Craft
2017 China's Contest of Rookies Award for Architectural Students | Finalist (Aug.2017) Conton Museum of Craft
2017 Summer Camp of Outstanding Architecture Students by CSWADI | Best Planning Award (Jul.2017) Rural planning of Huanglong Village | Collaborate with Yuanyuan Li, Yujian Zeng, etc.
Outstanding Freshman Scholarship, SCUT | Top 2% (Sep.2014)
South China University of Technology | Guest Lecturer (Nov. 2021-Nov.2022) Course of Contribution: Contemporary Trends of Architecture
Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts | Guest Lecturer (Sep. 2022) Course of Contribution: History of World Architecture Politecnico di Torino | Guest Critic (Nov. 2020-Dec.2020) Participated in doctorate seminar 'Criticism: a reading and writing on contemporary architecture through case study' Work: O-office: Vigorously practices in Pearl River Delta in comparison to contemporary Flemish architecture | To be published
Huali College Guangdong University of Technology | Teaching Assistant (Sep. 2017-Jan.2018) Course of Contribution: History and Theory of Architectural Design (Part I)
Chinese (Mandarin) Native English Fluent Chinese (Cantonese) Elementary French Beginner
Sketchup & V-ray Adobe Suite & AfterEffects Autodesk AutoCAD
Rethinking Streetscape Territories as a Political Projection 01-10 02
Imagined Communities
Renovation of No.36 Soviet Housing Block in Luoyang 11-24 03
Urban Infrastructure of Brussels-Midi Area 25-34 04 Celebrating Commonplace
Market Hall for Gent Friday Market 35-44 Other Works 45-66
Site: Rue de la Loi, Brussels
The dissertation investigates the role of a street, between the materialized result of an urban process and the projection of political vision towards the image of a capital city – Brussels as the de facto capital of Europe, in the context of the emergence of a political project that transcends the border of a nation – the EU.
Rue de la Loi (abbreviation as RL), the main axis of the European Quarter, is a materialized symbol of the EU for hosting most of its institutions. However, its impuissance in shaping the image of the capital, reflected by the ubiquitous occupation of the roadside territory by generic yet inaccessible office blocks, has been long deplored as the absence of the EU’s prestige on urbanization.
As conventional approaches to state-building by urban redevelopment have been challenged here by the complex spatial characteristics and political mechanisms during the last decade, the ambition of reprojecting the democratic vision to such a chaotic built environment has been increasingly debated.
Situated in this crucial shift, how to reasonably reactivate the spatial potentials of RL and reconstruct the originally faceless appearance of streetscapes by evaluating its status quo has become the core topic of the research-by-design.
Starting from a retrospective investigation on the transformation of the quarter from the 19th century, the research inquired about the core influential factors: the inaccessible lobby. With the increasing vacancies and the emergence of mix-use lobbies in EU institutions, there remains a possibility to redefine the streetscape appearances by emancipating the potential of the space on the ground level for a concatenated city-scale lobby, as both a carrier of public facilities and a stage representing EU's image.
Specifically, an urban design manual is constructed as the instructive method for transforming the existing lobbies into a hierarchical public space. Four treatments with corresponding blocks were defined with appropriated programming, connecting the sidewalks to the concatenated rooms inside of the blocks and transforming the blocks into a public lobby of the whole quarter.
The promise of ‘lobbying’ and ‘hierarchical public space’ thus becomes a response to the insufficiency of public facilities without ruining the status quo spatial diversities, and represents the political vision of the EU. From this perspective, Lobbying Brussels is not only a project but also a system to reconcile the complexity of the streetscape toward the image of a capital city.
Zone Loi by Atelier de Christian Porzamparc (2009)
New urban design project for the image of Rue de la Loi
Brussels: Capital of Europe (2001) Report on the condition of Brussels
Treaty of Maastrict (1992)
Unification of the European Union
Masterplan Alpha (1970)
Expansion of Office District
Tunnel Loi & Brussels Metro (1965-1968)
Treaty of Brussels (1965)
Unification of the European Communities
Berlaymont Building (1963)
First headquarter of the EEC
Brussels was selected as the capital of EEC Quarter Leopald was planned as International Administrative Zone, namely 'European Quarter'.
Treaty of Rome (1957)
Foundation of European Economic Community (EEC)
Realization of Quarter Leopald
General Plan of Brussels (1886)
Quarter European was planned as an extended region.
Starting from a retrospective investigation on the transformation of the quarter from the 19th century, the research inquired about the interrelated process between the redevelopment of Brussels and the emergence of the EU as a political concept that derived from the promise of the European continent, an organization that based on collaboration rather than congestion.
It concludes that, in the face of Brussel’s gradual initialization as the capital of the EU, the push for RL by the burgeoning demand for office space had replaced its 19th-century role as a monumental axis for social activities by a functional instrument with a simple dichotomy between the interior (private lobbies) and the exterior (expanding traffic lanes).
Row houses H = 12 m W/H = 1.67
House 1920s H = 18 m W/H = 1.11 Office
1930s H = 25 m W/H = 0.8 Office
1950s H = 20 m W/H = 1
Medium Office 1950s -1970s H = 30 m W/H = 0.67
Highrise Office 1960s -1990s H = 40 m W/H = 0.5 Office Block 1980s -2010s H = 60 m W/H = 0.33
Skyscraper 2010s H = 155 m W/H = 0.13
Traffic: Pedestrian Building type: Row house Accessibility: High
Traffic: Automobile Building type: Detached Office Accessibility: Low
Traffic: Automobile, Metro Building type: Skyscrapers, Office Accessibility: Forbidden
With the increasing vacancies and the emergence of mix-use lobbies in EU institutions, there remains a possibility to redefine the streetscape appearances by emancipating the potential of the space on the ground level for a concatenated city-scale lobby, as both a carrier of public facilities and a stage representing the image of the EU.
Specifically, an urban design manual is constructed as the instructive method for transforming the existing lobbies into a hierarchical public space, based on the land-use survey, typological analysis of the blocks by measurement, and diachronic investigation of the counter-projects by social participants.
Four treatments with corresponding blocks, varying from the refurbishment of the sidewalks to a pocket-park-like accessible area, were defined with appropriated programming. The circulation cores with petty lounges will keep secured, while the leftover majority will be partly defined as an interconnected portico for low-speed traffic, connecting the sidewalks to the concatenated rooms inside of the blocks and transforming the blocks into a public lobby of the whole quarter.
Heritage/Residential Rue de la Loi 40/42
Modernist Office Rue de la Loi 84
Office with Portico
Rue de la Loi 52
Generic Plan
Rue de la Loi 80
Open Lobby (22-24m)Portico (9m)Narrow Portico (6m)Refurbished Sidewalk (4m)
Four Strategies in
with
Three Strategies in Dealing with Collective Spaces Inside the Block
As all the buildings are renovated and reprogrammed after decades of urban process, the start of another round of circular urban process will start with the integration of skyscrapers into the urban context
Apart from the spatial interconnection by corridor, the hierarchy of the redefined territory is organized by connections among public rooms.
The complexity of the affiliated buildings provides the new project with a singular spatial quality, defined by various kinds of buildings and contingent patios
Bachelor Dissertation of Class 2019, SCUT Supervisor: Yimin Zhu Site: Westbank District, Luoyang, China
Crisis | The underlying crisis of the city in contemporary China goes along the unique land-use policy since 1994. Because of the gigantic profit by selling the right of landuse, a rapid transformation of the city has been taking place in the last 25 years, resulted in not only a long-term economic growth in an unbelievable speed but also a series of social problems such as high dwelling budget and the lack of social housing, which has become one of the most severe problems of the daily life of the city among every citizens.
Commune | Luoyang is once a significant industrial city in after the establishment of People’s Republic of China. Supported by the Soviet Union, the area of building has tripled in 5 years after the planning was executed to face the flooding workers, most of whom were organized by the factory-based communes, together with their imagined intimacies. With the decline of industry and the land-use policy, most of the collective housings whose land-use rights were authorized to transnational capitals had to be demolished while the former workers had no choice but to be repelled with an alternative dwelling outside the city. However, what cannot be ignored is that such a method of dwelling replacement is not a sustainable way to solve social problems because it is impossible to gain building area infinitely on a certain land.
Community | To face the challenge of the social problems, the project is expected as an example of the new model in reinhabitation. No.36 housing block is the only existed place that keeps most of the original prototype in Luoyang, which, in the project, is suggested to be renovated to a mixuse community combining living and social activities as an analogue to the former communes. The social functions that once included in the housing area as functionalism buildings but currently demolished will be recalculated and planted in the site as a continuously animating living atmosphere.
Collective | To make it possible, several aspects of negotiation are included in the project. Firstly, it will act as a role of the welfare facilities. The property of the block will be altered to long-term reserve land for the local government. Secondly, Dwellers will take part in the collective ownership structure to supervise the committee from the loss of state assets and the budget for annually renovation will be paid by the income for renting the shops to prevent the renting fee for housing from rapid rising. Thirdly, private dwelling area will be compressed to a minimum room. In return, collective spaces can be shared by everyone living in the block to make sure that the inequality and burden among dwellers will be wiped by sharing the same space.
various climate regions. Even some regions where urban typology could diversify from the root of dwelling began to learn from the risidential pattern dominated by real estate. After the economical crisis in 2008, with the numerous profit gained by selling the right of land use to face the economic challenge of the government, the apartments built in comtemporary China-most of them consists of 3 rooms and a chamber-- seemed to become a common sense, which, resulted in a social problem for low-income groups and newcomers of the city.
Based on the underlying challenge, the project tries to reconcile the contradiction between traditional shared community and the productive problem of real estate. By the effort of the official welfare agency, the character of the land will be transferred to historic building whose right is supervised by national heritage bureau in case of demolishment by developers. Founded by the committee of the former factory, a collective ownership structure will be joined by all the dwellers following the system of the former community and superivising the block from commercial acquisition. The budget for renovation will be purchased by specific funding of national heritage to make sure that the renting fee will not be undulated rapidly.
The brick building is once the most applied model in Chinese industrial cities. Most of them are separated to rooms and shared kitchen to contain several families.
The low-budget apartment became a standard prototype in the 1980s. One family owns two rooms with individual supplyments, outdoor spaces and public functions are shared together.
by Hong Kong, almost all the newly-built apartments in currnet China followed the layout to make full use of land and the maximum profit.
To achieve the goal, the land use will be transferred from the simple residential zone to a mixed use area as a pratical example of urban rehabitation & renovation project. The functional buildings, which served Luotong living area in 1960s and demolished during the last 20 years, will be recalculated in terms of building area and the area will be redistributed to the block.
Because of the confirmity by the National Heritage Law, the existed building will be reevaluated and densified carefully. The housing units, which had 3 rooms for 4-6 people during the 1960s to 1990s, will be renovated into a minimum housing for 1-2 person as a reflection to the atomization of the individuals rather than the traditional core families.
Located in the joint of outdoor spaces, the chimney-like staircase acts as a monument, not only connecting the gymnastics underground but also reminding habitants of the memory of the industrial area.
Two houses are distributed near the back garden. The non-referential building is not aiming at making a auditorium for specific use, but a universal place tolerating all kinds of spontaneous renovation.
As the gate of the inner community, two volumes connecting the adjacent housings are designed as animating spaces for shared activities. The other face of the library is an open corridor for the members of the community.
Master Design Studio 24, KU Leuven Supervisor: Johan Nielsen
Site: Anderlecht, Brussels
Artefact | Throughout history, big artefacts have always displayed the rituals of the city, symbolising urban life and exemplifying the property of "cityness": a property that cannot be sustained under present day preconceptions, restrictions, rules and regulations - which are blind to history and persist in retaining an aesthetic view of the city as exclusively frozen heritage. The turbulent modern architecture movement changed the common ideas among people radically, which is as equal as a presupposition that architects should obey the newly occured rules provided by complex social context.
Infrastructure | The term Infrastructure nowadays mainly points to the tangible facilities planned by essential needs of urbanization, constructed in a practical manner by the possible elements of that place, inevitable in the daily life but always be ignored by architects. Such a superifacially radical project shares many similarities to the paper architecture in 1970s: both of them aims to face the intrinsic problems in the city of their epoch. As the continuity of the city is interrupted by urbanization, the utopian ideal of the architects in the radical era can be revived by the directness of infrastructure to reconcile the contradiction by discovering new methodologies of how to establish a second role to each element of the built environment.
Archepelago | The unique railway network of Brussels dates back to the early 20th century when the demand of transportation resulted in the highly developed railway network, dividing the whole region into two parts. This leads to the creation of an Archipelago in the city. With the background of renewal of the former industrial area near to Gare du Midi, the project concentrates on the relationship among architecture, urban artefacts and landscape architecture, trying to reconcile the contradictions between the inevitable artefacts of the railway network and the normalized urban block by radical operation.
Bridge | To provide a reasonable solution to the dilemma between the urgent need of public space among the territories of the communities and the lack of accessibility to the inner part of the block, the project experiments with an alternative solution different from those who are normally applied at present: an elevated highway with and for the productive spaces underneath, resulting in a highly integrated workplace as well as a positive façade adjacent to the planned park instead of a negative wall. The long productive façade bridges the isolated block to the city, protecting the developing area from the further interference by urban sprawl.
Built in 1960s, the railway system the railway network near to Gare du Midi and the Brussels Canal appears to be a discrete volume of large, non-referential buildings surrounded by wide roads and railway network, which is almost opposite to the traditional form of blocks. Consequently, the architectural practices are more or less a spatial production facing more complex context. Such an inevitable fact uncovers the different methodology of designing building in the context, that is, building in a negative spatial background rather than a positive one.
When it comes to the site, it is obvious that the block appears to be a dual scenario: the buildings near to the main road remains their volumes, while the building artefacts behind them changes rapidly every ten years.
Spatial Network of Brussels, 1:100,000
Residential:
Residential:
The park inside the block is arranged for the inner building groups, providing
Originated from the traditional Flemish streets, the triangle inner street is designed as a breeding ground for mixed activities.
The Crucial problem of the block near the radical infrastructure is the lack of accessibility: half of the boundary is surrounded by the railway, and most part of the block is hidden behind the buildings near the main road. Even though the Bouwmeester suggests that a park will be built near the Senne river, it is apparently a park, but in fact a renewed waste area because only its northern part belongs to the territory of the built areas.
To solve the problem, the architectural design originates from the infrastructure, trying to solve the urban problem by making a large-scale urban artefact: a long highway. The main productive space is hidden under an elevated road to prove the necessary demand. In turn, the circular route of pedestrain and bicycle can be integrated in the park, resulting in a accessible park with a high quality.
An elevated square for public activities, providing the block with an individual space for those who ride bicycles..
Considering the lack of inner communal roads, the elevated road on the roof can provide an alternative option for vehicles.
Site: Kouter, Gent
Commonplace | How to define commonplace? Modernity has often described as a condition of homelessness, which is not navigated to a material condition but a sense of belonging, not only through personal space but also a space for small communitites. The loss of belonging is reflected by a total fracture between individuality and collectivity: there's no hierarchy between the individuals and the world because of the transient, constantly changing world. Unlike creating a monumental artefact, the task of the project is to pray for a reconciliation between the two objects in a venacular way. By rethinking the role of commonplace, a temporary, light gesture will replace the overwhelming gesture of the vast.
Celebration | The manifestation of valuable place leads to a completely different order resisting the commonplace of the surroundings, to provide people with a unique territory to gather and defend the outside chaos together, in other words, celebration. People organize simultaneously following a routine to transcend the common life for a moment. In other words, celebration provides a presupposed hierarchy, intended to navigate a field in which human can be defined as a part of the territory, and each part of the structure clearly displays their ability and interconnection.
Ambiguity | Kouter square, whose outline approximate to a perfect rectangle, is a significant place for periodolic celebration, including the weekend market. The large scale open space turns to a flower market place every weekend, when there will be people gathering on the square anchored by the central pavilion, and the square is scattered by the spontaneous, temporary artefact. The tension between individuality and collectivity blesses the square with an ambiguity.
Temporary | The central task of the project is how can the structure system define a certain territory in a light and even temporarily way by repetitive structural units, which can be perceived as a part of a larger hierarchy but still keeps their individuality. The operation starts from a series of curtain, and the structure mimicing the condition of textile. A pocket-shaped space with a projection area of about 3 square meters, not only intended to provide a personal area, but also to have natural lighting and the purpose of dividing internal and external spaces. It is the personal space itself that separates the public and collective realms, and the latter is absolutely private, and because of the existence of the lighting port, it becomes a luminous body like a lantern, as if it is put on the square in a temporary way rather than consolidating on it.
The Crucial problem of the block near the radical infrastructure is the lack of accessibility: half of the boundary is surrounded by the railway, and most part of the block is hidden behind the buildings near the main road. Even though the Bouwmeester suggests that a park will be built near the Senne river, it is apparently a park, but in fact a renewed waste area because only its northern part belongs to the territory of the built areas.
To solve the problem, the architectural design originates from the infrastructure, trying to solve the urban problem by making a large-scale urban artefact: a long highway. The main productive space is hidden under an elevated road to prove the necessary demand. In turn, the circular route of pedestrain and bicycle can be integrated in the park, resulting in a accessible park with a high quality.
To give a strong character to the large scale public space, the purpose of the building is to enlarge the boundary of the pavilion.
The geometrical boundary of the inner structure is as similar as a pocket to provide the wrapped individual space.
Considering that every strong gesture of the market hall will affect the integral perception of the square, the purpose of the spatial strategy is to redefine the territory in a light, temporary way. The main part of the structural units, the parabolic enlosures by curtains divides the space into two halves in a welcoming gesture. Each curtain defines a pocket space for individuals, but the whole structural system can be perceived as an integral hierarchy composed by the mysterious enclosures. The leftover space shapes a contour like the wagner curtain in the theatre, making the territory divided by a thick barrier, well protected but available to enter. The atmosphere of the space is a floating roof connecting to several pockets that seems to be freely standing without any bearloading properties, while the inner space is a continuously moving enclosure applying the same geometric logic.
The new market hall, mimicing the temporary tents for the market, encloses the interior space by a series of curtain pockets.
Enclosed by an undulating curtain, the existance of the structure system is eliminated by the seats and cornices in front.
As the only space with light during the day, the inner pockets will become a red lantern providing a ambiguous individual shelter. People can see the shade of the inner space from the outside and interact with the inner person, but it can also provide privacy.
Enclosed by the 'pockets' and the 'cradles', the contour of the space is mysterious as if every element is moving from one point to the other, resulting in a mysterious character.
Mar. 2022 - Aug. 2023 (Expected)
Office: Urban Elephant Architects
Collaborator: Haohao Xu (Principal) Site: Shenwan 1st Rd., Shenzhen, China
Work in Team: Conceptual Design, Construction Drawing, Resident Architect
Office: DOGMA architects, TA OFFICE
Collaborator: Pier Vittorio Aureli, Martino Tattara, Yimin Zhu, Vittoria Poletto, Facheng Qi Site: 11th Qianhai Rd., Shenzhen, China
Work in Team: Assistance in Conceptual Design and International Collaboration
Dec. 2021 - Mar. 2022
Office: Urban Elephant Architects
Collaborator: Yi Xing, Peng Li. Ruimin Wang, Ting Xie, Qing Zhang Site: 8th Xiangxue Rd., Guangzhou, China
Aug. 2022 - Present Office: Urban Elephant Architects Collaborator: : Haohao Xu (SCUT & POLITO), Hui Liu, Wenhao Xuan (SCUT), Siqing He (UEA) Research Work Commissioned by Guangdong Bureau of Housing and Urban-Rural Planning
Work in Team: Historical research through mapping and transnational comparative studies
Oct. 2021 - Dec. 2021
Office: Urban Elephant Architects Individual Research Project Exhibited in CUBE Station (Shenzhen, China)
Group Work, Spring 2020
Architectural Technology Studio, KU Leuven
Collaborator: Lucie Pucholdtova, Pareli Akelian
Instructor: Dirk Jaspaert, Bruno Depre, Monika Rychtarikova Site: Leuven, Belgium
Maib14 'Schaerbeek 2040', KU Leuven
Supervisor: Roeland Dudal Site: Schaerbeek, Brussels
Individual Work, Spring 2016 & Autumn 2018 Architectural Design Studio IV, SCUT Instructor: Daxing Yu Site: Enning Road, Canton, China
Excellent Work of SCUT
2017 China's Contest of Rookies Award for Architectural Students Finalist
2017 Peng Scholorship Third Prize
Exhibition
&
Instructor: Haohao Xu Site: Canton, China
Instructor: Haohao Xu
Site: Pantang Village, Canton, China
Instructor: Jing Wang, Shaopang Zhuang Site: Huanglong Village, Ya'an, China
Double Skin Roof
Light frame construction
Light steel ventilation roof Light steel platform
Instructor: Zhe Lin, Haohao Xu Collaborator: Jiaqi Han, Dongrui Ma
Role in Team: Historical information analysis, Urban design
Exhibition, Autumn 2017 Office: HIL Architects
Collaborator:
Li (Curator),
in Team: Assistant Curator