Designfolio of Kang

DESIGNFOLIO KANGZHENG

Kang Cheng Zheng

Email : kangatelier@outlook.com

Phone : + 61 421271120

Education : Bachelor of Design in Architecture, The University of Sydney, 2020 Master of Architecture, The University of Sydney, 2022

Awards :

ALTogether - SUPER STUDIO NSW STATE WINNERS, TOP 3 PROJECT: Recognised by the national jury. Team members : Hongyu Huang Multi-senses Museum Project is selected by Dr. Dagmar Reinhardt and exhibited in Chau Chak Wing Museum. Team members : Xinyi Cheng Thesis Do AI dream of electric sheep? is selected in the Graduate Exhibition 2022 book of Sydney School of Architecture.

E xp E rim E ntal S pac E of E xhibition ai , S urr E ali S m and d adai S m

Do AI Dream of Electronic Sheep?W The short answer is yes. AIs have learnt to with our mementoes, with our most obscene desires. Like Dadaism and Surrealism, the result of the Convolutional Neural Network often presents us with an uncanny scene of dislocation, juxtaposition, and transformation of symbolic images. By short-circuiting the AI, we can use the AI to embody architectural design with a higher degree of spontaneity and automatism to paranoically re-imagine an art space of torture and terror. As a result, the architecture of surrealist objects is a mediator to psychoanalyse and decipher our collective dream.

“Paranoiac-critical activity organizes and objectivizes in an exclusivist manner the limitless and unknown possibilities of the systematic association of subjective and objective ‘significance’ in the irrational ...it makes the world of delirium pass onto the plane of reality.”

The AI can be considered as an Apollonian apparatus which presents divine shapes and forms from the dream (Traum), however, the poem input is on the side of Dionysus, an analogy to intoxication(Rausch). A dreamer following the principle of individuation can be seen as an apollonian, but if a dream is derived from the mementoes, it became part of the Dionysus choruses.

Viewer

Delirium of interpre -

tation: Invasion of the

Symbolic realm

A similar process of “The Paranoid Critical Method” to process the materials

A reference for next image, but as if playing the popular game among the Dadaists - Decalcomania, AI can only see the last drawing.

On the other hand, Lacanian psychologists develop psychoanalysis so that humans can better understand the dream and unconscious mind. What if we can do a psychoanalysis session with the dreaming AI? When an Algorithm is producing images after deep learning, in a way, it can be more paranoic than most of us. By intentionally short-circuiting this AI, we can use the AI as the collage, dreaming apparatus to serve as a mediator to describe our dream for us. Unlike a common AI illustrator, the program does not aim to create images that “make sense” but for the sake of paranoically exploring our collective dreams stored on the Internet. The AI helps us to introspect on ourselves, to investigate what we unconsciously want from architecture, what we unconsciously want from our lives.

Aesthetics serves a function. A function that can even influence how we percept our current reality. While there are people struggling to produce images with AI that make sense, the chaotic illusions open a new space of possibility. As Beuys said, everyone is an artist, social art is an art in that everyone can and must participate. Can we imagine an art space or a museum space filled with such cruel bubbles of different scales and qualities, where knowledge (which is never neutral) is not simply imbued and discussion between the art and audience can truly happen?

“Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered.”

- José Saramago, The Double

Aesthetic is the skin and texture of the sphere. Instead of following a narrative, or a certain logic of aesthetic, a surrealist object offers its viewers a new way of looking at this membrane of bubbles, not only from the interior of the bubble but also from the “outside” of the bubble. The way we are having dialogs with the art and history needs to be changed for us to face the appearing social challenges. And it would not happen without the innovation of space. As Lefebvre argues, “To change life, we must first change space.” Architecture, as the collective dream of its viewers and users, is often designed as a narrated dream. Museum, as discussed above, can explore more of its potential if it becomes more than a matrix of fragments or a space of fixed narrative. This project will try to restore the autonomy of art and its observers through designing architecture as the “surrealist object”. One is encouraged to interpret with artworks, collections and architecture itself in this space of surreal objects and construct their individual connections with the signified topics: Art, City, History and so on.

alt og E th E r

Are the city animals we see everyday a herald of spring?

At our site, George St. in Sydney, feeding nurtures mynas, whose existence threatens native species.

Also, in between the light rail stops, small businesses are struggling, as attention has been drawn to the light rail.

We consider diversity as a positive solution – every one of us belongs here.

To realize this, cycles are altered in our design. Foods can be recycled in the installation: It would go through a mill for shredding, and an Archimedes screw for delivery upwards, where the food would be composted. The installation has a native rain garden, providing habitat for local species and filtering the rainwater.

This progressive program starts with a single object, where people can nurture native floras while reducing the feeding for urban birds. Awareness of protecting native species would rise.

Multiple installations would link reserves nearby, reintroducing local species. Local businesses could join this process, providing services to make spinning a rewarding and adventurous experience.

The final step would connect the installations via a cable system. This system would take the bags only, which is energy efficient, with the help of shopping bags’ gravitational potential.

People of similar interests can join together around the business they want, forming communities.

Existing Loops

1. Mynas aggressively compete with native fauna for nesting sites, reducing habitat for native birds. They threaten other birds, often mobbing them in large groups. Feeding leads the mynas to thrive, threatening local birds’ survival. Alternation causing decrease in native flora - an overall biological declination.

2. Tram driving, driving customers away from small businesses, driving people away from opportunities - the chance of meeting new friends.

ALTogether - SUPER STUDIO NSW STATE WINNERS, TOP 3 PROJECT in Australia

New Loops : Diversity of local species

New Loops : Diversity of local businesses & groups

Stage 1

ALTeration for interest.

The first step introduces the structure as a standalone object. People can nurture native floras while reducing the feeding for urban birds. Awareness of protecting native species would rise, while this new attraction spot would draw the public’s attention from the tram.

Food and shelter for native species

Nurture

Food

Stage 2

an ALTitude for another living friend.

With more installations, the structures would fill the habitat blank between nature reserves, reintroducing local species. Local businesses could join this process, providing services to make spinning a rewarding experience that is full of discovery. People of same interest can raise conversation together, creating new friendship.

Stage 3

ALTered to live ALTogether.

The final step would connect the installations via a cable system. Instead of carrying people, shopping bags and carriages, this system would take the bags only. It would have minimal energy cost, as the shopping bags travel from the higher to the lower part more here. People of different interests can form communties around the installations, overlaying to form a new community, which would replace the present system for transportation only.

Food waste mill

Archimedes screw (composting during elevation*)

* Wheel limited by magnetic system. Through carefully arranged ratios between gears, the ascension of food would cost approximately for 8 weeks, which is adequate for composting.

the bushes

The project is an architectural design experiment, that aims to explore and develop the potentiality of a museum space, for it to adapt to the usage of Blind and Low Vision community visiting the museum exhibition.

The musical and its stage has incorporated the tradition curation of historical artefacts with tactility and sound.

This project starts from the translation of a touch object series including a Roman head sculpture, made between 200 BC-100 AD, paired with a skeleton of Globicephala (pilot whale) from Pacific waters.

The artefacts are in exhibition Roman Spectre and Natural Selections at the Chau Chak Wing museum, the University of Sydney.

S ound a naly

Head Installation

Head Installation

Karaoke

Ripple Theater: the sound of the pond attracts the audience to interact with the tactile panels.

The Roman sculpture in toga rope whispers their stories to the audience .

The footpath guides the audience to another room.

Sound of the whales travels through the Underwater Tunnel. Audience can touch and interact with the exhibition objects.

A Karaoke booth invites the audience to share their stories.

A matrix of roman heads sings a song that composed of our stories.

A song of whale and Roman comes from the Whisper Gallery.

A whale joins the choir of Roman heads. Their sounds resonate with the chamber.

Audience can walk among the choir and join the orchestra.

Audience exit the exhibition.

tactilE map of thE humpback WhalE migration

Tactile Map of the Humpback Whale Migration

North North

North

North

Continent

Continent

Continent

Ocean

Tactile Map: Whale Migration x Roman

Ocean

Ocean

Ocean

Rome

Rome

Continent feeding

Rome

Rome

feeding

Feeding

Breeding

Feeding

Breeding

Breeding

Breeding

Whale route

Whale Route

Whale route

Whale Route

- Audience can touch the sculptures to feel their forms, weight and textures.

- The sound of Roman heads resembles the pipe music used for military order giving in Ancient Rome.

- The sound of whale skull resembles the songs sang by whales to communicate long distance under water.

- This dialogue gradually blurs the definition of which language is used by the humans and which one is used by the whales.

The second model is composed for a symphony that the Romans and the whale sing together. It takes inspiration from a pan flute, that one could blow into the pipes and the pipes with varied lengths will sound in varied tunes.

The first model introduces one to the trading map of ancient Rome around 10 AD, in juxtaposition with a breeding and feeding map of humpback whales.

Symphony of Roman and whale

Trading Route

- The continents on the map are plated with plaster to highlight the difference between land and ocean.

- One would follow the 3D printed routes and press the buttons at each habitat interval to hear the whales’ stories.

- One could also press the Roman coin to hear an extended description of Roman history, about their invasion of neighbours, also their communication of culture and economy with other countries.

tactilE map of thE trading routE of anciEnt roman EmpirE

Tactile Map of the Trading Route of Ancient Roman Empire

Whispering Heads - Echoes of stories

The third model is a recording device embedded in a Roman head sculpture replica that is able to capture one’s whispers and replay it to the other Roman head and also other audiences.

- The heads are whispering to each other. - The audience can whisper into the heads, leaving their stories inside this matrix of fragments.

- Striking on the shorter chords, the audience will hear clicks and pulsed calls that are similar to a whale’s sound.

Instrumental Device : Ensemble of whales and Romans

The forth model is a musical device whose sound reminds one of the clicking 52Hz rhythms of whales and also the lyre harp of Ancient Rome.

- The other audiences will thus answer to the second head about their own stories, in their languages and their time frame.

- Then the conversation continues on and on, with the whispers eroding away and entangling to become a new language that echoes and echoes in the museum space.

- The sound of whale skull resembles the songs sang by whales to communicate long distance under water.

- The audience could strike on the longer chords to hear the Roman songs.

- Audience can touch and play with the model to understand how whales swim and move.

A Research project guided by Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Kangcheng Zheng & Florence Qiyao Zhang , Ivy Un San Tong, Leah Lingjie Jiao

S tomata f arming x p arking

A project that is not about building something brand new, but about adapting.

The project imagines a combination between the efficient urban hydroponic farming and the existing multistory car park building in Singapore’s residential HDB blocks through a modest reconstruction that however achieve a lot into a complex which also includes on the roof top of it. The second flexible community centre and the third, remaining car parking area.

With background research, three factors are fundamental to this adaption. The first is about food security. Because of the ‘30 by 30’ plan, Singapore government is eager to exploit more chance of urban farming in city.

The second is the car lite plan of Singapore. Car ownership will reduce a lot, ideally. This will make us rethink how can we adapt the infrastructure for cars into other function in future.

And another one is the inevitable problem of hotter Singapore. What can architects do more about this type of adaption and what potentials can be realized through architectural way.

Stomata acts as a portal between inside and outside : Absorbing CO2, releasing O2 and H2O, as well as transpiration effect. The design of pods is an analogy of the stomata. It penetrates the building and re-connects the relationship between inside and outside. On the other hand, in the scale of a city, the green buildings can be perceived as the stomata of the city fabric.

t h E atr E of f a S hion

The city is a large stage for performances to happen, either conscious or unconscious. The performers consist of people and buildings they live in. In this mapping of cultural necklaces, it demonstrates the connections and performance types around the domain. The performance of architecture can influence people around it, on the other hand, the behaviours and cognitions of people also shape the performance of architecture.

Clothing is defined by the amount of space between the fabric and the body. Perhaps, architecture is not only defined by the space between the walls but the human body. While the clothing warps the human body, the architecture intertwines with its residents. Together, they become the extension of flesh and bones, a form of apparatus. By recomposing the performance types and exploring the possibility of watching and being watched, the design is aimed to celebrate this vigorous performance of Sydney’s life in the domain.

Underground Plan

E mpoWE ring d ES ign :

S tudio hou S ing in th E inn E r WES t

Undefined Space in Empowering Housing

One of my second-year programs discusses the possibility of undefined spaces for social housing. Undefined space is not a space of waste. I believe that the undefined space is a place for life to happen. During the last 80s, the Chinese government build a lot of social housing in the cities Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which allowed a lot experiments about both social housing and commercial housing. My grandparents happened to live in one of these social housings, which sits above a five-level restaurant. My grandparents’ house had a large courtyard that was shared with their neighbours. The neighbours that were living above got involved since they had to pass by the courtyard every day. My grandparents built a fish tank with a bathtub for the children in the community, set up a table tennis table to hold matches with neighbours.....The courtyard becomes a public space that was shared by the community, either people from the upper apartment can even access the garden visually through windows.

When I design the project, I tried to give back some initiative to the residents by creating a undefined shared space between every two apartments. Besides offering a generous garden, this flexible space encouragpeople to communicate, and more importantly, to get involved in their living environment.

During the last 80s, the Chinese government build a lot of social housing in the cities of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which allowed a lot of experiments about both social housing and commercial housing. My grandparents happened to live in one of these social housings, which sits above a five-level restaurant. Unlike most social housings, my grandparents’ house had a large courtyard that was shared with their neighbour. The impressive part about this courtyard is that the neighbourhood constantly modifies it according to its own preference. Even the neighbours that were living above got involved in it since they had to pass by the courtyard every day. Some might put their pets there, and others might set up a table tennis table for a match. For my grandparents, they chose to build a fish tank with a bathtub next to the garden so I would visit them more often. (also keep the fish safe from the cats) This courtyard which was originally designed for two houses became the plaza for the whole neighbourhood.

This childhood memory inspired me to rethink about the universal and empowering design. It taught me that people love spaces that allow the expression of themselves, and they hardly follow the instruction manual written by the architects. It is also what makes a building vigorous.

One of my second-year programs discusses the possibility of undefined spaces for social housing. Undefined space is not a space of waste. I believe that the undefined space is a place for life to happen. During the last 80s, the Chinese government build a lot of social housing in the cities of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which allowed a lot of experiments about both social housing and commercial housing. My grandparents happened to live in one of these social housings, which sits above a five-level restaurant. My grandparents’ house had a large courtyard that was shared with their neighbours. The neighbours that were living above got involved since they had to pass by the courtyard every day. My grandparents built a fish tank with a bathtub for the children in the community, set up a table tennis table to hold matches with neighbours.....The courtyard becomes a public space that was shared by the community, either people from the upper apartment can even access the garden visually through windows.

When I design the project, I tried to give back some initiative to the residents by creating a undefined shared space between every two apartments. Besides offering a generous garden, this flexible space encourages people to communicate, and more importantly, to get involved in their living environment.

Undefined Space in Empowering Housing 1

Kangcheng Zheng

Illustration of my grandparents’ courtyard

Kangcheng Zheng

Illustration of my grandparents’ courtyard

Studio Type A

Studio Type B

S tudio hou S ing in th E inn E r WES t

This project aims to provide architectural service for a residential relocation to the Great Lakes Region on the Midnorth Coast from Sydney during the Covid crisis, for clients who are a professional couple who now work frequently from home.

Our client Sirius Black and his partner seeks our help to update the west component of their property situated on 7 Lauff Road, Smiths Lake NSW 2428, which consists of a small garage combined with a guest studio that they now want to simultaneously use as a home office on a regular basis.

The proposed work will take place in an environmentally sensitive area on a steep foreshore slope and the Great Lakes Development Control Plan and the Great Lakes Local Environmental Plan apply. It is also identified that the property is located in a bushfire-prone area which will need to be addressed in the design proposal facing the recent bushfire crisis.

The building has been assessed as BAL-29, except for the West elevation, which is BAL-19 (AS 3959 Construction of buildings in bushfire-prone areas).