Design for Diplomacy: China

Design for Diplomacy B+C | A BARNARD AND COLUMBIA ARCHITECTURE Architectural Design III Studio: CHINA Fall 2013

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Students: Christina Badal Dare Brawley Emily Cass Natalie Jung Theresa Kaplan Amelia Kudenholdt Sam Nolan Faculty: Kadambari Baxi Karen Fairbanks (China Trip) Shanshan Qi (China Trip) Oskar Arnorsson (Teaching Assitant) Special Thanks: Provost Linda Bell Barnard College Hilary Link Dean for International Programs Barnard College Hazel May Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Columbia College Li Hu Studio-X (GSAPP) Director, Beijing Rachel Garcia-Grossman Department Assiatant Barnard + Columbia Architecture

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Design for Diplomacy > Table of Contents

Design for Diplomacy Architectural Design III Studio, Fall 2010: CHINA TABLE OF CONTENTS 04

INTRODUCTION

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WORLDS EXPO PAVILION PROTOTYPES Shanghai Expo, Milan Expo

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REDESIGNING IDENTITY Passport Redesign

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EMBASSY REDESIGN United States Embassy, Beijing

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TRAVELOGUE Studio Trip: Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai

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INTRODUCTION: DESIGN FOR DIPLOMACY Kadambari Baxi “Design for Diplomacy” was an upper level architectural design studio where in a semester long studio, the class explored architectural and visual design for engaging different forms of diplomacy: international, cultural, urban, political, etc. The studio projects were based on research and design studies on international world expo pavilions and embassy buildings, and used sites in Beijing and Shanghai for architectural design propositions for United States expo pavilions and embassy buildings.

The class travelled to China for a mid-semester tenday trip. Shanshan Qi (B+C Architecture alum and architect based in Hangzhou) and Karen Fairbanks (department chair) joined as a co-faculty and traveled with the group to Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai. While there, we visited the US Embassy in Beijing and met with the public diplomacy staff at the embassy. We also visited selected sites and buildings for the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. The largest portion of the trip was devoted to seeing contemporary and historical architecture in Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai. In Hangzhou, the group had the honor of meeting with architects: Wang Shu and Lu Wenue, and participate in an in-depth tour of their award winning building projects for the Chinese Art Academy. In addition, students also participated in a review and presentation at the Studio-X (GSAPP) Beijing where they discussed their proposals for World Expo Pavilions with Li Hu and Pei Zu–renowned architects based in Beijing.

The studio thematic of diplomacy was engaged throughout the semester by research and design assignments towards two projects: world expo pavilion prototypes and embassy redesign. The first project began by studying the master plans and national pavilions from the Shanghai World Expo (2010) and Milan World Expo (2015). The Shanghai Expo promoted the theme “Better City, Better Life” and the Milan Expo, under planning stages, proposed the theme: “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.”

Based on their analyses of the expo master plans and individual country pavilions, students designed their own prototypes for two new US Pavilions for sites and contexts of Shanghai and Milan expos.

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Design for Diplomacy > Introduction

The second project began with a graphic design exercise of redesigning passports, and analyses of the US embassies in different countries around the world. While in Beijing, the studio toured the US Embassy complex and discussed the functions of an embassy abroad with the diplomatic staff. This complex is one of the largest embassies built post 9/11, and is designed by SOM architects. The studio project brief required students to propose alterations or expansions to the existing buildings, or to design an entirely new embassy for the same site. Students were encouraged to reinterpret embassies and their (often) conflicting roles of national representation and cultural symbolism, security and openness, international collaboration, cultural exchange and economic development.

The overall pedagogical impetus of the studio was to expose students to a different culture and to engage design issues that are both local and global in scope, especially in geopolitical terms. It was therefore important that aspects of the research were comparative, reflecting on both China and United States. Another objective was to conduct an architectural studio in which designing exhibitions, graphics, buildings and urban interventions are all seen as opportunities for cultural exchange. The collective studio work and individual student projects addressed a range of topics including “national” architectures and symbolic representation; visual identity, the roles of art and ecology in shaping international institutions; informal economies and urban regulations; global world exhibitions; conservation and active reuse, and others.

Diplomacy as a general topic, and more specific research into the architecture of world expos exhibitions and embassy buildings, provided a unique lens through which students could study an international place, and at the same time, reflect on their own nationality, country and identities. And in doing so, the studio was dedicated to reimagining the role design can play in engaging cultural diplomacy.

Shanghai World Expo 2010 Pavilions: Korea, Germany, UAE, Russia, China, UK, Denmark, Poland

Shanghai World Expo 2010 Master Plan

United States Embassy Complex (SOM Architects), Beijing

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Design for Diplomacy

World Expo Pavilion Prototypes UNITED STATES PAVILION Shanghai Expo (2010), Milan Expo (2015)

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Design for Diplomacy >

RECONFIGURABLE PROTOTYPE Dare Brawley + Emily Cass SHADES OF GREEN Natalie Jung GREEN ENERGY PAVILION Theresa Kaplan WATER THEATER CUBE Amelia Kudenholdt THE DARK SIDE OF INDIGO Sam Nolan NYC PAVILION(S): LIVING MODULE Christina Badal

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World Expo Pavilion > RECONFIGURABLE PROTOTYPE Shanghai (2010), Milan (2015) Dare Brawley & Emily Cass We challenge the standard notion of the world exposition pavilion as a constructed spectacle of blatant nationalism. Instead, we propose a structure that reflects and creates multiple experiences of place. The pavilion visitors shape its form–just as a city’s inhabitants shape urban space. Our prototype is constructed from modules that are connected to structural scaffolding that allow these individual units to be reconfigured. As the expo visitor move through the site she is free to arrange these modules to transform the structure. Because the project is composed of reconfigurable elements, the entire pavilion is able to be disassembled at the end of the expo and shipped to a new site–an impermanent architecture for exhibition.

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Design for Diplomacy > World Expo Pavilion

Reconfigurable Prototype

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eames / house of cards

eames / house of cards

Project precedent: Giant House of Cards: Charles and Ray Eames, 1953

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Reconfigurable Prototype

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the module

Reconfigurable Prototype

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World Expo Pavilion: SHADES OF GREEN New York Pavilion Natalie Jung Around 40% of plants in New York are non-native plants imported from countries all around the world. These plants, sometimes refered as “invasive,” in fact thrive in New York and assimilate with the flora and fauna that make our city green. “Shades of Green” pavilion celebrates the international mixing of plants in all cities.

The city grid of New York City and the building heights is used to create an upside down pavilion in Shanghai where buiding blocks become housing for plants. Similar concept is used for the pavilion in Milan except here the grid is sideways to vreate a rectingular pavilion that fits the site there. In both expos the New York Pavilion promotes planting of one million trees in their host city.

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i ht

ncrea in ncrea i htin lant nva ive ri in of

lant va ive n f o ri in

e lant in

e lant in

or

or

oda

oda

Shades of Green: New York Pavilion

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Manhattan Building Heights

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Shades of Green: New York Pavilion

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Manhattan Building Heights

Section of Manhattan extruded for the pavilion

isto ting ie s

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Shades of Green: New York Pavilion

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Shades of Green: New York Pavilion

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World Expo: GREEN ENERGY PAVILION Algae Technology Architecture Theresa Kaplan This pavilion uses experimental algae technology to allow the visitor the chance to see an entire green energy production system. The structure forms the basis of the exhibition, serving as an active component within the exhibition’s overall theme of new energy solutions, rather than as an architectural abstraction of the exhibition’s content.

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Green Energy Pavilion

Water Suppy: Public and Private

World Expo: WATER THEATER CUBE: NY Expo Pavilion on Public/Private water supply Amelia Kudenholdt Designed around a central amphitheater this pavilion educates the public about culture and politics of water supply in New York, Shanghai and other cities. Two large walls on sides of the theater contain bottled water samples and river water channeled from the river and water infrastructure near the expo site.

Water Suppy: Public and Private

Water Theater Cube 23

World Expo Pavilions: THE DARK SIDE OF INDIGO DYE: US Pavilion for Shanghai World Expo

THE LIFE CYCLE OF THE AMERICAN BLUE JEAN: US Pavilion for Milan World Expo Sam Nolan The focus of the US Pavilion in Shanghai is on different ways to process indigo dye and how blue jean production can be turned into a sustainable agriculture based industry. The pavilion in Milan is a continuation of the same thematic.

The design incorporates a system of floating laboratories showcasing the different processes of dye production. The exhibition tells the iconic story of the American blue jean and the innovation of the US textile indusrty. The upper part of the pavilion displays the toxic chemical practices currently used, while the lower parts rests in a field of indigo to show how the natural dye process of indigo cultivation can go hand in hand with the production of food corps.

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The Dark Side Of Indigo Dye & The American Blue Jean 25

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The Dark Side Of Indigo Dye & The American Blue Jean

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NATURAL EXTRACTION OF INDIGO PIGMENT FROM PLANT

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Processing and Bundling of Raw Plant Soaking of Indigo in Warm Water Allow Plants to Ferment Add Industrial Lime or Natural Substitute (Urine) Separate Water from Settled Pigment Excess Water Processed Via Natural Filtration

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SAND WATER FILTRATION 1.

2.

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3 4 5

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CO2 DYE PROCESS

Head Space for Ventilation Supernatant (particle filled) Water Sand Filter Bed Support Gravel, further filtration Drainage Tile Flow Meter Adjustable Weir (controls flow) Water Basin, distribution

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Liquid CO2 Pump Heater Dye Take-up Vessel Dye Vessel / Textile Cocoon Recirculating Pump Spent Dye Collection Vessel Condenser

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PRODUCTION OF DENIM BLUE JEANS 1. Cutting and Sewing of Patterns 2. Prefinishing (pressing of jeans) 3. Finishing (buttons, rivets, zippers) 4. Labeling, Care Methods

CHEMICAL DYE PROCESS

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1. Materials Receiving and Weighing 2. Wastewater Extraction 3. Dye Synthesis 4. Wastewater Extraction 5. Filtration 6. Wastewater Extraction 7. Drying 8. Wastewater Extraction 9. Grinding, Blending, Packaging 10. Wastewater Extraction

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CHEMICAL DYE PROCESS Reaction of sodium hydrosolfite, sodium hydroxide, salt, synthetic indigo Heavy waste water pollution Commercially feasible since 1897 CHEMICAL DYE PROCESS Reaction of sodium hydrosolfite, sodium hydroxide, salt, synthetic indigo Heavy waste water pollution NATURAL DYE PROCESS Commercially feasible since Reaction of indigo plant, sun1897 heated water, urine as a substitute for lime Requires a mordant or a color fixative Natural NATURAL DYE mordants PROCESS of lemon extracts, vinegar, copper Reaction of indigo plant, sun heated water, urine as a substitute for lime INDIGORequires a mordant or a color fixative Natural mordants of flowering lemon extracts, Over 750 species of plants vinegar, copper Three main species thrive in climates of North America INDIGOEarly production in India, transformed to mass production by denim industry Over 750 species of flowering plants Three main species thrive in climates of North America INDIGO CONTROL SIGHT LINES ANDtoSUGGEST A CIRCULATION EarlyWALLS production in India, transformed mass production by denim industry

INDIGO WALLS CONTROL SIGHT LINES AND SUGGEST A CIRCULATION

TROPICAL INDIGO // FENNEL Indigofera Tinctoria, nitrogen fixing legume Needs full sun, humid climates, long growing season Companion Fennel, attracts insets that kill crop eating pests TROPICAL INDIGO //= FENNEL Tilled into soil to provide companion crops with nutrients Indigofera Tinctoria, nitrogen fixing legume Needs full sun, humid climates, long growing season JAPANESE INDIGO CompanionTinctoria = Fennel, attracts insets that kill crop eating pests Persicaria Tilled into soil toclimates, provide companion crops with nutrients Needs moderate can withstand heat and some cold Companion JAPANESE INDIGO = Asparagus, thrives off of produced nitrogen from indigo Persicaria Tinctoria Needs moderate climates, can withstand heat and some cold WOAD INDIGO Companion = Asparagus, off of produced nitrogen from indigo Isatis Tinctoria, less densethrives concentration of pigments Fully winter hardy, withstands cooler temperatures and less sun Companion = Basil, keeps away pests and odor attracts bees WOAD INDIGO Isatis Tinctoria, less dense concentration of pigments Fully winter hardy, withstands cooler temperatures and less sun INDIGO WALLS SIGHT LINES A CIRCULATION Companion = Basil,CONTROL keeps away pests andAND odorSUGGEST attracts bees INDIGO WALLS CONTROL SIGHT LINES AND SUGGEST A CIRCULATION

The Dark Side Of Indigo Dye & The American Blue Jean 29

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The Dark Side Of Indigo Dye & The American Blue Jean

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World Expo > NYC PAVILION(S): Living Modules as a Model for Sustainability Christina Badal The traditional model of world expositions, established by the landmark Great Exposition of 1851 in London and exemplified by the glittering Crystal Palace, celebrates the architectural “folly” as a symbol of economic prosperity and cultural extravagance. “Innovation” was viewed in the short term, focusing only on the immediate positive consequences of the unbounded execution of technological breakthroughs. Though this model persists today, it has lost its relevance in a world where sustainability—a notion of innovation as a long-term project—has become both a necessity and an increasingly potent means of establishing a nation as forward-thinking and prudent.

To address the inherent wastefulness of the expo, a transitory event which nonetheless requires massive economic and physical output, the NYC Pavilion has been re-designed as a “living” installation. Rather than existing at a single expo, where it might simply languish un-used or be dismantled afterward, the pavilion travels from one event to another. Passing through stages of “latency,” “emergence,” “growth,” and “rest,” a modular structure undergoes formal mutations to address its changing function, “age,” and location. The dimensions of the modules, sized to fit precisely into the confines of the ISO shipping container, speak to the reality of production as a complex and long-term global process in the contemporary world. A flat-cut pattern of simple linear perforations in light-weight aluminum allows for modular expansion into a deformable mesh.

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NYC Pavilion(s): Living Modules 35

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NYC Pavilion(s): Living Modules

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NYC Pavilion(s): Living Modules 39

Design for Diplomacy

Redesigning Identity Passports and Individual Identity

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RFID PASSPORT Dare Brawley FOLDING PASSPORT Emily Cass THE UNIVERSAL PASS CARD Christina Badal BODY SCAN IDENTITY Natalie Jung PASSPORT FOR VIRTUAL CITIZENSHIP Theresa Kaplan THE MULTI-NATIONAL PASSPORT Amelia Kudenholdt THE UNIVERSAL PASSPORT Sam Nolan

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RFID Passport | Dare Brawley An embedded RFID reader subverts and protects citizen privacy 43

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Folding Passport | Emily Cass The logic of subtraction and folding expands passport to conceal and reveal 45

BIOMETRIC DATA CHIP

LOW ENERGY BLUETOOTH

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FINGERPRINT SCANNER

8:20 PM

AT&T 4G

78%

8:20 PM

AT&T 4G

78%

about your passport manage card profiles

8:20 PM

AT&T 4G

78%

about your passport customize your card

Denise Scott Brown adult passport

my passport

Robert Venturi adult passport DOB 11.03.73

Jim Venturi minor passport add birth date

ok

sign in username password

OPTIONAL DATE OF BIRTH DISPLAY s itch on passport stamp list

done

MANAGE USER PROFILES

LEARN ABOUT CARD

CUSTOMIZE CARD(S) PLAN YOUR TRAVEL

‘NOKIA PURE’ UNIVERSAL D

AT&T 4G

8:20 PM

78%

about your passport learn about your passport how it works

AT&T 4G

8:20 PM

78%

about your passport planning your tra el tell us about your trip enter name of country arri ing 11/17/13

when and where you need it

and

e ll tell you

departing 11/17/13 hat you need to no done

finding the right card program

The Universal Pass Card | Christina Badal National and personel identity combines physical/virtual interfaces 47

a ssp or t

redesigning the pa ssp

Scan Graphic Identity | Natalie Jung 48 Design for Diplomacy > Redesigning Identity

All forms of physical identity merge into a new virtual citizenship

Passport for Virtual Citizenship | Theresa Kaplan All forms of physical identity merge into a new virtual citizenship 49

UNITED STATES

SPAIN

CHINA

EGYPT

The Multi-National Passport | Ameila Kudenholdt 50 Design for Diplomacy > Redesigning Identity

A credit-card sized card gives economic citizenship in multiple nations

NOLAN SAMUEL

DD/MM/YY

The Universal Passport | Sam Nolan All forms of physical identity merge into a new virtual citizenship

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Design for Diplomacy

Embassy Redesign UNITED STATES EMBASSY Beijing

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FOREIGN OFFICE OF INFORMATION AWARENESS Christina Badal RADICAL REAPPROPRIATION Dare Brawley EMBASSY as A SCANNING MACHINE Natalie Jung EMBASSY for ENVIRONMENTAL RELATIONS Theresa Kaplan BLURRING DEMOCRATIC BOUNDARIES Sam Nolan BEIJING EMBASSY CULTURAL CENTER Amelia Kudenholdt RECONFIGURING US EMBASSY: ART / LANDSCAPE Emily Cass

US Embassy Complex, Beijing, Model, SOM Architects

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FOREIGN OFFICE OF INFORMATION AWARENESS New Embassy for Beijing Christina Badal Re-designing the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, currently the second largest in the world, entails recognizing and adapting to a complex series of enmeshed social, cultural, political, and environmental issues: • Embassy-building guidelines, re-drafted after the 1998 East Africa bombings, have resulted in increasingly isolated and anti-urban walled compounds.

• The Snowden and Wikileaks global surveillance disclosures revealed the astonishing degree to which governments illegally spy on their citizens and each other.

• The NSA’s $1.5 billion Utah Data Center, also known as the Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Data Center, was completed late last year.

• China-U.S. relations have been tesnse and almost always contradictory. Wary of the precocious growth of its rapidly modernizing counterpart, the U.S. appears both politically dominant and economically dependent.

• Beijing is one of the most polluted cities, a fact contentiously revealed by the Embassy’s @BeijingAir Twitter account, which drew measurements from a rooftop monitoring device.

• The current embassy, designed in the tradition of modernist embassy-building, affects an air of transparency.

Yet its curtain-walled exterior, described as an illumanited beacon at night, merely drapes over opaque walls.

Rather than positing a singular visionary solution that claims to tidily sweep away these issues, this proposal seeks to draw out the inherent complexities as a means of critique and understanding. By assuming a certain objective naiveté and wearing multiple hats, the entangled network of entities tied up with this techno-social diplomatic project might be revealed.

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Foreign Office of Information Awareness 55

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Foreign Office of Information Awareness

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Foreign Office of Information Awareness 59

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Foreign Office of Information Awareness

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RADICAL REAPPROPRIATION An Infrastructural Intervention at the United States Embassy, Beijing, China Dare Brawley This project engages the current state of the embassy as a miniature nation state, as a fully militarized zone.

The embassy-as-bunker is not an historical form. Rather if we look back to mid-century forms of embassy construction we see that decorative screens were used as a trope to convey physical and ideological openness.

These uninformed gestures towards “local” patterns at US Embassy sites around the globe were a form of public diplomacy; however, over the course of the last 30 years these screens have given way to the blast setback. No longer an image of openness, the architecture of diplomacy has become an architecture of security.

This project proposes an infrastructural system that combines these two forms: the screen and the setback. It is envisioned as an insertion into and around the existing SOM designed US Embassy in Beijing, China. The enforced setback line is layered and thickened, then demarcated by a series of screens. By multiplying this tool of security the project creates a flexible infrastructure through which a new fluctuating architecture of diplomacy is created. Situated between an infrastructure and a sculpture it serves as a continuous monument and a register of openness—denaturalizing the notion that the embassy must be a militarized zone.

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Radical Reappropriation 63

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Radical Reappropriation 65

the most open: an optimistic new normal

the embassy begins to fortify itself: chen guangchen is rumored to seek refuge inside

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the embassy visibly becomes a bunker: chen guangchen is sheltering in the embassy

Radical Reappropriation 67

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Radical Reappropriation 69

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Radical Reappropriation

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EMBASSY AS A SCANNING MACHINE Consular Building Redesign, US Embassy Beijing Natalie Jung This project seeks to ask questions about individuality and privacy. What would security look like if we disregarded passports? A system of body scanners would gather your physical characteristics and movements, associating them with your basic informaiton and storing that information in a secure, international database.

Travel between countires then does not require a passport, but a simple and quick body scan to confirm your identity. As a result, embassies do not issue passports - they are scanning systems. Individuals may choose to either have their voice or their movement scanned. Scanning booths enable each individual to quickly upload their data, while officials across the platform confirm records and identity. The consular building at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing is redesigned as a scanning machine.

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Embassy as a Scanning Machine

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US Emba ss y in Bei jing, Chin a

e x is t in g pl a n

Consular Neighborhood: The embassy’s public face to the Chinese community.

Professional Neighborhood: The functional core where staff conducts official duties.

Community Neighborhood: The embassy’s social center, functions as a living room.

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pl a n, 3rd fl o or

Embassy as a Scanning Machine

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pro jec t prop osa l

inform ation a l e xhibition: fl o or 1 What exactly gets scanned?

Your voice or your movement, depending on your preference.

Where does this information go?

It is instantly encrypted and uploaded into a national database.

Will the public be able to access it?

No. The information is kept encrypted to protect identity theft.

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Collective Space/Learning Labs o e en canner + Offic a Paperwork

o ce canner + Offic a Paperwork Informational Exhibition

Embassy as a Scanning Machine

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s c a nners: fl o ors 2 & 3 Officer + Paperwork

PLAN: 2nd FLOOR

OF FICI A L S: fl o ors 2 & 3 regis t r ation before s c a nning

Voice Scanner

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F L O OR 3: mov emen t s c a nners

F L O OR 2: voice s c a nners

Embassy as a Scanning Machine 79

US EMBASSY, BEI JING uploa ding individual s

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Embassy as a Scanning Machine

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Space EMBASSY for ENVIRONMENTAL RELATIONS Addition for US Embassy, Beijing Theresa Kaplan This installation at the embassy looks at the United States’ attempt to rebrand its diplomatic self representation as “green” innovators, rather than a militaristic power.

It proposes a new pavilion at the embassy gardens and water ponds. The pavilion uses algae technology system that wraps the plaza and the roof creating new exterior and interior spaces for the public and embassy staff.

“Part of an initiative we started at the State Department both to conserve resources, and to send a message to the world about America’s priorities and values.”

- Secretary Hillary Clinton on “Greening Diplomacy”

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Algae System

Interior Exhibition Space

Sunlight filters through glass panel

Algae photosynthesizes nitrogen and sunlight to produce oxygen

Oxygen passes through semi-permeable membrane Steel tube channels oxygen through system

Oxygen co and the inte released in

Interior exhibition space is accessible to people using embassy services.

Embassy for Environmental Relations 83

BLURRING DEMOCRATIC BOUNDARIES Merging street life and the embassy Sam Nolan The Design proposal takes over the private garden of the U.S. Embassy, creating a partially covered landscape that allows for interaction between embassy officials and the public. The structure becomes a continuation of the sidewalk to allow for programmed events, as well as the opportunity for informal us age by Chinese vendors and pedestrians.

The structure hanging over the landscape acts as a protective barrier between the public and the embassy compound. In order to mitigate the feeling of the “fortress as embassy� on the Chinese public, the structure is made of Zetix Fabric - a thing synthetic fiber that is able to withstand the force of multiple car bombs. The fabric is capable of being treated and dyed like any other textile. Thus on the street level feels like a canopy, while from satellite imaging a layer of visual security is retained as the triangulation of the canopy is capable of blending into the landscape. Principles of modern camouflage are used to hide the structure.

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Blurring Democratic Boundaries 85

Camouflage Colors

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Blurring Democratic Boundaries

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Blurring Democratic Boundaries 89

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Blurring Democratic Boundaries

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A NEW EMBASSY CULTURAL CENTER: Diplomatic Enclave, Beijing Amelia Kudenholdt In Beijing, similar to some other cities, embassies are located near one another creating a diplomatic international enclave. In Beijing, The US embassy is next to embassies from India, UAE, France, Israel, Barbados, and some other countries. This project proposes a common cultural center for all embassies. Dedicated cultural spaces for different countries spiral around a central auditorium. The center can be expanded vertically as additional countries join this common center.

Site Analays Cont’d United States Embassy

IAE Embassy Indian Embassy Barbados Embassy French Embassy Israeli Embassy

Beijing Urban Sprawl

US Embassy

Beijing Korean Embassy

Washington DC

Indian Embassy

Amsterdam Embassy of UAE Embassy of Barbados

French Embassy

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Rome Las Vegas

2nd Floor Plan

1st Floor Plan

3rd Floor Plan French Film Pavilion

Administration

Administration

Cafe

Cafe

US Sport Arcade Pavilion Entry

Entry

UAE Restaurant UAE Restaurant

4th Floor Plan

French Film Pavilion

Roof Floor Plan

Korean Karoake Pavilion

US Sport Arcade Pavilion

Green Space

Cultural Center 93

ART / LANDSCAPE Reconfiguring US Embassy, Beijing, China Emily Cass This is a proposal for an addition to SOM’s U.S. Embassy in Beijing that would extend the urban landscape to float above the original structure. The project redefines diplomacy by altering the discourse within the embassy itself and its presence within the sociopolitical context of Beijing.

The government-funded initiative to support local and international artists by displaying their work in U.S. embassies has great potential; however, it currently functions as a mask to the true programmatic functions of an embassy. The theme for all artworks displayed at the Beijing embassy is landscape. This design prototype addresses the inconsistency in the theme of the inaccessible art program, landscape, and the current pollution in Beijing that has made exterior

landscape dichotomy

spaces uninhabitable. The proposal strips the art program from the confines of the embassy

traditional + modern

itself and activates its potential by placing it in dialogue with the public. Artist studios, residence programs, performance spaces and galleries emerge from various folds dictated by a range of vantage points from the existing embassy. Ultimately, these two paralleling planes intersect at strategic moments allowing for easily constructible socially active spaces. This is a prototype applicable to any embassy as an effective means of consciously engaging with the urban fabric.

landscape dichotomy traditional + modern

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performative spaces emerge programs from folding

american + chinese resisting tradition

slo pe

d exhibit

ion space

Reconfiguring US Embassy: Art / Landscape 95

theory v. practice

10’

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actual

scale

proposed

public access halted

Reconfiguring US Embassy: Art / Landscape

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folding dictates program circulation follows

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extending public access circulation into performance center

Reconfiguring US Embassy: Art / Landscape 99

Travelogue

Studio Trip Itinerary:

CHINA BEIJING, HANNZHOU, SHANGHAI: 1 November to 9 November 2013

Day 1

Day 2

Day 2

Day 3

Day 3

Day 4

BEIJING

BEIJING

BEIJING

BEIJING

BEIJING

BEIJING

Arrive Beijing

Tiananmen Square

The Great Wall

Studo-X GSAPP

Olympic Park

Soho Galaxy: Architect: Zaha Hadid

Forbidden City

CCTV Tower: Architect: Rem Koolhaas

Student Work Review with Guests Li Hu, Tang Keyang, Shanshan Qi, Pei Zhu

Water Cube Architect: PTW Architects + ARUP Engineers

Group Dinner

Chinese Art Academy Group Dinner

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Bird’s Nest Architects: Herzog & De Meuron

Day 4

Day 4

Day 5

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

BEIJING

BEIJING

HANGZHOU

HANGZHOU

SHANGHAI

SHANGHAI

The Linked Hybrid Architect: Steven Holl

US Embassy in Beijing

Chinese Art Academy Architect: Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu

Chinese World’s Expo Pavilion

Pudong

Architect: SOM

Office Tower Building Construction Site Architect: Norman Foster

The Slaughter House

Shanghai to New York

Studio Visit: Open Office Li Hu Architect

Beijing to Hangzhou

Group Dinner

Hangzhou to Shanghai

Group Lunch

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Design for Diplomacy Architectural Design III Studio: CHINA Fall 2013 Faculty: Kadambari Baxi Co-Faculty (China Trip): Karen Fairbanks, Shanshan Qi Teaching Assistant: Oskar Arnorsson Students: Christina Badal Dare Brawley Emily Cass Natalie Jung Theresa Kaplan Amelia Kudenholdt Sam Nolan

B+C | A Barnard + Columbia 130 Design for Diplomacy > Architecture