ENJI LAM ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO
MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE 2015-2017
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PERISCOPING HUTONG
THE LABRARY
BAITASI, BEIJING
CENTRAL MARKET, HK
9. 2017
p. 6-9
5. 2017
p. 10-23
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CITY OF R/I
PLAY.STATION
SHAM SHUI PO DISTRICT, HK
HUNAN, CHINA
6.2016
8. 2016
p. 24-31
p. 32-37
Periscoping Hutong BAITASI HUTONG, BEIJING
SEP 2017 ROLE: DESIGNER AND COORDINATOR SUPERVISOR: SHUYAN CHAN, AaaM ARCHITECTS PROGRAM: INSTALLATION FOR PLAY
How to connect children and elderly together to form a ‘New Neighborhood’ ? ‘New Neighborhood” is the main theme for Beijing International Design Week 2017. The design focus was on addressing the issue of increasingly broken and aging neighborhood at the Baitasi Hutong district since the younger generation kept moving out and the elderly were staying. We picked a courtyard site as it symbolized the sense of gathering in Chinese culture and tried to transform it into a public playground, re-energizing the Hutong area by providing children a new option to have fun and interact with other community members. The installation superimposes a merry-go-around with periscopes, inviting the public, especially the children, to observe their neighborhood from a different perspective. With the help from the elderly, the merry-go-round would spin and allow the kids to overlook the panoramic aerial view of the district. It is hoped that through the process, children and elderly from different families could enjoy together and form a new neighborhood network. The major design challenge was to tackle the tight 3-week schedule from design to built. Also, due to the time and long distance, we could not supervise at the site for construction. To make sure the design works, we built a 1:1 5m-long-periscope at the office for testing.
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Merry-go-round + periscopes There were different height of platform and sitting on the merry-go-round that created a landscape for kids to play around. Together with the position of the periscopes, it also suggested different body gestures to peek into the mirrors. They can stand, sit, squat or even lie down to enjoy the panaramous view of the surrounding environement.
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THE LABRARY CENTRAL MARKET, CENTRAL M2 THESIS, 2017 TUTOR: PROF. NELSON CHEN PROGRAM: LEARNING HUB
WHAT IF OUR LIBRARIES BECOME MORE LIKE LABS?
KEYWORDS
The thesis argues that with the infobesity brought by the digital world that led to a trend of global closure of public libraries, instead of digitalized their resources, libraries should evolve from a passive repository of information to an active co-learning laboratory for creating and sharing new knowledge. This vision relies on developing a new typology of library, a LABRARY, that allows social interaction be the main drive of learning.
Civic innovation Exchange of ideas Marketplace Incubation Social interaction
At the site of current Central Market, the LABRARY is designed to be like a gateway that brings the street life into the architecture and resembles the essence of Agora of Ancient Greece, a marketplace for ideas. On the ground floor an urban park is inserted to allows markets, performance and exhibition to take place. Reaching the elevated pedestrian walkway is a gathering place that celebrate the congregation of social events. Public staircases are then articulated to prolong and spiral up the journey that connects to galleries and other public leisure programs at different levels of the building, ultimately arriving at the sky deck for relaxation. Books, artworks and designed invention can be retrieved from underground archive through pneumatic tubes to all levels. Along this journey, the public would naturally browse through the Library’s “collection”, which is no longer a brunch of bookshelf but different incubation units that captures the moments of creation and invention. These prefab units are for social labs, researchers, school project teams, inventors, media producer, etc. to operate civic innovation projects. Each curates an installation that invites the public to walk-in and engage. Mechanical arms further allow these modular units to be repositioned and recombined for cross-disciplinary researches, which manifest the energy of knowledge exchange at the ever-changing facade. The units are able to physically outreach to different places to showcase the fruition of the research works, mobilizing more society members to participate in this journey of civic innovation. In conclusion, the thesis suggested library to transform itself from the role of gatekeeper of knowledge to the facilitator of the creation of new knowledge, assisting patrons to learn and work together in a productive, playful and spiritual way. It is hoped that the LABRARY would bridge the public to the pursuit of creativity and critical thinking, actively engaging with other society members to imagine possibilities, incubate ideas and invent the future.
The device “Unleashed”
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The Ever-changing ‘Collection’ (Right)
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SITE The LABRARY was intended to nurture a community of creativity. The site was at current Central Market with the hope that the LABRARY would become a new generator for building a community of innovation within the district together with Tai Kwun and PMQ, forming a Cultural Triangle for the exchange of ideas. The site was part of the elevated walkway system that connected the Central Harbourfront and the mid-levels of Central, supporting heavy pedestrian traffic flowing between the commercial part and the residential part of Central every day. The LABRARY was intended to redevelop the site, instead of renovating the existing Central Market, to give the community a totally new definition of a marketplace.
DESIGN CONCEPT
First it was to recognize the potential of the site condition. With the heavy pedestrian traffic, it was crucial to define and create a sense of place at this potion of journey where many people walk by every day.
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With the intention to prolong the street vertically, large public space was inserted at the elevated platforms for congregation and events and were linked up with the grund level by staircases. Since the existing Central market was redeveloped, the ground level plan was freed up for an urban park with local market stalls, cafe and exhibition area.
To continue the identity of LABRARY at the current site as a new marketplace, pedestrian circulation from the elevated level was prolonged vertically to link up public programs at different levels through three major staircases. They spiraled up and around to connect two parallel massing blocks, creating an atrium in the middle. Service cores at the four corners further provided direct vertical access.
Two parallel building masses will be the analogy of bookshelves that hold up the ‘Collection’ of LABRARY, which are different incubation units that captures the moments of creation and invention. The masses are like a gateway for passer-by. Every time they look up, they would see all the collection at the atrium. They would further manifest themselves at the facade to becomes part of the city landscape.
Mechanic cranes that move in front of the facades at 2 sides would allow the recombination and outreach of the incubation units. The units would then perambulate to different public space to impact the society with new ideas and thoughts.
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Bring the street in The LABRARY would extend the street from the elevated level up to the top of the building by having 3 continuous public staircases that linked up the public programs along the journey. The aim to prolong the street was to allow more ‘urban friction’, social interactions, sidewalk conversations, exchange of ideas to happen between people of different backgrounds. Arriving at the ground level public fountain along Queen’s Road Central, people can walk up the staircase to the atrium at the elevated level. It was a large social gathering space for events to happen. Performance cube could be opened up facing towards the atrium for public speeches, band shows, dance performance, etc. Audience could then proceed one level up to reach restaurants and retails. From here, they could further walk up to the rehearsal area, multi-media gallery, makers’ hub, ‘Fabrication box’, sky lounge and eventually the sky deck at the top through the three spiraling public staircases. Along this journey, the public would naturally browse through all the incubation units and have a glimpse of what projects were going on inside. With the subsidiary staircases branched from the public staircases, they could easily walk-in and engage with people inside the units just like picking a book. It was expected that with physical and visual connection between the public and the ‘Collection’, it would create an environment that ideas and thoughts could be easily exchanged. By increasing the ‘Urban Friction’, creative ideas could be generated by serendipity of everyday encounters along the ‘street’.
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The prolongation of street
(Section AA’ )
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View from Queen’s Road Central Walking down from the Central mid-level walkway system, people would be looking at a big public fountain in front of the LABRARY as a social gathering hotspot. Above it was a performance cube enclosed by translucent channel glass to reveal a glimpse of activities inside.
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View from Des Voeux Rd. Central At the side facing the Des Voeux Road Central, the LABRARY would connect with the Hang Seng Bank Headquarter through two bridges with transparent cover. People would see a gathering platform with plantation and the “Fabrication Box” above.
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Make it a marketplace of ideas The LABRARY would continue the essence of Central market as a marketplace of ideas. At the ground level, local market stalls surrounded by greenery was a direct response to the lack of public space within the area. The site analysis showed that compared to the Jubilee Street, the Queen Victoria Street recorded a significantly more amount of pedestrian flow due to the location of nearby MTR station exits. Therefore, a larger portion of the site area at ground level along the Queen Victoria Street were allocated for creating a market strips with a gradual progression of slope profile for better walkability. The portion along the quieter Jubilee Street would be designed as an exhibition alley. The exhibition would be formed by the incubation units before they outreach to different parts of the city, The entrance from Queen’s Road Central was established as a city gathering hotspot with a big public fountain. The passengers could then proceed their journey to the upper level through a grand staircase which would easily become an audience sitting area when there were outdoor performance.
Atrium from below
At the entrance point from Des Voeux Road Central, escalator system allowed convenient access to the elevated level and the underground community lounge. Elevators and fire staircases at the four corners enabled direct vertical access to all levels above.
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The ‘Collection’ The LABRARY’s ‘collection’ would be all about people and their interactions. In the future, everything that goes public would be immediately digitalized. Would it make more sense for the LABRARY to house collection that are not able to be duplicated to the Cloud?
The basic structure of incubation unit (left) The outreach exhibition scenario (right)
Instead of being the destination of printed information, the LABRARY would become the birthplace of new knowledge. Prefab incubation units would be the new ‘Collection’ that captured the moments of creation and invention. They were designed to accommodate inventors, researchers, novelists, student project teams, social labs, fabrication workshops, media production studios, etc. The units were modules that allowed expansion of size to fit programs of varied nature. All levels that housed the incubation units would be accessible by the subsidiary staircases that stemmed from the public staircases around the atrium. Common area with vegetation and sitting area was at the end of each level. Bridges that connected the two parallel blocks would have counters to retrieve books and artwork from the underground archive. Modular system allows incubation units to be expanded in size for varied programs
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1:250 model
1:500 model
The Device
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CITY OF R/I SHAM SHUI PO DISTRICT
M1 SPRING TERM, 2016 TUTOR: PROF. COLIN FOURNIER PROGRAM: VERTICAL CITY
IMAGINE IF MANUFACTURING COULD BLEND WITH LIVING
OUR CITY SHOULD BE
City of R/I is the future projection of Sham Shui Po, a place that had flourishing light industry. R/I means the blending of Residential and Industrial land use. It was first applied in Sham Shui Po by the government during the 1960s that allowed workers to live close to the factories. It was proved to be a disaster to human health due to the neglect of the air and sound pollution. This leaves an impression that manufacturing is an undesirable part of the city and going to the tertiary industry is always welcomed. Yet, is this good for our city’s diversity?
Playful Diverse Environmentally sustainable
The future city is based on the assumption that artificial intelligence (A.I.) and robots will dramatically change the way we think of manufacturing. Thanks to A.I., most of the tedious work would be taken over by robots. It thus frees us for innovation and creativity. With the help of the latest technology such as 3D printing and Augmented Reality (A.R.), industrial production will no longer be dirty and noisy but clean and silent. This allows production and living to blend together and create a playful and lively city that is totally different from what it is now. In general, it is a process of decentralizing the ‘bulky and dirty’ manufacturing work to different parts of the city, even into the households. Ultimately, it shows that when each individuals offer the opportunity to explore, innovate and create, the city will become a diverse and cheerful place.
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The device “The way things go”
10 years from now
20 years from now
30 years from now
Hypothetical city of future Sham Shui Po, City of R/I
The agriculture
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Everybody is inventor Decades later, with clean and tidy manufacturing technology such as high-speed 3D printing, everyone could invent their products at home with AI able to handle the mass production and logistics work. The living units were supported by a crane structure that also housed other components that a community required including testing laboratories, airship ports, gardens, restaurants, learning spaces, etc. The ground levels was podium retails and archive which blended in with existing urban fabric. The whole community was self-sustainable supported by wind, solar energy and vertical faming.
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The community
The Robot, future AI assistant
The House
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It is all about life Within the crane there were four levels namely (from top to bottom) : Leisure, Communal, Fabrication and Logistics.
Podium level streetscape
The leisure level would have gardens and restaurant. It was a place for recreation and relaxation. The level below was for communal life. It connected to the shop front of the House which allowed interactions between inventors and their neighbors. Classrooms, lectures and cafe were at this level to assist active learning. The floor at this level was operable that could be opened up to form a large fabrication space with the level below. The fabrication level would have shared resources for different kinds of invention and manufacturing. Finally, it was the logistics level at the bottom that only robots would be there to transport the goods from the Houses’ storage to the community. The goods were transported down to the podium level through hydraulic elevating system at the end of the crane. When the elevator arrived the podium, the public could test the product at the testing area at the podium. It was a social gathering place where the news of the latest inventions would be displayed. The podium was further connected with the existing fabric and the ground with unicycle as the transportation tool.
The loading port
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View to all levels (top to bottom) : Leisure, Communal, Fabrication, Logistics
Operable floor for large-scale fabrication
The house
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1:100 model
1:1000 conceptual model
The device
The robot
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PLAY.STATION HUNAN, CHINA
M1 SUMMER TERM, 2016 TUTOR: PROF. TIEBEN HENDRIK PROGRAM: LEARNING + PLAYING DEVICE FOR THE CHILDREN
WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO LEARN FOR KIDS? WITH TOYS OF COURSE!
KEYWORDS
The task of the trip was on a research and design basis that we had to select a topic about Gaobu village to study and to suggest a design that follows the findings. Our team chose “Children” because they represented the future of the village in the trend of rural-city migration. The first thing we did was to study about them. We played with them, walk them from school to home, met with their families and documented their social behaviors through drawings and mapping. It was discovered that the children in the village were very different from their counterparts living in cities. They were willing to take risks. They would invent games using any materials around them. They would establish their own perspectives of how things works and ignored typical rules. For example, they would just take off their shoes and crossed the river while we were looking for a bridge.
Children Learning Playing
Our team believed that they were creative and inventive. Instead of designing something that had a code of practice to follow, we decided to gave the freedom and autonomy to the children. PLAY.STATION was a modular learning and playing device (toy) designed to unleash their power of imagination. It was a floating platform that could be divided into six smaller components for different game modes. Due to the varied level of stability between a single component and a combined platform, children would realize they need to help each other in order to successfully getting onto the ‘STATION’. After finishing the 1:1 model, our team found that the children invented even more games through the design than we could have imagined. They would play them as swimming aids and drift boats. When putting them onshore, the design would become chairs or tables. The result was inspiring in the sense that it was a mutual learning process that the designers have to learn about the users’ behaviors for better design. It led to the reflection that if the designs in our cities were imposing too many underlying rules that killed the creative use of public space.
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Understand their motivation At the beginning, our team played with the children to establish a friendly relationship. We found that the river in the village was one of their major gathering hotspot in summer. The mapping indicated that they had strong bonding among themselves as they would all gather to play regardless of how far they lived. Also, they would remember correctly everyone’s address. Noticing their strong character to invent and create, we aimed to design something that could utilize and enhance their potential. Modular design would be good as it allowed flexible and multiple usage. We then came up with a trapezium floating platform design that could form different shapes of geometry by nature. It would also be able reveal to the children the physics of playing in water.
Always ready to take risk and explore
Had their own understanding of how things work: Crossing the river directly without using the bridge
Strong bonding regardless of geographic proximity of living area
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The kids knew they could enjoy jumping off into the river at deep-water section (left) and usually the shallow-water part were for girls (right)
Getting dimensions of boys and girls for determining the scale of the design
Do it in 1:1 scale With limited time, it would be a challenge to realize the 1:1 model. Our team studied the depth of the river, the human proportions of children and finally sourced the materials from the bamboo forest nearby. With the help and donation of villagers, we made all the six components of the design. The final product was carefully sanded for safety.
1. Constructing bamboo structure
3. Adding paving
Working together with the villagers
2. Inserting water bottle for floating
4. Sanding the edges for safety
Fabrication procedure
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LANDMARK REMAKE SAI YING PUN MARKET
M1 FALL TERM, 2015 TUTOR: PROF. TIEBEN HENDRIK PROGRAM: RENOVATED MARKET
SOMETIMES, SMALL CHANGES CAN ALREADY MAKE A BIG IMPACT TO THE COMMUNITY
KEYWORDS
Landmark Remake was a renovating project at Sai Ying Pun market, Western district. It aimed to re-establish a sense of belongings at the heart of the community. With the opening of West Island Line of MTR, the district was experiencing a rapid rate of gentrification. Old buildings were torn down for expensive residential high-rise. Local shops were forced to give space for foreign restaurants and bar due to increasing rent. The identity of Sai Ying Pun, which was famous for its strong neighborhood bonding, was losing bit by bit. The project did not aim to overturn the situation but to bring back some noises at the prominent area of the district by creating good quality gathering spaces.
Walkability Gathering space
The Sai Ying Pun market was sitting along the deep-sloped Centre Street. To improve walkability, two flat grounds were inserted in the middle of the slope which connected with two levels of the market. The two level were converted into a large dining hall with an outdoor sitting area for performance and night market. Several public sitting areas were also designed at different levels of the slope. Original market was moved one level above to make use of a vacant floor. Two glass roof with louvers were designed to admit natural sunlight to the market. Other new programs included children’s corner, cafe and retails. The orientation of escalators and stairs were redesigned to create direct and clear circulation. New elevator and stairs were inserted for better accessibility. The decision of not knocking down the building was made after a series of site research and community participation events which included sending questionnaires and conducting interviewed. The result showed that majority of the residents wish for large congregation spaces instead of a new building that would house exactly the same programs. This indeed could be accomplished without demolishing the market. Ultimately, the project wished to bring the community a spirit of togetherness through a lot of small changes of the market.
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Design strategy
View from Second Street (Before and after)
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Third Street
Center Street
Walkability was the key
Second Street
The red color indication showed the new gathering space with the facilitation of better walkability. At the ground floor level (Second Street), part of the street was pedestrianized to create a safe walking experience for residents coming out from MTR exit. New meeting area was designed at this level with retails and sitting area. At 1/F, the sloped Center Street was inserted with two flat levels to create a large gathering area. Part of it was inside the market as dinging hall. Another part was an outdoor stepped plaza for performance and events. This new public space would instantly make the center of the district a place for social interactions and conversations. At the 2/F, a lot of new seats were placed at the entrance of the markets to allow elderly or housewives to take a rest and chat with each other.
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Social interaction at multiple levels
The night market
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Better circulation The original market had a confusing circulation with escalators and stairs not connecting with each others. The new design changed the orientation of some of them and inserted an elevator at the atrium for good visibility of route. The bridge connection to the Center Street Market was removed to encourage street experience and to bring back the view to the harbor. Outdoor stepped plaza was connected to the dining area at 1/F to jointly form a large gathering space at the heart of the community.
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Alteration and addition works
Temporary toilet on Center Street was converted to an outdoor plaza
View from Third Street (before and after)
Existing market was converted to a dining area and connected to the outdoor plaza (before and after)
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1:100 model
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KENJI LAM
Full name: LAM, Kin Kwan Kenji Email: kenji.lkk@gmail.com Phone: +852 6056 8210 Website: https://issuu.com/kenjilam
M. ARCH. THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG (CUHK), 2015-2017 B.S.SC. (CUHK), 2010-2014
INTERNSHIP
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
DESIGN PROJECT
AaaM Architects
HKIA Student Medal
Hangzhou Vanke Asian Games Center Competition
Nelson Chen Architects
Gold Medal, 8th Cross-Straits Architecture Competition for Graduation Projects
Periscoping Hutong, Beijing International Design Week
9. 2017 - , Architectural Designer
7. 2014 - 8. 2015, Architectural Assistant
11. 2017, The Hong Kong Institute of Architects
10. 2017, Architectural Institute of Taiwan
Wharf Architectural Design Internship
7. 2017, The Wharf ArchDesign Resource Trust
The Best Studio Design Award, M2 Thesis 5. 2017, School of Architecture, CUHK
10. 2017, Mixed use towers
9. 2017, Installation
FutureArc Competition 2015
12. 2015, Food recycling center
Disney ImagiNations Design Competition 12. 2013, Vertical theme park Award for Creativity
The Best Studio Design Award, M1 Spring term
Science Park GIFT Design Idea Competition
COMMUNITY SERVICE
OVERSEAS EXPOSURE
SKILLS
Hong Kong Public Space Initiatives
Beijing, China
Get Stuff Done, Battambang, Cambodia
Utrecht, The Netherlands
AutoCAD Photoshop InDesign Illustrator SketchUp Rhino Vray
5. 2016, School of Architecture, CUHK
7-12. 2015, Project Manager
8. 2014, Volunteer
Bridge to China, Gansu, China 12. 2014, Volunteer
2-7. 2012, Exchange study 8-12. 2011, Exchange study
7. 2013, Green office building, Hong Kong
CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT Name
PROF. NELSON CHEN CHEUNG, Wai Man YUE, Ka Hin Jasmine LEONG, On U Derrick YI, Wang TSANG, Siu Fung PROF. COLIN FOURNIER LAM, Cheuk Wai Josely YAP, Ai Yi
Scope of production assistance
M2 thesis advisor and mentor Logistics for printed drawings 1:250 model (details refinement), model bases 1:250 model (details refinement), model bases 1:500 model (wood blocks polishing) 1:500 model (wood blocks polishing) M1 spring term tutor Logistics for printed drawings 1:100 model (details refinement)
PROF. TIEBEN HENDRIK
M1 fall term tutor
KOON, Ngou Kwan Jazz LI, Rui Aaron
Project teammate Project teammate