PORTFOLIO
WENZHUO CAI Selected work from 2018 to 2023
RESUME
HONORS First Prize - Cube design_The 19th Architectural Talent Award
03/2023
Vertical Housing in Minzhong District
TEL: (510)3936849 E-mail: wenzhuo_cai@berkeley.edu
Second Prize - Cube design_The 19th Architectural Talent Award
03/2023
Award for excellent course project
EDUCATION
Winner - Archtwist Regeneration Competition
UC Berkeley
Architectural Heritage Preservation Competition
2023 Expected
College of Environmental Design(CED) Master of Architecture(2-year program)-Expected
Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST)
Finalist Mention - Movable Chair International Design Competition 09/2018 - 06/2023
11/2021
Bronze Award - Exhibition of Architectural Design in developing Country 06/2023 - 07/2023
Honorable Mention - Tianhua International Architectural Design
Creative Award - Wuhan Community Construction Competition 06/2022 - 07/2022
HUST Self-improvement Scholarship
09/2021
Award Winners With Ability to Overcome Obstacles
06/2021 - 07/2021
HUST Scholarship for Academic Excellence
02/2022
Award Winners With Excellent Semester Grades
09/2022 - 10/2022
Intern architect Role: helped with residential floor plan deepening design, did interior residential design and program text drawing
07/2021 - 08/2021
Intern architect Role: helped with parametric facade design and rationalization of elevation and construction docking
01/2021 - 03/2021
Intern architect Role: helped with initial design and deepening of the pop-up store program, presentation communicating with client
ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE Research and Field Survey of Ancient Buildings
07/2021 - 08/2021 10/2021 - 12/2021
An Approach to Urban Research Based on Field Recording and Interviews With People
Aging-friendly Building Research Elderly Living Experience Research and Architectural Design
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES Volunteer in 7th CISM Military World Games
10/2019
The World Military Games took place from the 18th to 27th of October 2019 in Wuhan, China Role: Logistical support Work: Venue coordination volunteers
SAUP Publicity Department
09/2019 - 06/2020
Vice Minister Role: Responsible for organizing the posters in the college and assigning tasks
SKILLS
Mapping and Research of Enshi Hanging Foot Building Architecture
Anthropological Urban Research Topics
09/2021
Winners Making Progress in Their Achievements This Academic Year
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
META Cooperation Company Limited Architect Firm
03/2021
Community Public Space Renovation Competition
HUST Academic Progress Scholarship
Reform Architect Firm
04/2021
The Competition for residential space in the post-epidemic era
Digital Future Summer Program 2021 Topic: Air Filled Membrane Structure Room Sprayed by Mechanical Arm
META Cooperation Company Limited Architect Firm
05/2021
Collection of Competition Proposals From Developing Countries
Graduate School of Design(GSD) Design Discovery Summer Program 2022
Tongji University
Honorable Mention - YAC Cultural Staion Competition Cultural Transformation of The Old Station
Digital Future Summer Program 2023 Topic: AIGC-driven design and manufacturing: integrated digital design and manufacturing based on PAM platform and NeRF 3D reconstruction technology
Harvard University
06/2022
Public Space Renovation Removable Seating Competition
School of Architecture and Urban Planning Major: Architecture(5-year program) Degree: Bachelor of Architecture GPA: 3.86/4.0
Tongji University
07/2022
02/2021 - 03/2021
Rhino
Advanced
Grasshopper
Advanced
Processing
Intermediate
Adobe PS
Advanced
Adobe AI
Advanced
Adobe ID
Advanced
Twinmotion
Advanced
Vray
Intermediate
Intermediate
Figma
Intermediate
Python
PROLOGUE
CONTENDS
Today's urban system is overly functional but underdeveloped for living. In the process of high-speed economic development, the city operates efficiently. But the residents who originally lived there were ruthlessly abandoned, and sweeping demolition measures even left many homeless. Behind the efficient economic development is a disregard for the people living in the city. The reasons for this contradiction can be traced back to the top-down urbanism in China in the 1950s. Efficient prefabrication techniques and top-down administrative directives in post-war China in 1950 led to the emergence of administrative planning boundaries in the centralized regime state over 20 years. At the Osaka World Expo in the 1970s, attempts were made to critique consumerism with radical mechanical devices. If cities are incredibly efficient in pursuing functionality, like cyberpunk, people will eventually get lost in the siege of machines. The behavior of people in the city is consistently weakening this boundary spontaneously. For example, in the old town, residents used to bring their daily life to occupy the border, sunbathing in the street, cooking, and playing cards. In a small third-tier city, a kiosk clerk knows most people in the neighborhood. Xiang Biao, a renowned anthropologist at Oxford University, has proposed border-crossing communities, which refer to complex and cohesive internal community systems that radiate so widely that they can cross the physical boundaries of the community itself. The most typical example is the supply and marketing economy that emerged in China in the 1980s. The community structure formed by people based on trust permeated many areas, such as the service industry and government. The web of human relationships is based on a more significant interaction between people and the spaces they inhabit. High-speed urbanization is indeed irreversible and has brought about an increase in people's living standards and efficiency. However, the efficiency-oriented urban space has led to regional divisions. As designers, we should think about how to bring urban life back to the people themselves and how to mediate these problems.
01_A Manifesto of Steel and Brick Hanyang Industrial Plant Renovation Cultural Park
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02_The Cube Oakland security afforable housing
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03_Enkanini Taken by Force Water infrastructure implementation in informal settlement
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04_New realm of publics Minzhong District Urban Renovation Project
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05_Time Resort Culture Station Old Railway Station Renovation Project
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06_Social Condenser Vertical Public Space Using The Street As A Medium
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07_Mechanical Arm Spraying Air Filled Membrane Structure Room Sprayed by Mechanical Arm
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December 1st 2022 Wuhan China
Professional Work parametric facade design
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01_A MANIFESTO OF STEEL & BRICK Hanyang Industrial Plant Renovation Cultural Park Winner of Architwist "Regeneration" competition Cube design_The 19th Architectural Talent Award_Second Prize
- 2022.3 - 2022.5 - HUST Studio project - Instructor: professor Wei Zhou weizhou_@hust.edu.cn
- Collaborator: Ruoxi Li - Role: 50% plan design, 80% form design (all drawing except ones annotated with *)
- Site: Wuhan, China - Industrial Renovation project - 3540㎡
Situated in the center of China alongside the Yangtze River, Wuhan has long been praised for its convenient transportation and rich mineral sources. During the 1890s, Zhang Zhidong realized its marked influence on the whole country and triggered the urban and industrial development of the city. As a result, the original campus of the Hanyang Iron Plant was built. Over the later fifty years, the Hanyang Iron Plant had its time of glory and was relocated west to its original site after being demolished during WWⅡ . However, in the 21st century, the significance of industry decreased, and industrial zones were drawn to the periphery of the city. The enclosed factory areas that were originally in the center of the city were shut down and become forgotten barren places inaccessible to the public. Therefore, the heritage urges the need for transformation. The project thus aims to resolve the conflict between present urban development and the preservation of old buildings. The primary intervention is to break down the intimidating large-scale blocks and open up the campus to the public. Physical boundaries are eliminated and urban networks are introduced. Moreover, the former steel manufacturing industry is replaced by a digital publishing industry while some factories of historical value are reused as museums that are educational to the public.
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A Heritage Withstood the Test of Time 1915 The construction of Hanyang Iron and Steel Work triggered Wuhan’s urban development.
Being relocated west to its original site twenty years after WWⅡ , the Hanyang Iron and Steel Work had its time of glory, providing construction materials nationwide. However, the ironwork was shut down and became an industrial heritage in 2007. With most of its buildings obsolete, the heritage urges the need for transformation.
1958 After WWⅡ , the iron plant relocated west to its original site. N
2002
* Collaborated with Ruoxi Li
Urbanization resulted in the construction of a city network and public spaces.
Public Space Network After years of regional transformation, the site is currently surrounded by a number of urban public spaces. The infrastructure construction has also provided the site with a possibility of serving as a primary public space. Considering its close connec tion to industrial production, the proposal aims to activate the site by inserting a digital production function while also preserving its historical significance.
2017 The iron work was shut down and was urging transformation. * Collaborated with Ruoxi Li * Collaborated with Ruoxi Li
Strategy
1:4000
1:3000
01_ Circulation
02_ Rezoning
By thickening the road system, the macro-scopic industrial blocks are broken down into more accessible ones.
The campus is divided by a gradient, where the program site serves as a place for exhibition and beta testing.
urban space exhibition
1:1800
logistic space
1:800
03_Reallocation of Open Space
04_Program Organization
The open space around the site can be categorized into three hierarchies.
Visitors can have a view of the water towers, the gate, and the facade of its nearby factories within the project.
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A blend of old and new
Memories to forms of space Workers' memories deserve to be preserved in the factory as a bridge to the past. We have designed a curved volume to logically implant the workers' memories in the factory with publishing function following the volume. The renovated factory manages to bridge the gap between resident and the city by providing public space. 06
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Isolation
Duty Shift
Surveillance
The Tower
The Passageway
The Gate
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Step1: Preserve Memory The original workers' experience of entering the plant became the clue, embedding it in the newly renovated factory.
The new building volume integrated with the original factory becomes a place for visitors to perceive the memories of workers from the past. At the same time, the additional public space allows more urban residents to enter the site, learning about the history and experiencing the current life.
The Gate
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A route through the equipments and trees indicates passing through the gate.
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The Passageway Along the path is the preserved brick wall.
Step2: Rearrange Circulation The flow line of visitor experience becomes the main flow line through the project. The curvilinear nature of the flow increases the interaction with the original volumes
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The Tower Tower structure suggests the insignificance of the workers and the power of supervisors.
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Surveillance Windows are inserted into the curve wall, casting visual control over other visitors.
Step3: Reorganize Program The building function follows the flow of visitors' visit. Externally, public space has been added to serve the external public, and internally, a new building space for digital publishing functions has been built.
Step4: Apply Prototype 01’
03’
Three different types of arcs are used to rationalize the flow of people and architectural space. Arcs and orthogonal volumes produce more interactivity
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06’ 05’
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Duty Shift
Isolation
The character between the workers and the supervisors are reversed.
The matrix of vegetation suggests a status of seperation.
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Typology Derives From Arc Three types of arcs ranging from a quater of circle to a full circle are inserted as the new structure. The inserted structure controls the circulation of visitors for better views and interaction with previous structure.
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Exhibition
Entrance
With the raised structure in the center of the building comes the climax of the whole tour path. Visitors can experience the weakness of the original workers' power through the visual and mental oppression brought by the structure.
The uplift of the floors provide an entrance for citizens to relax. The visitors who want to experience the histories of the workers' life can enter the building by the ramp crossing through plants and equipments.
Section A-A
Section C-C
Theater Visual Intersection To renovate the old building and introduce new function, we insert digital publishing theaters for holding small exhibition and press conference of digital products. Citizens can also utilize the space to enjoy moives and some public acitvities. Section B-B
Volumes on the second floor are linked by a continuous ramp. Visitors walking on the ramp are watched from behind the curved wall and from the ground floor, creating a sense of being supervised. Section D-D
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* Collaborated with Ruoxi Li
First Floor Plan
Scenario A The curved wall defines a theater on the ground floor and also serves as a monitor window allowing visual connections with people on the elevated ramp.
Second Floor Plan
Third Floor Plan
Scenario B The preserved ruins of the original factory buildings have become part of the tour, allowing visitors to have a chance to get a closer look at the industrial heritage relics. When stepping on the soil and ruins, feeling the brutal structures from the past, visitors can recall the old and glorious days of the factory.
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1. main entrance 2. theater 3. equipment room 4 . rest room 5. conference room 6. historical exhibition area 7. office 8. storage
9. waiting room 10. plaza 11. cafe 12. digital media exhibition room 13. souvenir shop 14. reading area 15. resting area 16. workshop
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Scenario C At the end of the commemorating route is a book shop in the woods. Readers will be leisurely seeing the bustling tourists from a quiet space. And through the plants, visitors can experience the workers who were isolated by the equipment in the past.
Scenario D An elevated curve ramp is inserted into the factory, serving as a link between the old and new programs and a commemorative route regarding the industrial context. Moving along the path, the visitors can travel between the old and new, experience the difference between the past and present, visite exhibitions of digital publishing and industrial history, and attend a digital media workshop.
Building as an urban space
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Another factory relic stood in juxtaposition with the renovated project. Considering their close relationship, a green track is designed as a connection between the two factories while adding more vibrance to the industrial context. As a result, the west part of the architecture has a more private and intimate atmosphere for visitors to enjoy the exhibitions and read. The bare concrete structure of the factory relic also serves as a frame for visitors to appreciate the project.
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* Collaborated with Ruoxi Li
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National Industrial Heritage
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Electric furnace factory
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Interval landscape
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Main road
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Plaza
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Garden surrounding the equipment
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Water tower
The exciting thing is that the surrounding residents will enter this area spontaneously. Young people join the tall factory buildings to paint graffiti, and children with skateboards play on the broad road. This spontaneous behavior constantly bridges the relationship between the fractured factory and the city.
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Site plan 1:800
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So in the transformation of industrial heritage, I tried to open up the boundaries of the factories externally and cut the large factories into a more human scale internally, more adapted to the spontaneous activities of people. Secondly, I integrated different architectural elements such as ramps, water features, plants, skylights, and different scales of spatial combinations to suit different scenarios. For example, the flowing end ramp into the bamboo forest forms a quiet space where people can read books and newspapers on the seats and enjoy the tranquility. The scenic space stimulates spontaneous human activities and constantly blends the boundaries of architecture and life.
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02_The Cubes: On Security and Sanctuary Oakland Affordable Housing
- Berkeley ARCH 201 - Studio project - Instructor: Mia Zinni - Individual - Site: Oakland, CA - Urban social housing 140 housing units - 14500㎡
The studio focuses on providing secure spaces for three distinct groups HT(Human Trafficking), DV(Domestic violence) and Youth, within the busy urban environment, specifically addressing the needs of individuals facing mental health issues, domestic violence, and human trafficking. The design concept revolves around a rotating box, creating three layers of spaces to cater to different levels of privacy and interaction. The first level prioritizes intimacy and security, featuring low walls that define open outdoor spaces with hidden entrances to enhance a sense of safety. Greenery and trees are incorporated to provide a calming environment for activities such as reading and small conversations. The second level serves as an open public space, connecting various residential volumes and promoting communication. Two volumes connect three or four buildings each, acting as a bridge between different sections. The third level introduces semi-private and semi-public rotating boxes within architectural volumes for small group interactions. Residents can access shared balconies to connect with neighbors, maintaining a balance between privacy and community. Inside each residence, a shared kitchen is designed for young individuals to foster a sense of shared living, with the Youth group positioned at the center due to their higher activity levels. Various strategies are implemented based on street conditions, such as setting the building back from the street perimeter on Broadway to address specific urban conditions. The ground floor features wider openings facing the street, hosting public spaces like cafes and bookstores to engage with the broader community.
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Site Plan
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Layers of strategies The design features three layers using a rotating box concept. The first layer emphasizes intimacy and security with low walls, concealed entrances, and greenery. The second layer is an open public space connecting residential volumes. The third layer introduces semi-private rotating boxes for small group interactions. Collectively, these layers address security and social needs in the urban environment.
DV HT Youth
DV
HT DV
Safety and security
Connecting and Share
Unit public space
Program of Three group
Spacial separation
2-floor Connecting and Share
Unit public space
Program
Security: Space Separation In the early stages of the Oakland Broadway urban research, I found that the scale of urban public spaces was largely designed for cars rather than human use. In contrast, smaller and more human-friendly spaces are better suited for human activities. For instance, seating areas enclosed by landscape vegetation at the entrance of restaurants or facades that recess into the ground floor of shops can activate the public attributes of the city. Therefore, it is suggested here to decompose large urban spaces into pleasant scales, enhancing the overall public nature of public spaces.
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Ground Floor Plan
1. 2b1b for HT 2. 2b2b for DV 3. 1b1b for HT 4. Youth unit 5. Dining area
6. Kitchen 7. Book store 8. Community center 9. Cafe 10. Office room
Third Floor Plan
Greenery and safety
In the first level of space, I attempt to utilize g re e n e r y to c rea te a s e n s e o f p ri va cy a n d distinguish it from the noisy urban environment. In this level, individuals can experience a quiet, self-contained space surrounded by plants and sunlight. Also, the greenery space is connecting all lthe entrance of the building units, making them easy to access.
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Units strategies Within the internal organization of units, they all adhere to the same logic, with the central rotating box encircling the vertical circulation core and the horizontal plane of traffic. Boxes positioned at the building's perimeter provide a sense of connection to the surroundings and unobstructed sightlines, allowing individuals to experience the environment. Simultaneously, they can lead people to outdoor platforms. The layout of the corridors similarly follows a comparable logic, with connected small rotating boxes serving as indoor communal areas, shared for public use.
Youth Units 1b1b Shared kitchen
HT Units 1b1b 2b1b
1b1b
1b1b
1b1b
1b1b
2b2b
2b2b
2b1b
2b1b
2b1b
2b1b
1b1b
1b1b
DV Units 2b1b 2b2b
3D Housing Units
HT Units 2b1b 3b2b
DV Units 2b1b 2b2b
HT Units 2b1b 3b2b
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Section A-A
Section B-B
Elevation North
Urban Setting
Various strategies are implemented based on street conditions, such as setting the building back from the street perimeter on Broadway to address specific urban conditions. The ground floor features wider openings facing the street, hosting public spaces like cafes and bookstores to engage with the broader community.
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03_Enkanini-Taken By Force Water infrastructure implementation in informal settlement
- 2022 Urban design - Instructor: Mei Jiang jump_jm@126.com - Individual - Site: Enkanini, South Africa - 20ha
The slum Enkanini in Cape Town, South Africa, is one of the many informal residences in South Africa. This site has a long history of labor pooling and the residents of the ghetto provide cheap labor for the surrounding cities. For example, working in the surrounding wineries, picking grapes or working in the service industry in the city, etc. With a large population gathering but no money to pay for housing, the inhabitants had to carve out their own territory in the nearby hills. As time went on, this informal residence gradually expanded and continued to expand outwards. The interior of the cottage had no electricity, only a small number of people had jobs, and the environment was extremely poor, with frequent internal flooding and other problems. How to solve the most basic living problems became the primary goal of the designers This solution introduces the infrastructure for water treatment into the site, using the infrastructure as the most basic framework for urban development and resident activities, providing residents with important functions such as water extraction, irrigation, and flood control. At the same time the residents can build their own houses on the framework of the infrastructure and plant their own cultivated land for sustainable development. The improved public space and landscape system within the site has also become a public place that external residents wish to visit, enhancing communication between internal and external residents and making the ghetto less of an island.
Flooding and inequality accessing to fresh water
40%
32%
more than 5min to get fresh water
Unequal accessibility of public toilet
2004 Labor growing for cultivating grapes
2005 Residents influx by train
2006 Low-income residents occupancy
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Mapping 1:5000
2012 working for winery
Infrastructure and sanitation shortage
2015 Service labor growing for city Walk to work
Single occupancy
Self cultivating
Unemployment
Paraffin for energy
Enkanini: The "slum" forming at the center of labor demand Being relocated west to its original site twenty years after WWⅡ , the Hanyang Iron and Steel Work had its time of glory, providing construction materials nationwide. However, the ironwork was shut down and became an industrial heritage in 2007. With most of its buildings obsolete, the heritage urges the need for transformation.
2022
The unequal access to water by the inhabitants of the slum has led to an uneven distribution of water resources. Residents need to go to public taps to collect water because they do not have water collection facilities in their houses, and the distance and time to collect water is unequal for nearly 15 minutes. The flooding will cause damage to housing in slum when seasonal weathering hit the place. Poor building materials and housing condition lead to the instability of resisting extreme climate.
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Existing: Top-down infrastructure system
Proposal: bottom-up infrastructure system
Linear Systems
Interconnected system
The existing infrastructure system is invested in by the government to increase the value of land entry, and the increased industrial areas bring in the working population to purchase homes, increasing government revenues. This infrastructure is organized linearly, more for the benefit of the government than for the lives of the residents themselves.
The new infrastructure system promotes the participatory nature of the residents, such as increasing the number of self-built buildings and self-formed communities. The water treatment infrastructure leads to flexible farming space, so that employment for residents is solved and government revenues are generated. This interwoven system increases communication between residents and the city.
Proposal: Terrain-based water infrastructure system Interconnected system The topographic features generated by the natural mountainous terrain of the site serve as the framework for the infrastructure. The nodes and linear spaces formed by the infrastructure become public spaces within the slum. The water treatment infrastructure of the valley simultaneously strengthens the houses to reduce the possibility of flooding. Finally, there is a community of residents who have formed themselves and built collective housing.
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Layers of strategies
Terrain based grid
Water infrastructure
Linear public space
Greenery and sustainable cultivation
Water treatment Public building Resident center Housing
Overlapping sel-sufficient community
Building programs
The second scale I closely integrates the infrastructure with the public space green space system. The linear main public space combined with the road provides a place for residents to gather. The infrastructure includes a water treatment system and a water supply system that allows each household to have its own water source and to supply it to the planting space.
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Terrain-based water infrastructure proposal Scale 02
To reduce the hazards of flood erosion, flood control landscaping is builded in the center of the community. The planting space is connected to the external flood control landscape, increasing the internal and external connection. Outside city residents can enter the landscape space to learn about the site and promote the possibility of episodic communication occurring.
Site plan 1:1000
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Self-sufficient communities The planting system within the community is integrated with the landscape system of the city so that the residents within can farm their own produce needed to solve the local employment problem. The landscape system attracts outside city residents and improves communication between internal and external residents.
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To implant urban water treatment infrastructure into the community and provide the most basic framework, public space, and landscape system of the city. The living residents are allowed to complete the building construction, farming and planting spontaneously and choose their own community.
Group Forms: Smaller scale communities employ a spatial organization in the form of clusters interspersed with infrastructure and additional public spaces. The infrastructure provides the basis for public activities, and public activities such as gardening, cooking, and laundry that require water resources occur around the infrastructure. The traffic spaces between the residences form a mesh structure, allowing each group of residences to have common planting spaces. The formation of a courtyard-like form promotes interpersonal interactions.
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Section B-B: Water treatment infrastructure and public activities
Section B-B: Residential and infrastructure
Handmade model
Water infrastructure Human activities
The intersection of public space and infrastructure The public space integrated with the infrastructure can drive the maximum communication among residents. The use of infrastructure acts as a medium of interaction and plays a central role in the spontaneously generated community. For example, the behavior that occurs when residents use water infrastructure, such as laundry and cooking, promotes human interaction.
Section C-C: Residential and public activities
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Program
Layout
Housing typology
Attached infrastructure & public space
Single housing
Water collection
Single housing
transportation
Single housing
stairs
Double housing
Public space
Family housing
Public space
Public retail
Water treatment
Service center
Water treatment
4M
Private
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Semi private
Single house#1
Semi public
9M
Public
36 ㎡
Most private
5M
02 Single house#2
8M
Semi private
40 ㎡
5M
03 Single house#3
8M
Most public
40 ㎡
5M
04 Double house
8M
Shared room
80 ㎡
5M
05 Family house
8M
Group form collective housing
Public residence
80 ㎡
6.5M
06 Public retail 8M
Public
50 ㎡
8M
Collective housing The project changes the form of the original residence and increases the demand of different house types for workers living alone. Also, as time increases, the number of family-oriented workers increases, so family-based housing types are designed. The materials for the self-built dwellings are derived from local wood and zinc panels, making it easy for residents to self-build.
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5M
Service center
Public space with infrastructure
40 ㎡
20
1. main road 2. Housing 3. Retail 4. Community center 5. Conference room 6. Office 7. Farming 8. Water infrastructure
9. Plaza 10. Coffee 11. Gym 12. Church 13. Book shop
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Ground Floor Plan N
Ground floor 1: 600
The settlement pattern of enkanini has gradually changed from irregular scattered settlement to the formation of an organically integrated housing typology, all thanks to the bonding role of infrastructure. The infrastructure links the residential life and the urban space, not only as the most essential element for the upgrading of the slums, but also as a basis for the connection to the big cities.
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04_New Realm of Publics Minzhong District urban renovation project
- 2022 Summer - Studio project - Instructor: Zhe Dong dong_zhe_arch@163.com - Individual - Site: Wuhan, China - Urban space renovation - 6580㎡
The Minzhong Paradise was an important historical building in the Republic of China in the 1930s, serving as a place for people to gather and watch plays. Over the past 100 years, the Minzhong Paradise has undergone several generations of change, becoming a commercial complex after serving as a theater. Today the building has fallen into disrepair and has become a memory card of Wuhan, and the adjacent Zhongshan Avenue is also used as a historical tour route with many visitors every year. But the tall building volume divides the two sides of the street into two completely different spaces. The side of the historic building facing the street is full of businesses, while the back side of the building is inhabited by Wuhan's poor working population. Most of them are service workers from other cities who come to Wuhan to work, living in rented houses of less than 20 square meters each. The huge contrast made me enter the back of the building like entering a completely different urban space. This discontinuous spatial experience is formed by the hard border of tall buildings located on the street. How can we weaken the boundary so that people on both sides can have better communication? The focus of this design is on how to activate the public space at the border of the urban area, so that the residents on both sides of the border can communicate and integrate better. I first connect the inner texture of the area to the surrounding urban texture, and introduce the function of urban landscape and marketplace, so that the residents inside and outside the building can gather and communicate.
Recreate boundaries
MinZhong district： less-developed Urban areas
Hard boundaries
Uneven development of urban areas Respond to the original historic building boundaries and redefine the boundaries of public space. The administrative boundaries of cities were created for efficient planning, but there is often a broad brush approach to urban area boundaries. The two sides of the border create two completely different states, where the tourist population on one side and the poor people on the other struggle to make ends meet. The phenomenon of duality emerged, severely fragmenting human life and cities. This process is exacerbated by the presence of important historic buildings on the boundary, where the front side of the building is admired and the back side can be left alone, a symptom of sloppy urban design. There are two sides to the historic building. One side of Zhongshan Avenue faces visitors with lush roads and a steady stream of pedestrians. But the tall trees organize the visitors into the area behind the building. The residents there lead a completely different life.
1919 The time when Minzhong Mall was built
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Mapping 1:2000
150M
300M
Type A
450M
600M
750M
900M
Type B
1050M
1200M
1350M
Type C
Sunken square
1500M
Type D
Boundaries and Open Space Analysis In the analysis of the boundaries, it was found that many hard boundaries cut the lives of people on both sides of the city, mainly dominated by the impenetrable tall buildings on the ground floor. The publicness of the site is also low, because on three sides there are buildings with impenetrable bottoms, making the public space that was originally adjacent to the street inaccessible.
1989 Abandoned Minzhong Mall building Buildings demolition near Minzhong Mall
2022: Strategy
The sunken space connects the exterior street with the interior residential life where the residents can gather.
reorganize Minzhong public space
Insert Courtyards
Urban Public Space Evolution In 1919, the People's Paradise was established as a theater and became one of the public spaces where residents gathered in large numbers. 1989, the People's Paradise fell into disrepair and the building was closed. The proposal is to break the original hard boundary, increase the introduction of urban roads and traffic within the building, thus increasing the accessibility of the site.
The small volume of the courtyard creates a quiet spatial experience inside
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Urban Greenery
I introduced the urban landscape into the building, hoping that the public space of the landscape would activate the site and allow more city dwellers to enter this previously untouched site. The interior of the Minzhong Paradise building also serves as part of the landscape, allowing the outside city dwellers to have a continuous walking experience. Viewing from inside the historical Minzhong building
Programs
Circulation
Transformation
Theater
passing through the theater or watching shows
Square
Sunken Square
Volume
Square
Shopping
Shopping Circulates the theater
Market
Market program
Transportation
Transportation
Circulation
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Full-height space
Full-height space at entrance
Full-height at entrance
Full-height
Connection
Plan 1:XXX
Circulation
Transformation of program and circulation
Above the ground
I studyed the internal spatial organization pattern of the Minzhong building and introduced the central plaza, flow line, and throughheight entrance treatment into the new building volume from three dimensions. I hope the new building will contribute to connecting the city residents' public life as a new form of Minzhong architecture.
The above-ground part of the building is embedded with a large amount of urban landscape and opens up the façade along the street to allow more people to enter the public space. The landscape serves as an attractive visual element shaping a variety of scales of public space types, where people can play cards, chess, picnics, etc.
1. main entrance 2. theater 3. equipment room 4 . rest room 5. conference room 6. historical exhibition area 7. office 8. storage
9. waiting room 10. plaza 11. cafe 12. digital media 13. souvenir shop 14. reading area 15. resting area 16. workshop
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Section Perspective
Section B-B
Section C-C
The relationship between structural framing and human traffic space
The relationship between the public space for human activities and the internal courtyard
Underground Below ground reflects the building's ability to connect multiple sites, and the treatment of the sunken entrances along the street dissipates the tall building masses and increases the accessibility of public spaces. The multi-level marketplace creates a vertical public space that allows the residents of the outer city to intersect with the residents of the district. The highest level of the corridor connects the residential areas within the boundary with the historic buildings along the street, increasing the connectivity between the residents of the district and the outside city.
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Intersection of circulation
The new public space building opens more entrances to the street façade, increasing the possibility of access for outside city residents. People enter through the sunken entrance on the north side and walk to the central sunken plaza where the annual gathering takes place. Then they walk along the flow towards the upper level of the building and step into the market space.
At this time, the external flow of people and the internal flow of people buying groceries converge, and the throughheight space of the building becomes the intersection where people converge under the novel structural form. The entrance on the north side is mainly a landscape space, attracting people to enter and bringing them into the sunken square.
Circulation of residents Circulation of visitors 1
Sight-seeing Bridge
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ZhongShan Entrance
3
Community Center
4
Market
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Urban Plaza
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01 3
Viewing for landscape places at the flow intersects when people meet with each other
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B1 Floor
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5
Courtyard B2 Floor
The courtyard in the building serves as a static through-height space for human use, allowing the line of sight of the three levels of human flow to communicate. At the same time the function of reading on the second floor matches with the static courtyard to produce a quiet spatial atmosphere.
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Integrating Urban Texture
The new buildings are linked to the past urban fabric, and the west side of the site is typical of Wuhan's historical lizards. In order to relate to the original fabric, the new buildings also form three separate architectural volumes echoing the residences to the west.
Tensioning structure
The building is constructed with a cable-stayed structure, using tensioned steel ropes to lift the curved volumes of the upper floors. The white curved volume becomes an architectural space that contrasts with the historic building, but the exterior steel frame creates a new boundary that echoes the original building.
New edge
The white curved building masses become attractive spaces in the city, creating a clear contrast with the old Minzhong buildings. The new boundary form combines the entrance and plaza functions through the high entrance to increase the crowd gathering effect.
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05_Time Resort Culture Station Honorable Mention of Young Architecture Competition
- 2021 Summer - YAC culture station competition - Instructor: Jingjing Lei - Team work with Zemin Yan, Ruoxi Li - Role: Team leader, all drawing except ones with * - Site: Elini, Italy - Renovation project
* Collaborated with Zemin Yan
The linear station space directs visitors in different directions in the flow of the city, one to the past and one to the future. While guiding visitors towards the city, they can experience the beautiful scenery and the warmth of the inhabitants. The interior of the station is designed with a plaza and marketplace to meet the needs of the aboriginal people for public space use. The array of colonnades responds to the historical flavor of Italy We are hoping that this culture station is not only a transfer station for tourists, but also a wonderful depiction of Sardinian culture, and Elini will be known as a land of idyllic beauty.
First Floor Plan
Second Floor Plan
Third Floor Plan
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7 6
2
1
Viewing for old station and new building
Slow and noisy, located in wild and remote scenarios, many stations are not in use anymore, leaving behind breath-taking landscapes crossed by rusty cast iron strips and scattered with vernacular structures. Rail infrastructures have long been neglected or abandoned, far from being object of architecture projects, as they are linked to a form of transportation that was considered obsolete and incompatible with the speed of modern times. Today, however, a new sensitivity seems to be reopening the debate on the future of this heritage. Expressions like “sweet mobility” and “slow tourism” show a new desire for quiet, for a future in which life will not be all about speed and progress anymore. The system of railway infrastructures of Elini is surrounded by art and culture, therefore this is a unique opportunity to create evocative itineraries for travellers who want to discover remote places, contemplate a moving landscape, and enjoy creative avant-garde artworks, accompanied by the rattling of an old locomotive.
Using time as the thread, we connect Parco Carmine, Elini Town and the Old Mill together. When the tourists arrive at Elini by train, it's his / her choice to visit the past or future. If they make their entrance from the Old Mill, then it will be a reversed trace of time when they travel.
8 5 3
1. Old station 2. Theater 3. Shoping 4 . Rest room 5. Conference room 6. Historical exhibition area 7. Office 8. Coffee
Our new station is a linear space which interact with the old buildings and the site. Arriving at the station, tourists are able to take a quick glance at this time-honored town or enjoy a leisure time at the cafeteria and outdoor theater. If they intend to explore Elini thoroughly, three different paths are designed for them to choose. Getting off the train, tourists will arrive at the station which is also an exhibition of Nuraghic Age. Moving forward, they can visit either the exhibition of Giudicati Age or the tower which enjoys a peek of the church. The sightseeing ends at the commercial area where they can experience the daily life of Elini residents, which also includes a incubator.
Interaction with new and old Elini is a perfect mixure of tradition and future, and this is the feature we decided to build our culture station on. We grasped several images from different times and collaged them into a bigger picture.
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06_Social Condenser Vertical public space design in a residential area Cube design_The 19th Architectural Talent Award_First Prize - 2022.5 - 2022.7 - Hust architecture studio - Instructor: professor Mei Jiang - Team work with Ruoxi Li - Role: Design the structure of public space, form design - all drawing except ones annotated with * - Site: Wuhan, China - Residential building
Step01
Interconnected layer
Step02
* Collaborated with Ruoxi Li
Step03
Street layer
Step04
Step05
Model redering Renovation layer
With the ionization of social interactions between people, communities are gradually changing from collective dwellings where many public activities take place to inwardly oriented and closed independent spaces. In this design, we try to take the street as the main space for public activities and the contact medium between the living units and the outside world from the study of the texture of the old city of Wuhan and the examination of residential activities, and envision the possible form of future communities with diverse, intimate and blurred boundaries. A comparison between old city communities and contemporary neighborhoods reveals that residents' sense of identity and social interactions are much more frequent in old city communities than in contemporary ones, and in old city, public activities often occur on the streets. Therefore, we use community street revitalization as a design strategy to develop a transformation of the modern
community and a vision of the future community. Streets in the past were characterized by small scale and multiple levels, connected together through a tree structure with a dense road network. Modern streets, on the other hand, are characterized by large scales and multiple levels, interconnected by an orthogonal network of small densities. However, this multi-level and large-scale street system is not conducive to interaction, creating boundaries that are difficult to cross and clusters that are strongly centripetal and externally exclusive. We therefore envision a future street system that is centerless, with relatively flat hierarchies and dense street systems interconnected by a mesh system. The diversity of streets meets the needs of multifunctional and multi-population use and solves the problems between communities and cities, and between communities and residents.
Step06
Vertical community The street space of the old city is not suitable for the economic development of the contemporary Urbanism, but can form a good atmosphere of interaction between the residents of the settlement. Thus, the hierarchical texture of the streets in the old city is preserved and the public space in the old city is increased and improved. The future street is defined as a decentered and weak hierarchy with higher density, increasing the possibility of interaction between residents, so the hierarchy of the modern street is broken, and the building spaces are linked by group-level streets and building-level streets, and the additional public spaces are scattered in the form of small but many building spaces and street units in the flow.
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07_Mechanical Arm Spraying
Pattern of mechanical arm
Air Filled Membrane Structure Room Sprayed by Mechanical Arm
The pattern trajectory of the robot arm needs to meet three points. The first point is that the robot arm should spray the whole course continuously and not interrupt the spraying in the middle. The second point is that the sprayed material is uniform and can completely cover the surface of the membrane structure. The third point is that the smallest movement axis of the robot arm does not have a large movement.
- 2021.6.27 - 2021.7.3 - Digital Future summer program in Tongji university - Instructor: Yunsheng Su - Team work with: Yuting Chen, Shiyu Qiu, Yichao Shi, Wei Wu, Fazhuo Zhang, Zihuan Zhang - Role in Team: Design the pattern for mechanical arm - Shanghai, China
Credit by Long Nguyen
Computational simulation of mechanical arms' movement in grasshopper Viewing inside the air filled membrane of the weaving pattern
Prefabrication In the group of pattern design, we explored the possibility of construct spray path with parametric approach. We started from digital pattern design, while the construction group fill the membrane room with air. After that, we do the on site verification and observation to develop the design. The air membrane would change shape due to the changing air pressure. Ta k i n g i n to a c c o u n t o f t h e s t r u c t u ra l c h a ra c te r i s t i c s o f s p ra y i n g technology and aesthetics. Here are two final pattern for sphere and water drop air membranes. Using square and contour as basic units. Wetested the curve tension with kangaroo simulation. After several iterations, we choose the final one with a gradient of wavy pattern. This design satisfies the requirements for the bottom tamping of the film-filled sprayed pavilion. In order to best support the sphere itself, we started spray from the bottom up, with the bottom a lot thicker than the upper part. The overlapping components can stabilize sphere and decrease the shape morphing in strong liquid spraying. This design can meet the requirements of the behavior of robotic arm. On the meantime, it gives an appropriate time and temperature to initiate a chemical reaction when spraying from bottom to top.
Observation of real-time movement
01_Generating pattern
02_Pattern morphing
03_Mechanical arm axis track
The first step starts with generating the motion trajectory of the plane in C#. Here the principle of mutual repulsion of points is used to generate many tangent gardens, and then the centers of the circles are arranged in a regular manner.
The second step distributes the graphics of the plane evenly on the sphere. The advantage of this pattern is the ability to flow to any surface without trimming the building window openings.
The final step is to adjust the trajectory of the gun at the front of the robot arm so that the relative motion between all axes is minimized and the arm does not undergo significant motion excursions. The approach taken here is to find the normal vector of the sphere and trajectory so that the robot arm's gun is as close as possible to its normal plane.
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Professional Work Baguang Innovation Complex Facade Design
- 2021.7 - 2021.8 - REFORM architecture firm - Instructor: Sai Shu - Professional work - Work: Parametric facade design -Role in team: Intern architect - Shenzhen, China
Parametic design The facade is parametic designed to resemble the water weave which provides a continued view from street. I used the contour line and the terrin-based shape of the building to modeling the facade. In order to meet the standard need for industrial fabrication, I refined and rationalized the digital model.
Shape of water weave facade resembles the sea
Facade details
As a new type of industrial building, this project is independent from the industrial concentration area. It is surrounded by urban service land such as commerce, culture and sports, transportation, residence and parks.We committed to that architecture can break through a single industrial positioning and expand more diverse urban functions.The building plane adopts a regular column grid of 8.4 meters by 8.4 meters to ensure that the space can be divided flexibly and freely.The L-shaped plan has superior lighting, ventilation and landscape views, and different segmentation modes can be adapted to start-up, accelerated, mature and other enterprises of different scales.The tower is equipped with R&D offices and entrepreneurial nurseries, and the podium and the first floor are placed with industrial services and commercial supporting functions.The shared vitality ring on the third floor connects different shared facilities to achieve leisure, communication, fitness and other needs. Up to 8,000 square meters of 6-meter-high general-purpose space can be adapted to various functions such as office, experiment, pilot test, and commercial facilities.
In order to emphasize and continue the characteristics of Baguang, we integrate the building with the beautiful natural environment and use the courtyard layout to introduce sunlight and green space into the center of the site.Inspired by the closely related cells of biotechnology, we designed the floor plan to integrate the architecture of the two sites.The building falls gradually to the middle like a valley to open the mountain and sea which can create a seascape sky garden.The building's bay-facing façade is broken up into clusters of small units, creating a villagelike layering.The ground floor creates a garden-like pedestrian network through low-rise overhead and densely landscaped walks. The terrace at the top of the building is a shared sea-view terrace serving the enterprise, which can become a place for informal communication between employees and a park for citizens to relax and entertain.The roof terrace below the 6th floor becomes a three-dimensional park open to the city, and the park is open to the city 24 hours a day, creating a vibrant industrial community environment.
This plan creates a model of low-carbon industrial parks through appropriate and mature technologies and means.We adopt green energy-saving technologies such as roof greening, low-e glass, sun visor, rainwater recovery, wind cap, photovoltaic power generation, energy consumption monitoring intelligent system, etc.The façade design of the building is inspired by the ripples of sea water, and the skin is composed of horizontal continuous wood grain metal louvers.The height of the louver is according to avoid the blocking of the viewing line, and through the local bending and twisting and the change of the width, it creates a feeling of flowing like water ripples The horizontal shading louver not only filters the hot sunlight to reduce energy consumption, but also abstractly responds to the feature of the site facing the water. Linear lights follow the shape of the louvers, creating a sparkling façade effect at night.
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