Bang Wang Selected Works
Cure the Symptom, Cure the Root: design solutions for flood-prone sunken interchanges in downtown Beijing
As extreme rainstorms become more frequent due to the urban heat island effect, flooding issues in downtown Beijing’s sunken traffic interchanges have become the city’s major concern. This project develops design solutions for the interstitial spaces in these sunken interchanges. Hoping to cure both the symptoms and the roots of flooding issues, I explore the potentials of these spaces as a means of absorbing excess water in extreme rain events and reducing the urban heat island effect within the contemporary urban landscape.
2km
Map of 42 sunken interchanges
Study of flooding sunken interchanges
Developing Stage In 1980s, as skills of interchange design accumulated, new forms of interchanges were developed to adapt to various urban contexts. Requirements of keeping visual corridors and saving budgets didn’t change, hence the sunken forms were remained.
Innovation Stage In 1990s, the 2nd and the 3rd Ring Roads were completed. Due to the increasing flow of traffic, interchanges started to become complex to coordinate the tension between traffic flow and the limited land use area in downtown.
Early Stage 600 years ago, the Forbidden City was built as the spatial center of Beijing. Urban areas expanded from the Forbidden City and formed the ring-shaped structure. The major ring roads in Beijing serve as urban expressways and are connected with other roads via interchanges. The first interchange in downtown Beijing was built in 1972 and was a sunken interchange. The sunken form was the result of an expedient decision to save budgets and to avoid blocking street views by bridges.
Contemporary Stage The first two decades of this century witness Beijing’s fastest developing period, during which the city has expanded to its 7th ring. As the flow of traffic grows further, the most recently-built interchanges become more complicated and are similar to their counterparts in many other cities around the world. The sunken form, as a vernacular design language that has been used for decades, is still integrated in traffic interchanges.
Timeline of Beijing's expasion
Problem anylasis and design strategy
Design strategy diagram
Design rendering | artificial tree
Design rendering | natural interaction
Poke:
Architectural renovation of traditional Linpan heritage in western Sichuan
Contemporary megacities accelerate their expansions as economic elements constantly concentrate. At the fringe area of cities, built environments are always seen poking violently into the nature and causing conflicts. However, Linpan, as the product of the evolutions of residential life and space, has made this contact mutual and reciprocal. Woods and houses stand at higher places, croplands and water bodies lie at lower areas. High and low, add and subtract, the vast cycle of nature is entirely included inside to serve the residents, and human being is positioned equally with everything in nature. * In partnership with Juno Tan, Ruby Wang. ** Ranked No.1 in the Finalist.
10m
Site master plan | landscape design
Conceptual models | "Poke"
Design strategy | form generation
Sections | landscape
Rendering | west entrance
Reconnection: green infrastructure design for Evergreen Brick Works
The site is located at the mid-stream of Don River, right beside the Evergreen Brick Works. Since EBW seeks connections between people and the nature, this project is thus aiming at helping EBW to achieve its goal. Hoping to reconnect the natural landscapes that are fragmented by infrastructures, the project provides the reconnection with two types of values: first, the recreational value for visitors, and second, the environmental value for the Don River. The recreational value could be experienced on the bridges and platforms that connect EBW and the Don River, while the environmental value is achieved through a series of ponds created for native fish species on the northern bank of Don River. Hopefully, the redesigned riverbank could also protect EBW against a 100-year level flood from the Don River.
20m
Site master plan | landscape design
Section | bicycle bridges through the woods
Section | platform over Don River
Rendering | bicycle bridges through the woods
Rendering | platform over Don River
SeaBNB: Youth hotel design for Newtown, Newfoundland and Labrador
With about 6000 visitors per year, Newtown has only three accomodations. The lack of accomodation limits people's stay in the community and has become a bottleneck for further tourism development. This project aims to design a set of hostels that serve as accomodations for visitors and as attractors for tourism. The hostels will take advantage of the landscape of Newtown and provide unique experiences for visitors. The hostels will be "off-the-grid" to limit the cost and difficulty of construction and at the same time become part of the unique lifestyle provided to visitors. While detailed drawings are made for each hostel, the project seeks to be open ended. It is expected that the hostels will serve as a fundamental facility and support other students' proposed programs by inviting and keeping more visitors in situ.
Model | laser cut model in a terrarium
30 km
Analysis | development of traffic infrastructure in NFLD
50m
Analysis | residence distribution
SeaBNB houses design
15 m
Site plan of SeaBNB community
Mature with Gardens: independent design of five sidewalk gardens
Since 2015, I have been working with an affiliated power plant of COFCO Group on designing a series of sidewalk gardens for its industrial campus. The gardens are mostly located on the edge of a natural slope that faces the seascape. With very limited budget, material types, and construction skills, these projects feature the reuse of wasted materials (bricks, concrete, metal pipes, etc.) and collaborative efforts of workers from the power plant. Through the development of these projects, both the plants in the gardens and my design skills get more and more matured. Also, these projects provide great opportunities to examine the question — what makes a good design, without a rich palette of resources?
Garden 3 "Vortex" | winter view
15 m
Site plan of 5 sidewalk gardens
5m
Site plan of garden 5 "Prospect Garden"
Foundation: street furniture design — from design to assemblies
As a profession that deals with the nature and all its materials, landscape architecture needs a solid knowledge of site technologies that coordinates designer's ideas with realistic environments. This project involves the design of a piece of street furniture. It starts with the study of the wall of the pool at Toronto's Peace Garden. The structure is learned through a series of site investigations and rational assumptions. After that, the structure is redesigned into a bench, which uses a similar construction logic but with different materials. A physical model is built to examine the rationale of this disign. * In partnership with Bonnie Choung
Photograph of the bench model
20 cm
Technical drawing | top view
20 cm
Technical drawing | section view
Desktop Greenhouse: terrarium design, manufacture, and assembly
This desktop terrarium serves as a memorial of my trip to Newfoundland in October 2019. With moss and rocks collected from Newfoundland, the landscape design of the terrarium attempts to represent the natural rocky meadow of Newfoundland's coastal area. To sustain a humid interior environment for moss, a series of "facilities" were designed and manufactured, include a plexi-glass greenhouse, a well-layered planting medium, and a wooden tray that holds the terrarium and a diffuser together. The greenhouse features nearly 100 pieces of components that are laser-cut and detachable. A fan was designed on the top of the dome and can be powered by fingers to extract excess moisture.
Rendering of digital model
Form generation through parametric design
Components list and assembly
Terrarium components and assembly
Photogragh of the final product
It's All Ours: Heritage reservation competition for Ontario Place
The life of any built form heritage could be extended through a sustainable usage complying with the era, rather than an isolated retrogression to a static “ideal” state. By introducing the role of career incubator to the site, the design approach raises three strategies to adapt the heritage for the new programs. First, the iconic “pods” and “villages” are reprogrammed as employment complexes with a combination of work and public spaces. Architectural heritages are connected by an elevated corridor extended from the pods to the silos via the west common. Second, new clusters of architectural units based on existing design languages are placed on the east island, to enlarge the capacity. Third, an elevated streetcar route connecting to existing TTC transit routes will tightly weave Ontario Place with the city.
100m
Master plan of Ontario Place
Typology stuty of existing elements
Floor plan design for pods and new architectural forms
Stakeholders and relationships
West island view | Hand drawing