Places-Urbanism-Justice Lavinia's selected work sample
The Stapleton Waterlink
206 W 109th St, Apt. 1C New York, NY 10025 917-868-0265 lz2500@columbia.edu
LAVIN (LIWEN) ZHAO
Urban Designer & Landscape Designer
social and environmental resilience strategy of Stapleton, SI Semester: 2016 Summer Instructor: Kaja Kühl, James Khamsi (Coordinators), Brian Baldor, David Brown, Ellen Neises, Thad Pawlowski, Emily Weidenhof
Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lavin-liwen-zhao-32585676/
EDUCATION Columbia University, GSAPP
Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design
Tongji University, CAUP
Bachelor of Landscape Architecture
WORK EXPERIENCE June 2016-May 2017 New York, America Aug. 2010-Sept. 2015 Shanghai, China
Type: Academic
Aug. 2017, New York City, USA
Global Green
Teamwork: Background & theory research, concept development, graphic production
Graphic Design Volunteer Food Waste Diversion Project Helped prepare presentation graphics and flyers Oct. 2015-April 2016, Shanghai, China
AWD Design Group
Landscape Designer Jiaxing Auchan Village Landscape Design Assisted in preparing presentation files Participated in detailed landscape design for several design projects Participated in meetings with clients and collaborators
HONORS Social Activity Scholarship Awarded by Tongji University
Volunteering Excellence Award
Awarded by IFLA Asia-Pacific Region Conference Student Charette
Aug. 2015-Sept. 2015,Shanghai, China 2014 Shanghai, China 2012 Shanghai, China
LEADERSHIP
CAUP Student Union
Deputy Director of Volunteering Department Organized volunteering efforts
Tongji Urban Planning & Design Institute
Sept. 2011-July 2012 Shanghai, China Sept. 2011-July 2012 Shanghai, China
Landscape Intern Collaborated with four other students to create the concept plan of Dongping Waterfront Project, Foshan City, Guangzhou Province Designed a Local Culture Park for the Dongping Waterfront Project, and produced perspectives and diagrams of other projects Jan. 2015, Shanghai, China
Agence Ouvray Limited
Tongji Urban Ring Program
Volunteer Taught primary-school students to help them cultivate a sense of historic building preservation
Planning Intern Green Space System Planning in Anshun Collected information and conducted case studies to arrive at a relevant planning strategy Collaborated with the senior planner to complete the planning, and produced planning drawings, collages, and presentation files July 2015-Aug. 2015,Shanghai, China
Tongji Young Landscape Architect Association
Director Organized lectures and activities
CSUS Low Carbon Eco-City Research Center
Sept. 2011-Sept. 2012 Shanghai, China
Landscape Intern Prepared detail drawings and collages for presentation files Sept. 2011-Sept. 2012 Shanghai, China
;
Panscape Design Planning Consultant Co., Ltd
Landscape Intern Led student groups and surveyed the green space of Luwan & Huangpu District Coordinated with the Landscape Bureau
SKILLS
Proficient with MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Well versed in AutoCAD, SketchUp, and Adobe Creative Cloud Skilled with Rhinoceros and VRay Knowledge of Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premier Pro, ArcGIS, and Grasshopper
Art
Language
Photography Painting 3D Printing
Fluent English Fluent Mandarin (native speaker) Basic German
‘The Stapleton Water Link' is a project that analyses three aspects of the neighborhood of Stapleton in Staten Island: natural processes, social characters and economic situation. It aims to create a revitalized connection from the hill to a more resilient, re-activated and multi cultural waterfront. Apart from the problems related with gentrification and rising rents, the Stapleton waterfront today stands at a risk of getting privatized and disconnected from the existing neighborhood. Further, it faces great risks from rising sea levels and hurricanes like Hurricane Sandy. There has been a number of interventions proposed for the neighborhood of Stapleton by the city of New York and hence ‘The Stapleton Water Link’ proposal comes at an important time when the neighborhood is faced with a complete renovation and uplift.
R
esearch
+ V
isualization
R
esearch
+ V
isualization
2
Master Plan
designated landmark
residential
te wa
retail
bioswale
mix use
residential community center
kc rlin
residential
ido orr r
SIRT
historical navy pier
commercial street
local market
historical creek
tidal park
r k corrido
waterlin
tappe
EXI
n par
k
FR
O N
T
ST
R
EE T
GP
EE
T
local fish market
BA YS TR
STI N
IER
low tide:
mean high tide:
Hurricane Sandy:
Tidal wetlands: low tide
Tidal wetlands: mean high tide
Tidal wetlands: 100 year flood line
Tidal wetlands: Hurricane Sandy
Sacramento Drought a story about environmental justice Semester: 2016 Fall Instructor: Michael Murphy, Lee Altman (coordinators), Pippa Brashear, James Carse, Christopher Kroner, Sandro Marpillero, Justin Moore, David Smiley Type: Academic
Teamwork: Background & theory research, concept development, graphic production
Sacramento region lies in nutrient rich delta region, on the confluence of Sacramento river and American river, in the middle of Sacramento valley. Due to the location, Sacramento is vulnerable to floods from hundreds of years. The historical floodplain established strong networks of ecosystem, biodiversity specially aquatic organisms colonize and thrive from the seasonal flooding and nurtured the ground soil over the years giving rise to agriculture flourish and city emergence. However, 90% of the wetlands topography were flattened and reclaimed for agriculture and urbanisation. Besides, in response to flood humans have built infrastructures like dams, levees, weirs and bypass to protect their living, parallely inflicting the species inhabiting the river valley, among which certain fish fall under the most endangered species. We identify winter-run Chinook salmon, one of the endangered species in northwest America, as an indicator for ecosystem within this area, discuss the environment justice when some human intervention for flooding issue harm the habitat of other species. The belt at the same time is house and living to large percentage of population now. Many low income agriculture dependent settlements spread across the stretch and are dependent on these built precautions. Fabricated alterations might seem to ameliorate initially but has adverse effects in a long run for humans and ecosystems. The argument is to evaluate and discover the equilibrium state between the urban dynamics and Eco justice by attempting to redefine the tensed edge from human’s perspective and fish’s perspective in Sacramento city at the fringe of wetland delta and urban fabric.
Art Trek I An Art Loop that benefits tourists and the local.
REGIONAL ANALYSIS
Art Trek
REGIONAL REBUILD THE IDENTITY
Semester: 2016 Fall Instructor: Michael Murphy, Lee Altman (coordinators), Pippa Brashear, James Carse, Christopher Kroner, Sandro Marpillero, Justin Moore, David Smiley Type: Academic
TAP INTO THE ART & TOURISM NETWORK
Teamwork: Background & theory research, concept development, graphic production
The city of Poughkeepsie is in a process of revitalization in recent decades. As the city is located along the CITY Metro North line in the Hudson-River Valley region, which is rich in scenic and artistic tourist attractions, it possesses huge potential to be asOF an art tourism destination. In fact, local organizations and ENHANCE THEdeveloped CONNECTION DIFFERENT RESOURCES artists in and around the city have already started many art projects and initiatives. We want to leverage these potentials to benefit local communities; especially local youth who have access to few art resources within the school system and are suffering from high dropout rate, high crime rate and low employment rate. The Art Loop is a path of art exploration and participation which introduce a new art district in the city of Poughkeepsie.
MET Art
Oth Albany Institute of History and Art
ECONOMIC IMPACT
Art
Empire State Plaza
Albany
$ 19 million DIRECT IMPACT $ 9.5 million INDIRECT IMPACT
Hudson Town
Catskill Thomas Cole’s Cedar Grove
Frederic Church’s Olana
Saugerties
LOCAL
ENGAGE & BENEFIT THE LOCAL
Tivoli Red Hook
Opus 40
Kingston
Rhinebeck
Senate House State Historic Site
Hyde Park ARTS MID-HUDSON
New Paltz Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art
Poughkeepsie Francis Lehman Loeb Art Center Samuel Morse’s Locust Grove
WITHIN THE CITY: POTENTIAL & ISSUE
Ret
Exp
The city of Poughkeepsie is in a process of revitalization in recent decades. As the city is located along the Metro North line in the Hudson-River Valley region which is rich in scenic and artistic tourist attractions, it possesses huge potential to be developed as an art tourism destination. an art loop that tap into the regional resources
STRATEGY
Nat
Newburg
Beacon Dia : Beacon
Cold Spring
Storm King Art Center
Russel Wright’s Manitoga
Peekskill Hudson Center of Contemporary Art
Katonah Museum of Art
Union Church of Pocantico Hills Kykuit Neuberger Museum of Art Kendall Sculpture Garden Jasper Cropsey’s Ever Rest Hudson River Museum
Yonkers
WITHIN THE CITY: POTENTIAL & ISSUE
IS
7
Hi in
5
gr
3
Ju C
Art Trek I An Art Loop that benefits tourists and the local.
REGIONAL ANALYSIS
Art Trek II
URBAN SCALE INTERVENTION
Art Trek II
URBAN SCALE INTERVENTION
The city of Poughkeepsie is in a process of revitalization in recent decades. As the city is located along the Metro North line in the Hudson-River Valley region which is rich in scenic and artistic tourist attractions, it possesses huge potential to be developed as an art tourism destination.
STRATEGY
ECONOMIC IMPACT
REGIONAL
$ 19 million DIRECT IMPACT $ 9.5 million INDIRECT IMPACT
REBUILD THE IDENTITY TAP INTO THE ART & TOURISM NETWORK
CITY ENHANCE THE CONNECTION OF DIFFERENT RESOURCES
LOCAL ENGAGE & BENEFIT THE LOCAL
WITHIN THE CITY: POTENTIAL & ISSUE
N
N
N
ISSUE: YOUTH CHALLENGE 7th/24%
Highest Drop Out Rate in New York State
SECTION A-A
SECTION B-B
SECTION C-C
SECTION A-A
SECTION B-B
58%
graduation rate
32%
Juvenile Crime in Dutchess County
New York State School Map
SECTION A-A
SECTION B-B
SECTION C-C
SECTION C-C
Group 9 | Team Member: Daiyue Lyu, Haochen Yang, Liwen Zhao, Zhaoyu Zhu
4
Precious Waste generative grounds for social and environmental justice Semester: 2017 Spring Instructor: Dilip DaCunha, Geeta Mehta, Julia Watson, Kate Orff
Type: Academic
Teamwork: Background & theory research, concept development, graphic production
What if all of Kolkata’s waste were used productively in the generation of a new integrative landscape that could mediate existing social and environmental inequities? Thesis: The East Kolkata Wetlands are currently the sole destination for almost all of Kolkata’s waste, both solid and liquid, saving the city millions of dollars in waste management costs and providing more than half of its fish and vegetable needs, yet developmental pressures are diminishing their capacity and endangering their survival. This proposal seeks to assign value to Kolkata’s “waste,” to expose the deleterious health conditions being caused by it, and to conceive of a landscape of “midgrounds” that serve to integrate the city with its wetlands.
Waste Flows to the Wetlands, but Impacts of Air Quality are Felt City-Wide
hand water pump
A
A
A-A SECTION
dwelling
sewage waste
hand water pump
plastic melting factory garbage hand sorting
plastic waste water flow
fish pond
soil loam
waste drainage
sand and gravel water
sewage canal drainage canal
Most plastic bottles are made from PET plastic (PolyEthylene Triphosphate) which is derived from crude oil. Oil extraction not only releases CO2 into the atmosphere, but it destroys habitats and contaminates groundwater. After extraction, oil is transferred to an oil refinery. One of the largest oil refineries in the world likes in Gujarat, India and is owned and operated by Reliance Industries, Ltd. A drastic increase in plastic consumption in India can be tracked to the entrance of Reliance into India in 1971. Next, refined oil is taken to a manufacturing plant where it is transformed into plastic pellets, melted down, and formed into bottles through a process of stretch-blow molding. Manufacturing plants like the Coca-Cola plant right outside of Jaipur extract inordinate amounts of water from underground aquifers. Water table levels dropped around 45 feet over the course of just ten years in this region, contributing to lack of irrigation water for farmers and drinking water for villages. In 2010, this plant extracted 1,370,694 cubic meters of water for only $110. Consumption of plastic bottles in Kolkata continues to increase rapidly with an estimated growth rate of 10.9% from 2010 to 2015, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down. Reliance on plastic bottles has increased due to fear of water contamination and health impacts. After consumption, all of Kolkata’s municipal solid waste is collected in trucks and hauled to the Dhapa landfill site in the East Kolkata Wetlands, around 4,000 megatons per day. There is no source separation of waste. However, 10% of Kolkata’s waste is still recycled thanks to the presence of “trash diggers” who separate out the recyclables by hand and transport them to recycling villages on the outskirts of the city. Spending their days scavenging through the landfill in bare feet alongside bulldozers and wild dogs inhaling particulates and toxic fumes of burning refuse, it is not surprising that most trash diggers die before the age of fifty. At the recycling villages, no masks are to be found, but the stench of burning plastic permeates the atmosphere while young children run around playing. Plastic is separated out into its constituent types, melted down, cut into chunks, and then resold to plastic manufacturing companies to be made into things like toys and electrical wire coating.
Highground & Lowground
Finding Cyclical Opportunities in a Linear System
Canal as Intergrative Armature
Site 1ďźšCoconut Grove
Site 01
Site 02
Site 03
Seperation Center
Site 2ďźš
sealdah train station
waste separation
plastic separation and recycling
education center
plastic
water
flower market
rain collection garden
flower processing
flower gardens
mixed-income housing
water treatment ponds
anaerobic digestion
irrigation water treatment sewage water people
people organic waste
Social Impact:
Bottom-Up Implementation Through Local Involvement
With funding from oil and plastic manufacturers and support from the government and other local organizations, these efforts need to be driven by the innovation and incredible knowledge already present within the community, especially in the wetlands. This project provides the infrastructure for considerable change in the landscape and the mindsets of Kolkata residents, but it must be implemented by the people themselves—not just trash diggers, fish farmers, and informal settlers, but rich residents who will need to learn to separate out their own waste at source. Rather than a burden, waste becomes a catalyst for new economies, recreation, and revitalization of the canals. This is a vision for a new Kolkata no longer tainted by a halo of toxic blue smog, but a clean and beautiful city equalized by its waste.
Parametric Urbanism
Grasshopper Screenshot
Semester: Spring 2017 Instructor: Luc Wilson Type: Academic
Design Intent
Evaluation Mechanism
Rating & Selection
Massing
CONFLICTS MEDIATOR Landscape as a flexible mediator of complex context in metropolis. ---urban park design Semester: Fall 2013 Duration: 4 weeks, revised in 2015 Instructor: Hongjun Zhou Type: Academic Independent Work
Site analysis
hard & soft surface
adjacent user
roads
river
service building
long distance user
building
URBAN FABRIC
space division
path
outdoor theater
HARDSCAPE & SOFTSCAPE
space
ACTIVITIES
This urban park was located within a residential area with surroundings that represented the typical mixture of Shanghai landscapes. Shanghai owns a unique nickname, “Modu,” which means “magic city.” Skyscrapers, glamorous commercial buildings, exotic concession districts, and crowded oldfashioned neighborhoods all coexist within several blocks. The project tried to mediate the potential conflicts that arise from diverse building volumes and functions by dealing with the border.
Conflicting Border Condition
SITE PLAN
LANDMARK OBSERVATION
BICYCLE PARKING
SEATING AREA WATER MIRROR
ECO-IDLAND
RESIDENCE
0
VIEW FOCAL POINTECO-IDLAND
Topography building: Cafe & Pedestrian bridge
Path
Lawn
Path
Topography
Street
Street space
Resting slope
2 4
18(m)
8
Hydrophilic Platform
Eco-island
River
TABLE TENNIS CAFE & PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE EXTREME SPORTS
Mediation & Cohesion
TOPOGRAPHY BUILDING EXTREME SPORTS
ELEVATED LAWN WATERFRONT STAIR COMMUNICATING PLAZA
Nostalgia perception
NATURAL OXYGEN BAR
Landmark perception
INTERGRATED SERVICE CENTER
Border with fun
OUTDOOR THEATER
CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND
Reflection & Recreation Urban park as backyard garden PET'S PLAYGROUND
0 10 20
50
100
accessible slope
comprehensive service center: multi-fuction
movie screen & path
Outdoor performing stage
Outdoor theater
Micro-landform acting as theater wall
Path
Forest
URBAN ECO-CORE A new model of ecological park planning of New Jiangwan Town, Shanghai. Semester: Spring 2014 Duration: 6 weeks, revised in 2015 Instructor: Daixin Dai Type: Academic Independent Work flower bed
eco-gabion
outdoor theater
eco-island
sunshine lawn eco-corridor
basketball field children's playground football field
extreme sports field
tableballtennis field
bird tower
This project tried to achieve a wider benefit through a park design that could not only improve the onsite environment but also have a positive influence on the surrounding community. Considering the location advantage (adjacent to a green corridor) and the scale, the New Jiangwan Town Park had the potential to be an eco-core of the area.
forest path
deep pool
agriculture field
floodplain
deposit pond
topography plaza
entrance plaza
SITE PLAN 0
20
40
100
200(m)
GREEN CORRIDOR: LOCAL PLANTING
MRTHODOLOGY HYDROLOGY CONVERGENCE
Catchment point
Stream
Fuction
Watercourse
Lake
Cinnamomum camphora (L.) Presl.
deposit filter nourish
GREEN CORRIDOR DIFFUSION
Koelreuteria paniculata
Source
Branch
Connection
Green Corridor
Wind Corridor & Species Corridor
Eurya japonica ThunbHarms
Zelkova serrata (Thunb.)
Schefflera Pittosporum octophylla tobiraHarms (Lour.) Harms
ACTIVITY INSERTION Zoysia japonica Steud.
Eco-Structure
flow speed
fastest
0
Insertions of activity
Po-tentilla betonicaefolia Poiret.
medium high light
Activity Zones
Activity Intensity
Eco-core for Birds
Purification: Core of watercourse street run-off
road
WATER LEVEL FLUCTUATION
1
A
pond
Deep pond: depositting the impurities from run-off collected from streets
3 4
1 river
feeding
Gabion & stones increasing the oxygen content in the water
2 1
5 1
6
3 NATURAL
2 ARTIFICIAL
Branching: dividing the discharge and creating the flood plain
A
eco-island
3 3 1
resting
1
feeding & habitat
flooding area
4
normal area
lake
dry area
Eco-ialands purifying water and provide habitat for diverse species 5
isolation feeding
Creating scour holes: increasing the flow rate in sections of a watercourse
6
Flooding area
Eco-islands
Activity lawn
Eco-islands
Birding trail
Fruit wetland
Eco-core bird island
mp
ng
ce ervi
s A-A PERSPECTIVE SECTION DIY
MOIST
WET
MOIST
WET
MOIST
DRY
MOIST
WET
WET
nd
-isla
perspective of flooding area
perspective of bird island
ood
dw
ding
buil
chi wat birder tow
r
rido
-cor
eco
shri
d
pon
eco
dea
fruit
land
wet