PORTFOLIO FOR MLA AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

PORTFOLIO

[ Chenxi Wang ]

Selected Works 2018-2022

For the application to MLA at the University of Edinburgh

[ Chenxi Wang ]

Phone: +(86) 17835460320 [ Education ]

E-mail: wcx1304382116@gmail.com Address: No. 50, Chengdong Road, Taihang East Street, Changzhi City, Shanxi Province, China 046000

Southeast University, Nanjing, China,Sept. 2018 - Jun. 2023

Bachelor of Engineering in Landscape Architecture GPA: 3.75/4.0

[ Work Experience ]

Aug. 2022 - Oct.2022 Internship

- Shanxi No.3 Building Engineering Company Changzhi Branch Architectural Design Institute; - responsible for architecture construction drawings and facade design for a hospital construction project;

Jul. 2022 - Aug. 2022 2022 Imperial-RCA Design for Global Challenges Online Summer School

- Most Innovative Design Award; - an A-Distinction for the individual;

- finished a two-week online course; carried out group service design around Climate Change and completed a final presentation;

Research Program, Southeast University

- “Application of Dynamic Fitting of Digital 3D Model in the Study of Stacked Mountain Technique “; - team leader;

Nov. 2020 – Nov. 2021

- through the dynamic fitting of three-dimensional digital models, taking "Pu" Garden rockwork as the research object, using the parameters in the image correspondence to generate three-dimensional information, combined with an interview with the rockery craftsman Fang Hui, to a certain degree of visual interpretation of the stacking technique reflected in the rockery;

- written paper “Application of Dynamic Fitting of Digital 3D Model in the Study of Stacked Mountain Technique -- Take Kunshan "Puyuan" rockery as an example”;

Ancient Buildings Measurement surveys, Southeast University

- team member

Jul. 2021 - Oct.2021

- did fieldwork and measurement for the traditional landscape architecture in Lu Garden, did online measurement surveys for Master of Nets Garden;

[ Professional Experience ] [ Skills ]

- 3D model, detailed plans, sections and facades of the buildings and classical gardens, video; Oct. 2021

Volunteer Experience

- 2021 Jiangsu Red Cross Registered volunteer

- Teacher role in school-related subjects (art, English, science) in Xuanwu Community Service

3D Modelling: Sketchup / Rhino / Grasshopper / Blender

2D: AutoCAD / Adobe Photoshop / Adobe Illustrator / Adobe InDesign

Analysis: ArcGIS

Rendering: Lumion / Enscape

"Why this major?"

"Why persist and love ?"

"What kind of landscape architect I'd like to be?"

These are the questions I'm constantly looking for answers to, and the reason I choose the University of Edinburgh.

Born in a small town in Shanxi Province, the largest coal-producing province in China, my daily life seems filled with the billowing smoke from the chemical plants and the smoky haze shrouding the sky. Facing the scarred land under my feet, I think landscape design is the best solution to restore the ecological environment and build a livable city. This is my original intention in choosing Landscape Architecture as my major.

During my five years of undergraduate study at Southeast University, its rigorous and practical landscape teaching system has taught me how to be a down-to-earth problem solver in landscape design. In my fourth year of undergraduate study, I participated in landscape planning projects for ecological restoration. This topic triggered my rethinking of the ecological issues in my hometown and finally derived into my academic interest in Ecological Landscape. Landscape architecture is a powerful weapon in both the broken ecological environment and the built environment of cities, which I learned through this experience. The purpose of green spaces should not be only to beautify urban spaces, but also to restore or improve the ecological environment. By using expertise and technology, a landscape architect can gently balance urban construction and the ecological environment in a wide range of sociocultural and socioeconomic contexts.

Each quarter of TU Delft's landscape teaching is developed with a design course and a supporting theory course, emphasizing the continuity of design theory, design process and design results. Such a teaching mode enables me to form a rigorous design thinking and research thinking, forming a transition with my undergraduate practical landscape teaching system. At the same time, TU Delft's landscape teaching is closely integrated with geography, focusing on multiscale ecological and energy issues. This can provide me with the possibility to conduct in-depth research on academic interests in ecological issues. With my career goal of becoming a landscape architect I hope to have the opportunity to work in a landscape architecture practice like Grant Associates that creates ecological designs. So, I think studying Master of Landscape Architecture at Delft University of Technology is the best choice for me.

01

Healing Earth Scars

Mine park design based on GIS analysis

Acadamic Work

Jijiagou Village, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China Individual Work

Tutor: Pang Li April 2020

The site locates near Jijiagou Village in Xishan District, Wanbailin District, Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, covering an area of 396hm2. The ecological problems caused by coal mine goaf in this area are the most prominent. In the regional context of the resource-based regions in Shanxi Province, affected by China's policy of vigorously developing ecological civilization, the Xishan area is facing the need for environmental restoration and scenic spot construction. With people's pursuit of quality of life, suburban parks with a good environment have gradually become the places of leisure and entertainment that people yearn for.

Due to the site's large-scale geographical scope and complex mountainous terrain, to achieve ecological restoration, activation of regional tourism resources, and objective and reasonable regional landscape transformation, this project adopts the GIS to analyze this site. After analyzing the slope, elevation, aspect, and land use of the restricted terrain, it is more reasonable to decide on the landscape reconstruction process of the abandoned coal mine land.

Japan

China's coal industry

Coal export /Coal import proportion /Coal production and reserves in China

Chinese coal mainly exports to Asian countries such as Japan and Korea.

The source countries of China's coal imports mainly include Indonesia, Australia, Russia, Mongolia, etc

Regarding the distribution and reserves of coal resources, China's regional distribution is highly uneven, mainly distributed in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Shanxi.

China accounts for 50% of the world's coal consumption. China accounts for 13.3% of the world’s coal reserves.

Coal production Coal import

Coal reserves Coal Emport Proportion of coal exports to China in 2020

Coal exports to China showed an increasing trend from 2019 to 2020

Coal exports to China showed an decreasing trend from 2019 to 2020

Australia

China accounts for 51% of the world’s coal production.

50% 13.3% 51%

World Coal Consumption World Coal Reserves World Coal Production

In current situation

China's oil and natural gas resources are relatively insufficient, with proven oil recoverable reserves accounting for only 2.4% of the world's total and natural gas accounting for 1.2%. In comparison, coal accounts for about 14%. Such resource conditions determine that China's energy structure dominates by coal.

85% 67.6% 59%

Coal Consumption in renewable energy consumption

China's coal imports and exports

Before 2007, China imported a small amount of coal and was a coal exporter. Since 2007, China's coal exports have been lower than imports, becoming a coal importer.

Renewable Energy Consumption in energy consumption

China’s energy structure

Coal Consumption in energy consumption

According to the graphs above, we can see that the leading energy consumed in China is coal.

China

Russia Mongolia

Hongkong

Korea

Philipines

Colombia South Africa Indonesia

The development process of Shanxi coal industry

1949-1980 1980-1998 1998-2007 2007-

The Asian Financial Crisis

The three-year Great Leap Forward The foun -dation of New China

The Cultural Revolution

The reform and opening-up policy

The International financial crisis

The National Mine Ecological Environment Restoration and Governance Site Meeting

After 1970, the level of coal mining mechanization in Shanxi improved, and coal production increased.

In 1998, Shanxi adjusted the coal production and transportation order and closed unreasonable coal mines.

After 2000, Shanxi carried out the integration of coal mine resources, and coal production gradually recovered.

Landscape Planning

"Shanxi Provincial Mine Environmental Governance and Restoration Fund Management Measures" forms a solid institutional constraint on the performance of mining rights holders on the obligation of mine ecological restoration.

of Shanxi abandoned mines 2022 2022 2022 2040 2040 2040

Phased Governance

The restoration will carry out in stages. It expects the green space construction of mines with less ecologi cal damage and the fundamental ecological restoration will be completed by 2040.

Ecological Restoration

According to the destruction of abandoned mines in Shanxi, the areas that need water restoration and landform landscape reconstruction will be defined in 2040.

Green Space System &Tourism Linkage

Through the landscape construction of abandoned mines, it is expected that in 2040, the mine parks will link the eco-tourism resources with the surrounding parks to form an ecotourism network system.

GIS analysis for the region

Second-order Factors First-order Factors Second-order Factors First-order

Aspect Elevation Slope Road Highway Stream

×0.25

×0.40 ×0.25 ×0.40

×0 .2 5 First-line sky scenic spot

Hydrology Topography Attraction

Road Vegetation Highway Stream Road RailwayStation Highway Settlement

×0.20 ×0.30 ×0.40

×0.40 ×0.20 ×0.10 22.5km

×0.20 ×0.25 37.9km 60min by car

×0.30 ×0.10

×0.20 ×0.40

×0.30 ×0.30

33min by car

×0.15 Juewei Mountain Scenic Area Guoxin Suburban

Forest 35 7km 60min by c ar

West Hill landscape connection Water area Parks transformed from West Hill area of the Wanbailin District Road Cultural landscape resources Coal mining enterprise

Site analysis based on GIS

Second-order Factors

Topography Coverage Transportation Attraction

First-order Factors

×0.2

Hydrology

×0.1 ×0.1

×0.3 ×0.2

×0.4 ×0.5

×0.2

The point in the middle of the image grid is selected as the sample point, and the ecological sensitivity index of the sample point with high height and dark color is high.

Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample

The point in the middle of the pixel grid is selected as the sample point, and the construction suitability index at the sample point with high height and dark color is high. Sample 1

Results Analysis

According to the GIS analysis results, the four more representative sites in the site were selected as samples. These four samples adopted different design strategies.

Sample 1 has excellent construction suitability, and the ecological sensitivity is extremely low.

Sample 2 has a high overall value, high construction suitability, and low ecological sensitivity.

Sample 3 has higher construction suitability and higher ecological sensitivity.

Sample 4 has extremely low construction suitability and high ecological sensitivity.

Design Strategies

Strategy1 Coal Mine Museum

Gangue Backfill

Backfilling and subgrade materials enable the bulk consumption of gangue with low pollutant content, reducing the cost of construction of roadbeds, foundations, or dam foundations and reducing the land occupied.

Gangue mountain selection

Lay Gangue

Check

Transportation Leveling

Strategy2 Mine Exploration Park

Gangue Reusage

Gangue can be used to prepare building materials to build park structures, mainly brick making, etc. When making bricks, the explosive substance of gangue can save coal, forming a virtuous circle.

Crush Gangue Stir to mix

Leveling Roasting Dry Build

Strategy3 Artificial Wetland Park

Gangue Acid Wastewater Treatment

Gangue can produce acidic wastewater, which causes soil, surface water, and groundwater pollution and seriously affects plant growth. Alkaline materials such as fly ash can be sown to neutralize with acidic substances in gangue, followed by the construction of wetlands.

Add Alkaline Substances

Plant Configuration Trestles Construction

Submerged Macrophyte Floating Plant Emergent Aquatic Plant

Strategy4 Land Art

Ecological Restoration of Gangue Mountains

For gangue that cannot be comprehensively utilized, ecological restoration is required. Gangue mountain has a significant slope area; due to the poor engineering stability, ecological planting blanket technology can be used to enhance strength and use plant configuration to fix the soil further. Then gangue mountains can carry out a certain degree of engineering construction.

Slope Shaping Ecological Planting Blanket Plant Configuration Structure Construction

Road System

1st Level Road for walkers and vehicles 2nd Level Road for walkers and bikes 3rd Level Road for walkers

Threshold Places

Feature Entry Area

Waterfront Square

Man-made Wetland Park

Colliery Museum

Mine Exploration Park

Trestle and lookout

Land art

Water & plants

Tree House Water Area Hard Paved Foors Forest Wetland Plants

Pit Area

Entrance

Section Perspective

Wetland Ecological Park Area

The wetland shall be constructed using Design Strategy 3 for the subsided land resulting from coal-mine with high ecological sensitivity in the site to solve the problem of water pollution caused by coal mining. The coal gangue is backfilled as soil, nourishing the growth of plants during the long natural succession. The artificial wetland park can also bring tourists a relaxed and pleasant tour experience.

Wetland Plant Configuration

The collapse area is close to the ponding revetment, and the ability to resist waterlogging and pollution should be considered when selecting the varieties of trees. Aquatic plants with high purification capacity are planted in shallow water areas to improve the quality of water areas.

Rest Place in Forest

Climbing Plank

Mine Pit

Mine Theme Park Area

The theme park area of the mining area is built at the mine pit and coal gangue hill in the original site. The coal gangue is reused through the coal gangue utilization method proposed in Design Strategy 1 and Design Strategy 2 . The mine pit style is presented to show the place's memory to visitors.

Mine Plant Configuration

should choose

with tolerance to a wide range of pH values and drought and barren to improve the soil humidity and temperature conditions, establish the nutrient cycle between plants and soil, and ensure the success of the plant replantation strategy.

Runway Gangue reuse structure

Slum & Poors

02

Inverted pyramids

A digital deisgn for a community that makes a living from e-waste

Acadamic Work

Agbogbloshie, Accra, Ghana Individual Work

Tutor: Minzhi Lin; Jieping Chen October 2021

The site is controversial in the capital of Accra, Ghana; this used to be a lagoon where mangroves grew and is now a huge source of pollution. It is called "Agbogbloshie". Locals also nicknamed it "Sodom and Gomorrah," two cities condemned in the Bible. However, the poor living here believes this is a dignified land providing housing and job opportunities. Despite improper burning and dismantling, it has created devastating environmental and health problems for the entire capital. The dumping of e-waste brings them many discarded precious metals, which means a considerable income.

In 2021, the Ghanaian government incorporated it into its utopian urban planning, using it as part of the land for the construction of medical facilities, pulling out the slums on the site, and relocating the dumping site, which not only fails to fundamentally solve the pollution but completely defeat the dignity of the poor.

Based on site characteristics and unavoidable waste dumping, I use phytomining and automation to amplify its site characteristics as an e-waste disposal site and make the e-waste industry harmless while retaining its employment opportunities. At the same time, to ensure the living problem of the poor while using phytomining for soil remediation, the slum is lifted vertically in the form of a giant landscape structure, forming a utopian living form that places the poor on the upper layer. It is an ironic project that celebrates the impartiality of the landscape.

Agbogbloshie

Agbogbloshie is situated on the banks of the Korle Lagoon, northwest of Accra's Central Business District.

Dumping Site

Dumping Site

Industry Density

Period 1 5 YEARS

Period 2 8 YEARS

Monitor 1 1 YEAR

Health Problems

Metal Elements

Residential structure of 3 hight & connection

20m 16m 12m

12m 16m

20m 8m 4m 0

Reactor for e-waste recycling

End-processing

Pre-processing

Collection

3 types of public structure

Market

WORK

Platform: 8m wide

Analysis of bulk powder Processing of bulk powder Convert to raw meterials

TECHNOLOGY

Auhmented Reality Energy Efficient Robotics

WORK

Device disassembly Device shredding Sorting into e-waste fractions Grinding into bulk powder

WORK TECHNOLOGY

Machine Vision Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence

WAGE

E-waste collection Device level sorting

7.83 / hour in the UK

1.29 / hour in Agbogbloshie

Structure Boardwalk: 3m wide

Field

Structure Boardwalk: 5m wide Football field

Football

The ash is mixed with water and electrolysis is then used to extract the metal from the mixture.

Hyperaccumulators are delivered into the second layer of the reaction for incineration.

The ash is then delivered to the third layer of the reaction.

Hyperaccumulators are grown in an area with high grade ores

Hyperaccumulators are harvested and transported into the bottom layer of the reaction by the poor.

Modelling by Grasshopper

Reactor for phytomining

hydrolysis Incineration

Planting

Traffic hub

Purification center

Mangrove center

Residential center

2ND CLASS ROADS

2nd class road-3m

Offset structure lines

Side length: 3m

Dense texture (Maximum contact (High efficiency Pollution center

Texture diffusion

INDUATRIAL BLOCK FORM

RESIDENTIAL STRUCTURES

E-waste recycling area

Phytomining & agriculture area

Stockbreeding & wetland area

Residential structure with phytimining Residential structure with e-watste recycling

First class road-12m

Designed entrance

contact area with land) of phytomining)

diffusion

STRUCTURES

E-waste recycling area

Phytomining & agriculture area Stockbreeding area Original entrance

CONNECTION BETWEEN STRUCTURE

PUBLIC STRUCTURES & AREA

Football field + Music party plaza Market Eco-park

Residential structure structure phytimining reaction pile structure recycling reaction pile

Public activity structure

Public area Air corridors between residential structures

Community1 >690 people

Community1 >690 people

Community2: >2083 people

Community3: >1017 people

Mangrove

KorleLagoon

Community4 >1576 people

Tuesday Market Football Park

Timber Market

Ring Rd W Rd

Okai Central Mosque

242863.63 m² Stockfeeding 28234.98 m² E-wate Recycling 847656.40 m² E-watse Recycling 33644.70 m² Phytomining 39037.02 m² Agriculture 85455.32 m² Agriculture 61566.25 m² Agriculture

GraphicRd

Agbogbloshie Market

Abossey

Perspectives

Perspective 3 E-waste Recycling

A Landscape Cap

Planting Soil

Barrier Protection Meterial 6 in min 2 ft min

Drainage Layer

Gas Vent Layer

03

Identity Regeneration of the Ancient Garden

A piazza that can carry large-scale activities and daily leisure needs

MIRC 2022 | Guastalla Design competition for the Ancient Garden of the Ducal Palace

Guastalla, Reggio Emilia Province, Emilia Romagna, Italy Individual Academic Work Tutor: Kai Gu August 2022

The site locates in the historical center of Guastalla, between the Guastalla Medical Center and the Ducal Palace. After experiencing the Medieval, Renaissance, and Industrial Times, this site serves the urban residents together with the Ducal Palace as a public urban space. Compared with the two squares, Piazza Giuseppe Mazzini and Piazza I Maggio, near the site, the site has the largest area and can carry a large number of people. It is most likely to meet the needs of large-scale activities often held in Guastalla.

TTherefore, the design positioning of the project is "an urban public space that can meet the needs of large-scale activities and daily recreation." The project faces two main problems. One is how to carry out large-scale activities while meeting the needs of daily use; the other is how to remind visitors of the profound historical context of the site while serving as a public space in the city.

The site locates in Guastalla, Reggio Emilia Province, Emilia Romagna, northern Italy. It locates in the town's historical center, between the historical building Ducal Palace and Guastalla Medical Center.

Ducal Palace

Ducal Palace

Medical Center V I A S . G o n z a g a

Site

Piazza Giuseppe Mazzini

Design Goal

After experiencing the Medieval, Renaissance, and Industrial Times, this site is now used as public land. It has the potential to carry a large number of people and large-scale activities. The goal is "to create an urban public space that can meet the needs of large-scale activities and daily recreation."

F. Problems of Piazza Giuseppe Mazzini

B. Style&Function

A. Urban origin

E. Traditional Festivals in Guastalla

D. Problems of Piazza I Maggio

Renaissance Baroque

Art Nouveau Restoration

City

Museum

Explaination

Because the site has experienced changes in style and function, the ancient brick wall texture of the building outer skin and ancient wall remains on the site is selected to show the historical context of the site strata, and the texture is abstractly interpreted again with modern materials.

Explaination

The design strategy mainly solves four major problems faced by the site:

In the limited space, we should expand the depth of the space visually and increase the viewing angle of the Ducal Palace.

Improve its crowd-carrying capacity as public land for large-scale activities, market exhibitions, and festivals, maximize the available hard land area, and set up as many infrastructure facilities as possible to meet daily use.

To integrate the local culture of Guastalla, enhance the site's sustainability as much as possible, and increase the area of the soft underlying surface and plant planting.

According to the current situation, people shall treat the ancient brick walls left on the site differently.

Guastalla

A new place to visit

Here we have...

A Dryland fountain for your children to have some fun during weekends & Mirror pool to offer a new aspect for you to admire the Ducal palace

B Concentrated area for largescale activities in Guastalla

C Recreation space to offer you a place to relax outside

D Interactive devices offer a way for visitors to use this piazza and have accessible communication freely.

Plant Usage Arrangement

The structure of the device is iron, with wooden louvers on the top and PVC waterproof strips on both ends of the blade.

Isometric Drawing of the movable device

Use it on sunny days

Use it on rainy days

Keep proper conversation distance. Used as audience seat.

Adjust the shutter to control the sun exposure.

Close the shutter to take shelter from rain.

White Crape Myrtle

Alpine Aster

Material

Concrete Almm

Italian Red Brick Tile

What you can do

Marble

Embossed Concrete Broken Red Brick Grass

"You can freely walk in this space with directional hints."

"You can have a private conversation with your friends on the benches between Italian cypresses."

"You can spend your spare time and enjoy the tree shade of Common Lindens ."

Material

What you can do

"You visit Ducal Palace and spend your leisure time chatting with friends here"

"You can also attend the Week Market activities held every week and the famous italian festival 'Lost Animals and Plants' held annually in Gustalla. "

Concrete Almm Marble Broken Red Brick Brick

Italian Red Brick Tile

"You can take your children here to have some fun"

Current flood divection

Original flood divection

Flood area

Current river courses & Reservoir

Current flood divection

Original river courses

Floodplain

Benounka River

Vltava River

04

Weaving rivers

A resilient landscape design oriented by flood adaptability

Acadamic Work Prague, The Czech Republic Individual Work

Tutor: Pang Li December 2022

The project is located in the floodplain at the confluence of the Vltava River and Benounka River on the outskirts of Prague. Since the floodplain is located upstream of the Vltava river flowing through Prague, it is of great locational significance for preventing or delaying floodwaters from entering the center of Prague.

Due to the wrong river management in recent years, the historical river course has been artificially filled or shortened and straightened. Although the historic confluence of the Benounka river and Vltava river and other historic waterways are still visible and forced to be used during floods, they still cannot regulate or slow down the surge of river flow during heavy rains in any way.

The planning goal of this project is to realize the resilience of the landscape, and the design strategies of flood resilience, economic resilience, and biodiversity resilience were put forward, and then the flood-adaptive design of suburban parks was carried out. Through diverse water landscape designs, the Vltava river and Benounka river were woven together to relieve the pressure of floods on a single waterway.

Problem Analysis

Flood risk

Insuffient flood-adaptive facilities Artificial flood control facilities that weaken the river's flood discharge capacity

Construction of multi-level road system

Activities and temporary installation heavily dependent on the transportation system

Landscape infrastructure construction

Insufficient landscape infrastructure such as seats that can not meet the needs of high-density crowds

Addition of sports facilities

Inseffitcent sports facilities construction that does not match sports demand

Diversified habitat construction

Insufficient vegetation configuration that can adapt to the floodplain habitat Single vegetation type & chaotic plant configuration

The floodplain Çernošice, and excellent opportunity the development

Černošice

Average 7,925 inhabitants Average age 38.8

floodplain area spans five Prague city districts and a Central Bohemian town, and covers an area of approximately 1300 hectares. This presents an opportunity for the development of recreational, sustainable farming and development of valuable river views.

Lahovice

836 inhabitants

Average age 39.2 years old

Radotín

14,234 inhabitants Average age 39.2 years old

Černošice

inhabitants 38.8 years old

Lipence

3,564 inhabitants

Average age 40.5 years old

Zbraslav

12,693 inhabitants Average age 39.2 years old

Modřany

12,334 inhabitants Average age 39.2 years old

Q5 Flood Area

Q20 Flood Area

Q50 Flood Area

Q100 Flood Area

Floodplain Area Cycling Road Railway Design Area & Area of Interest City Districts Road Railway Station

Resilience Resilience

Resilience

Nelumbo

Amphibians

Forest Wetland River