Liu Heng Architecture Design Portfolio

Portfolio

Liu Heng

Architecture + Graphic

Selected Works

2024

Hello! I am Liu Heng, a Master of Architecture graduate from NUS.

As a design enthusiast, I am captivated by the profound impact of design, especially in the adaptation of cultural and historically relevant forms in contemporary contexts. I firmly believe that great designs are inherently introspective, representing a manifestation of deep personal values.

In addition to architecture, I have a strong interest in other creative disciplines such as graphic design, illustration, and photography. I view these fields as powerful tools for individualized visual expression. As I embark on my career, I am eager to explore design across various disciplines.

Liu Heng

564 Choa Chu Kang Street 52

Singapore 680564 +65 8468 5505

hengliu0@gmail.com

Singaporean

Professional Skills

CAD Modeling

Parametric Modeling

Architecture Rendering

Architecture Collage

Organisation & Planning

Design Iteration & Documentation

Physical Model Making

Presentation Drawing

Graphic Design

Illustration

Photography & Editing

Videography & Editing

Languages

English Mandarin

Software Skills

Rhino

Grasshopper

Sketchup

Archicad

AutoCAD

Photoshop

Illustrator

Lightroom

Premier Pro

V-Ray

D5 Render

MS Word

MS Powerpoint

MS Excel

Education

NUS M.Arch 2023 - 2024

NUS B.Arch 2019 - 2023

Pioneer Junior College 2015 - 2017

Practical Experience

Research Assistant - NUS DOA

2024 April - July

Teaching Assistant (Design Studio) - NUS DOA 2024 January - May

Research Assistant - NUS DOA 2023 November - December

Architectural Intern - Pencil Office 2023 May - August

Architectural Intern - AKTA

2022 June - 2022 December

Events Photographer - NUS SDE

2021 July

Videographer & Video Editor - NUS Liveable Cities 2021 May - June

Tuition Teacher (JC Art) - Freelance

2020 March - 2021 November

Tuition Teacher (JC Physics & Math) - Freelance 2020 January - August

Graphic Designer - Freelance

2020 May - 2021 June

Graphic Designer & Photographer - Badam 2020 Jan - April

Awards & Competitions

Buildner Museum of Emotions 2024

iLights Singapore 2024

NUS DOA Dean's List 2023

Build by the Beach - Final Round 2023

Built Environment Case Competition - Top 10 2022

Architecure Design

pg 1 - 18

pg 19 - 24

pg 25 - 32

pg 33 - 34

pg 35 - 36

pg 37 - 40

pg 41 - 42

pg 43 - 44

pg 45 - 46

Extra Infra

2023 - 2024 Architecture Thesis

Inhume me Home 2023 M.Arch Option Studio

Saigon Kitsch 2023 M.Arch Option Studio

Eden is Banal 2023 Competition Entry

/[terrarium]\ 2023 Structural Studio

Unveil 2022 Design Studio

Revitalize 2021 Design Studio

Boardsy 2021 Design Studio

Bike! Bike! Bike! 2021 Urban Studio

Architecure Visualisation

pg 47 - 52

Selected Renders

2022 - 2024 Professional Practice

Architecure Illustration

pg 53 - 54

pg 55 - 56

pg 57

pg 58

Golden Mile Complex: Microcosms 2019

Schröder House & Maison Cook: Extraction via Abstraction 2019

Shokin Tei: a Spiritual Getaway 2019

Graphic Design

pg 59 - 64

Giant Steps: Physical Translation 2019 Selected Works 2020 - 2023 Commission

Extra Infra

Jakarta, home to over 10 million people, boasts diverse urban landscapes, from densely packed sprawls to gated estates and towering skyscrapers. Each element fits into the city like pieces of a puzzle, creating a myriad of interfaces, yet many of these interfaces resemble literal and metaphorical walls. From a boarder perspective, Jakarta faces a common threat, water. The sinking land and rising sea levels, compounded by historically inadequate canal systems and annual monsoons, foretell an escalating series of climate-related catastrophes. Discordant political agendas surrounding national development and disaster mitigation have yielded superficial, ineffectual remedies.

This thesis adopts the stance of inevitability, envisioning a future where Jakarta undergoes a surge in water-related infrastructure development.

Extra Infra questions the prevailing infrastructural paradigm, introducing spaces that either dominate or are invisible to the immediate locality, spaces that fragment communities, and spaces that, while logically and functionally designed, overlook potential cultural and natural opportunities beneficial to both communities and the city as a whole in the long term. Extra Infra explores three water-related infrastructures encircling a vital flood control reservoir in North Jakarta: a pumping station, a purification plant, and a sea wall. It suggests either additions to or alterations of the existing structures, integrating the prevailing architectural vernacular while drawing from the colours and motifs of the local environment. This approach proposes a redefined, contextually sensitive model of infrastructural urbanism suited to the equatorial region.

Site 1: Pump Pool

Surrounding the original pumping station is a series of huts that adopt the existing roof form, multiplying in a way that reflects the organized chaos of the neighbouring kampung. The ground level is an extension of the commercial impromptu, while the roof level is a public swimming complex that connects the mirrored typologies.

Worm's Eye Axonometric: Pump Pool

Original Infrastructure 1: Pluit Pumping Station

Physical Model

Site 2: Plant Path

Extending from the original purification plant, three tendrils elevate over a car park, playing on existing roof forms and facades to create a porous yet protected space for the park and commercial areas around and within. The previously underutilized car park becomes a nexus, attracting surrounding communities to the reservoir.

Original Infrastructure 2: Pluit Water Purification Plant

Worm's Eye Axonometric: Plant Path

Physical Model

Site 3: Wall Cove

By transforming the straight-line geometry of the existing sea wall into an undulating one, the previously contaminated land between the sea wall and the communities becomes a regenerative gradient. Tidal pools, mangroves, and original dwellers reclaim the space, except now with a little human intervention.

Original Infrastructure 3: Muara Bahru Sea Wall

Worm's Eye Axonometric: Wall Cove

Wall Cove Imagined as Social Housing

Physical Model

Inhume me Home

In a country where land holds immense value, disputes inevitably arise over its allocation between the living and the dead. However, the deceased has no voice in this matter, rendering the argument one-sided and the resulting conclusion inherently biased. 80 percent of those who have passed away are cremated, and their urns are subsequently consigned to sterile concrete boxes devoid of any connection to their heritage, lives, or family. These highly concentrated concrete structures, known as columbaria, are strategically placed by the government in inconspicuous areas, severing potential informal exchanges between the living and the dead and fostering a detachment from mortality. This project challenges the current approach, asserting that despite its appeal in terms of efficiency and simplicity, it not only fails to preserve the local cultural significance of commemorating the deceased but is also unsustainable in meeting the nation’s growing demand for spaces dedicated to the departed.

The project speculates that the future of the industry lies in decentralization, suggesting that dead spaces must integrate with the larger con-

text. Inhume me Home contends that the shift in perspective required for dead spaces involves moving away from stigma and apprehension toward inclusivity. It achieves this by hybridizing a columbarium with a vertically integrated park in a residential estate, mimicking the structure and configuration of the HDB slab block that faces it. The park serves as a neutralizer of social miasma while challenging conventional typology.

Shuang Long Shan Cemetery is situated at the edge of the Holland close HDB estate. It houses the exhumed remains of the once larger Chinese cemetery that spans across the twin hills up north. The tightly packed tombstones arranged in an overly neat manner echo the larger HDB blocks that flank it from two faces, creating an almost surreal image, as if the dead has moved on to a neighbouring, miniature HDB estate. Inhume me Home argues for the importance of heritage landmarks such Shuang Long Shan Cemetery to be preserved in spite of developmental pressures. It does so by creating sufficient space for the deceased for the Estate in the next 50 years alongside a infrastructure for traditional rituals surrounding the commemoration of ancestors.

Perspective from Shuang Long Shan Cemetery

Snapshots

Material Explosion

Saigon Kitsch

Saigon Kitsch is an adaptive reuse project that investigates the contrasting urban conditions of Ho Chi Minh City. The design of the building reflects the varying fabric of the city in a unique and almost satirical manner. The top volume of the building embodies a formal and utilitarian modernist style that reflects the formally planned zones of HCMC, while the bottom volume represents the visceral and informal unplanned zones that carry the life of the city, literally and metaphorically.

The project reimagines the Victory Hotel as an entertainment complex that introduces the lacking pedestrian street life of the area. The exposed staircase and ramps of the building’s bottom volume express the performance of circulation to the pedestrians while ornamenting the building with a practical element. The rigid floor slabs are also redesigned to be

irregular and unpredictable, adding to the vibrancy and informality of the vernacular street vendors and food stalls that populate the building.

Saigon Kitsch takes into account the upcoming developmental pressures and concerns about carbon usage, and employs both active and passive tactics. The existing building is reintepreted as a carbon sink, and the additional volume uses CLT as its main structural material to reduce load and carbon. The building is also made climate sensitive using strategically placed facades and openings to allow ample sunlight, shading, and ventilation to offload operational carbon costs. This project showcases a design that can address complex urban conditions while taking into consideration sustainability and functionality.

Model Front Facade

Model Street View

Model Snapshots

Exploded Axonometric (Victory Hotel)

Exploded Axonometric

Exploded Axonometric

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Museum Above

Eden is Banal

Museum Under

Snapshots

/[terrarium]\

The building was conceived as a fourth-generation museum in which the primary enclosure serves as both exhibit (interior) and spectacle (exterior). The gallery space, a solid concrete enclosure, is held 10m above ground level by two glass volumes. This high-contrast material configuration gestures towards an apparent structural impossibility that lends a surreal, ethereal quality to the building’s exterior.

Within the concrete volume is a fully-enclosed, self-sustaining terrarium that will be left to grow and occupy the space without human intervention. Gallery-goers will experience the juxtaposition between inaccessible, ‘wild’ nature and the sparser, more manicured nature found in the public atrium below. Finally, the crack-like aperture that weaves through the concrete simultaneously allows light into the terrarium and affords passers-by a glimpse of biotic life from below.

Sectional Perspective

Unveil

The aim of this project is to democratize art and make it more accessible to the masses by showcasing both the production and consumption of art on the exterior and interior of the tower. By dividing the tower into four clusters, each with their own theme and art form, visitors are taken on a journey that systematically unveils all stages of art. This unique experience allows passers-by to visually connect with art programs happening within the tower, while visitors can interact first-hand with the production of art, thus creating a deeper connection to the art.

Furthermore, the clusters are defined by the transparency of their facade, with sub-clusters contained within each. Outdoor public seating and green spaces are strategically placed in between the clusters, creating high-contrast areas to the indoor clusters that appear to diffuse into the exterior.

Analysis of Spatial Configurations

Breakdown of Spaces

In spite of being home to a high concentration of art programs and being designated as the civic district, Rochor fails to reflect its artistic identity. The street experience is noticeably lacking in terms of the concentration and intensity of art, consistent with other areas in central Singapore.

Final Model

Revitalize

Nestled in the Paya Lebar Airbase, Revitalize is an awe-inspiring urban and architectural intervention that seeks to transform how Singaporeans perceive walking. This two-layered structure is a decentralized community center and park connector, serving as the community’s core spine for the future residential block. Its fluid, organic shapes draw inspiration from humanity’s innate affinity for nature, as well as the site’s previous claustrophobic and agoraphobic terrain.

The shapes incorporate a range of opportunities for public seating, respite areas, connections between the layers, and community facilities, offering visitors an array of experiences. By seamlessly integrating leisurely and practical activities in close proximity, Revitalize redefines walking as a combination of both recreational and commuting activities, encouraging more people to choose walking as their primary mode of transportation. This innovative project represents a significant step towards a more sustainable and pedestrian-friendly urban environment.

Exploded Axonometric

Transverse

The conceptual renders of Revitalize showcase the project’s diverse spatial characteristics. The images highlight the project’s essence: a smooth structure filled with crevices, simultaneously grand in scale yet intimate in its provision of pocket spaces. Revitalize represents a fusion of experiential and master-planning elements.

Entrance

Under the Canopy

Central Community Village

Above the Canopy

Boardsy

This project explores the needs of a plein air artist, known as the “colourist persona,” who specializes in capturing the rainscape with watercolours. The artist requires a shelter that provides protection from inclement weather while also ensuring comfort.

Boardsy not only meets these requirements but goes above and beyond. It functions as an extension of the artist’s tools, creating multiple surfaces in all directions to facilitate watercolouring. These surfaces act as easel panels for painting and drawing, storage shelves, paintbrush holders, and adjustable viewports. Additionally, the climatic protection provid-

ed by Boardsy is customizable. The panels surrounding the shelter can be adjusted to control ventilation and shelter.

Boardsy offers three distinct modes of use - Gloom mode, Glow mode, and Gallery mode in addition to its collapsible form. During rainy days, the colourist can combine Boardsy with other rain accessories to weatherproof the shelter. On sunny days, the shelter can be opened up to allow for adjustable ventilation. Finally, when the artist completes a set of paintings, Boardsy can be fully unfolded to transform into a Plein Air Gallery, displaying the artist’s work to passers-by and art enthusiasts.

Manual: how to use Boardsy

The Three Modes of Boardsy

To put Boardsy to the test, my partner Aaron and I created iterations of 1:1 models. After countless attempts, we finally succeeded in bringing Boardsy to life. We thoroughly enjoyed painting in it, regardless of the weather conditions. It was truly a pleasure to experience the various modes, including Gallery mode, where we were able to showcase our art and engage with many people who were intrigued by Boardsy.

https://bit.ly/31bSqLY

Boardsy in Gloom mode

Painting inside Boardsy Watch Boardsy in Action!

Boardsy Collapsed

Bike! Bike! Bike!

Bike! Bike! Bike! is a transformative urban acupuncture initiative aimed at tackling inadequate infrastructure and amenities for both residents and cyclists. The ultimate goal is to promote cycling as a viable mode of transportation and a leisure activity. To this end, the initiative introduces a novel store-front design that seamlessly integrates with existing outdoor shopping spaces, without compromising pedestrian safety.

The initiative is comprised of five distinct modules, each with a unique function, catering to specific needs. Shop owners have the freedom to tailor these modules to their store’s specifications, maximizing the potential of their space.

The bicycle track and the access module are particularly effective in opening up under-utilized spaces, thereby enhancing site accessibility. Overall, Bike! Bike! Bike! is an innovative and practical solution to the challenge of promoting cycling and enhancing urban infrastructure.

Bike! Bike! Bike! in use

Bike! Bike! Bike! Section Bike!

In pursuit of its objective to establish a bicycle pit-stop and drive-through, Bike! Bike! Bike! prioritizes the seamless integration of its design with the surrounding site. The site itself comprises a lengthy, rectilinear open space, flanked by shops on either side. To achieve its aim, the initiative identifies the site’s challenges and opportunities and incorporates them into its design modules.

In addition to the features outlined in the diagrams, each module includes ample storage space for shops, enabling outward expansion into the communal open space.

Golden Mile Complex: Microcosms

Pen & Marker on Paper

The Golden Mile Complex is not only a renowned architectural masterpiece in Singapore, but also a complex ecosystem that houses numerous microcosms coexisting in harmony, albeit in distinct dimensions. The architecture of the building has played a significant role in achieving this balance by dividing the massive complex into several sections with the help of an atrium and various levels that have only a few connecting points. Each segment possesses a distinct character and operates independently of the others.

Schröder House & Maison Cook: Extraction via Abstraction

Pen & Marker on Paper

The Schröder House and Maison Cook stand as two notable examples of divergent artistic movements, De Stijl and Purism, respectively. Despite some similarities in their functionality and purpose, their essence and spirit remain distinct. Beginning with the partial axonometric drawings of each building in the top row, the accompanying abstract diagrams gradually strip away the tangible elements, revealing the true form in the bottom row.

Abstract Diagrams

Plan, elevations and diagrams

Shokin Tei: a Spiritual Getaway

The Katsura Imperial Palace has been a haven for Japanese royalties who seek solace from their restrained lives in tea houses such as the Shokin Tei. Here, they can immerse themselves in a rustic and carefree lifestyle, temporarily forgetting their social status. The architecture of Shokin Tei embodies humility and democracy, as it embraces natural and worn materials and blurs the line between the served and the servants. The illustrations highlight the imperfections and asymmetry in construction, as well as the common spaces used by both the served and the servants, which is a rare sight within the palace.

Pen & Marker on Paper

Giant Steps: Physical Translation

Pencil on Paper

T-Shirt Design

T-Shirt Design

Poster Design