Architecture Portfolio_Yisha Liu

Yisha

WINDOW OF THE CITY MOREbile LIBRARY CO-CO

High-rise Hotel Academic / Individual Project / Winter 2020

Duration: Semester-long

Public Library / Chicago Chinatown Academic / Group Project / Fall 2021

Duration: Semester-long

Residential / Housing Development

Academic / Group Project / Fall 2022

Duration: Semester-long

Installation Design

Competition / Group Project / Winter 2017

Duration: 2 Months

LOTUS RESEARCH PROJECT PROFESSIONAL PROJECT

Urban Design / Fabrication

Competition / Group Project

Duration: 1-3 Months

- LILAC

- Multi-family Housing Feasibility Study

- Newt Crowsing Cohousing

- Other Projects

[WINDOW OF THE CITY]

High-rise Hotel Design and Research on Storytelling Potential of Architecture

Hotel

Beijing, China

Window of the city is a High-rise hotel designed project. It is located in Changsha, which is my hometown a southern city in China full of cultural heritage. The site is located next to the southern city wall of the original old Changsha city. Due to the Wenxi fire, the old building has become ashes. The only remaining Tianxin Pavilion on the side of the address can also see the original city wall corner. People built a park open to citizens along the ancient city wall. People carry out a wealth of activities here, and it is a meeting point with great local charm.

During the schematic design phase, by extracting some old cultural symbols of Changsha and the urban cultural symbols after the modernization construction, I think how to use architectural space to tell the story of the city itself. In terms of function, it not only has the original living function of the high-rise hotel, but also adds the local unique entertainment activities located in the bottom space. The building serves as a living room for the city, engaging in a dialogue with those who come to visit.

The site is located on the east bank of Xiangjiang River, the most prosperous Changsha city. The east bank is the city center with many high-rise buildings. Some low-rise houses and historical sites are still preserved around it. The buildings are in the transitional area between the prosperous city and the relics of the old town. In addition, looking towards the west bank from the selected site, you can see the lush mountains of Yuelu Mountain and Juzizhoutou with the peaks and mountains on the opposite bank, and the reflections flow from north to south in the Xiang River.

Ground Floor Plan

The building will provide a variety of perspectives to view the remains of the old city, and at the same time, it will contain the modern development of the new city. Intergrate into local life characteristic industries.

The vertical elevator runs through from the bottom to the top floor. When taking the elevator, people can see the vertical space change through the elevator glass box

A-A Section

Material Selection

Color Selection

West Elevation

East Elevation

[MOREbile LIBRARY]

Public Project design in Chicago Chinatown

Public Library Chicago, IL, USA

Century-old Chinatown is one of the most unique neighborhoods in Chicago. There are a lot of Chinese restaurants, cultural activities, and Chinese-style landmarks and arts. Born or living in this cultural fusion environment, people face challenges, like figuring out their cultural identity and learning English/Chinese.

As outlined in the Chinatown Community Vision Plan, it is enthusiastic to prepare Chinatown residents for good jobs. It requires access to various quality education programs for people with different education needs. And language learning is one of the top things. For example, in Chicago and around Chinatown, English learning projects already exist and have a certain foundation for development. There are programs organized by volunteers and language schools that need to pay tuition.

The “Morebile” Library embodies a holistic vision of community empowerment and educational enrichment. This library project not only includes the function of the exterior landscape to attract people to visit and give more cultural activities a chance to happen here but also sets classrooms for every group of ages to meet their needs for language learning and other learning courses. Most importantly, except for the classroom space, all the reading spaces are flexible, with the moveable bookshelves traveling in and out of the building, bringing people the kind of book they need. It simplifies the cumbersome process of finding and borrowing books in the past, making it easier for people to start reading. A library is not only a library when you enjoy it.

02 02

LANGUAGE SCHOOL

CHATER SCHOOL

LANGUAGE SCHOOL

MIDDLE SCHOOL

LANGUAGE SCHOOL

OLD CHINATOWN PARK

SITE 2100 S Wentworth Ave, Chicago, IL NEW CHINATOWN

LINK UNLIMITED SCHOLARS

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

TRAINING CENTER / HIGH SCHOOL

“ Lets go have some fun!”

“Have you heard about the news? Chinatown’s library is opening this weekend?”

“What a

“I

the

This site is situated within Chicago's bustling Chinatown, a vibrant neighborhood home to a significant Chinese population as well as diverse Asian communities. Renowned for its rich Chinese cultural heritage, iconic landmarks, and Asian cuisine, Chinatown is comprised of New Chinatown, Old Chinatown, and a Green Area.

Participants include young residents from New Chinatown, seniors from Old Chinatown, and visitors. Each area offers distinct characteristics and activities, catering to its respective demographic.

To better attract these groups, the site could feature diverse exterior spaces with unique characteristics and interior areas with various functions. Additionally, designing reasonable main entrances to the site and buildings would enhance its appeal.

"I am so good at Chinese speaking!"

"Hey, the church has a reading circle!"

“Still need a lot of calligraphy practice before competition!”

“Hmm, need to find a place to do homework with my group.”

decided on

topic for my final essay! Let’s borrow some books about traditional Chinese medicine.”

“Taichi time with my old buddy.”

beautiful day!”

Rounding off Corners

Interacting with Surrounding

Compressing and Lifting Up

Overlapping and Connecting

Making Twins

Circulation

1 EXTERIOR READING SPACE

2 REFERENCE DESK

3 PERIODICALS

4 CLASSROOM - LANGUAGE LEARNING

5 PERIODICALS

6 OUTDOOR RAMP 7 GREEN ROOF

[CO-CO]

Co-work, Co-Live

Residential/ Housing Development

Detroit, MI, USA

CO/CO is a co-work + co-live adaptive reuse housing development in Detroit’s LaSalle Gardens neighborhood. The project is situated in a low-density area right off Rosa Parks blvd. There is a park and school to the north, a commercial boulevard to the east, and houses to the south and west. Vacant lots in the surrounding neighborhood, formerly single-family homes, create voids in the urban fabric. However, new and proposed developments in the area are gradually re-densifying the community by adding new and renovated single and multifamily housing. There are other existing buildings on site: an abandoned church, an old steam tunnel being converted into a cafe, and two residential buildings.

The project builds on this energy by providing housing for young professionals and creatives with shared amenities for a co-working and co-living program guided by a discrete set of values:

1. Adopt an adaptive reuse strategy that preserves as much of the existing building as possible

2. Retain the horizontal ground plane as a public space for community events

3. Respect daylighting for all cohabitants on site

4. Facilitate flexible living spaces residents can program themselves

5. Integrate small businesses and arts on site

6. Diversify CO/CO the site to engage a critical mass of residents and community members

CO/CO’s form was born out of the urban void: a building that doubles in size without increasing site coverage, affordable housing with shared amenities, and introducing new forms of community engagement through a shared building program. The preeminent formal move was to raise the new units above and activate the space below. A second skin facade envelopes the adapted school building and passively conditions a winter garden that hybridizes domestic and productive space. This permeable membrane compresses social, productive, and domestic spaces throughout three different housing typologies: the shophouse, studio, and nucleus.

Site Condition

Massing Generation

Private Membrane 1-3 People

Sleeping Showering

Cooking

Epanded Membrane 4-6 People

Dinning Drinking Board Games

Public Membrane 7+ People

Partying

Exhibiting Art

1st Floor Plan (shophouse)

3rd Floor Plan

4st Floor Plan (addition)

Recyclable, Sustainable

The inspiration for this installation is from lotus and lotus plants from nature. Therefore, this project’s wish can genuinely integrate into nature and live harmoniously with the natural environment and creatures. This is also the principle of developing human construction technology. We should not oppose technology or artificial objects but solve the contradiction between them and nature to let them integrate into the ecological circle and be recycled.

Simulation of morphological change process, Multi-form display

Stage 1

Stage 5

Stage 9

Stage 3

Stage 7

Stage 2

Stage 6

Stage 10

Stage 4

Stage 8

RESEARCH PROJECT

River Flash Gang

Research on the Mobility of the Social Gethering Space

Urban Design

Detroit, MI, USA

Increased access to water, more costeffective healthy food, and improved play infrastructure center the interventions. Site selection attends to the availability of land (vacancy) and the opportunities for hybrid types floating along the river. All of them would be temporary, on call, easily deployable across sites.

To familiarize the population with the River Flash Gang, the first stage will mainly take place in existing parks. Overtime, the goal is to colonize less active parks and vacant properties today barely accessible. At the same time, the floating prototypes will be able to offer direct contact with the river waters, with introducing a cycle of purification.

River Flash Gang is an easy to transport and assemble network that will extend the vitality of new programs and publics from the river to the interior communities.

e use of exible transport allowed the strategy to gradually move inland from riverine areas, gradually expanding the reach of the water.

Taking Brewster Douglass as an example, there are hospitals, theaters and parks around the community. Combined with the needs of community residents, it can help people increase access to water and bring back the enjoyment to the community.

INSTRUCTIONS

ASSEMBLE YOUR OWN RIVER FLASH GANG

Different ways to get your River Flash Gang...

When researching residential design, we not only collected information about the needs of the general public, but we also collected relevant information for special groups of people.

[NEWT CROWSING COHOUSING]

Site Program and Design Criteria

Cohousing Project

Port Townsend, WA

Eight households are developing cohousing on a 17.05acre site just outside of Port Townsend. Despite being only 15 minutes away from downtown, the location is significantly wooded and rural, with only a narrow road as the main access point. There are three significant existing structures on the site, in addition to some smaller built and landscaped elements. There are also several existing paths and access roads for amenities already on the site. Some other challenges in designing the site revolve around considerable changes in the topography, and a 60’ right-ofway offset from the access road. The above are the various obstacles and opportunities that will help inform a site plan that meets the needs of its future residents.

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[3400 Main St Affordable Housing]

Affordable Housing Project

Feasibility Study

Springfield, Oregon 97478

[Affordable Housing Modles]

- Construction Details

- Venting Schedule for Nevada City Cohousing

Nevada City, CA

Fairoaks, Sacramento, CA Spokane, WA

[LILAC]

Low Impact Living Affordable Community Revamping Project

Leeds, United Kingdom

LILAC is a affordable cohousing community in Leeds, UK. According to the residents’ needs living in this cohousing community, revamping the common area of the community and design the contributed to the “Lilac” project in the UK by creating new drawings for the common house reflecting ceiling plan to enhance acoustic environments, reduce noise, and help to improve the old green house design.