Lu Yao Luisa Ji/ PORTFOLIO
an Introduction
I was born and raised in Shenzhen, China, later settled in Mississauga, Canada as an immigrant. Growing up practicing music, my inspirations have been greatly influenced and shaped by the structural and improvisational nature of music. Currently a M. Arch student at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, I will be defending my thesis work Spring 2015. The work undertakes philosophic and rhizomatic approaches to investigate the inherent value of subtraction to architectural practices. Fortunate to be an active traveler, I have memorable moments, namely backpacking through Germany, a term of exchange studies in Helsinki, Finland, and trips to Chicago and New York City. I have also obtained several internships in China and experiences as a teaching assistant. With which my involvement includes but not limited to urban strategy, residential development, graphics, and event curatorial practices.
CV:
Phone: 1 (613) 878-8155 E-Mail: luisa.lyji@gmail.com
Education Bachelor of Architectural Stuies
Dean’s List Honors Degree with High Distinction 2013
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES Assistant Architect/Researcher
Shenzhen
Master of Architecture (M. Arch)
Entrance Scholarship, TA-ship Expected Graduation June 2015
Carleton University , Ottawa , Canada Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism
Master of Architecture (Exchange)
Winter Term 2014 Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland
Qualification and skills • Current studies focus on interdisciplinary architectural practices, and social, political, and economic factors in relation to the evolution of architectural and urban realities • Mind mapping and dynamic thinking • Organized and highly motivated team player in collaborative work environment • Bright and tenacious individual determined to accept and resolve challenges • Nuanced interpersonal skills and engagement in public events • Firm skills in AutoCAD, Adobe Creative Suite, and Rhinoceros with Grasshopper; previous training in BIM with Revit • Experienced in rapid prototyping: CNC, Laser-cut, 3D printing • Proficient written and spoken English and Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) with excellent communication skills and professional vocabulary; expected to obtain intermediate French upon graduation in 2015
Installation Resonant Currents
Project initiated by Architect Manuel Baez manifesting and reflecting the inherent dynamic energy of Impact Hub Ottawa
Publications Building 22 12th Issue
• Research focused on topics of Tulou Culture in Fujian, Rammed-Earth Construction in Chinese Vernacular Architecture, and Heritage Preservation of Tulou in Rural Fujian under Urbanus Research Bureau(URB) • Involved in projects targeting heritage preservation issues and rural urbanization in China • Assisted URB to curate Tulou Project Research Workshop in Pinghe County, Zhangzhou, Fujian, and lead a team of 20 professionals to survey unprotected tulou and study locally sourced material including wood, bamboo, and raw earth in Fujian • Took responsibilities in PR, publications, and documentations of the Tulou Project Research Workshop
Assistant Architect
2011 2013
AUBE Conception D’architecture Shenzhen
• Assisted senior architects and urban designers • Took parts in projects of Sanya Vanke Sports Park Residential Development(2011), and Tangshan Bay Yacht Club Hotel (2011), and Kunming Pan-Asia Technology District Development Plan (2013) • Applied technical competency in drafting, diagrams, and 2D/3D representations
Workshop Teaching Assistant •
First-year curriculum: Multimedia and Photography
Laser-cutting Technician
“Open Stage - Blues Institute”
The Phoney Island of the Mind Vol.2 Maladis of the Architectural Soul by Roger Connah
Book design Vertigo Press 2014
2014
Urbanus
2012
2013 2014
Design Studio Teaching Assistant •
Undergraduate Design Studio II
Present
Carleton University
Ottawa
projects
artwork
words
Resonant Currents Installation Hub Ottawa
The Hive Graduate Studies: “Gateway” Studio 2013 Sprott School of Business, Carleton University
Open Stage Undergraduate Studies: Studio 2011 First Baptist Church, Ottawa
Internship Works Waterfront and Residential Development Tangshan Bay Yacht Club Masterplanning Fanya Hi-tech Park
Traveling Façades Digital media 2014
Untitled Half/Half Pinhole Photography 2013
On Upheaval Excerpt from Master’s Thesis Colloquium 2014
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RESONANT CURRENTS Azrieli School of Architecture x Hub Ottawa
Resonant Currents is a ceiling installation to HUB Ottawa, a collaborative workspace to harvest local intelligence. The installation not only creates a cozy atmosphere to the event space with its sculptural form, but also
drastically improved the acoustic qualities in the main room where different events such as Creative Morning, Brown Bag Lunch, and Pecha Kucha Night are hosted in on regular basis. Initiated by Prof. Manuel Baez, the project
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team explored the potential of repeated modules made of 3mm plywood. The weaved modules fills the entire event space with a central node at the main gathering space and three axis extended into the subspaces.
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The module of the installation works with the flexibility of 3mm plywood. The bending of the plywood strips gives form to the individual unit resembling the shape of a standing wave. The unit is mirrored and bolted at the nodes to form the base
module, and later multiplied and manipulated to fill the ceiling of the event space. The propagation of the modules is based on three projections sharing a common centroid at the dinning/meeting table. The waves extend into a large open studio space which Portfolio/ p06
dual functions as a lecture room on event days. Due to the materiality and the number of surfaces resulted from the multiplication of modules, the acoustic quality is drastically improved towards lecturing, speech, and audio system performance.
project team
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THE HIVE Azrieli School of Architecture x Sprott School Of Business
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Sprott School of Business nurtures growth, collaboration, and intelligence. While the school is in rapid expansion, the Dunton Tower is no longer a place to foster an upcoming institution at the nation’s Capital. In its need of a new image, the HIVE settles itself upon the Sprott philosophy generating a new school for the students and faculties. Portfolio/ p09
context
The proposed site for Sprott School of Business sits at the threshold of the Bronson Avenue Gateway, connecting arrivals from the airport to the city centre of the Nation’s Capital. In proximity to Dow’s Lake’s natural scenery, the site is advantaged to foster growth on an urban scope.
Parliament Hill
Site
Dow’s Lake
Bronson Ave.
YOW
design approach The Dunton Tower is the current home to Sprott School of Business. Although a landmark for its height, the vertical form casts great difficulties in building a well connected, collaborative workspace. The strategy is to tame the vertical programs into a map of networks. Portfolio/ p10
design The project inherited a hexagonal system. While the rational aspect of the system enhances the structural integrity and the formal gesture, the organic packing of a non-hierarchical geometry resembles one of nature’s most collaborative workspace --beehives.
RATIONAL
ORGANIC
site strategy The goal is to dissolve the existing vertical tower into tightly bonded collaborative spaces propagating the site horizontally. As the hex-grid vanishes into the landscape leaving the beautiful Dow’s Lake uninterrupted, the accent of the hex-grid reveals from within the functional programs.
programs Sunken garden, individual study space Classrooms ( 30 persons capacity) Convertible individual study space Offices, meeting rooms, auditorium Hospitality, campus food services Portfolio/ p11
landscaping
By draping a soft carpet of greenery on top of the functional programs, the rooftop became part of the landscape, visually connected to Dow’s lake, and at the same time providing the students and faculty members points of gatherings and interaction. The landscaping also acts as a buffer to the heavy traffic of Bronson Avenue, lowering the noise level affecting the interior spaces of the school embedded under the green carpet.
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landmark
An icosahedron crystal at the upper entrance to access the Sprott School of Business from the landscaped roof is marking the school’s location at the threshold entering Ottawa’s city centre. The north-eastern facade of perforated Corten sheets allows the morning sun to cast into the sunken garden while veiling the busy traffic of Bronson Avenue from distracting the students. This particular facade is rather protective than revealing as a reaction to its adjacency to heavy traffic, contrasting greatly from the welcoming, soft southern facade facing the main Carleton campus.
+9900 mm
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rooftop + view from Carleton Portfolio/ p14
plug-in modules
+6600 mm
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grid system
The armature runs on a 9 metre hexgrid of steel-frame, setting up a frame work for the classroom modules to be plugged in with considerations of further expansions in the school’s carrying capacity. Portfolio/ p16
study pods
The project not only emphasizes on the importance of collaborative workspace, the aspect of private workspace is also being considered for the students to focus on their subjects independently.
sunken garden
The garden is a buffer to the noise and heavy traffic from Bronson Avenue. The deep cut into the ground also sends natural light all the way to the floors below grade, drastically reducing the use of artificial lighting.
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+3300
0 mm
- 3300mm
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OPEN STAGE Portfolio/ p21
This is an old church.
There is room for Sound.
design approach Portfolio/ p22
Corner of Elgin Street and Laurier Avenue, accessible by pedestrians and vehicles
The First Baptist Church situated at the vibrant corner of Elgin Street and Laurier Avenue Downtown Ottawa is being transformed into an institution for Blues. Inspired by the origin of Blues music, the space is given back to the public, and to the aspiring musicians trying to establish a name in the music
scene. The truss support marks a protected concert space, with room on the stage for musicians to park their vehicles and unload equipments in preparation for their big show. The truss support also houses the sound, and lighting systems essential to a concert space. Adjacent to the stage
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area, the pull-apart reusing the 1980s office addition to the church structure, is re-defined as a temporary “home� to the touring musicians, as well for those who traveled to Ottawa for a unique experience. Still, the original 1920s First Baptist Church, remains a church to serve the city of Ottawa as it has always been.
site strategy Portfolio/ p24
accessibility Portfolio/ p25
model
from Laurier Avenue looking into the stage and the hostel Portfolio/ p26
plans illustrating the typical units of guest house (top), and the main stage area (bottom). Portfolio/ p27
INTERNSHIP
WORKS
Tangshan Bay yacht club Portfolio/ p28
AUBE Conception D’architecture IUA Team 2011
Project Director: Michel Perisse, Yves Feng
Project Location: Tangshan, China
Fanya hi-tech park
AUBE Conception D’architecture IUA Team 2013
Project Director: Michel Perisse, Yves Feng
Project Location: Kunming, China
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ARTWORK
traveling façades Balconies, windows, and receivers: looking at, breathing in, and listening to the lives of the others. They sit there quietly, watching the others constantly flowing in transit. They paint their dull lives with other people’s hues. In heart, they travel.
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half/half The world seen by the camera is an image: an imaginary space. The lines and planes diverge and converge, reconstructing another world with vaguely recognizable features of the physical world. Railings, stairs, pavements, windows... and much more to be traced. On paper, they are mere footages of the sun’s wanderlust heart trapped in an imaginary space. It is an image. Only half real, and only half fake.
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WORDS On Upheaval
Raised from a personal connection with the fascinating advancement of Special Economic Zones (SEZs), the observation is heightened with the outbreak of the upheavals in Kashgar during its transformation from the historic silk-road trading hub to the newly destined economic frontier of China. The sudden disturbance brings the previously unspoken dilemma of SEZ under the spotlight: an interesting phenomenon regarding violent disturbance in social conditions. An upheaval is a child to the social, political, and economic condition. It is neither a leader nor a follower. It is a different “culture� that coexists with the larger cultural context, which re-examines the conditions it is situated in and generates new culture. Perhaps reconsider the leading culture of architecture: instead of saving the glory of the past, embracing the past through subtraction can generate an alternative future. Can architecture take form of an upheaval, a radical break that sparks agony, Portfolio/ p32
attention, and undercurrents? Can architecture generate a temporary discord that disrupts the clean cut between the definite contradictions of values? Wolf D. Prix’s fascination of a leaping whale exemplified the amazement brought by disruption. As he said, “I was in a boat and the water is very calm but I could feel that there was something moving under the surface. All of a sudden the animal emerged and jumped 15 meters high. You have to imagine it: a 30-tonne, floating, flying object.” The figure of heaviness transitions from one medium to another. As from water to air through its power to defeat the confinement of gravity, the leaping whale disrupts the tranquility of both water and air as it flies. Will upheaval be the emancipator to architecture?
The text is excerpted from the Master’s Thesis of Luisa Ji, presented in December colloquium. Portfolio/ p33
thank you.
sincerely,
Lu Yao Luisa
Ji