Lydia Xia
2022 Selected Works
Lydia Xia Email: lydiaxia@outlook.com Cell: 647 633 7108
2
EDUCATION
Sept. 2020 - Sept. 2025
University of Waterloo Candidate for Honours Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Co-op Excellent Academic Standing Academic Average above 80% Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Fall 2022
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE Research Assistant University of Waterloo
Sept 2021 - April 2022
June 2021 - Jan 2022
• Conceptualized multiple schematic designs for interactive and kinetic art installations • Researched Arduino robotics, exploring the intersections between architecture, visual art and technology • Collaborated in a small team of designers to curate a successful design proposal and fabricate the installation for the 2022 DesignTO festival Dec 2016 - June 2020 Lead Designer and Editor Turner Fenton SS Yearbook Committee
• Led teams of student reporters, photographers, and illustrators, working continuously towards designing and producing the school yearbook English and Math Tutor Educatus
Rhino 7 Enscape Lumion Grasshopper Kangaroo Revit
AutoCAD 3D Printing Laser Cutting CNC Model Making Hand Drafting
Adobe Creative Suite Microsoft Office Suite Autodesk Recap G2 Class Driver’s License
DISTINCTIONS
• Researching, organizing, and documenting material related to the Barnett and Rieder Archive, rigorously producing a detailed database • Working alongside faculty researcher to investigate the tradition of industrial building, post-war expansion, buildings for education, the current construction boom and studies related to the future of the Kitchener-Waterloo Region Designer F_RMlab
SKILLS
First in Class Engineering Scholarship Highest Academic Standing University of Waterloo - Winter 2021 Honourable Mention Awarded to top ten entries 2021 Canadian Off-site Construction Student Design Competition - July 2021 Honourable Mention Outstanding Work in Design Studio 1B - Winter 2021 Highest Academic Standing in 1A - Fall 2020 Outstanding Work in Design Studio 1A University of Waterloo - Fall 2020 Dean’s Honours List University of Waterloo - Fall 2020, Winter 2021 President’s Scholarship of Distinction University of Waterloo - Admission Average of 95%+
INTERESTS Illustration, Recreational Bouldering, Ceramics
Gold Award Figure Skater
(Skate Canada Highest Level of Testing Achievement)
Aug 2019 - Mar 2020
• Prepared lesson plans, taught, and supervised students at all grade levels in extracurricular math and English classes 3
4
5
6
Contents Mural Nomads 6 Adaptive Densities 16 Catalogue 20 Transition 26 [dys]order 32 (murmur) 40
7
Mural Nomads // 2021
Mural Nomads Library
Design a small community library with additional public programming. Consider providing new urban resources geared towards under served communities & residents living in confined quarters.
Academic // ARCH 193 Supervised by Cameron Parkin Toronto, Canada
Recipient of Honourable Mention for Outstanding Design Work in 193 Design Studio
8
Mural Nomads is a library + textile studio located in Toronto’s The Island neighbourhood. Adjacent to many community spaces and the historical Foundry buildings, this library seeks to act as both a gateway between these public areas, and a centre for artistic production.
9
Mural Nomads // 2021
The library engages the site from all directions, with an axial circulation structure. It uses a simple grid organization to create an open and flexible interior. This structure is defined by a heavy timber post and beam structural system, constructing a scaffold to host textile experimentations.
north elevation
10
lauren harris square underpass park
corktown commons
dominion foundry complex front st. promenade
canary commons parks and green space residential educational & community
11
Mural Nomads // 2021
cotton voile - lightweight - transparent
enclosure
velour - sound insulating - plush texture
PVC - durable - resistant to climate
wayfinding
ENCLOSURE: closed meeting room, small workshop, admin meetings WAYFINDING
ENCLOSURE: open
ENCLOSURE: open
ENCLOSURE: open
ENCLOSURE: open
WAYFINDING
WAYFINDING
WAYFINDING
WAYFINDING
PARTITION: classroom
PARTITION: large workshop
PARTITION: separate exhibition
The library explores the ephemerality and craft of fibre arts as an architectural driver, investigating their atmospheric potentials. The building encourages it’s users to interact and build connections with materiality to facilitate a multisensorial learning environment and a sense of agency over one’s space.
12
ground floor plan
13
Mural Nomads // 2021
cotton yarn - durable - strong in tension
deconstructed
linen - breathable - transparent
tent
lycra - elastic - durable
canopy
see enclosure material
partition
flexible open exhibition precedents
conexidade installation / Estúdio Chão
steel curtains / daniel steegmann
takino rainbow nest / toshiko horiuchi macadam
penelopiad / lighting & kinglyface
textile/fibre artists in toronto
Kinngait Studios
14
in suspended silence / xiaojing yan
neon bloom / amanda mccavour
frosted / jesse harrod
15
Mural Nomads // 2021
Sawtooth roof brings light into intimate studio spaces and double height atrium
Connection between indoor and outdoor exhibition space, second floor fly tower structure.
Public, flexible programming pushed in, second floor private space cantilevered outwards, creating shelter and absorbing street life into the library
16
17
[dys]order // 2022
[dys]order Museum
Design a museum that includes two separate halls that bring out contrasting emotions - one inducing negative emotions, and the other inducing positive emotions
Competition // Museum of Emotions In Collaboration with Jenny Chen and Aaron Wong Washington, D.C, United States Skills Rhino 7 Adobe Illustrator Adobe Photoshop Lumion Adobe Indesign
18
A museum that hosts architectural experimentations and moments themselves as the work of an exhibition. The 2 halls explore Chaos and Calm as architectural drivers. The design questions architectural organizations, geometries, and ideas of order and disorder through a sociopolitical lens. What does a calm space afford us? What does a chaotic space take from us? Can architecture truly be driven by chaos or is that notion contradictory? Is there an intersection of order and disorder, calm and chaos. Can one be found in the other? The spaces use light, circulation, viewpoints, planes of a wall, floor, and thresholds to manifest both emotions in tectonic experiences.
Light Filtraton
Organized Linear Geometries
A Choice of Space
The Garden
The Bathhouse
The Church
Neutral Reception Circulation
A Confrontation
Planes of a Wall
Landscaped Terrace Ground Surfaces
Colonnade Labyrinth
Invisible Thresholds
19
[dys]order // 2022
exterior view from across Potomac River
20
upper floor plan
ground floor plan
lower floor plan
21
[dys]order // 2022
stack halls
fragment geometry
1. Lincoln Memorial 2. Signers’ Memorial 3. John Paul Jones Memorial 4. Vietnam Veterans Memorial 5. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial 6. Washington Monument 7. Korean War Veterans Memorial
22
lift verticies
add intermediary
8. Albert Einstein Memorial 9. US Navy Memorial Plaza 10. General Jose de San Martin Memorial 11. World War ll Memorial 12. Navy - Merchant Marine Memorial 13. George Mason Memorial 14. Thomas Jefferson Memorial
The Bathhouse How does randomized light filtration create calm? In what forms does water create calm or chaos?
The Church How does visibility and impermanence create calm or chaos? Do programmatic ideologies impact the accessibility of a space?
Planes of a Wall How can architecture choreograph the movement of the body?
A Confrontation How does an entrance communicate power, or a lack of power?
23
[dys]order // 2022
24
25
Adaptive Densities // 2021
Adaptive Densities Highrise Residential Adaptive Reuse
Design the adaptive reuse of a typical post-Second World War highdensity tower. Provide suitable units that reflect the conditions in which we live and work today, and improve the environmental performance of the building envelope.
The reuse of 53 Water St. explores modern ideas of co-housing and co-living, using Schemata workshop’s research of existing co-housing developments, extracting programmatic ideals from themes in Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language. This project asks how can architecture be integral in the creation of microcommunities and economies? How can we revitalize obsolete plans and assemblies?
26
Academic // ARCH 292 Supervised by Rick Haldenby Kitchener, Canada
Skills Rhino 7 Adobe Illustrator
27
Adaptive Densities // 2021
second floor plan
ground floor plan
section aa
28
Reusing the shear walls, this project questions the rigidity of existing formal organizations and shifts the massing/void structure according to programmatic requirements.
section bb
section cc
29
Catalogue // 2021
Catalogue Prefabrication
Design an occupiable building that is intended to be fully or partially fabricated at another location. Present a plan for off-site construction and on-site assembly.
Competition Entry // Canadian Off-site Construction Student Design Competition In Collaboration with Jenny Chen and David Li Edmonton, Canada
Recipient of Honourable Mention Panelist at the 2021 Canadian OSC Student Design Competition Presentation
30
A selection of preprogrammed prefabricated wall panels form a 6m x 6m room which expands into a larger school extension. The layout of these units are adaptable to serve the needs and geometries of existing schools
31
Catalogue // 2021
PRIVACY sliding glass door, furniture, group, partition PRESENTATION blank, multi-use, display, teach, learn, practice, WASHROOM hygiene, private, barrierfree, ENTRANCE open, closed, access, announcement
32
SIT + STORE rest, occupy, storage, view, space, pass CANOPY GARAGE in/out, ventilation, environment, discover, light, shade, enter/exit GROUP common, collaborate, loud, joining, friction, listen, speak, discover, table, seat, stair
FACADE enclose, protect, view, wood siding ROOF light, sawtooth, clerestory, diffuse, unify, attach LAB equipment, science, art, exploration, storage, sink OPERABLE flexible, separate, threshold, autonomy, care, community
Lillian Osbourne High school Edmonton, AB
Climate
Temperate, sunny summers
a
Cold, dark winters
Low humidity Rain, Snow
a
classroom study/lounge hallway washroom stairwell existing school building
a
ground floor plan
a
second floor plan
section aa 33
Catalogue // 2021
34
35
Transition // 2020
Transition House
Design one residence to house three youth aged 16-24, broadly defined as a student residence or a youth shelter. Accommodate for common goals of dignity, security, spatial and tectonic exuberance.
Academic // ARCH 192 Supervised by Fiona Lim Tung Cambridge, Canada Skills Rhino 7 Adobe Illustrator Adobe Photoshop
Recipient of Outstanding Design Work in 192 Design Studio
36
Transition is a youth shelter that seeks to respond to the needs of youth in high risk situations. Beginning to examine traumainformed design, this transitional home aims to provide the opportunity for youth to recover in a safe space
37
Transition // 2020
ground floor plan
section aa
site section bb
38
second floor plan
third floor plan
section bb
connection to others connection to site
The screening strategies on the west wall of the house, gives privacy to the residents, while maintaining views outwards. A permeable threshold is created.
39
Transition // 2020
The conditions this house creates allows for the simultaneous and natural unfolding of stories of friction inwards and outwards. 40
41
(murmur) // 2022
(murmur) window installation
Murmurs are soft indistinct sounds made by groups to communicate while also being discreet.
Built // DesignTO 2022 F_RMlab Toronto, Canada
42
‘(murmur)’ is inspired by the subtle methods of calls and responses between organisms both biotic and manmade. It borrows from forms and movements found in nature, from the fluttering of petals to the expansion and contraction of marine organisms floating in the deep sea. Like a beacon in abyssal darkness, the creatures signal each other with blinks of luminescence as if communicating in morse as they slowly drift up and down in an entropic trance. In the long cold winter nights, the installation acts akin to a lighthouse calling sailors home, beckoning the people passing by to enter, placing the store as the ‘Port Haven’ of a community collective. As people come closer to the installation, ‘(murmur)’ begins to murmur, the collective begins to become active and alive, agitated from the presence of a foreign entity. In this way ‘(murmur)’ becomes a measure of life in the store, drawing energy and spirit from its curious viewers and projecting it out into the city.
43
view from inside the clay space
views from street
45
Thank you Lydia Xia
lydiaxia@outlook.com 647 633 7108