Mackinley Wang-Xu Selected Works by Mackinley Wang-Xu

Selected Works

Massachusetts

Mackinley Wang-Xu

Institute of Technology Master of Architecture

MACKINLEY WANG-XU

mackinley.wangxu@gmail.com

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Estudio Gustavo Utrabo

Sao Paulo, Brazil

WPP Headquarters Residence in the Bahamas

SANAA

Tokyo, Japan

MIT Music Building

Fondazione Prada Paraventi Exhibition

LVMH Headquarters Renovation

Monaco Musuem Competition

Al’ Ula Mususem Competition

Pino Pavase Architects

New York City, USA

Chealsea Adaptive Reuse Project

NYCHA Housing Proposals

Oana Stanescu Studio

New York City, USA

Residence in Mulmur

Mutts - Coachella Installation

Resita Funicular

Junya Ishigami + Associates

Tokyo, Japan

Zama House

Art Biotop

Kanazawa Art College Competition

gad

Hangzhou, China

Chengdu Residential Complex

Quzhou Masterplan Competition

06.2024 - 08.2024

Architectural Intern

PROFILE

10.2022 - 07.2023

Architectural Intern

06.2021 - 08.2021

Architectural Intern

I am a designer with a background in both engineering and architecture. Technically oriented and a skilled model maker, I love to explore the symbiotic and synthetic intersections between engineering and spacemaking. I am also passionate about issues of craft, performance, and circularity.

EDUCATION

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Columbia University Master of Architecture 2020-2025

Bachelor of Science in Structural Engineering 2016-2020

05.2019 - 03.2020

Architectural Intern

LANGUAGES

English (Native)

Mandarin (Native)

Japanese (Intermediate)

06.2018 - 08.2018

Architectural Intern

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

06.2017 - 08.2017

Planning Intern

SKILLS

3D Modeling and Drafting

Rhino, AutoCAD, Revit, Archicad, SketchUp

Computational Tools

Grasshopper, ClimateStudio, Python, ML, SAP2000, Karamba 3D, Ladybug

Rendering

V-Ray, Enscape, Artlantis, Blender

Adobe Creative Suite

Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, AfterEffects, Premiere Pro

MIT 4.154 Option Studio w/ Anton Garcia-Abril

Teaching Assistant Fall 2024

President, MIT China SAP

Student Organization at MIT

President, TKTNK

Architecture Student Organization at Columbia

Shop Monitor

MIT Architecture Shop and Columbia Makerspace

2023-2024

2018-2020

2018-2024

AWARDS

Merit Graduate Fellowship

Dean’s List

4th Place

Honorable Mention

MIT Architecture

Columbia University

2025 Osaka Expo Croatian Pavilion 120 Hours Compeition 2019

Top 100 Entry

VolumeZero Aqua-tecture

American (Ise): On the Lifecycle of Stadiums in the US

Thesis

4.154 M.Arch Thesis

Fall 2024

Advisor: John Oschendorf

American stadiums follow a distinctive model of renewal. Similar to the Shikinen Sengu ritual at the Ise Shrine, a new stadium is often constructed adjacent to its predecessor. However, unlike Ise, where materials from the old shrine are reused and disseminated throughout Japan’s network of shrines, old stadiums are almost always demolished and discarded.

This thesis seeks to superimpose Ise as a model onto American stadiums, envisioning an architecture that embraces both impermanence and longevity through circularity. Investigations into the barriers to circularity specific to stadiums serve as the foundation for design proposals, spanning scales from the detail to the site. The project ultimately imagines a stadium in a constant process of disassembly and renewal, where its spatial and programmatic potential challenge paradigms of completeness. In the context of a climate crisis demanding waste reduction, and for a typology notorious for its excess, stadiums can learn to do more with less.

At the end of its lifecycle. Ise is deconstructed, its parts are reused within the shrine complex itself or dispersed across Japan to refurbish countless shrines within the country. Most notably, the main compressional structural member, the Munemochibashira (棟持柱, beam-holding column), undergoes cycles of reuse.

During this process of renewal, a majority of the old stadiums are demolished. There is almost always no discussion of reuse and circularity in the construction of these new stadiums. The mechanism in which renewal is carried out eliminates major barriers to circularity.

1. Demand Matching Barriers – There is an immediate demand for materials for the new stadium that the old stadium could fulfill.

2. Logistical Barriers – Materials reclaimed do not have to travel long distances to reach a new site, it simply needs to travel to the adjacent plot.

3. Informational Barriers – Construction is often carried out by the same client, who already have information and specification on reusable materials.

A survey of the historic landscape of MLB and NFL stadiums.

Despite the scale of labor, capital, and materials mobilized to construct these structures, they are replaced at a timescale similar to that of Ise Shrine, a small structure built with local, biogenic materials.

The Average Lifespan of Demolished Stadiums since the Post-War Era

34 Years

The thesis finds the availability of land and the availability of public money to be the foundations upon which a very American mode of stadium renewal is produced. Rather than seeking to negate these conditions, the thesis accepts them as the context of the project. In search for a more circular future of stadium design, the thesis proposes new design propositions at three distinct scales:

Structural Module

I. Site

How does an old stadium grow into a new one?

The Original Stadium

The New Stadium Complete

Home and thirdbase concourse disassembled

disassembled

This mechanism of chereographic produces extremeties that give new programming capacity for the stadium, allowing it to be multipurpose.

Components reconfigured as new stands

Having fixed timeframes of disassembly gives a good checkpoint to monitor the aging and material performance of materials over time.

Outfield stands reconfigured

Outfield concourse reconfigured

Rather than a spectacle to be viewed from a distance, the process becomes something spatial that fans can actively experience. The twinning produces a new sensibility of what it means to wander around the concourse.

Mackinley Wang-Xu

II. Structural Module

What does a stadium that anticipates renewal look like?

When describing the design of baseball stadiums since the 1990s, Paul Goldberger describes a general tendency and desire to evoke the past. The result is a spade of stadiums in the later 90s and early 2000s that can be characterized as steel structures with a historicist skin. This thesis proposes to use the structural module and the structural layout as a way to dislodge a façade dominated logic and to think about a new image of ballparks that not only evoke the jewel boxes of the past, but also is informed by the logics of the anticipatory logics of their construction.

Mackinley Wang-Xu

In order to facilitate the chereography of construction in the previous section, the thesis proposes a mirroring of the structural system, where stands on the inside becomes balconies, shading structures, and facade structures on the outside. During renewal, the outside layer is thus reconfigurable into seating structures.

Structural Layout of curved stands and concourse

Mackinley Wang-Xu

III. Detail

How to find flexibility and modularity within a highly calibrated geometry?

1. Raker Beam

A major barrier of circularity for stadiums lies in the rakers, which are typically highly calibrated precast assemblies. Using a system of hinges and adjustment rods, a proposal for a new kind of raker beams opens their reuse potential in the event of renewal.

2. Risers

A system of adjustment screws and plates allows for riser assemblies to adjust to new bowl geometries.

3. Column

Adhering to the principles of design for disassembly, a 12-foot column module is constructed with elementary t-sections and plates that are bolted together. The resulting module creates modular structural bays that allow for densification in the event of a need for adding more hospitality suites. It also allows for comfortable double height spaces for larger concourses and gathering spaces.

Column Module exploded axonometric

4. Foundations

If we can anticipate toggling between sites—similar to the cyclical rebuilding at Ise Shrine—the interaction between two superimposed grids could inspire a novel foundation layout. Moreover, drawing inspiration from existing stadium practices where traces of former stadiums are commemorated with plaques in parking lots, we might envision a scenario where foundation systems are preserved. Their specifications could be inscribed on plaques, creating a meaningful “field of plaques” that not only tells the story of the site’s structural legacy, but also imbed crucial information that enables reuse in the future.

foundation grids for twin stadiums

Figure 4a. Marking the Foundations

Mackinley Wang-Xu

American (Ise)

Superimposed

Mackinley

ODDS AND MODS: Investigating Circularity in Brick

Academic Work

4.154 Option Studio

Spring 2024

Critic: Sheila Kennedy and Caitlin Mueller

Bricks are mass produced in the same dimensions. They are modular.

However, within the production of brick there are discrepancies and failures. They are also oddular.

The studio investigates the reuse of waste brick in Mexico City. Taking into consideration the mechanisms in which waste of produced, the studio seeks to understand new methods of construction and new spatial sensibilities that can emerge from building with waste brick that goes beyond simply using them as a façade material. The project is a proposal for a structure that serves as a production space and cistern for a small community in Mexico City. Leveraging the random nature of broken bricks, the project proposes a construction method that is lo-fi and lo-tech, resulting in a thickened structure with ergonomic and programmatic autonomy.

Sort any and all that retains it’s width and thickness, recognizing the MOD

Width dimensions preserved

The project considers two types of bricks common in Mexico. There is the regular brick, usually hand-made in artisan kilns or mass produced in factories. There are also pattern bricks that are typically produced through extrusion. Taking into consideration only the broken and discarded bricks, I noticed that these bricks typically break along their length, preserving the dimension of width that is shared across brick typologies in Mexico.

Sort any and all that retains it’s width and thickness,

Array along a regular curve, taking length as needed, utilizing the ODD

along a regular curve, taking length as needed, utilizing the ODD

Length agnostic strength through redundancy and randomness

Vertical offset to stagger separation layers

Using two posts and rope, one could easily draw out reference for laying

Array along a regular curve, taking length as needed, utilizing the ODD

Using two posts and rope, one could easily draw out reference for laying Starting in side, laying outwards, construction based on reference

Against the grain, rough

Length agnostic strength through redundancy and randomness

Focusing on the fact that width dimensions are shared across waste bricks, the project proposes a method of brick laying that lays broken bricks along an arc. The arc produces offsets that strengthens the entire wall assembly.

Against the grain, rough

Standard Brick

Patterned Brick

A reference ellipse laid out with two sticks and a rope

Starting in side, laying outwards, construction on reference layer and stock of brick

Using two posts and rope, one could easily draw out reference for laying

Starting in side, laying on reference layer and

Construction moves out and up

Starting in side, laying outwards, construction based on reference layer and stock of brick

Geometry based on logic bricklayer is always

2024-05-13

Geometry based on logic of concentric bricklayer is always parallel to each

The “toolpath” of the interior and exterior surfaces

Understanding the need to work with low-fidelity and low-tech methods of construction. The structure takes on an elliptical shape. With two posts and a string, one is able to layout the base ellipse of the project. Similar to the notion of toolpaths in additive manufacturing. The project is then laid outwards and upwards.

Bricks are manufactured for compression. Taking inspirations from the likes of Yoyogi National Gymnasium, the project utilizes the sheer weight of the brick structure and the compressive strength of an elliptical shape as an anchor to a tensile roof structure.

The method of construction also produces two conditions of experience for the brick structure. The inner surface, running along the “grain” of the brick layout, the texture of the building is smooth. When against the grain, a rough texture emerges. The contrast between rough and smooth, in conjunction with the experience of being outside the wall and within the wall, heightens the feeling of thickness and heaviness of the wall.

Structural Diagram

Mackinley Wang-Xu

SCHEMATIC SECTION 1:50

Despite being a site near Xochimilco, the site is plagued by a lack of access to clean water. The building uses its big roof to collect and direct water into two cisterns within the wall structure. The larger cistern is used inside as part of the production process of natural fertilizers and pesticides. The smaller cistern faces outwards and becomes a public source of clean water.

Interior Cistern

Exterior Cistern

Sand Filter

Public

Seating Basin

Sink

Fogon

Cistern

Seating

Sink

Fogon

Mackinley Wang-Xu

The thickness of the wall not only allows the project to become a material depot of bricks for future use but also allows for programmatic potential to activate the entire surface of the wall. The wall could be carved out to become seating, a prep surface, and a stove. These moments are distributed across the surface of the wall and allows for different points of interaction and gatherings to happen throughout the project.

MACKINLEY WANG-XU

Unrolled exterior

Exterior seating

Unrolled interior

ELEVATIONS 1:100

Mackinley Wang-Xu

Exterior cistern activates publicness

A small but public gathering

Lifted Earth: Hotel in Menorca, Spain

Academic Work

4.154 Option Studio Fall 2023

Critic: Anton Garcia-Abril

The studio is titled MATTER/DATA, where the design process is centered around the physical act of making and its subsequent digital documentation via techniques such as photogrammetry. Positioning the unique process of the studio as a way to further investigate the rich history of model making in formfinding processes punctuated by figures such as Gaudi, Otto, and Izler, the project investigates the behaviors of hanging chains under various different loads. The ambition of the project is to utilize the gesture of the site to hang the entirety of the hotel in the form of a canopy within the Fonduco of Menorca, Spain. The hotel is positioned as a collective hammock where guests climb into rooms that occupy the thickness of the canopy. The process of Matter to Data and then Data to Matter is the basis for the linkage and the navigation between physical models, drawings, digital models, and detail construction models. Ultimately, the project is interested in the dichotomy that exists between the feeling of weightlessness enabled by the gesture of tension and span and the feeling of mass produced by proportion and materiality. The hotel is a crust of earth that is lifted into the sky, revealing a garden underneath for guests to relax and heal.

The site is situated in a fonduco on the island of Menorca, Spain. The cliffs surrounding the site is the source of departure of the initial concept of the project, where the existence of mass and earth enables the gesture of hanging. The project is driven by an inital structural idea that is enabled by the site.

The project begins with an investigation of the physical behavior of chains and how they respond to loads, which is simulated by plaster sheets. The final shape consists of an upper layer that is ridged as a response to the structural grid and a lower layer consists of bumps that can fit rooms. This geometry is then scanned and important into the digital space as the basis for schematic design. This process of transfering data to matter produces a surface that captures not only the rational behavior of materials, but also the nuances and imperfection that enriches an otherwise rational surface.

Mackinley Wang-Xu

A hotel as a collective hammock

Structural Diagram

Structural Model

1. Soil

2. GRFC

3. Concrete

Canvas

4. Lateral Bracing

5. Main Cable

6. Secondary Cable

7. Wood Veneer

8. Pipe and HVAC

9. Shotcrete

On top of the roof

room

Navigating the process of rationalizing the tectonics of the project, data is then transfromed back into matter through the exploration of the constructive detail model. The model begins with the construction of the cable network, which is followed by a concrete canvas membrane, simulated by a sheet of plaster. The resultant shape is then reinforced with a mesh, which serves as the basis for a shotcrete finish. After several layers, the result is a rough and textured surface, and each room pod can be seen as a floating rock, held up by the tension in the super structure.

A floating rock

Process of the constructive model

1. Cafe

2. Sauna

3. Plunge Pool

4. Hot Spring

5. Changing Room

6. Fitness Pool

7. Bar

Performance Space

SPA

View of Spa

Section D-D

Rooms

SPA Garden

Roof Garden

Roof Plan

Skyscraper Science: Repositioning of the Pfizer Building

Academic Work

4.154 Option Studio

Spring 2022

Critic: Marc Simmons

The project seeks to reposition 235 East 42nd Street, the old Pfizer Building. Positioning the building as a research center in Midtown East and responding to changes in local regulation and ownership, the project seeks to preserve part of the building and building an addition beside and above the original massing. Addressing the poor façade and story height conditions, the focus of this project was to devise of a recladding solution that captures the essence of the original and, at the same time, provides better visibility and thermal performance. The spatial exploration of the project investigates the juxtaposition of single and double height spaces within a skyscraper and posits a mode of design that allows for a depth of experience and access to both single and double story spaces is ensured at each floor. The intersection of these spaces not only address the additional thickness in section needed to accommodate the spatial and mechanical demands of research programs, but also become spaces for collaboration and meeting, further enhancing and adding value to the building through establishing synergies between tenants and users.

The Pfizer Building, built in 1961, is a 33 story building located in New York’s Midtown East. Due to the development of Hudson Yards, Pfizer, the building’s tenant, has sold the building to Alexandria Real Estate, a REIT specializing spaces for life science and tech. This change in ownership is a prime oppurtunity for the building to be repositioned.

With the New York Midtown East Rezoning Plan, the site is primed to add an additional 120,000 square feet. Instead of a complete teardown, the focus of the studio was to investigate how to add to the existing building, allowing it to become a more effective space for research. The coordination between office, resaerch, and service spaces drives the spatial organization of the scheme.

Ivan Leonidov’s proposal for the Soviet Ministry of Heavy Industry was studied as a precedent where a single building is expressed as three unique towers with their own unique characteristics.

The Building is situated within the crucial East New York Medical Corridor. Its proximity to the medical research cluster of New York lays a strong foundation for additional research spaces to be added to the building.

The massing strategy for the proposal calls for a partial demolition of the northern half of the original building in order for the construction of a new addition conposed of double storied spaces that align with the single 11 feet spaces of the original building. An offset core is added to facilitate new paths of circulation and to structurally support the new addition.

ADDITIONS

Massing Gesture

Three Towers

Original Building + Demolition

As the original building features a 11 feet floor to floor height, it is not condusive to existing and proposed research programs. The addition of double height spaces seeks to address that. Collective space is used as not only a buffer between the two spaces but as a vertical connector for different floors. Sometimes these spaces can also serve as nodes within the building where people can go to meet.

Offices Collective Spaces Research Labs

Amenity Space with a Forum

Mackinley Wang-Xu

Original Condition - Unitized Curtain Wall

Proposed Recladding - Closed Cavity Facade

Detail Section

Anchor

Cladding Fastener

Fireproofing

Terracotta Panel

Maintenance Hatch Roller Blinds

Closed Cavity Blinds

Cladding Development

Another focus of the project concerns the envelope of the building. The original building uses a very old curtain wall technology with very poor insulation. The recladding of the original building seeks to preserve the characteristics of the original while introducing a closed cavity system that is superior in its thermal qualities. The addition uses the same system but features a parametrically generated fin system that not only lowers the overall window to wall ratio but to also allow for selfshading mechanisms that reduce the building’s overall solar heat gain.

Shape of Integenerationality: Boston Chinatown Branch Library

Academic Work

4.152 Architecture Design Core Studio II Spring 2021

Critic: Silvia Illia-Sheldahl

This project positions the library, in the context of Boston’s Chinatown, as the location of intergeneration exchange, which is the key to an immigrant community’s cultural resiliency. The library also centers elders as storytellers, teachers, and stewards of the community, leading the design to focus on the particular visual, audio, and tactile needs of elders. The dichotomy between the modern library as a community space and the traditional library as a learning space is also explored and resolved through the integration of circulation paths, stacks, and community spaces.

Originally seeking to orient all programs along a central spine to promote circulation throughout the space. The mechanisms of protein folding was studied to think about how attractions and synergies between programs can be used as a force to bend and fold the spine to create a spatial scheme that not only has a continuous spine but also promotes interaction between programs and groups.

A series of ramps and landings are used to create a continuous space that is usable for the the differently able and connects the entire space in a loop while navigating level changes.

The project can be distilled into three fundamental components that operate in different ways. The slab consists of a series of connected ramps and landings that produce a continuous but gentle ground condition that allows for easier navigation by users with limited mobility. The core system not only acts as the surface in which physical artifacts such as books, newspapers, and DVDs are displayed, but also thickens at certain moments to encapsulate community programs such as classrooms. Lastly the roof serves as a unifier of the space. Strategic openings are calibrated to introduce daylighting to illuminate bookshelfs and community spaces.

The project investigates the integration of book stacks into a building core. The core not only holds all of the library’s collection, but also internalizes specfic program spaces as well as carve out different zones in the ambient space.

1. Courtyard

Exhibition Space

Classrooms

Multifaith Space

Children’s Reading Space

Silent Reading Room

Multimedia Lab

8. Outdoor Space

Bath Room 10. Cafe 11. Help Desk

Waiting Space

Teaching Kitchen

Makerspace

Designing for elders and also the visually challenged opens up the exploration of color. In this project color becomes a quality that is projected onto the neutral surfaces of the ground and envelope. This projection also help produce the recognition of other spaces in a way that blurs the hard boundaries of walls and barriers.

Mackinley Wang-Xu

Jo Boer - Primary Light Group (1964)

Exhibition Space

Kid’s Reading Space

Elder Reading Space

The section is a key point of study to facilitate intergenerational exchange. Placement of spaces typically used by different age groups are placed adjacent to one another. Openings in the core mediate either visibility or direct circulation that allows for access or recognition of spaces of other age groups. While formal meeting spaces for intergenerational exchanges exist in the form of classroms, teaching kitchens, and workshops, the informal encounters between generation is also positioned as a key consideration of design.

SANAA

Professional Work

October 2022 - June 2023 Tokyo, Japan

http://sanaa.co.jp

In my year out, I had the pleasure of working under Sejima Kazuyo and Nishizawa Ryue. My time at SANAA was marked by projects of many different scales and phases. A big portion of the work consists of modelmaking, as the design process is centered around model making. I also was responsible in producing images and drawings for presentations and competitions. More notably, I was able to work on the construction administration phase of the MIT music building, where I produced mockups and bid packages for contractors. The relatively flat organization of the office allowed me to participate fully in the design process and gained valuable experience producing designs and reviewing them with Sejima-san and Nishizawa-san.

I worked on the MIT Music Building in its Construction administration phase. I was solely responsible for the study and document production of donor signage for the building. I also produced mockups of various scales, ranging from 1:5 roof details to 1: 50 working models of the entire building.

Cambridge, MA In Progress

MIT Music Building

Paraventi - Exhibition, Fondazione Prada Milan, Italy Opened 2023

For a competition of a musuem in Monaco, I produced initial concept designs and materials for the final submission. Through initial design meetings, my initial design (pictured below) was chosen to be developed as the final submssion.

Commercial Adaptive Reuse Presentation Elevation and Model

Kagawa Prefectural Gymnasium Seating Study

Paris Renovation Site Model

Government Building Presentation Images

Other Works

Oana Stanescu Studio

Professional Work

June 2019 - March 2020

New York, NY

http://oanas.net

My work at the office is focused on a residential project in Mulmur, Canada. I have followed the project from its conceptual design to the current phase of design development. Working in a team of four, I mainly worked via physical and digital models as well as renderings to study almost all aspects of the house. Throughout the process I gained a deeper understanding of the evolution of the conceptual framework of the house as the project progresses through the different stages and developed a greater appreciation of the different ways to interrogate and evaluate design decisions. I also produced concepts and renderings for other confidential installation projects as well as drawings for the Funicular project in Resita, Romania.

Study and Presentation Models at Multiple Scales

Mackinley Wang-Xu

Mulmur House - Residential Mulmer, Canada Under Construction

100% SD - Model

The model was a continuous object of study. A long period was dedicated to this model to ensure flexibility of study as well as structural integrity. The image shows the model that was eventually locked and used as a presentation model during 50% SD meeting.

Mackinley Wang-Xu

Funicular - Adaptive Reuse

Resita, Romania

In Progress

junya.ishigami+associates

Professional Work

June 2018-August 2018 Tokyo, Japan

In the months of June to August of 2018, I was employed as an architectural intern at junya.ishigmai + associates. My work at the office is focused on a competition of an art college in Kanazawa and producing drawings to be published in major Japanese architecture magazines. The three images shown in the next page were published in GA JAPAN and Shinkenchiku.

Completed 2018

Art Biotop - Landscape Project Nasu, Japan

Estudio Gustavo Utrabo

Professional Work

June 2024 - August 2024

Sao Paulo, Brazil

www.gustavoutrabo.com

During the summer of my last year at MIT, I was able to accept a fellowship from the MIT International Science and Technology Initiative to work in Brazil. I worked as an intern in Gustavo Utrabo’s office. During the three weeks, I was mainly responsible of three presentation models. Working between scales, I was not only able to continue honing my model making skills, but expanded my repertoire by working with new materials and new mediums