Portfolio MARCO CAPITANIO
BERLIN MENDRISIO
COMO
SHANGHAI
Personal information Marco Capitanio Date of birth: 20.10.1987 Place of birth: Como, Italy
TOKYO
Contact marco.capitanio@gmail.com + Paul-Grasse Str. 12 c/o Lucci D-10409 Berlin
Online Architecture blog: babylonreloaded.blogspot.com Photo gallery: www.flickr.com/photos/marco_capitanio Master Thesis available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/96124144/Adjustments-in-the-compound-archipelagoImproving-liveability-in-Shanghai-s-peripheral-neighborhoods
CURRICULUM VITAE
Working experiences Intern-architect at Tezuka Architects, Tokyo, 3.2013-6.2013 Junior architect at logon Architecture, Shanghai, 8.2012-3.2013 Intern-researcher at i.CUP (institute for the Contemporary Urban Project), Mendrisio, Switzerland, 7.2010-9.2010 Intern-architect at Zvi Hecker Architekt, Berlin, 9.2008-6.2009 Education Master of Science in Urban Design, TU Berlin, Germany, 2010-12 Master of Architecture (graduation with excellency), Tongji University, Shanghai, China, 2010-12 Bachelor of Science in Architecture, Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, Switzerland, 2006 -10 Grammar school diploma at Liceo A. Volta, Como, Italy, 2001-06 Linguistic knowledge Italian: mother language English: fluent, iBT TOEFL 107/120 German: fluent, Test DaF 5/5/5/5 Mandarin: basic-intermediate level, HSK Test Level 3 233/300 Skills Programs: Autocad, Archicad, Adobe suite, Google Sketchup, Cinema 4D, Rhino + excellent model-making Honors & awards Graduation with Excellency, Tongji University, 2012 DAAD scholarship recipient, 2011-2012 UniversitĂ della Svizzera Italiana scholarship recipient, 2006-2008 Achievements Invited speaker at 1st International ISHED Conference, Tongji University, Shanghai, 14.10.2012 Summer academy 2005 spent at Shalom College, Bundaberg, Australia Hobbies Reading, music, cinema, Japanese arts & culture
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gdgdfgdf Chigasaki Church (detail) Chigasaki,Japan by Tezuka Architects
TABLE OF WOODEN CONTENTS PHARMACY spring 2013
07 15 23 31 43 53 61 69
Wooden pharmacy: Okinawa, Japan building in Okinawa Serviced apartments: mixed-use residential block Project @ Tezuka Architects Design, models & drawings
Foodbycourt: of a commercial building Marcorenovation Capitanio under guidance of T. Tezuka
A new neighborhood: mixed-use development in Shanghai Fixed & floating: urban design for the elderly Biodivercity: landscape project in KÜln Orchard residences: dwelling and cultivating Artists’ atelier: small intervention on the Swiss mountains
Other than architecture 77 79 81 83
Invisible cities: hand-drawings inspired by I. Calvino Chinese gardens: collages with paper Chinese painting: with watercolor Dining room decoration: 3D painting
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spring 2013
WOODEN PHARMACY Okinawa, Japan Project @ Tezuka Architects Design, models & drawings by Marco Capitanio under guidance of T. Tezuka
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This 100 m² pharmacy sits on a tiny plot in Okinawa, south Japan. Given the local climate and the surrounding vegetation, the little building features sliding glass-doors for the waiting room and the staff’s relax area. These grant the pharmacy and airy and open atmosphere.
waiting area customers’ desks staff’s workplace
ground floor
staff’s relax area
owner’s loft
loft space
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The owner’s loft is a small retreat space, hidden from the clients and the pharmacy’s activity. For this reason only a steep ladder leads to it and the ceiling is so low. A 1930s Japanese stationery shop was the inspiration for the warm, “nostalgic” character sought.
(left) View of the loft (right) View from staff entrance
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Detail from a traditional Japanese room
This front elevation shows the waiting room and the customers’ desks. For privacy’s sake roll-down scrolls are attached to the beams of each desk. As shown in the detail on the opposite page, this building borrows from traditional Japanese architecture.
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logon
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winter-spring 2013
SERVICED APARTMENTS Pudong (Shanghai), China Project @ logon Teamwork (3 people) Urban design, facade design & apartment layout by Marco Capitanio
PROGRAM: serviced apartments kindergarten shops landscape This 60.000 m² compound is located close to a developing CBD in Shanghai’s eastern district, Pudong. It targets foreign expatriates. Effort was put into achieving a classic, refined and urban feeling, almost a retreat. It is a reaction against the extremely wide streets close to the site and to the anti-urbanity of much of Chinese new developments.
119
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services shop apartment distribution
first floor typical floor
A public square on the north side of the site and the park on the western side strengthen the urbanity of the design. The multi-levelled space inside the compound is semi-public; water pools, green and commercial functions mark the transition from the street to the site. The location of the apartments achieves a balance between street alignment and southerly orientation.
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logon 180 m² apartment
90 m²
40 m²
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logon The space inside the compound is split into three levels, where commercial activities, a cafĂŠ and a kindergarten are housed. Given the close-by CBD and prime sport facilities, this proposal tries to contrast the typical secluded Chinese compound.
cross section
facade construction
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summer-autumn 2012
FOOD COURT RENOVATION Shanghai, China Project @ logon Teamwork (3 people) Concept & facade design by Marco Capitanio
PROGRAM: restaurants spa club flagship store The building to be renovated is located at the end of one of the most prominent commercial streets in Shanghai, West Nanjing Road. The original building, with its old-fashioned, odd geometry of the facade, demanded a radical proposal.
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RE RE RE RE RE SERV FLAG ICE
KITCHE KITCH N E KITCH N E KITCH N EN
site location
The building (originally a hotel) needs to be refurbished and renovated as a food court, with additional functions on the lower and top stories. The site is very visible from the surroundings, even though the building’s size is small compared to the neighboring buildings.
CLUB SPA SPA ESTAURA ESTAUR NT ESTAU ANT ESTAURANT ESTAURANT GSHI RANT P STO LOBB RE BAR Y /KT V /ktv
bar
program (right) current state
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(top) concept diagram (bottom left) flattened elevation (bottom right) concept model
In order to give the building a single image, recognizable from all sides, a skin or wrap was conceived. Aluminium panels have been used to create a skin that covers the entire building. Wavy cuts reveal the interior of the building and bring the necessary natural illumination.
filling + wrap
program + facade
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flagship store lobby distribution restaurant entertainment technical
(top left) original plan (top right) ground floor
(bottom left) third floor (bottom right) E-W section
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summer 2012
A NEW NEIGHBORHOOD Pujiang (Shanghai periphery), China Master thesis research & design project @ Tongji University Shanghai/TU Berlin Prof. Peter Herrle, Zhuang Yu
PROGRAM: housing commercial office/workspace landscape kindergarten library Given the mono functionality and hermeticism of Chinese residential blocks, the project asks: “how to produce a design on tabula rasa on a site far from the city center?� The main principles followed were: 1) A mixture of typologies, including low-rise, achieving a density of ca. 2,0 FAR, with a more compact fabric 2) Mixing land-uses within the block 3) Low-rise courtyard housing is a means to convey the necessary sense of enclosure & privacy
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STANDARD CHINESE URBAN FABRIC COMMERCIAL
Like in the site’s surroundings, the typical peripheral development of Chinese urban areas presents monofunctional city blocks. Services and commercial functions are also grouped. This creates an anti-urban and inconvenient living environment.
RESIDENTIAL BLOCKS
PUBLIC
WORK
STRATEGY downscale land-uses COMMERCIAL
Scale the mixture of land uses from the district-level down to the neighborhood-level. WORK
TABULA RASA = NO CONTEXT Pujiang, a new town in the periphery of Shanghai, built to house the citizens relocated during the EXPO 2010.
site
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high-rise compound stretched, cut and limited to 15-storeys
lilong (courtyard row-house) increased privacy and open space
LOCAL TYPOLOGIES “RELOADED� In order to develop credible design solutions, local typologies were taken as a starting point and were further developed, adjusted and improved. mid-rise slabs rearranged in non-linear layout
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THE MAIN NEIGHBORHOOD AXIS gdgdfgdf links the three different housing typologies. On its way are located the kindergarten and the library, together with communal green and open space. Along this central axis car-access is restricted only to residents, while parking is provided underground.
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THE COURTYARD HOUSES are a reinterpretation of the traditional Shanghai courtyard house (lilong). It aims to be compact and affordable. The residential rows are enclosed by one-story work-spaces or shops.
shops
light-industrial
orchards
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The scheme is designed in such a way that every house has one view to the street and one to the inner courtyard. Moreover, privacy is enhanced since only one house has a prospect to each courtyard.
2F
studio/bedroom
roof terrace
1F bedroom
GF
living room kitchen
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autumn-winter 2011
FIXED & FLOATING Shanghai periphery, China Urban design project @ Tongji University Shanghai with Zheng Wentao
PROGRAM: transportation concept elderly housing health-care commercial facilities covered market
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The design deals with the theme of aging society in Shanghai’s periphery. The general strategy takes advantage of the existing canals around the center of Chuansha Town by proposing a boat service with six stops (the “floating” programme), oriented to the elderly. One of the stops is the main hub (the “fixed” programme) where elderly housing, a covered market, green open spaces and health care services are offered.
POPuLATION AbOvE 60 yEArs-OLD IN chINA from, (2008) Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision
Percentage of population over 60 years in China
percentage over total population
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30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5%
2000
2009
2020
2050
concept diagram
3 stop 2 stop
1 stop 4 stop
main hub
5 stop
main hub boat
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The boat stops are evenly distributed around the old center, with a 400 m accessibility radius. The general strategy aims at targeting basic daily life needs of the elderly while increasing opportunities for social contact.
GLObAL PrObLEM + LOcAL cONTEXT How can elderly interact with the rest of the population? How to benefit from the given natural amenities?
NATURE
canal park
ELDERLY
housing transport
INTErAcTION
market
health care
sociality
work housing
SOCIETY
main hub
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elderly housing
health-care
covered market
commercial + work
The sinuous floor-plan of the elderly housing is generated by the shape of the existing trees on site. The building embraces them and maximizes the number of rooms with a view to the green and the canal.
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(left) view from an approaching boat (right) ground floor plan
trees on site
wrap-around
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fields & meadows forests & woods threatened bird species observed site
CONNECTING EHRENFELD
spring-summer 2011
BIODIVERCITY Köln Ehrenfeld, Germany Landscape studio project @ TU Berlin Prof. Katrin Bohn with Eleonore Harmel
This landscape project deals with “wilderness”. It aims at transforming a disused post-industrial site into a natural reserve, where humans step behind and fauna and flora can thrive. Through a large-scale mapping of Köln’s green areas (on the left), the program was established. The city has two concentric “green belts”, and the site is supposed to play a role in connecting them, thus achieving a “green corridor”.
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Ehrenfeld is a lively district, rapidly transforming from a post-industrial to a residential and entertainment area. The site chosen for the natural reserve used to be occupied by a railway, now dismantled. Along the path of the former railway track, a pedestrian and cycle itinerary is proposed. As shown in the opposite page, this itinerary is divided into three moments, each with a different spatial relationship between the green element and the observer.
ABOVE A wooden platform brings people high above the ground
UNDER The hanging garden shelters the passage underneath
THOUGH The walkway is only slightly elevated from the ground
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This project wants to establish a space dedicated to natural growth. The surroundings are likely to be soon developed into residential and commercial functions; it seems therefore necessary to lay out an ecological corridor. In fact, this green infrastructure is as important as streets, plumbing etc.
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before
after
gdgdfgdf A tense structure, with the help of time and nature’s power, will gradually transform a parking lot into a spot where nature and human activities can meet.
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spring-summer 2010
ORCHARD RESIDENCES East London, Great Britain Design studio project @ Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio Prof. Julian Lewis (EAST) with Matteo Pietrantonio
PROGRAM: 450 dwellings (some with shops at ground floor) orchards and gardens botanical school covered market light-industrial activities Urban agriculture could modulate various lifestyles, seen as a hobby, a nice way for retired people to spend their time, a means of domestic economy, an educational tool, an opportunity for fresh food supply, with an overall attempt towards sustainability.
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major street
site
railway
highway
creek
The project addresses the theme of living in a suburban area, designing a new housing development in a brownfield, mixing row-houses of three different typologies with gardens and allotments, apartment buildings, light-industrial activities and small retail. The site is located close to a creek, compressed between the railway and a major street, but not far from the town center. By designing a local covered market and a botanical school, the project tries to boost a sense of community for the new residential area. Interviews with local people were a starting point for the design.
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covered market
central spine
botanical school
supermarket
church
The district was designed in such a way that pedestrian movement and cycling are encouraged.
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Along the central pedestrian “spine�, connecting the school with the market, a rickshaw transportation service is proposed; the nearby industrial area could serve as CHP provider for the new development, and PV panels are located in the residual space between two railway lines and on the rooftops of public buildings. Shacks and rain-water-collection are provided for each garden.
(bottom right) section though the central spine
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autumn-winter 2009
ARTISTS’ ATELIERS Bosco Gurin, Switzerland Design studio project @ Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio Prof. Grafton Architects
PROGRAM: housing working space Three artist’s ateliers combine three living units on the top floor and working space below. The project, located in a 1000 metres high depopulated village on the mountains of Ticino, aims at taking advantage of the dramatic view, from a steep slope to the forest, offered by the site.
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The site is at the very entrance of the village, close to the main park-space, restaurant and post office. The building is positioned at the edge of a steep ramp, overlooking a fir forest. The size and appearance of the design had to resonate with the existing architecture, seeking a combination between the vernacular and the modern, as exemplified in Carlo Mollino’s alpine architecture (see picture below: Lago Nero Sledgelift Station).
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(right) sketches of local construction details
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lower level
middle level
working
living
The work-spaces are located under the apartments. They are characterized by the massivity of the structure and its double height. It is possible to combine the three ateliers into one common space for exhibition purposes.
The small apartments “rest� on top of the ateliers. Each of them is provided with two loggias, one marking the transition between the street and the apartments, the other being an extended living room during the warm season.
top level
sleeping The double-height living room leads to the top level. This level is, by means of furniture placement, divided into a work space (a desk with a view to the outside) and a bedroom.
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summer 2013
INVISIBLE CITIES Hand drawings
These views are a personal interpretation of three of the “thin cities”, described in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. Zenobia, “stands in high pilings, and the houses are of bamboo and zinc, with many platforms and balconies placed on stilts at various heights, crossing one another, linked by ladders and hanging sidewalks, surmounted by cone-roofed belvederes, barrels storing water, weather vanes, jutting pulleys, and fish poles, and cranes.” Armilla “has no walls, no ceilings, no floors: it has nothing that makes it seem a city except the water pipes that rise vertically where the houses should be and spread out horizontally where the floors should be: a forest of pipes that end in taps, shouwers, spouts, overflows. Against the sky a lavabo’s white stands out, or a bathtub, or some other porcelain, like late fruit still hanging from the boughs.” In Ottavia “there is a precipice in the middle of two steep mountains: the city is over the gap, tied to both peaks by ropes and chains and catwalks. One walks on the wooden rail sleepers, careful not to put one’s feet in the open spaces, or one clings to the hemp mesh. Underneath there is nothing for hundreds and hundreds of metres: some cloud passes; one catches a glimpse of the bottom of the ravine further down below.”
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winter 2012
CHINESE GARDENS COLLAGES Suzhou, China Winter course @ Tongji University Shanghai Prof. Stan Fung
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spring 2012
CHINESE PAINTING Course @ Tongji University Shanghai
I discovered that Chinese traditional painting employs a technique similar to western watercolor. It took a few days to complete a painting, because of the time required by the color to dry-out. The red stamp bears the characters pronounced “ma-ke�, the phonetic translation of my name.
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summer 2010
DINING ROOM DECORATION Como, Italy
From an abstract painting, made of minimalist rectangles and plain colors, a green line escapes from the canvas. It runs along the wall, before deciding to reach the ceiling, becoming a visual division between kitchen and dining room.
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New Academy of Art Hangzhou, China by Wang Shu
Festina lente (“on-slow�) I believe that being an architect is a neverending learning process. Architecture is a profession, that, given its impact on society, requires us to be resolute and realistic at the same time. I am constantly in search of new inspirations and opportunities to expand my knowledge, and this brought me from Europe (Italy, Switzerland, Germany) to Asia (China & Japan) and back.
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7. 2013