MENGXIAO QI EMAIL: njmariaqi@gmail.com TEL: 713-855-0056 ADDRESS: 2410 Shakespeare st. Houston, 77030
PROFESSIONAL WORK
ACADEMIC WORK
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THEATRE DESIGN
CITY STAGE
2013
CIVIC CENTER DESIGN
BOX IN BOX
2014
CIVIC CENTER DESIGN
BUILD ON EIFFEL TOWER
2015
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YOUTH HOSTEL DESIGN
DWELL IN NATURE
2012
PREFABRICATED HOUSE DESIGN
WORKING WITH BIM HOUSING DESIGN
NEW CITY NO. 9
2014
2013
THEATRE DESIGN
CITY STAGE
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The problem about building a grand theatre in China is that it takes up too much space that used to be community amenities which usually leads to the inconvenience of the neighborhood. Through separating the amenities and scattering them around the auditorium volume, this theatre provides people with a STAGE not only for watching shows, but also one to perform and display their own lives.
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library small theatre shop restaurant stage lounge storage rehearsal room
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[ BREAK INTO PIECES ]
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By breaking facilities like restaurant, library, gift shop and etc. into smaller pieces, the theatre provided a better scaled site with playable atmosphere. The multiple accesses to those small function boxes allowed people to access easily, which helped activate the complex.
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GROUND FLOOR PLAN
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dressing room truck dock lobby lounge cafe outdoor stage
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[ LINK THROUGH LOWER LEVEL ] Different programs are linked to the main auditorium in the lower level, which created a continuous spatial experience for the audience while still allow the people from the neighborhood to use the amenities freely.
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LOWER LEVEL PLAN
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[ ENTRANCE TO THEATRE ] The big steps in front of the theatre invites all kinds of events, such as outdoor rehearsal, exhibitions and etc., which makes it the front stage of the whole complex.
[ DOTTED AMENITIES ] Each facility box has a separate entrance open to the public that allows people to enter without going inside of the theatre, which shows the building’s generosity to the neighborhood.
[ CONTINUOUS RING ] The audience circulation is a continuous ring circle around the auditorium mass that allows them to enjoy all kinds of service without being disturbed by the community users.
NIGHT VIEW OF INNER SQUARE
[ A STAGE FOR ALL ] The back wall of the small theatre can be removed and thus open the stage to the inner square between the two theatres. Arts belong to everyone, and this two-way facing stage gives the local community a chance to act and perform in front of the audience from the whole city.
SECTION
DAY VIEW OF INNER SQUARE
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CIVIC CENTER IN HOUSTON
BOX IN BOX
The FIGURE-GROUND RELATIONSHIP has long been a method to discuss subject/background, but what if we make the 2D abstraction into 3D space? The project compresses all the private program such as courtroom and auditorium into boxes and arranges public program like tax office, civic service in between those boxes. This strategy of putting the private subject into public background created a special spatial experience while keeps maximum privacy/publicness for both side.
1 sunken square 2 cafe 3 tax office 4 children care 5 storage 6 clerk office 7 dressing room 8 workshop 9 rehearsal room 10 crafting room 11 archive 12 courtroom 13 judge office 14 service area
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LOWER FLOOR PLAN
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F2 PLAN
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[ INSIDE AND OUTSIDE] The sectional arrangement between each “dark box” allows the in-between to be relatively separate but still continuous, indeterminate and fluid in essence. The penetrates on the boxes introduce this kind of continuity into themselves and thus present a building that is independent and connected at the same time.
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archive judge’s office court room meeting room dressing room actors’ lounge multi-functional hall
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SECTION A-A
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SECTION B-B
SECTION C-C
ATHLETES HOUSING FOR 2024 PARIS OLYMPICS
ON THE EIFFEL TOWER
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Sometimes you have to change everything in order to change nothing. By changing the materiality and massing of the northwest facade completely, the project preserves the facade facing the main tourists flow exactly as it was. And thus transforms the Eiffel Tower from a complete symmetric, static statue, into a asymmetric, fluid building that has multiple faces, which reshapes the city’s understanding of itself.
[ TYPICAL PLAN ] With the dynamic shape of the building, very slab has a unique geometry, and minimal sized prefabricated housing units and servant units are used to accommodate to the constantly changing form. This strategy also allows residents to have small cozy indoor corners and exterior terraces.
SHORT SECTION
[ LIVING BETWEEN THE EIFFEL TOWER AND PARIS ] The slabs go from completely outside of the Eiffel tower to completely inside of the Eiffel tower, which generates interesting relationship between the housing and the Eiffel Tower. Depending on the levels, the athletes get the feeling of fully outside, touching the edge, sometimes in and sometimes out of Eiffel tower or completely surrounded by it. The are always lingering in between the Eiffel Tower and the vast background----Paris, sometimes close the former, sometimes close to the latter.
NIGHT ELEVATION
PANEL SYSTEM
DETAIL
[ FACADE CONTROL ] The perforated metal panel system and the randomly arranged units allow the building to have various opacity according to people’s distance to its program and the light situation. Different sized holes were chosen according to the privacy of the programs behind it. The system gives the building completely
different characters in day and night. During the daytime, the panel system looks like a veil on the Eiffel tower, while at night, it become a backdrop that light up the Eiffel tower from one side, and a stage to show the public life of the athletes from the opposite side.
YOUTH HOSTEL IN YUNNAN
DWELL IN NATURE
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When you have a site with one side facing the endless water and the other three surrounded by nature, the only thing you could do is to open the building to the water as much as possible and to merge the building into its surrounding. By using vernacular materials (the stone just comes from the mountain behind the building) and traditional building methods, the youth hostel achieved a subtle balance between serenity and wildness, roughness and fineness.
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RESPONSIBILITY
design development, construction document, model making, Rolex Exhibition design in Italy
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double room lounge gallery pool kitchen storage bedroom inner yard living room reception bar mechanic room swimming pool
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GROUND FLOOR PLAN
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[ TOWARDS THE SEA ] With the backs facing the mountain, the front facing the sea and the inner yards facing up to the sky, the hostel offers unimaginable views of the nature that eases the nerves of busy metropolitans and allows them to temporarily escape from the city lives.
[ CONSTRUCTION AND COST CONTROL ] Everything needs to be transported to the site via small boats, and in order to lower the transportation cost, the rocks comes from the quarry on the island and the woods are used to reduce the weight.
PREFABRICATED HOUSE DESIGN
WORKING WITH BIM
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This project experiments on prefabricated modular houses with BIM working flow. The design-construction process is largely shortened by working on fabrication/installation details with manufacturer and modifying building process via construction simulation. To build a fully furnished 320-sqt-unit, it only takes 16 days to produce the parts in factory and 24 hours on site to assemble all the pieces.
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RESPONSIBILITY
preliminary research, schematic design, construction document, construction
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WOOD DECK
1 entrance deck 2 back deck
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PREFABRICATED UNIT 3 bathroom 4 kitchen
MODULAR FURNITURE 5 6 7 8
storage set study set entertainment set folding bed set
SOLAR SYSTEM
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MODULAR PLAN
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2 2mm metal roof 80X80mm prefabricated aluminum 235mm rail connection 100mm composite insulation 75X80mm sliding door rail 30mm ceiling rib 200X15mm ceiling panel wooden sliding door
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100mm composite insulation 100mm supporting panel 80X80mm prefabricated aluminum aluminum connection 75X80mm sliding door rail 80X80mm prefabricated aluminum round foundation
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UNIT PREFABRICATION: IN FACTORY 1 2 3 4
cut aluminum columns add triangular connection assemble the structural frame install enclosure and furniture
ASSEMBLY: ON SITE
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DETAIL SECTION
HOUSING DESIGN
NEW CITY NO. 9
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The project sits near the heart of new city center, facing the high-speed train station of the city and surrounded by the river that winds across the city. The great location offers a chance for the building complex to be convenient, well-equipped, highly accessible on the one hand, and enjoying nature and landscape on the other.
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RESPONSIBILITY
presentation report, construction document, rendering
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hallway living room terrace master bedroom bedroom kitchen void
TYPICAL PLAN
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[ LANDSCAPE DESIGN ] Because of the abundant natural resource nearby, the complex features a lot on the landscape design of the master plan. Micro topography, mini waterfalls, wood and marble terraces and pavilions are used to increase the depth and playfulness of the landscape.
TYPICAL SECTION