Hongbang Chen_Selected Works 2022

Hongbang Chen

MArch I 22’

Selected Works - Weitzman School of Design - 2022

“...hybrid rather than ‘pure’, compromising rather than ‘clean’, distorted rather than ‘straightforward,’ ambiguous rather than ‘articulate,’ accommodating rather than excluding, redundant rather than simple, vestigial as well as innovating, inconsistent and equivocal rather than direct and clear.”

- Robert Venturi

Selected Works

P. 04-15 P. 16-29 P. 30-41 P. 42-49 P. 50-61 P. 62-71

Two Follies in The Manhattan Bridge

A Contemporary Fiction of Two Iconic Monuments Influx Archive Extension of Penn Museum Invasiveness

Food Waste Up-cycle Center

Angelsea Cemetery

The Immersed Journey in Spiritual Landscape

Sprouting Castle Ruins

Tree-house Modules Within Medieval Castles

Overton Springs

Desalination Facility Powered Through Harvested Solar Energy

Two Follies in The Manhattan Bridge

Selected for Pressing Matters XI

Location: Manhattan Bridge, New York, NY

Attribute: Academic (Collaboration)

Project Type: Garden Level : Third Year (MArch I)

Instructor: Ferda Kolatan

Partner: Tuo Chen

Date: 2021.12

Our project is about designing a new type of 21st-century garden with follies on the Manhattan Bridge. We choose garden with follies as our program because there are clashes between the fictional and the real, the historical and the contemporary, the natural and the cultural, already embedded in these two 20th century follies themselves. The follies are two iconic elements, the arch and the colonnade that once celebrated the spectacle of infrastructure in the early 20th century and the remnant concrete highway piece of the Lower Manhattan Expressway (LOMEX). Today, the existence of these two past-monumental structures creates problems and contradictions to the site which no longer values their monumentality. The design intention is to turn the confrontation of these two icons into a contemporary garden, allowing visitors to wander among the nontraditional and unusual nature, colliding with the urban background.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr5zngZn0yc

*Hybrid Objects As The Contemporary Representation Of Iconic Monuments

Two Follies in The Manhattan Bridge

Monument

The site is consisted of two iconic elements, the arch and colonnade structure and the remnant of lower Manhattan expressway. They clashed with each other evoking contradictions and problems to the landing area such as the diminished cultural value of the monuments.

The notion of folly inherited clashes between the fictional and the real, the historical and the contemporary, the natural and the cultural.

Folly

The Arch And Colonnade Folly

The Arch and Colonnade Folly is intimate, lush, intricate, and tranquil. The aquaponic system is embedded in this folly in order to sustain plants on the top while challenging the classic arch and colonnade topology.

The Arch and Colonnade Folly

Elevators Connecting Plaza and Folly

Aquaponic Water Tank Aquaponic Garden Viewing Platform

Canal St

Chrystie St

East Broadway Mall

Manhattan Bridge

The Highway Folly

The highway folly is bold and grand in a contemporary way that almost touches but still stands a distance from its neighbor. Visitors first drift into an enclosed dark and mossy planting space underneath the highway surface after they leave the first folly.

Influx

Selected for Pressing Matters IX

Location: Penn Museum, 3260 South St, Philadelphia, PA Attribute: Academic (individual) Project Type: Extension Level : First Year (MArch I) Instructor: Daniel Markiewicz Date: 2019.12

This project aim to address the relationship between the Penn Museum and its surrounding urban context. This museum extension specifically draws the inspiration from the traffic flow around the Penn Museum. Because the traffic flow is a predetermined element that influence the circulation and visual perception of Penn Museum and urban space. By examine this aspect, the museum archive extension acts as an initiator to evoke dialogues between different types of public space, the new and the old, and materiality.

The design brief attempts to create the fourth “wall” of the Penn Museum, which is the extension of archive space with education and exhibition space. The project initially started from analyzing major circulation axises of the museum. Then, the new urban interface was emerged by registering the traffic flow around Penn Museum. The directional force of the traffic flow is translated into formal gestures and the guidance of organizing programs and spaces.

Site Analysis and Form Generation

The archive extension keeps the existing entrance axises, based on this condition the massing is split into four pieces. Each piece is defined by a three dimensional grid of 10 cubic feet, the directional force push and pull each massing piece to form identical formal language.

+30 ft

Floor 1

Floor 2 +15 ft

Connection of Interior and Exterior

The formal gestures are evidenced in different spaces. It not only helps to define the massing in the overall building scale, but also builds the spatial connection between interior and exterior.

Invasiveness

Location: 100 Norfolk St, New York, NY 10002

Attribute: Academic (Collaboration)

Project Type: Food and Science Center

Level : Second Year (MArch I)

Instructor: Nate Hume Partner: Tuo Chen

Date: 2021.05

We think architecture isn’t just about function but should go beyond function and program to be more poetic for new experience. Our project is called Invasiveness testing the idea of how nature and urban invading with each can bring new aesthetics and new special experience to the building. And also discovering the relationship between city and nature in Manhattan.

No form of matter is inherently subnatural; rather, relative to architecture, things become subnatural when it makes us question the dominant social role of architecture. For us, waste does not have any fundamental physical quality. Instead, it is a social category that we assign to specific types of social relations. In the book Purity and Danger, Douglas asserts that things, people and practices become dirty when they are “matter out of place,” So here, we say architectural spaces, elements, and materials that interlock and invade each other are matter out of places. These moments are when architectural invasiveness happened.

Material Study And Program

Our building programs are designed to propose a solution to the food waste problems in the US. Programs are arranged to be mutually beneficial as a cycle; the major parts are the food bank and the fertilizer production line with secondary programs like herb gardens, soup kitchen, library, lab, and market embedded into the building as public space.

Up-cycle

The building is designed to promote the reuse cycle of food waste for local communities through rich spatial interacting moments and interlocked program allocation. The public space is for people from the city interested in food waste reuse associated with herb garden, the theme exhibition and food-fertilizer libraries. Public spaces are arranged to flow along with arch-like separate pockets.

Fertilizer Production Zone

Food Fermentation

Library Corridoor

I Beam

Skylight Window Drainage pipe Pre-cast Concrete Herb Cultivation Area Robotic Arm Track

Concrete Block Farming Robotic Arm Light Soil Container Rusted Metal Panel (Golden)

Aeroponic System

Concrete Block Stucco Wall Pre-cast Curved Concrete Wall

Physical Model

The cutaway physical model revealing some of the inside spaces and also exposing structures. A series of physical model closeups showing the details and the hydroponic herb garden.

Anglesea Cemetery

Location: Great Ocean Rd, Anglesea VIC, Australia

Attribute: Academic (individual)

Project Type: Cemetery Level : First Year (Bachelor)

Instructor: Emil Jonescu Date: 2014.12

When I considered the subject of the cemetery, my first thought was that this is a question about life and death. When people facing life and death, the emotional part is always greater than the rational factor, so this should be the main message that this design needs to deliver.

There are many kinds of people’s emotions in life, happy, troubled, sad and surprises are all very short-lived, but the feeling of death is overwhelming for people. What death brings to a person is a deep and heavy emotional that seems to be calm, but it is a sense of powerlessness that is immersed in the great power. Therefore, I want the appearance of the building should present a calm and primitive temperament. Moreover, in this design, people’s experience should gradually be built up by a series of sensory experiences on the path (from calm to the overwhelming sense of powerlessness).

Southeast Indian Ocean

City Of Anglesea

A Series of Experiences

In this project, people’s experience is composed as a series of moments. The series of sensory experiences reflect people’s emotional status from birth to death and finally accepting the death.

The Memorial Hall

Reception

Sprouting Castle Ruins

Location: Vibrac / Mothe Chandeniers / Ebaupinay, France

Attribute: Competition (Collaboration)

Project Type: Holiday Resort Level : First Year (MArch I)

Collaboration: Tuo Chen, Yushan Jiang, Tingdong Xiong Date: 2020.06

The Tree House Module is the projection of a desire for adventure, a spurt of creativity, reconciliation with nature. It is the media between the built environment and nature. Our design is comprised of half arches as the main structure to support an enclosed cylinder volume with the eccentric circle shape for its plan. The half-arch idea not merely resonates with the unique formal features of medieval castles, but also defines the space under the tree house module for various outdoor activities. Additionally, generated by the process of shifting the center of the circle in plan, “the crack” brings the geometry a tendency of growing and also evokes an image of the castle ruins.

The duo of the tree house module will be permuted and combined to generate a vibrant living community (hospitality). With comfortable living services and wild experience, the newly-growing tourist attraction will be vitalized significantly.

Formal Readaptation

Our design is comprised of half arches as the main structure to support an enclosed cylinder volume with the eccentric circle shape for its plan. The half-arch idea not merely resonate the unique formal features of medieval castles but also defines the space under the tree house module for various outdoor activities. Additionally, the crack is generated by the process of shifting the center of the circle in plan brings the geometry a tendency of growing and also evokes an image of the castle ruins.

Module 2

1 4 5

1

3 2 2

3

Floor Area: 35.5 m2 1 Living Room 2 Bedroom 3 Sauna Room 4 Bathroom 5 Shower

Module 1

Floor Area: 23.6 m2 1 Living Room 2 Bedroom 3 Bathroom

Duo Treehouse

Wrapping around the trunk, module 1 provides a relatively playful interior space; whereas the structurally independent module 2 brings guests more immersive and tranquil spatial experience. The duo of the tree house module will be per-mutated and combined to generate a vibrant living community. With comfortable living services and wild experience, the newly-growing tourist attraction will be vitalized significantly.

11.4 m

9 m

8.6 m

6.8 m

6 m 4 m 0 1 2 m

1 - Accessible Roof

Anti-corrosive Timber Decking 35/90 substructure timber supporting frame Waterproof Membrane 15mm Plywood sheathing 50/90 timber supporting framework

2 - Roof Garden Construction

Soil Roofing membrane Timber Roof deck 35/35 timber joist Vented Airspace Thermal insulation Vapor barrier 20mm plywood board

3 - Wall Construction

10/25mm Wood-like Aluminum (Knotwood) Screens 20mm weather-resistant plywood board 15/25 timber joist Plywood sheathing Wood framing partition system Thermal insulation Waterproofing membrane 20mm plywood board

4 - Floor Construction

Customized lumber beam Waterproof membrane 25/70mm floor framing system Thermal insulation Prefabricated hardwood flooring

8

6 7

5 9

3

2

1

1 - Wood-like aluminum (knot-wood) screen. 30mm x 80mm

2 - Curved wood structure column. 100 x 200 mm

3 - Metal structure bracing anchored on the tree trunk. D-100mm

4 - Circular wood beam system. 100 x 200 mm

5 - Wood floor finish.

6 - Wood framing partition system. 40 x 60 mm

7 - Plywood panels by CNC milling.

8 - Wood beam system. 100 x 140 mm

Overton Springs

Selected for Pressing Matters XI

Location: Lake Mead Arm, Nevada, US

Attribute: Academic (Collaboration)

Project Type: Solar Facility + Desalination Plant

Level : Third Year (MArch I)

Instructor: Ferda Kolatan

Partner: Dario Sabidussi

Date: 2022.05

Taking understandings of the Anthropocene and the middle landscape and considering the desert as a living, metabolizing, and self-sustaining system, we developed our project to embody these understandings through the introduction of contemporary solar technology. When considering the context of the Nevada desert, we began to speculate how to use and create solar energy in a way that would not only be of use for humans, but for the overall ecology of the region.

Our project introduces a new desalination technology that is currently being explored by NEOM in Saudi Arabia called the Solar dome, in which heliostat reflectors surrounding a glass dome focus solar radiation around the dome. Right by the Lake Mead, the lake serves as a cooling facility for the main solar field. The electricity produced is used to produce purified water and brine, which are then utilized as resources for a new synthetic-nature habitat with a self-sustaining ecology.

Reshaping

Our design takes advantage of the existing topography of the site by developing the eroded profiles of the lake perimeter to serve as a gravitational feature where brine and pure water can flow from the “cliff-side” perimeter deep within the desert landscape to form evaporation ponds, meadows, and marshes to promote a new ecology embedded within the landscape, distant from the water and brine source. The effects of brine and clean water forms a painterly landscape with color from brine water and desert landscape.

Hybridize The Machinic Technology With Landscape Topography

At a macro scale, the brine transport and water distribution network begin to bound the existing profiles of the site. However, at a micro-scale, the drip irrigation system becomes more clearly embedded within the layering and stepping of the site, further emphasizing the existing topography shifts from the shoreline to the desert.

Synthetic Landscape As New Self-Sustainable Habitat

Reject brine has demonstrated success in enriching freshwater when mixed in certain quantities to irrigate -salt-tolerant plant species, known as halophyte plants, that can be used as a vegetable, in animal feed, and for biofuel production. Our facility attempts to take advantage of brine’s ability to promote plant life by designing offshore irrigation zones, fertilized with various levels of concentrated brine as a mechanism to provides resources for shelter and nourishment, in which native animal species can be monitored, bred, and treated in new conservation regions.

Matter, Making and Testing

Location: University of Pennsylvania

Attribute: Academic

Instructor: Richard Garber

Scope of Work: 2D Drawing, 3D Modeling, Fabrication Coordination

Team Members: Benjamin Hergert, Mandi Jia, Shifei Xu Date: 2021

The course’s goal is to understand the process of fabricating precast concrete panel and producing a prototype in collaboration with local manufacturer (Northeast Precast). Our group focused on tackling the corner condition by creating a hinge to allow for more degrees of freedom in implementing a precast concrete panel across a non-uniform facade. This technique was combined with a series of crevices and plateaus spread across the panel in differing widths and depths to break up the monotony of a repeated panel system.

Enclosure Studies

Location: University of Pennsylvania

Attribute: Academic

Instructor: Charles Berman

Scope of Work: 2D Drawing & Hand Sketch

Date: 2021

In this course, the aim is to investigate concepts of enclosure through assemblage of elements, mediated by details, in the service of the architectural intentions. The essential framework of enclosure development is the “PSE” or Plan / Section / Elevation. This combination of essential third angle projections is the point of departure for developing enclosure assemblies.

Partial Perforated Brick Facade Assemblage (above)

Double Skin Facade With Movable Louvers Facade System (below)

Perforated Metal Panel Facade With Operable Control System (below)

Xuhui Nursing Home

Location: Shanghai, China

Attribute: Professional (team)

Project Type: Healthcare Project Phase: Schematic Design Area: 88113 m²

Date: 2016

Client: Shanghai Xuhui District Government

Contribution : Public Space Design (Garden-corridor, Level 1 & 2)

Collaboration: Xinhui Ding, Jidong Yin, Long Chen

As Shanghai’s aging problem has become increasingly serious, Xuhui Nursing Home is a project to alleviate this problem. The project is located on the south side of Yindu Road and the east side of Jingdong Road. On the planning site of 19818 m², this project is required to accommodate 1000 nursing beds, 500 nursing home beds, and 4695 m² day care center for elderly people.

The site’s excellent natural environment has become the anchor point of this design. Taking advantage of the site’s natural resources, the “gardening nursing home” is proposed. The sense of home and natural healing are integrated in this design, After compression of several schemes, three 49m-height buildings are planed along the south side of the site, also the series of winding corridors on the ground floor connects the buildings together. Combing the existing landscape, the Chinese garden-style corridor creates a rich landscape experience.

Contribution: Designing the ground floor, public space, and participating in the drawing of ground floor and 2nd floor plans, also collaborating with the team members to complete the biding document.

Sheridan Hotel

Location: Baguio, Philippines

Attribute: Professional (team)

Project Type: Hospitality

Project Phase: Schematic Design Area: 16500 m²

Date: 2021

Client: Sheridan Group

Contribution : Restaurant and Lounge Design + Facade Study

Collaboration: Laura Del Pino, Alden Ching, Tingdong Xiong

This project draws inspiration from its surroundings nature environment. The concept is to creating an experiential journey that integrating five different natural sceneries: Changing Foliage, The Rock Garden, The Enchanted Garden, The Citrus Grove, The Overlook and the Lake. Each one corresponding specific design aesthetic and program spaces. The facade study takes on the idea of changing foliage, which using vertical louvers to create visually appealing effects also providing shading for desired programs. The restaurant is an example of the Enchanted Garden, which breaking the rigid boundary between nature and building. As a result, the dinning experience is enchanted by the insertion of mini garden pockets.

Contribution:

Designing the restaurant, ground floor lounge space. Producing diagram, plan drawings, exterior and interior renders. Using rhino for 3D modeling, Vray,Keyshot and Photoshop for rendering images, Autocad for plan drawing. Also preparing presentations and documents for client meetings.

Baoshan Beibeijia Olion Kindergarten

Location: Baoshan, China

Attribute: Professional (team)

Project Type: Education & Renovation

Status: Completed Area: 5400 m²

Date: Feb 2017 - Oct 2017

Client: Shanghai Beibeijia Olion Kindergarten

Contribution Facade Design, Public Space Design

Collaboration: Haochen Zhang, Lide Li, Xinhui Ding

Baoshan Beibeijia Kindergarten is renovated from an original office in the community. The starting point for this project is simple and clear: how to create more classroom and other flexible activity space in the original space; how to build the rooms with character in this compact organization. The interior ceiling height is the key element to the design, different ceiling heights imply the program and occupants. For children, the space with low ceiling is preferable for playing, while the high area is more suitable for public common activities.

In this project, my main task is to design the facade and the public space in the ground floor. The facade design also followed the same concept of playing with scale, the colorful facade implies the urban skyline, which further articulates the idea of the small scale spaces nest in the bigger scale spaces.

Contribution:

The design of elevation and ground floor public space, also collaborating with the team members to complete the biding document. https://www.archdaily.com/909648/baoshan-beibeijia-olion-kindergar ten-atelier-archmixing?ad_medium=gallery

80 Baoshan Beibeijia Olion Kindergarten

Hongbang Chen

E: hongbang.chen22@icloud.com P: +1 2673664155

L : linkedin.com/in/hongbang-chen-59a953178

I: https://issuu.com/martinchen3/docs/hongbang_chen_portfolio_2022

EDUCATION

University of Pennsylvania

Master of Architecture

Meyerson Hall Basement Competition - Honorable Mention Nomination of Weitzman School of Design Year End Exhibition 2021 & 2022 University of Melbourne (Degree Admitted)

Bachelor of Environment Major in Architecture Graduated With Distinction

Curtin University Bachelor of Applied Science Major in Architecture

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Solomon Cordwell Buenz

Architectural Designer I / Full-Time

Using Revit to complete Plan, RCP and Elevation drawings in Schematic Design phase of a concrete and wood construction apartment project. Multi-family residential development feasibility study packages (producing 3D diagrams, Site Plan, and renderings. Using Rhino, Enscape and Indesign to complete works.)

Mark Forster Gage Architects

Designer / Full-Time Designing and digital modeling of Desert Restore Project. Assisting design research, and image making.

CAZA Architecture Internship / Full-Time Assisted and developed functional requirements and project design criteria for a variety of projects and design problems Developed schematic design concepts, produce render and plan drawings, attending client meetings.

Atelier Archmixing

Junior Architect / Full-Time

Design and work (producing renders in Vray, 2D drawings in Autocad, 3D modeling in Sketchup) collectively in teams for education, renovation, and healthcare projects. Also individually completed one kindergarten project and a small-scale urban project. At the same time, participated in an urban research project - a study of facade evolution in Shanghai as a reflection of urban change.

SKILL

Rhino, Sketchup, BIM (Revit), Grasshopper, Maya, Zbrush AutoCAD, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator) Enscape, Vray, Keyshot Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint)

Model Making, Hand Drafting, Photography (DSLR), Digital Fabrication (Robotic fabrication, CNC, Laser Cuter and 3D printing)

REFRENCE

July 2019 - May 2022

Philadelphia, U.S.

July 2015 - July 2016 Melbourne, Australia

Feb 2014 - July 2015

Perth, Australia August 2022 - Present Seattle, US May 2022 - August 2022 New York, US

June 2021 - August 2021 New York, US

Nov 2016 - June 2018 Shanghai, China

Andrew Saunders | Associate Professor & Director of Master of Architecture Program at UPenn | asaun@design.upenn.edu

Ferda Kolatan | Founding Director of SU11 & Associate Professor at UPenn | fk@su11.com

Nate Hume | Hume Cover Studio & Senior Lecture at UPenn | nate.hume@gmail.com

3D 2D Render Office Others

Thank You. hongbang.chen22@icloud.com

Hongbang Chen

2014-2022 Selected Works