Portfolio Architecture Full Name: Hanwen XU Applying Programme: MArch Architectural Design Student Number: 20137251 Academic Year 2020/21 Mode of Attendance Full time
HANWEN XU Emali: zy21581@163.com
Phone: +86 18048610721
Education 09/2016 - 06/2020
The Univerisity of Nottingham, Ningbo, China Bachelor of Architecture
GPA
3.4/4.0
Academic & Intership Experience 08/2019 - 11/2019
Urban Space Renewal From the Perspective of AR, Student
07/2019
UNNC x CCA, School Exchange Activities, Student representative
06/2019 - 08/2019
Research of "Li Nong" building in Shanghai, Group leader
06/2019 - 08/2019
Shanghai ConCom Studio, Architecture intern
07/2018 - 09/2018
Chendu Urban Architectual Company, Architecture intern
06/2018 - 09/2018
UIA HYP Cup Student Design Competition, Participant
The research is about how to use AR technology in future's urban space to improve people's life quality.
The activities include a series of academic lecture and evaluation of Student representatives' work.
The research about old residential housing in Yangpu, Shanghai.
Site inspection and data collation, assist in daily tasks
Model making and CAD drawing
The research about urban co-living-customizing modules for community
Honors & Awards 11/2019
"Head Student" Scholarship 2019
07/2019
Exhibition Representative to China Academy of Art
06/2019
Excellent Student Work of Spring Semester 2019 Retail building project: The Terrace
01/2019
Excellent Student Works of Fall Semester 2018 Collective housing project: Folding Longchang
06/2017
Outstanding Student Union staff
Play an important role in the organization of big events (X-show, Chinatown, Spring Ball, etc...)
Skills Software
Rhino, Sketchup, Maya, Revit, Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, CAD, V-ray, Enscape
Compare with rendering, I am better at personalized expression like collages, illustrations and line drawings.
Hobbies 2
Graphic design, Script writing, Travel, Reading
Personal Statement
Confused by the artistic and abstract teaching in the first two years, my architecture passion was not truly kindled until the third year on the transformation design of old apartment built in 1920s. Since the building was still in use, I had to include many real-world factors in the design, a truly enjoyable process full of analyses and reasonings to make concrete changes. Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena further sharpened this academic appetite with his outstanding social housing design that questioned the essence of architectural design, as well as made me realize that a good design could cast huge impact on people and community. A lover of reading especially on social science and history, I can clearly feel the interconnections between architecture, society, and urbanism that appeals to me with all-embracing stance and potential. In retrospective, I feel grateful for having my undergraduate study at The University of Nottingham Ningbo, one of China’s earliest joint institution with UK where most of my teachers graduated from AA and UCL. In the second and third year, I engaged in big design projects that allowed me to conduct in-depth research-based study on urban and renovation of historical building; while the urban design task last year trained me to see architecture and city from macro perspective. Out of peculiar interest in renovation of old buildings and blocks, I participated in two important designs. From the block renewal project during internship, I learned the unique urban fabric of Shanghai Lilong and how this style should be renewed for future use, as well as the intricacy of real-world urban case where a designer needs to consider many factors such as transformation cost, developer requirement, and predicament of original residents. The second case is my independent design project “Folding Longchang”, a regeneration plan of one of China’s oldest concrete apartments. In addition to discussing the conflicts between the old “aborigines” and new “immigrants” and employing modularization to grant high flexibility for the limited space, I also researched on the building ownership and living system. By analyzing the social environment change in 30 years, I tried to see what can be done by architects to not only appease the elders with little modification, but more importantly, to grant the “invaders” decent living space that every citizen is entitled with. Speaking of design habits, I prefer to employ logical analysis and reasoning (sense) to dissect subtle and humanistic needs (sensibility). Much like Aravena labelled his style as “calm humanitarianism“, was aspired to look at China’s social equity and power asymmetry such as the pressing wealth gap as a down-to-earth designer to solve real problems other than flaunt empty concepts. This logic-base design thinking makes me highly value the connection between people and site over the funcitonoriented design that prevail in today’s China, which I believe should and will be replaced in the future by those who have a true vision. A highly interdisciplinary domain with very vague boundaries, architecture has always lured me to break and expand the boundaries.To fulfill my design value and pursuit, I have been making unremitting efforts. Yet the further I explore into this field, the less I realize I know. This intellectual hunger motivates me to continue my studies in Europe to further expand my vision and get prepared with better expertise.
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CONTENT
Project 1. Folding Longchang
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“The ants in the metropolis and their folded life”.
Type: Renovation of old apartment Time: 2017, Year 3, fall project, individual work
Project 2. The Terrace “Everyone is the scenery of other's life”.
Type: Commercial building Time: 2018, Year 3, summer project, individual work
Project 3. The Fusion of Opposite “The opposite things have their value”.
Type: Old factory renovation Time: 2019, Year 4, fall project, group work
Things For Fun
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PROJECT 1
Folding Longchang “The ants in the metropolis and their folded life�.
Renovation of old apartment 2017 fall semester project Individual work 5
History and Current Situation
Early Stage - Police Dormitory
After Culture Revolution - The Increase of Residents
Nowaday - The Decay of Apartment
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Old Facade in 1920s
The Longchang apartment was one of the best apartment in Shanghai in the first half of the twentieth century. It was one of the first modern buildings in China, which was designed by British in 1920s.
Nowaday Facade
However, with time pass by, the situation of Longchang apartment become worse. Now, only old local people (who already live in it for more than 20 years) and poor migrant live in the building.
1920 - 1949
Police
1949 - 1969
Head of government
1969 - 1980
Police official
1980 -
Local people
2018 -
Migrants
Client Analysis Resident Group A - Migrant worker
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Resident Group B - Old local
1 2
3
4
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Temporary home + Poor + "Migrant" bird + Diversity group + Short stay + Discriminated by local residents + Dissatisfied with bad living condition The migrants in the Shanghai, they come here for more money. However, they never try to stay here. They like wild goose stay here temporarily.
+ Not poor + Special emotion to apartment + Local group + Long stay + Don’t like migrant residents + Be familiar with living condition
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1. Go in 2. Go out 3. Sleep 4. Worlk
Most of old local live here for more than 20 years. The reason they stay here is because they like the condition. They condisder the apartment as home.
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1. Eat 2. Wash 3. Dry cloth 4. Cook 5. Walk 6. Mahjong
7. Chat 8. Drop around 9. Gardening 10. Chat 11. Rubbish 12. Newspaper
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Strategies Used by Residents to Increase Space
The lack of space makes the living condition to become worse. Residents have no choice but occupy the corridor t rights and the degradation of the visual quality. However, in some case, it also has possitive aspect. This is actually
Strategy 1: Partial Addtion
Solution: Space Integration “Mixed” In the old building, different functions are mixed together, which caused low efficiency and living quality.
“Break down” Break down traditional residence structure. Classify the functional areas and divided them with each other.
“Units” Each unit only support one function. Use the space in centralized way. Space will be used in high efficient (also support more function).
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Strategy 2: Pus
Development of Design Stra
to put more things. This leads to many problems like The encroachment of public space, the confusion of property y a flexible way of using space.
sh-out the Wall
Strategy 3: Extraposition Furniture
ategy Expansion and contraction of corridor
The development of structure for migrant
Expansion and contraction of function ‘wall’
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STEP 1. Rent for sleeping area The basic unit of sleeping area is 0.64m2 (800mm*800mm). You could rent the number you need in the area.The space is already organized preliminarily. You still could develop your space by yourself. No matter how much space you rent, you could enjoy all the same public space and facilities in the apartment!
STEP 2. Pay more for more! (optional) - More furniture! - More personal bedcloths! - More personal electric appliance! You can rent more things in the apartment you need! It depends on the things you need and how much you can pay.
STEP 3. Install you own unit! The whole system use removable partitions (800mm*3500mm*40mm) as wall, which is very easy for you to instal it by yourself. Clapboard has good sound insulation and shading performance. The instal of board still should follow basic organization. It could be improved in the future.
STEP 4. Enjoy free public service!
The people in Long Chang could enjoy many kinds of service and facilities for free! They include exerciser, cinima, net bar, toilet, kithen, dining room, etc... These things are all shared and controlled by adminstrator.
From Beginning to End: The process to install your own unit The structure of each room
Recommended unit type
Type 1. Single
Type 2. Double
Type 3. Collective
Type 4. Capsule
Type 5. Expansion 11
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Entertainment
Entertainment
Cooking and Dinner
Cooking and Dinner
Unit installation
Check-in
Commuting by stairs
Commuting by elevator
Morning/Evening
Evening(after work)
Afternoon(work time) 13
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PROJECT 2
The Terrace “Everyone is the scenery of other's life�.
Community commercial building 2019 spring semester project Individual work 15
Context and Element Compare with selling goods, the store is more like selling cultural concept.
This peoject is based on senior students' masterplan project. In general, the site is a gathering place for immigrants from Sichuan in Shanghai. To revive the local economy, I deceided to design a Sichuan characteristics community commercial building. To achieve this goal, I chose three of the most famous images in Sichuan culture, teahouse, hot pot and mahjong, which represent the characteristics of slow life of Sichuan people. The idea of slow life is suitable for people in Shanghai, most of them are very busy everyday, sometimes they need a place to slow down. 16
Design Strategy: Type and Metaphor In the process of design, I tried to use typology to design.I referred to the architecture and cultural fragments with sichuan.Based on people's memory of sichuan culture, I extracted simplified type elements from it. Achieve homology, the new type will have the same prototype as the type in human memory. It's a metaphor for customer outside.
Market
Stilted building form
New type market
Kitchen
Bamboo form
New type kitchen
Dining room
Bamboo form
New type dining room
Teahouse
Bamboo forest
New type teahouse
Mahjiong
Bamboo form
New type pavilion
Community park
Terrace form
Overall
Overall
Local people
Real Sichuan 17
Function and Structure
Vision 3 Teahouse
Vision 3 Dining Room
Vision 2 Tea picking
Vision 2 Kitchen
Vision 1 Mahjiong
Vision 1 Market
Vision 0 Retial space
Vision 0 Retial space
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Circulation
Function
Dining room Counter Teahouse
Kitchen Tea making area
Market Pavilion
Route 1 (Customer) Route 2 (Mixed)
Retial space
Route 3 (Customer)
Toilet
Route 4 (Mixed)
Warehouse/Office
People
Structure
Timber box
Customer Customer/Local
Column net 19
Section
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PROJECT 3
The Fusion of Opposite “The opposite things have their value�.
Old factory renovation 2019 fall semester project Group work Hanwen XU, Zhenyou CHEN, Tianchen KANG, Yuhang TAO My duty Team leader, Concept develop, Graphics making The graphics made by me will have underline as mark 25
Elements
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Typology Analysis 29
The Contrast in the Site
Fish slide
None water Alive part
Abandoned part Yong river
Ground layer
Design Strategy
New structure
Small water Local life
Morden life Big water
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Old structure
Debate: Morden-Local Life
Modern life, represented by art, is in some ways a contrast to traditional local life. The dead area on the left and the still functioning area on the right are good ways to express this contrast.
Debate: Big-Small Water
The different scale water has different character. In China old paint, big water is active and noisy, it is suitable for big activity. However, small water is calm and quiet. It is for people to think amd dhyana.
Design Strategy
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Type: Water Design
Market
View Park
Theater
Interior
Child Park
Connection
Studios
Swimming Pool
Fish Village
Joint In
Platform
Cross
Adjoin
Step Over
Surrond
Connect
Slope
Viewing Deck
Type: Bridge Design
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Organization of Public Spaces
Design Strategy Overview
Four Layer of Masterplan Layer Layer Layer Layer
1 2 3 4
- Train Rail - Huge building - Warehouse - Waterfront
Small Size Public Space Small public space Middle public space Large public space
Big and Small Water Water
Medium Size
First and Second Layer Second layer
Art Zone and Local Zone "Morden life" "Old life"
Large Size 33
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Over
rview
Ground Layer and Upper Layer
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Big Water and Small Water
Art Gallery and Local Market
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Waterfront and Train Rail Park
Things For Fun Architecture is interesting. But the process to finish a design is too long... Sometimes I like do some small design (not architecture) just for fun. Here is some of my work.
Logo Design 1. UNNC‘s board game club logo
2017
I am an avid board game club player.This design is a new logo that I was invited to design for my college's board game club when I was in year 2.
2. Logo For Myself...
2018
Logo designed for myself. I like do some interesting design. So, I decided to design a logo to include all my design.
Graphic Design 1. A Satire Visual Image
2019
There are three of my classmate is really "punk" in the design studio. They are too noisy everyday. So, I made this image for them (without their allowed hahaha). 40
Bookmark
2019
I like reading book. So, I decided to to make a series of bookmark for myself. Here is the first one I designed. The topic is about the cyber city in the future, because I like the movie Blade Runner very much!
Script
2017-2020
Story Script Cover Design
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This is a series of story script I wrote by myself. Two years ago, I was obsessed with Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythology. So, I wrote Cthulhu story in his style. The cover design, text and illustration of the script were all done by myself. Many friends like the stroy. 41