Selected Works - 6 projects

PROLOGUE

I aspire to be an interdisciplinary communicator, believing in concept-oriented designs, using spaces as dialogues to serve people with a better living environment under the recognition of the pervasiveness of politics. The self-realization from the public toilet project during my freshman year led me to transfer from Design, Innovation, and Society dual Building Science to Architecture, which generates my own formula of architecture: Design + Innovation + Society + Science.

Cornell University MSAAD 2023 Candidate Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute B.Arch 2022 Double Minors in Sustainability Studies and Electronic Arts. GPA:3.85/4.0

email: mengyaodinalin@gmail.com

tel: +1 518 496 0821 / +86 182 111 22996

CONTENTS

Honor Award; SoA Archive Project; 2020 Fall; Individual;

Oppo Headquarters and Others

Internship at ZAHA HADID Architects

Recombinant Configuration

Honor Award; SoA Archive Project; 2020 spring; Teamwork;

Museum Deflection

Honor Award; SoA Archive Project; 2019 Fall; Individual;

Film and Photography

Montage Space - Germination

SoA Archive Project; 2019 Spring; Individual;

Urban Village Post-COVID Business Center

Honor Award, SoA Archive Project

2020 Fall; Integrated Schematic Design Studio; Third Year Instructor: Jillian Crandal; Individual Work;

Located at the upper part of Hudson River, Albany remained uninterrupted while the Revolutionary War was raging elsewhere. In the meantime, it developed its role of the center of transportation hub that rely on the Hudson River, trading with people from other states or even other countries. COVID-19 broke into our world without any hesitation, interrupting people’s daily lives, work modes, and urban functions.

Using the CDC Guidlines as the deisgn strategies and inspirations, I want to design this new urban village in name of remembering this part of Albany History in this special time, which allowed villages to grow into what is now an urban center for government, business, studying, and living. This project references the port histories and contemporary futures by conceiving the site as an “urban village”, where performance, dining, working, and relaxing came together to form a compartmentalized whole in the time of COVID-19.

Mar.22, 2020 NYS On Pause Program begun all non-essential workers must stay

NYC COVID-19 Timeline and CITY LOCKDOWN

During the pandemic, public buildings are lockdown to effectively prevent the contagion of the coronavirus, and people start to work remotely from home. As the need for home office space increases, the general utilization rate of office buildings in cities decreases dramatically. Hence, the built megastructures, which have taken a drastic amount of space in cities, are abandoned by the users and statued the city without function. It becomes the urban "dead space", which no one could utilize.

As the city gradually reopen, CDC announced a series of protocols to prevent contagion of COVID-19.

Jun.8, 2020 NYC begins Phase 1 reopening

Jun.22, 2020 NYC begins Phase 2 reopening

Jul.6, 2020 NYC begins Phase 3 reopening

Jul.19, 2020 NYC begins Phase 4 reopening, excluding malls, museums, and indoor dining/bars.

Sep.2, 2020 Gyms in NYC reopen, but indoor group workouts and pools stay closed.

Oct.1, 2020 All school Begins in-person learning.

Nov.19, 2020 NYC schools switch to all-remote.

URBAN SPACE EFFICIENCY

Under the protocols, people are restricted from enjoying differently designed spaces in the city. Thus the urban space efficiency drops dramatically. As shown in the left chart, except for the residential buildings, most of the buildings in NYC are locked down, which actually reduced the overall COVID-19 contagions.

PROPOSED DESIGN STRATEGIES

Feb.11, 2020 Restaurants reopen indoor dinning at 25% capacity.

Mar.22, 2020 All schools reopen for in-person learning in NYC.

Reduce unnecessarily human contacts. Regulate circualtion directions.

Higher heights enables larger ventilation.

Outdoor spaces is safer than indoor spaces. Natual ventilation matters more than ever.

The site sits aside from the two main roads of Albany: Boradway and State Street.

Splitting total volume and circulation into three individual ones and lifting the building 35 ft to give back the ground level to the city.

Shaping faces to enable angled views to see Hudson River and Urban views and exact building heights according to program requirements.

Connecting level serves the building with circulation convinience among differnet programs, building maintainance convinience, and emergency utlization.

Providing another path for the pedestrians. Embedding landscape design into urban planning system.

Programs and Facade

The eastern face of the site sit in the high-risk flood zone of Hudson River. Grass and plants are designed to absorb water. The height difference is resolved with a series of ramps.

The center platform works as a plaza with landscape stairs that could have outdoor performances for the community. Two restaurants serve on the west side of the site.

Lift halls and all ground level programs sit on the top level platform, avoiding water inflow. Parking entrance and all program entrances face opposite to the flood zone.

Boxes

The buffer boxes mix architecture in multiple grounds, which will be discussed in detail in the following pages.

The facade design is inspired by the waterway transportation and the port history of Albany, in remembering the remarkable history.

History of Albany

Located at the upper part of Hudson River, Albany remained uninterrupted while the Revolutionary War was raging elsewhere. In the meantime, it developed its role of the center of transportation hub that rely on the Hudson River, trading with people from other states or even other countries. This glorious shipping history contributes to the much of the achievements that Albany obtained nowadays

notes:

*CIR SPACE: 30’ diameter sound projection screen experimental art and exhibition space.

*CRAIVE Lab: 40’ by 50’ surround sound projection screen experimental art and exhibition space.

1. Site and Program Volume

2. Split and Lift

3. Shape the views

4. Connect

1. Link the Roads

Facade of the Flying Sail

Inserting Buffer

2. Height Difference and Fload Issue

3. Urban Activities

4. Programs

Buffer

Buffer

Open Space Under the Skin

Tower A - Roof Plaza

Tower A to Tower B

Gap Between Tower B and Tower C

EGRESS AND FLOOR SLABS

LIGHTWEIGHT STEEL TRUSSES AND COLUMNS

ROOF STRUCTURAL SYSTEM

The roof structural system is made from lightweight stainless steel and supported by columns and egress systems. The total dead load of the roof is lightweight and will perform accordingly and softly to the sun and wind. It works as an urban canopy, achieving an aesthetic, cascading roof design that also falls to the facade, forming a unified exterior image of the sail, in responding to the glorious history of the port history of Albany.

COLUMN SYSTEM

STEEL WIRE MESH FACADE

The wire mesh facade provides protection from the sun and snow in the winter, and natural ventilation for the users inside the village, especially in the time of COVID-19. The facade is top-mounted on the floor slabs with the tried-and-tested fastening system, optimizing safety in resistance to the strong wind load in autumn and winter.

ALL STRUCTURAL SYSTEM

Urban Village

COVID-19 let us reimagine the relationship between people and city, the idea of architecture as an enormous solid substance in the city that could not be removed easily, and the new relationship between indoor and outdoor. Urban Village treats the problem with dedications to mix the boundaries among landscape architecture, architecture design, urban design, and even interior design. This new solution treats COVID-19 protocols as the design inspirations, creating this new machine that is designed for the Post-COVID times in the future. Redefining people's lifestyles in the contemporary situation and providing my opinions toward this problem of the world.

Top Render: The plaza beneth the architecture forms an experimental canopy for the city, making a new urban living room. Image shows the possible installation art on the bottom of the building and above the plaza.

Left

Ground Plaza

Urban Living Room

Tower A - L6 - Anchor Tenant Level Buffer Unit as Stage

Tower C - L6 - Exhibition Level

Seeing through the villages

Tower A - L2 - We-work Level Outdoor Circulation

Right

Tower A - Level 4 Floor Plan

Tower A - Level 2 Floor Plan

ZAHA HADID Architects

OPPO Headquarters & Others

Internship

2021 Summer (Jun-Aug)

- Producing plans, sections, diagrams in OPPO Headquarters DD 100% period in Rhino and Revit.

- Draft and prepare for the presentation with clients.

- Communicate and translate with Consultants such as ARUP and Meinhardt

- Help the desigining Genzon Environmental Towers in pre-SD period in Maya and Rhino.

- Assiging and communicating with contractors of interior materials in Infinitus Plaza CD period.

- Help arranging the exhiition "ZHA Close Up – Work & Research" in Shanghai.

L7-L12 Escalator Section

Fire Wall

Fire Shutter

I was responsible for negotiating with ARUP, the fire consultant of OPPO Headquarters, and the commecial consultant, and redraw the plans, sections, and details according to their comments.

L2 General Plan

I was helping the designer to identify fire resistantant equipments locations according to the consultant advices in Revit.

MEP Level

Genzon Environmental Center (Pre-SD Period)

(Unpublished Project)

I was helping the desginer to develop the part in Maya and the initial plan for Site Program Studies and B1 Plan Concept.

基地平面研究 Siteplan Studies

Recombinant Configuration

Honor Award; SoA Archive Project; 2020 Spring; Architectural Design Studio 4; Second Year; Professor: Zbigniew Oksiuta; Teamed with Emmy Chen;

Concept: Lin; Renders: Lin; Drawings: 30% Chen; All works presented are individual works;

This is a 2 person group project: a housing + library project for 50~60 units of residents located in Troy. This project discusses the utilization and the social meaning of public space in a residential houses. In this project, architectural movements are considered as the action of the city, which could alter the living habbit of the people livinng nearby positively. The shape is only given by the existing environment rather than a noval shape. Through this recombinant configuration, the city would be held up more tightly, and functioning better. The Recombinant Configuration acts as a verb for the city, and for the people.

The Video:

Urban Expansion of Troy

In the recent 35 years, Troy has been through rapid economic revitalization and urban expasion, Building density and landuse are at the apex.

Urban Fabric Studies

The urban structure of this area shows a distinct grid planning pattern, which is unbalanced in the contemporary use of extra traffic and housing. At the mean time, the opaqueness of building set up a "wall" for Troy, hindering people's eyesights.

Urban Integration Studies

In light of "Space Syntax", this map visualizes the integration level of downtown Troy. The site is at a special moment that connects several essential elements of Troy: main road Broadway, Monument Square, unused City Park, Farmer’s Market, and the Hudson River. This project aims to use the architectural morphogenetic form as an urban rheostat that links this these moments as urban resistances and make the circuit of Troy more unobstructed, in other words, to be the recombinant configuration of the city

Input the basic bars shape that follows the original arrangement of the city

From the bottom to the top, gradually rotating the basic massing toward the angle that parallel to Hudson River.

Enlarge the base of the building to meet the program volume requirements.

Boolean the massing along the angle of the main road, Broadway.

This void prolongs the Farmer's Market next to the building, and punches the path from river street to the city park along the riverside, adding more economic value for the market and promoting the use of the city park.

Adding the other footing for the building that balance the weight, and touching the River with the program of community library.

Relinking the Monument Square and the Hudson River.

From the both sides of the River Street, the smooth "twist" of the project transmit the signal of the River to the people walking in the city, attracting them to the turning point of city, having the special feeling in an urban context.

Monument Square View

The building creates a gap of the city that links the city to the hudson river, and a frame for visitors on the monument square as well as people on the hudson river, nevertheless, it presents as a door, or an opening for Troy, to accept new era while preserving its history treasures.

SECTION B-B'

Deflection + Bennington Museum

Honor Award; SoA Archive Project; 2019 Fall; Architectural Design Studio 3; Second Year; Professor: Adam Dayem; Individual Work;

Thinking of the museum as the medium that artistically transformed the site and interior spaces outwardly and inwardly, this project reimagines the evaluation of architecture in an understanding of the evaluation of artwork: the object and the field. Perspective projection and facade geometry are designed from the rules learned from Sol LeWitt’s artwork and Grandma Moses’s Painting. With these visual studies as well as geometric transformation, Deflection + Bennington Museum extends the original museum, which is being protected in the overall massing to reduce the damage made on the building, better preserving its historic treasures, nevertheless, it is refined with new organizations for the programming inside and modern technologies on the exterior. They are hugged by the new geometry rule but still reminds the respectful history of the Bennington Museum. All in all, the two museums see each other as individuals but are logically entangled in circulations and programing as one design for the new Bennington Museum + Deflection.

BenningtonArtCommunity

2.1squaremiles

Bennington Museum, siting aside on the hill, is the live record of Bennington region, and it is the museum of the arts and histories which constantly renovating itself as the progressions of the times. As more and more artworks are stored, the gallery and the storage are asked to be enlarged at least as twice as present status. This project will utilize art renovation as the methodology and provide a new perspective for viewing architecture and its relationship to art ground, and the space, striving to design an extension for the Bennington Museum: Deflection + Bennington Museum. It would as well represent the enthusiastic attitude of embracing the diverse arts in the next generation.

Art plays an essential role in Bennington people's daily lives. In this small town with fewer than 16,000 people and an area of 42.2 square miles, countless artworks are displayed as outdoor sculptures, galleries, or preserved in the museum storage. The annual outdoor sculpture show has just made its 24th birthday and endows art's vibrancy for the 24th time in Bennington. People are adapted to living with the artworks in their daily lives, and letting them be part of themselves.

Redefine and Art Studies

REDEFINE and ART STUDIES

The Field

The Object

Spacial Systems

Inward

Outward

Sol LeWitt “Complex Form 64”

Grandma Moses “The Old Oaken Bucket”

Sol LeWitt “Wall Drawing: Arcs and Bands in Color”

Sculptural anatomy works in combination with artistic facade give the artifact architectural connotation, renovating with Bennington's art community culture and the landscape.

The architecture works as the medium of inward and outward division; one reform the limited space, the other changes the perception of infinite space.

Look! The facade reassembles how we perceive the outward spatial system, which integrates and reform the site, and becomes one new piece of artwork.

My artistic experience begins at first glance, gradually to the steps on the site, and finally to the museum itself and the artworks inside.

The interior walls give me an immersive feeling of art. The geometric angles are working naturally for some reason and adding excitement when perceiving the art pieces inside!

Walking inside a sculpture and reevaluate the original work inside give me multiple levels of art appreciation.

Physical model materials and the production process full-color powder-based 3D print; MDF stacking; painting; plastering with the image; gluing.

Fixed axis

Deflect in one axis

Deflect in two axes

Deflect in connection

Deflect in three axes

New Composition

Top left to right:

Second Level Floor Plan

Third Level Floor Plan General Site Plan

Top to bottom Section B-B' Section C-C' Main Lobby

Structural Section Model 1/16'' Textboard, 1/32'' Museum Board, 1/16'' wood stick, Foam core, 3D Printing

"The First Sieve is the Truth"

A short film that discusses the world composition, and the role of the architect between the characters of a politician and a thief.

Director: Molin Liu

Screenwriter: Mengyao Dina Lin, Molin Liu

Production Designer: Mengyao Dina Lin

2019-2021

As I transfered to the major of archtiiecture in freshman year, I try to find the role of being an architect in this world. Screenwriting is another way that I express myself. I co-wrote a short film “The First Sieve is the Truth” and was its production designer. The film tells a story between the head of the Bureau of Press and Publication and a thief to illustrate the truth that ordinary people perceive are the truth politicians want people to perceive, instead of the real truth. Finding the meaning of being an architect has led me to think about the linkage between the cause and effect in this world, and what really determines the truth to people’s lives. Now, as a fifth year architecture student, I think architect has the opportunity to make decompositions of the world and generate recompositions, taking real actions and fighting for the over-administrative from politicians. Architecture is restricted in many ways by politics, but architects also stand for the social

"Smiles", 2019 Visits in the local tribes in Sahara Desert, EGYPT

"Chonqing Talks", 2021

Selected work in the City Series, CHONGQING, CHINA

Montage Germination Space

SoA Archive Project; 2019 Spring; Architectural Design Studio 2; First Year; Instructor: Ryosuke Imaeda; Individual Work;

Inspired by Jiro Ono's hand movements of making sushi and the rolling rehabilitation balls. The two specific motions all reveal the different kinds of germination, one from the outside in, the other from the inside out. By inspecting the two versions of germination, I defined the space that is growing in spiral, creating a series of montage space that have different heights, where no door is being placed as parititon but the different levels. The imaginary owner of the space is a couple, they repect each other's personal spaces while living as a whole. Embraing the defects and loving as always.

Active Rotation

The motion of making a sushi.

David Gelb, 2011, "Jiro Dreams of Sushi", Magnolia Pictures.

The hand and sushi merge together as small bubbles, with the overal shape of large oval shapes. Passive Rotation serve as the montage of the motion of each small bubbles, projecting the montage motion on the background from inside out.

Passive Rotation

The motion of being inside a rotating rehabilitation ball.

Giuseppe Tornatore, 2013, "Best Offer",

The montage collage turns into a 3D geometric projection drawing, different compartments represent different heights and possible functions. The montage drawing works as a emotional figure, which compose the future montage shape generation in the brain.

Montage Collage

Montage Projection Drawing

Montage Carves Geometry

The individual space

creation analysis of the montage space.

Montage Composition

This series of diagram shows the geometric transformation step by step.

Collapse Montage

Montage Material Selections

Model Production

site: foam core milling, white paint, sand, spray glue.

The contrast of the soft motion of making sushi and being rotated inside a metal rehabilitation ball drives the materialization of the model. In light of the montage materials, transparency and translucency are achieved by ink injected melted soap and light color staking model of the large bubbles, which could turn into apertures and curved walls. The dark color and rocky textures cuddle the bubbles in an upward swirl motion, distinctive but inclusive. model: 1/32'' cardboard, 1/16'' cardoboard, 1/16'' wax sheet, 3D printing white PLA; soap base, silicone mould; paints;

Dina Lin mengyaodinalin@gmail.com Beijing - New York