This Portfolio Is Full of Contradictions... By Michael Ren Undergraduate Architecture Portfolio. Selected Works 2019 - 2021. University of Melbourne.
Prelude
Table of Contents
This portfolio is full of contradictions because I believe honesty comes from a place of forceful contradictions. In my short time studying architecture, I have learned that architectural ideas are never concrete. Certain attitudes may be accepted in one conversation and criticized in another. Recognizing the pedagogy of a school is to challenge conventional practice and carry this conversation forward. My motive for pursuing higher education is to confront these inherent complexities of our built environment. In this portfolio, I confront my insecurities about the built environment and the ongoing conversation about voices in architecture.
Pages 01 - 04 • A Multi Unit Development. Page 05 - 08 • A Dwelling. Pages 09 - 12 • A Tram Stop. Pages 13 - 16 • A Library. Pages 17 - 21 • A Food Institute. Pages 22 - 24 • A Photo Album.
1.
Preston’s Artist Co-Housing Academic. 2021. Studio Epsilon. Mitchell Eaton. Individual. “Bottom-up approach to multi-unit developments and the ecology of an artist- driven community.”
Building Precedent: 110 Rooms by MAIO.
This capstone project focuses on housing as an open but fragmented system of spaces that begins to shift the role of the individual towards a more collaborative understanding of the whole ecosystem. Based on the issues facing middle-ring suburbs and the urban sprawl, the emphasis of this “community living” model challenges the traditional mode of separating living and working conditions in an attempt to find a more cohesive way people can live, work and collaborate under the same roof. The design is a derivative of the bottom-up approach, popularized in landscape and urban planning, starting at the scale of the individual, setting up a catalogue of essential spaces and then building up complexities through programmatic relationships and loose boundaries. Suburb Precedent: Fairfield, Melbourne VIC.
Middle-Ring Suburbs The topic of Studio Epsilon is collective housing and the design of multiresidential buildings in the present context of middle-ring suburbs in Melbourne, characterized by demographic changes, economic pressures and diversified ways of living. As the exposition, students were tasked with analyzing a building precedent (global) and a suburb precedent (Melbourne).
2.
XS
S
A Catalogue of Living Essentials:
1. Bedroom
Complexities in Living Conditions:
2. Dining Room
B
B + Ba
L
L+O
B+L
2B + Stu + Ba
3. Kitchen
S + La 1. Budget Renters
4. Living Room
5. Bathroom
6. Study
7. Outdoor
8. Staircase
9. Laundry
M
2B
Ba + La
B+S
S+O
L+D+K
S+L+D
2. Nuclear Family
O+L+K+D
L + D + Stu 3. Collaborative Residents
L
Systems, Interfaces and Boundaries:
The Public Realm and Community Green Belt:
Bottom-Up An iterative series of diagrams categorized by their scale. Starting at XS, the series details the chronological importance of bottom-up approach from the position of the individual. Diagrams show the highlights of each moment in design thinking through increments. This catalogue of notational geometry becomes the stimulus for building type and density.
3.
Residential vs Commercial
Residential vs Communal
The commercial program laid out as part of a green belt creating separation between the commercial sector (south) and residential sector (north) in the broader urban context.
Flexibility of the housing modules to push/pull away from the supposed building boundaries on the upper floors. The interactivity of residents and community spaces on the green belt.
4.
5.
Macarthur Place Residence Academic. 2019. Studio Gamma. Joel Benichou. Individual. “ Proposal to create a multi-generational living condition facilitated by the use of voids.”
1. The void as a room 2. The void as a threshold 3. The void as a window
Rapid population growth and high demands for housing in Melbourne in the recent decades have triggered a large-scale development of two competing housing typologies and urban forms. Studio Gamma explores one end of this spectrum, tackling the issues surrounding the detached low-rise, single family dwellings that are found in the “transitional zone” closely surrounding the city center (Concentric Zone theory). Working closely with issues of urban density, evolving household configurations and passive design principles, students were asked to transform a traditional Edwardian home into a multi-generational, post-nuclear household.
Multi-Generational Living The residence is a two and a half story building which consists of a loft master bedroom on the back end of the house. The presence of the diagonal divides the home into two residences, which is connected by the family room. The multigenerational living condition is expressed through entry and threshold, blurring front of house and back of house to explore a more concentric privacy gradient.
6.
Concept Diagrams An iterative set of diagrams showing the formal and programmatic response through each stage of the building’s development. Starting at the constraint of attached dwellings and ending with an elevational strategy to combat noise from high-street.
7.
Close-up Activity
Site and Building Model
Experimenting the use of poche to combine different drawing conventions together. Close up details of envisioned human activities and the interface of the indoor garden to the street.
The site model shows the existing building as a part of a neighborhood of five dwellings (blocks in white) attached to each other. The building model shows the new proposal sitting on the corner between Macarthur Place North and Canning Street. Using mount board and foam, a distinction can be made between the reassembled heritage condition and the carved extension that sweeps around the lane way.
8.
9.
Flinders Street Urban Canopy Personal. Competition Winner. 2021. Group. Modeling and Drafting. “The integration of new technology as a catalyst to re interrogate outdated architectural mediums.”
Innovation in the technology industry should come with a social responsibility to improve public goods and services. The tram stop is a small yet vital piece of this city’s urban infrastructure which have seemingly been neglected by designers alike. Architecturally, the traditional archetype of the tram stop fails to consider how spaces may be utilized differently by Melbourne’s diverse population. Contextually, because the typology is often modular and duplicated across the city, it is unreceptive to its immediate urban context. With these issues in mind, the integration of luminescent solar concentrators (LSC) into the Flinders’ street tram stop can be more than just a statement about renewable energy alternatives. Experimenting with the idea of the “urban canopy”, the built form draws inspiration from nature and the different ways that a forest canopy can open and close its aperture, to create enclosures and to foster a bio-diverse ecosystem. A key aspect of the biophilic design is the PV cellular roof and its ability to harness solar energy, which is synonymous with the process of photosynthesis. The light distilled from the roof is manipulated through the modular panels and material opacity to produce a hierarchy of private to public spaces.
Cellular System A series of diagrams made at different scales that explains the integration of LSC panel type 1 and 2, the primary functions of different modules and the extension of a design language that is adaptable.
10.
A TRAM STOP FOR . . .
Way Finding
Privacy
Capacity
Landmark
Comfort
Dispersal
Storage
Silence
Model and Iterative Study
Aperture, Canopy and Enclosure
The physical model was built as part of studio work on digital technologies, the unfolding geometry was rationalized through paneling tools and constructed using ivory card. Our competition entry referenced these geometries and experimented with different module apertures onto a solid frame to create intention.
Renders were taken both day and night because we think the role of the tram stop changes. In the day time, the tram stop’s foliage is light, porous and responsive to the sun. In the night time, the circuitry frame on top of the modules produce LED lighting that illuminate the stop as a form of safety and way-finding tool.
11.
Plan and Section The tram stop canopy consisted of different apertures, enclosures and structural members aimed at creating a diverse spatial experience. The program consisted of a gradual transition from outdoor to indoor spaces. Planning also consists of a bathroom and engine room that facilitates the daily operation of the LSC panels.
12.
13.
Little Bourke Street Library Academic. 2020. Studio Delta. Lauren Crockett. Individual. “The Library As Sacred Space.”
1. The Possibility of a Library
2. The Possibility of a City
3. The Known Library
4. The Known City
5. Proposal
“The library as a sacred space” is a provocation that I wish to uphold the traditional archetype of public architecture and their civil duties to establish order and social statutes within the urban realm. I think to be a library, a building must be outspoken about its role in prioritizing the collective against the self-interest of individuals. A building with a clear intention to uphold the sanctity of social public space. A building that is actively encouraging users to engage with its architecture and function. This becomes driving force of the project as it begins to explore a monochromatic interpretation of its architectural form. A type of architecture that is rigorous on purpose and not framed by blanket statements about flexibility, modularity, and leniency in usage.
Conceptual and Analytical Maps A series of mapping exercises exploring themes of the library and the city. Maps 1 and 2 were speculations based on my ideal version of both archetypes. Maps 3 and 4 were precedent studies of OMA’s Très Grande Bibliothèque and Melbourne’s CBD.
14.
Sacred Space Throughout the semester, I was interested in religious architecture and their means to create ritualistic behaviors. Churches and libraries are parallel in their indoctrination of silence and order. The building persuades users to behave in this certain way through its sculptural and material expression. My library is a re interrogation of these public values using contemporary ideas on solid-void relationships and new methods of construction.
15.
Plan and Section
Context and Exploded Isometrics
The rationale behind the floor plans references Koolhaas, suggesting that the presence of elevators denies the need for contiguous functional relationships in a modern building, each floor of the building begins to interact with the sacred void in a different way. Some floors may integrate or reject the void space dependent on the program.
1:500 isometric drawing of the design proposal in the context of the city, showing site occupation, form and the interface with the corner. 1:200 exploded isometric drawing of the design proposal, demonstrating circulation, organizational program and building envelope.
16.
17.
Fitzroy Food Institute Academic. 2021. Studio 44. Danielle Peck and Sam Hunter. Group. Drawing and Design. “The Humble Dumpling.”
Collective Dish of Vending Machine Dumplings.
The title of our food institute is called “The Humble Dumpling” and at the core of it, it’s about a dumpling-making process that deviates from a traditional, orientalist attitude towards Chinese culture. Architecturally, this is a big issue in places like Chinatown, where it continues to drive this narrative of “othering”. When it came to designing this dumpling institute we asked ourselves what if we could design a building to achieve a level of equity and cultural acceptance, through a lens of heritage and non-hierarchy. Our dish of machine-made dumplings intended to deemphasize the oriental stigma by introducing ideas on mass production and industry. Incorporating the machine aesthetic became more about making the food more accessible and to have this fast-food universal appeal.
The Table Setting This composite drawing was intended to be read on a table like a piece of dining cloth, we wanted to present the drawing with the audience gathered around this table, circulating around different themes explored. However due to the pandemic, we resorted to projecting the final work as part of MSD Illuminated Series. (S2, 2021)
18.
Production/Preparation
Distribution/Waste
Investigation into the two sides of production by imaging on what an abattoir (top) could look like hidden within the urban fabric, and the communal engagment of dumpling-making.
The narrative of a “consumer oriented marketplace” was formalized architecturally as a industrial play-scape that was wedged between the product’s distribution sub-structure and superstructure.
Esquisse probed at the misrepresentation of labor in the food industry and the “home-made” phenomenon through the framework of theatre. Stage design aligns with themes of “facadism”, dealing with representation and portrayal.
Waste management in a flour mill should consider by-products derived from the distillation process. These by-products were explored through “up-cycling” and a commercial program of bars, restaurants, pet stores and pharmacies to feed back to the grid.
19.
“Cultural Acceptance”
“Ambiguous Origins”
Plan Call-Out 1:5 Perspective Section View View
Sectional Detail
“Perfect- Imperfect”
Perspective Plan
“Exaggerated Other”
View View Elevation
“Hand Machines”
Dish Elevation Call-Out 1:5
Composite Drawing
Non-Hierarchy
Although the design was speculative, the studio placed an emphasis on meeting the number of required drawings and details. This shows how we organized the different types of information that was presented using the metaphor of the Chinese round banquet table. The composition of this drawing unfolds itself layer by layer starting with the center perspective plan and radiating outwards into elevations, views and then diagrams.
Inspired by architectural field conditions and the medieval marketplace, the ground floor “melting pot” aimed to displace hierarchy through its soft thresholds, non-linear planning and high porosity.
20.
Double Entendres
Views
The beauty in a composite drawing is the stitch and blending on information. In the left frame, the section detail of the polycarbonate facade follows the tram line of the site condition. The right frame shows the building program as a flowchart of geometrically shaped dumplings produced by our food institute.
The views of this project tried to convey a level of fluidity in the building’s program as well as the transparency of between infrastructure and space. The idea of man and machine co-existing and working in close relationship with each other became the main strategy to displace tradition and hierarchy.
21.
Places and Faces Individual. 2020. Miscellaneous Photographs Street photography is a euphemism for standing in opposition to our usual place of comfort, the studio. Photography taken in the street is photography that is impulsive and uncertain. Perhaps or perhaps there isn’t something poetic about it, but I make a conscience effort in my time studying abroad and traveling overseas to preserve these moments of chance and discovery. The following six images frame ideas of places and faces. Image 1 and 2: Building and Landscape Image 3 and 4: Silhouette Image 5 and 6: Activity
Athens Greece ISO 100 50mm F/2.8 1/5000s
Auckland New Zealand ISO 100 24-105mm@92mm F/4 1/640s
22.
Naxos Greece ISO 100 50mm F/10 1/500s
Podgorica Montenegro ISO 100 50mm F/1.8 1/400s
23.
Wuxi China ISO 100 50mm F/2.8 1/500s
Nafplio Greece ISO 100 50mm F/5.6 1/640s
24.