LI MINGZHOU
Master of Architecture AY2015/16 National University of Singapore
Portfolio 2018-2021
Special Thanks to all the people who have supported me throughout this journey.
Contents Transcending Boundary (Remake)
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Singapore Urban Farming Prototype (Master Thesis)
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Project Pink Poodle (Concrete Butalist Motel)
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Holland Village Drone Centre
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Transcending Boundary (Community Columbarium)
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Independent Project Year 2021
Master Thesis Project, Shinya Okuda Studio Year 2020
Year 4 Project, In Collaboration with Lu Wenda, Florian Schätz Studio Year 2019
Year 3 Semester 1 Project, Chu Lik Ren Studio Year 2018
Year 3 Semester 2 Project, Kim Hyong Ill Studio Year 2018
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Transcendinag Boundary (Remake)
Year 2021
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Transcending Boundary (Remake) Independent Project, Year 2021 This project is a remake of my year 3 project of creating a columbarium facility locating at the upcoming Bidadari residential estate. Cemetery, columbarium and death related subjects have always been a social taboo in the context of Singapore especially when they have to co-exist in close distance with residents. The goal of the design is to ensure a harmonious co-existence of the community and the columbarium.
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Transcendinag Boundary (Remake)
Year 2021
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Transcendinag Boundary (Remake)
Year 2021
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Transcendinag Boundary (Remake)
Top: 2nd storey floor plan. Bottom: 1st storey floor plan.
Top: 2nd storey floor plan. Bottom: 1st storey floor plan.
casket will be sent down to the 2nd floor is where the funeral hearse throught the lift and events will be held. The procession route is right outside participants will exit from the ramp. the parlours. Once the event in the parlour ends, the family 1st floor houses various members will carry the casket programmes including the out, and walk along the route funeral consultancy, car park, until they reach the lift. The
embalming faciliy. The space for consultancy is nearest to the entrance while the embalming facility is located further away. The treated body will be sent up to the parlour through the lift prior to the funeral events.
Year 2021
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Top: Basement 1 floor plan. Bottom: Basement 2 floor plan.
Top: Basement 1 floor plan. Bottom: Basement 2 floor plan.
Basement 1 is where the community library is, right above the cemetery. The entrance to the library is at the floor below.
The cemetery is located Basement 2. Part of the library space is here as well. The exit in the south direction will lead to the lake side of the Alkaff lake.
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Top: East Elevation Bottom: Section A-A
Transcendinag Boundary (Remake)
Looking at the building from the east, the library is not visible to the public because it is underground. Once coming near to the building, the will be
entrance stairs leading to the underground concourse from where the visitors can enter the cemetery or the library. The stairs further away will lead to the Bidadari Park Drive.
Year 2021
Top: South Elevation. Bottom: Section B-B.
From the south, the entrance to the underground cemetery can be seen along the lake side path. This subtle entrance to the embalming facility from
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car park can be seen in the middle. What worthing noting is that the book shelves of the library and shelves for the urns in the cemetery shares the same architectural element.
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Transcendinag Boundary (Remake)
Year 2021
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Entrance to Community Library
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Transcendinag Boundary (Remake)
Year 2021
Top: Corridor outside the parlour/procession route. Bottom: Interior view of funeral parlour
The route is continuously ascending until it hits the farewell point where the family members send off the casket
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from the lift, the exiting ramp would then lead the participants downward to the ground level, signifying the end of the funeral.
Transcendinag Boundary (Remake)
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In the south part of the cemetery, there is double height ceiling so that there is a visual connection between the library and the cemetery.
Year 2021
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Interior view of underground.
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Singapore Urban Farming Prototype (Master Thesis)
Year 2020
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Singapore Urban Farming Prototype Master Thesis Project, Year 2020 In the upcoming decades, food crisis would be gaining more lime light given the inevitable surge in global population and unpromising progress in agricultural sector to catch up with rising food demand. This thesis therefore aims to develop a highly robust model of urban farming system that is sustainable and efficient in using agricultural inputs to deliver extremely high yields in the urban context. Ultimately, an architectural intervention to design a new prototype of farm-consumption-recycling facility is proposed. The trial project will be carried in Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre to convert the current food court into the prototype
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Above: Singapore's cunrrent food security planning. Bottom Left: Concept diagram for proposed new strategy. Bottom Right: Relationship of food loss and scale of food distribution.
Singapore Urban Farming Prototype (Master Thesis)
In year 2018, Singapore has topped in the ranking for the Global Food Security Index, the country’s outstanding ranking has been attributed to the high quality of nutritious food and relatively low percentage of household expenditure on food consumption, meaning that our citizens are able to safely enjoy food at afford prices. The strategy employed
by the government to ensure stable food supply is heavily import-oriented. At the core of Singapore’s plan for food supply, 90% of the country’s food supply comes from food imports from over 150 countries. We have a small of degree on local production here but that only contributes to 10% of the market supply. The range of food grown locally is limited such that it
hardly covers any staple food or red meat that are consumed in larger portions by the population on a daily basis. The proposed solution would be to establish hgih density farm production system within the urban context of Singapore.
Year 2020
Above: Ongoing threats to food security. Bottom Left: Proposed sustainable closed loop farm system. Bottom Right: Proposed farm prototype in the neighbourhood scale.
For a larger scale system larger farm space to produce of farm production more food in term of variety and consumption, the and quantity to harness transportation process tends economy of scale. to be more tedious and more food loss can be incurred, vice Therefore, my response to versa. the national food security After a series of studies, challenge is to establish an a farm system covering urban farm prototype that a neighbourhood scale is works on a “farm to table” preferred because of the model at the neighbourhood applicability of farm to table level. Going along with model as well as relatively objective, re-design the
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existing food-court-wetmarket typology into the new farm facilities is desired given that those food centres are already well distributed across different neighbourhood. The trial project will be carried in Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre to convert the current food court into the prototype so as to demonstrate its impacts on the local region.
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Top: Concept diagram for the architectural programmes. Bottom(Left&Right Page): Massing development of the farm prototype.
Singapore Urban Farming Prototype (Master Thesis)
Year 2020
Top: Programme relationship diagram
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Singapore Urban Farming Prototype (Master Thesis)
Year 2020
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Above: Section B-B.
Singapore Urban Farming Prototype (Master Thesis)
The location of various programmes is throughout the building is shown here. In general, the production is at the top, the commercial program at the ground level and the food waste treatment below.
Year 2020
Above: Section A-A
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The location of all the vital funcions of the building are shown here.
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Singapore Urban Farming Prototype (Master Thesis)
Year 2020
1st Row Left: Fish farm. 1st Row Right: Mushroom farm. 2nd Row: Production zone for plant produce. 3rd Row Left: Harvesting and packaging station. 3rd Row Right: Circulation Core. 4th Row: Overview of automated farm produce transportation system.
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Mushroom farms are placed at where sunlight is limited and the harvesting station at the central tower.
Convyor transporation system connects the tower to the market below.
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Singapore Urban Farming Prototype (Master Thesis)
1st Row Left: Food court. 1st Row Right: Waste disposal point(front) 2nd Row: Entrance to the market (outside Bedok MRT Station). 3rd Row Left: Biogas collection. 3rd Row Right: Water treatment. 4th Row: Food waste sorting station.
Consumers can have a Rubbish chutes are glimpse on the waste connecting to all the treament below the floor. commercial floors. Subtile visual connections are made on the floor slabs.
Year 2020
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Street view of the farm prototype.
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Project Pink Poodle(Concrete Brutalist Motel)
Year 2019
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Project Pink Poodle Year 4 Project, Year 2019 The Pink Poodle project is about creating a new coastline landmark motel, with a attempt to incorporate architectural concrete brutalism that once flourished in Cambodia in the last century. The motel will be located at the Sihanoukville Beach of Cambodia. The design process will utilise Rhinoceros modelling software, 3D printed formwork and cast concrete modules to explore unconventional structural elements.
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Project Pink Poodle(Concrete Brutalist Motel)
Above: Site plan & analysis
The preliminary studies for Follwing the studies, the the project can be catergorised project goes into form into 3 parts: exploration for brutalist 1. Site conditions aesthetics. After the the 2.Motel programmes form is confirmed, the we 3.Concrete brutalist proceeds to create micro architectural style. scale architectural element/ geometry (using 3D printed
Bottom Left Cluster: Study on last century's modernist motels Bottom Right Cluster: Study on last century's modernist motels
mold and cast concrete) that can manifest within the building to create a space with consistent architectural langauge that is both aesthetical and highly functional.
The study aims to help us better understand the basic programme composition of a motel.
Left Cluster: Study last century's modernist motels across different regions.
Right Cluster: Concrete brutalist architectures in Cambodia.
Year 2019
Above(12 images): Form exploration using foam board.
The massing has been selected as the final form for the design because its inverted massing projects a sense of monumentalism. Left&Bottom: Chosen massing.
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The very initial form design process is done by cutting foam in a sculputral manner, that coincides with one of the brutalist element-sculpturistic. The forms made are kept as simple, pure, prominent as possible such that the sptial concept and visual impact can be strong and straightfoward.
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3D-printed massing model (1:500)
Project Pink Poodle(Concrete Brutalist Motel)
Year 2019
39 For quick exploration of various modules, Rhino software was used to first create single element, then sketches are drawn to test out the modules' funtionality as well as the ease of casting them into concrete.
Top: Making repetive modules using Rhinocereos modelling software. For 1:100 model, the modules will be directly 3D-printed. For 1:50 concrete module, the mold will be split into parts and printed out before casting. Middle: Method of making the module. The module can be enlarged horizontally to become seats.
Modules could be made into diffent sizes can joined together to become porous , sun shading facade.
Bottom Left 1: Module Adaptation 1
The module might work as a small plant pot to hold the greenery. Bottom Left 2: Module Adaptation 2
The module can also be stretched vertically to become columns and the centre void can channel rainwater away. Bottom Left 3: Module Adaptation 3
Bottom Right: Module Adaptation 4
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Concrete cast column (1:50)
Project Pink Poodle(Concrete Brutalist Motel)
Year 2019
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carpark 1 carpark 3 & service level
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carpark 2
guest level 2
guest level 1 16
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roof level
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Top: Front Elevation.
Project Pink Poodle(Concrete Brutalist Motel)
Bottom: Section.
Top 3 floors will be housing the guest rooms for the customers. The restaurant will be at the ground level and the floors in between will be for the car park.
Year 2019
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Exploded View & Construction Detailings
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Top: Overall climatic performance Bottom: Detailing illustrations on building climatic performance.
Project Pink Poodle(Concrete Brutalist Motel)
Construction Detailings: additional collaborative work with Wang Sixin and Yap Chee Keng.
Year 2019
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The restaurant is made semi-open with the porous facade to shade off the sun, creating a mildly windy and bright dining space. Top: Interior view of ground floor restaurant.
The top of the major support structures will be expposed and expressed as part of the aesthetics. They also work as partition elements. Middle: Roof top bar.
Similar to the restaurant, car park is also made porous with the facade enclosing the space. Bottom: Car park.
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Project Pink Poodle(Concrete Brutalist Motel)
Some of the bigger furnitures will be made using concrete and joined to the wall and columns such that they appear to be morphing out from the building.Some of the bigger furnitures will be made using concrete and joined to the wall and columns such that they appear to be morphing out from the building. Top: Interior view of the guest room.
An arching strcuture is made to hold the transparent pool from below the roof level. It helps to increase indoor lighting and visual connection. Middle: Central lobby at the guest room level.
Some of the bathrooms can be inserted between the guest room partition walls and the major support strucure. Bottom: Bathroom.
Year 2019
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