The portfolio of Wanquan Feng

WANQUAN FENG

SELECTED WORKS | ARCHITECTURAL & DESIGN

01 / Public Space, A Tool For Gluing Together Fragmented Cities 4-13

M ornington Crescent Project

02 / A Bridge, Connecting the City and the Railway Station 14-25

The Plaza of Xuzhou East Railway Station

03 / A Walkable City, An Active City 26-33

Nantong Headquarters Centre Urban Design

04 / Built With Nature 34-41

Bamboo Exhibition

05 / Other Works 42-43

M ornington Crescent Project

Location: Mornington Crescent, London

Date: Martch 2022 (5 weeks)

Property: Academic Team Work

Team Members: Wanquan Feng | Zixiao Zheng

Tutor: Lawrence Barth | Dominic Papa

Work Contribute: Design 50%, Drawing 70% Institument: Architectural Association School of Architecture

The question of the cities

The fragmentation of cities due to railways, expressways, etc., and the complete separation of homes and workplaces due to the efficiency of the industrial age, have become obstacles to urban development in this day and age. In the post-epidemic era, there is a growing need to integrate work and life, and the development of new industries such as the knowledge industry requires a more continuous urban space for closer interaction. Public spaces, like glue, can hold fragmented cities together, as well as work and living places together. It is a very effective strategy for bringing work and life together, and can facilitate people meeting more frequently and more safely.

Euston Road

Midland Road

Case Study

Case1: Central Saint Giles -----Absorbing public space into the block

In contrast to the compound of most London blocks, the ground floor of Central Saint Giles is completely transparent and has five exits to absorb people into the block. This strategy provides an urban environment for those who work and live here on the one hand, and creates a modern and pleasant public space in a traditional urban neighbourhood on the other.

Fig 2,3:Integrating public realm into workplace(Renzo Piano Architects)

Case2: ANZ Centre -----Inviting public space into the inside of the building

Although ANZ is a bank headquarters, the opening up of the raised ground floor to the city creates the interior unbanity of the office, while providing public facilities and public space to the urban area. Unlike Central Saint Giles, ANZ attracts public into its internal space, with huge atriums bringing natural light into the interior and creating interesting indoor public spaces.

Fig 4,5:Sense of openness(Hassell Architects)

The Conditions of The Site

Due to the road separation, the sites in this area of Mornington Crescent have these features:

1. The sites are separated into four islands, and the smaller individual sites do not have the capacity to absorb urban space into them as Central Saint Giles does;

2. The two existing urban parks are very inefficiently used due to the separation of roads and the lack of connection to residential or related industries;

3. The typology of the buildings on the two existing sites is very homogeneous and cannot accommodate the development of new industries. Furthermore, such a terrace of houses obstructs the connection between the city and the inside of the blocks.

The Strategies

Fig 6: Three features of the site

Fig 7: The key strategies

Fig 8: The public spaces in thes site

Four isolated sites

Fragmented sites Paired deep blocks Mobility Public spaces

Two inefficient urban parks

Two compound sites

Fig 9:Variation in sizing and grouping

Opportunities of paired irregulare blocks

Due to the limitations of the geographical character of the irregular blocks including their size and building orientation, it is impossible to accommodate a series of linear buildings with east and west orientation inside the blocks. However, the limitations could also become potential opportunities. The trend from narrow to wide is able to create a deep floor plan and interior urbanity. The irregular blocks on the east side are relatively deep and thus have the potential to create more diversity in terms of density, height and orientation with the linear typology meanwhile accommodating rich

public realms that respond to inhabitant’s daily life and work. With the variation in size and grouping in the interior of the building, the deepened ground floor has the potential to create a hierarchy of space. For instance, the small and abundant services on one side bring a vibrant vibe to the street. On the other side, the co-working space accommodates creative design and multi-actors in the knowledge-driven economy value chain providing a platform for information exchange and a more efficient quality working environment.

Fig 9: The conditions of the area and the sites

Fig 10: Aerial View

Fig 11: Overall section

Integrating two blocks by public space

The proposal aims to integrate the two irregular blocks by slowing down the speed of the street between the blocks to bring a better quality of life to the area through the variation brought by the deep ground floor and landscape infilled strategy, accommodating the richness of street life and continuity and permeability, weakening the barriers between the blocks, at the same time coordinating the varies typology, density, and connection with the public realm and the interior of the blocks. The diagrams explore the morphology and typology approaches in terms of integrating the two blocks. The parallel linear buildings in the same orientation as the streets will only intensify the isolation between grids and blocks in the urban area. The relations between immediate adjacencies create different hierarchies in the deep urban block and benefit the wider urban area.

Fig 12: Pairing options in block

Fig 13: Typology

Fig 14: Interior

Fig 15 The typology for integrating work and life

Reusing the typology of Unité d’habitation

With a width of 3.6 meters, two interlocking lofts and each three-floor as basic unit, Le Corbusier accommodated families with different structures in such a type. Is it possible to use this type in a 7-story building with mixed use of work and life?

It can be public event spaces on the ground floor and two three-story basic units above, while the domestic space with different high can accommodate the combination of work and life.

A Bridge, Connecting the City and the Railway Station

The Plaza of Xuzhou East Railway Station

Location: Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China

Date: June 2019 (4 weeks)

Property: Professional Team Work Team Members: Wanquan Feng | Ruan Qing Team Leader: Weicheng Su Work Contribute: Design 50%, Drawing 65% Office: EDS INTERNATIONAL, INC

Xuzhou: Central City of Huaihai Economic Circle High-speed Rail Hub of East China

Xuzhou is a first-tier city, located in the east of China, at the junction of the four provinces of Shandong, Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu.This city has a privileged location and is positioned as the central city of the Huaihai Economic Circle, one of the five major economic zones in China. It is surrounded by more than 20 cities in four provinces. Xuzhou is also an important national transport city and the second largest railway hub city in China. The Longhai Line, which connects Europe and Asia, passes through here. The Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway, the Zheng-Xuhai High Speed Railway, the Xulian High Speed Railway and the Xuzhou-Huaiyan High Speed Railway intersect here. This station undertakes a number of high speed railway lines. According to statistics, the average daily passenger flow of this station is about 220,000.

Fig 16: The importance of the site location

To EurasianRotterdamLandBridge

Xuzheng High Speed Rail

THE LEGEND

Xuzhou railway station

Xuzhou East Railway

Site Railway High Speed Rail

ECONOMIC ZONE CHINA

16 Minutes Walkable City

1. Micro-cities with visible boundaries : The urban area in which the site is located is formed into a mini urban district by the hills on either side, the train tracks and the elevated highway on the east side. The railway station, the core of this area, is only 800 metres from the farthest boundary, which can be covered in 16 minutes by walking.

2. A city with a clear axis: As the urban area is situated in a canyon of two hills, the railway station and all the buildings are arranged in a symmetrical way. This arrangement forms a clear visual axis of the city, on which the site is situated.

Some studios and apartments at the foot of Phoenix Mountain.

STUDIOs

The most buildings in the city are high-rise office buildings.

OFFICE BUILDINGS RETAIL

Some shops are on the ground floor of the office and studio buildings.

Exhibition on the opposite, longdistance bus station on the right side of the site.

EXHIBITION

APARTMENTS BUS STATION

Fig 17: A closed walk-friendly city Fig 18: Well-planned surroundings

Neglected Pedestrians

According to the previous analysis, this could be a pedestrian-first micro-city, but the current conditions are not very pedestrian-friendly.

Is the underground accessible?

The basement of the site is already planned as a car park and is under construction. The east side of the site is a garage tunnel and the west and south sides are the 1 and 6 subways, so there is no chance of connecting the underground space of the site to other sites.

Is it accessible at ground level?

The traffic design of the train station takes into account the interchange between trains and other modes of transport, with the majority of private cars, buses and coaches on the ground level roads. These create a situation where the roads will be particularly busy in the future, so it is very unsafe for pedestrians to travel at ground level.

Observing that this railway station, which has an average daily traffic of 220,000 people, does not provide a pedestrian-friendly mode of transport, we wanted to provide an air street model to connect this micro-city to the railway station.

DESIGN CONDITIONS

Only available in the front half

The local government has requested that the building be placed only halfway away from the train station, to avoid congestion during the Spring Festival.

Cannot obstruct the urban axis

Follow the urban plan, the urbann visual axis should be remained.

Commercial area 25000 m2

The client requires a minimum commercial area of 25,000 sqm, in order to achieve a balance of profitability.

Building disappeared

The local authorities wanted the building to be less visible, as the traditional Chinese railway station square is just a square.

Creating a pedestrian-friendly urban model

According to the site analysis, this micro-city is ideal for walking, but it is dominated by vehicles.

Look nature from railway station

According to the analysis of the urban area where the site is located, the natural landscape of this area is very rich.

STRATEGIES

“THE BRIDGE ” WILL BRING THE CHANGES

Fig 22: Various ways to reach the train station

Multiple Ways To Reach

There are three ways for people to reach the site and the train station via the air corridor. In rain or snow they can use the indoor corridor. In sunny weather, people can also reach the roof garden from the open-air corridor, a place to take a short break and enjoy the light of day. In addition, people in a hurry can reach the departure level of the train station directly from the corridor.

BusStation Railway Station

THE LEGEND

By the outdoor corridor to railway station

Through the roof garden to railway station

Through “The Bridge ” to railway station

By the indoor corridor to railway station

Fig

How is the life of the building formed?

Firstly, the underground parking, which is currently under construction, has been defined the locations of the lifts, stairs and column networks. The route of the pedestrians through "The Bridge" also defines the form of the building. On the basis of these two points, the circulation of the building is formed by the direction in which pedestrians are likely to pass through the building. There is a atrium in the middle of the building, which can host commerical activities and community events. The shops are distributed along these circulation. Primary and secondary anchor shops are located along the street corners and are mainly used for restaurants, retail and tourist centres. This is process how to form the life of the building.

Fig 24: Connecting the city by the air street

Fig 22: The life of the building

Fig 23: Photographs of the work

A WALKABLE CITY, AN ACTIVE CITY

Nantong Headquarters Centre Urban Design

Location: Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China

Date: April 2020 (4 weeks)

Property: Professional Team Work Team Members: Wanquan Feng | Ruan Qing | Lulu Zhu Team Leader: Mingxiu Xie

Work Contribute: Design 40%, Drawing 60% Office: EDS INTERNATIONAL, INC

Fig 27: The vibrant and tidy old city

Fig 25: The gourd-shaped

Fig 26: The location of the site

The Challenge of The City. Like most new cities in China, the new city of Nantong faces a common problem - the huge scale of the city and its lack of vitality. In this project we wanted to create more comfortable public spaces for this new city, which would facilitate closer communication between companies. A walkable city must be a vibrant city. Starting from the metro station, a pedestrian line connects all the buildings of the corporate headquarters, like a string of gourds, the symbol of this new city.

The Old City and The New City. Nantong is at the starting point of national strategy of China "One Belt, One Road" and is also an important city in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The ancient city of Nantong was built in 958 AD, surrounded by a moat, shaped like a "gourd". The new city pays tribute to the ancient city by excavating the gourd-shaped Zilang Lake, and various functional blocks are arranged around it. gourd-shaped old city

SITE

Nantong High Speed Rail East Station

Shenhai Expressway

Condition of The Sites

An Enclosed City

The site is bounded to the south and east by the city's elevated highway, to the north by a river and further north by the city's waterworks, and to the west of the site by part of the new city's central park. The site is a relatively enclosed area. The main city road runs north and south through the site, dividing

Transit system road elevated road metro Surroundings waterworks office commercial Landscape river city green

Form Test

Urban Detailed Planning

Land

Office Office Office Office Office Office Office Office

7.35 ha 2.03 ha 2.54 ha 2.65 ha 1.95 ha 1.91 ha 2.8 ha 3.14 ha 3.5 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 35% 35% 35% 35% 35% 35% 35% 35% 150m 80m 80m 80m 100m 80m 80m 100m

Fig 28: Site planning conditions

Maximum Height

Land Use Site Area FSR Site Coverage Building Height

Maximum Density

Land

Office 24.37ha 3.5/3.0 15% 80/100/150 Office 24.37ha 3.5/3.0 35% 42m

Buildings Form Test

Two common corporate headquarters forms were tested in this site.Considering the new city where the site is located, a good city image is needed to attract more companies to settle in, and more high-quality public spaces need to be created to retain people, so maximizing height is closer to this goal.

Concept

The eight plots in the site are like eight small gourds connected in series by a gourd vine, which is connected to the big gourd vine in the entire area. All buildings are close to the public space in the middle, creating more space for people to communicate, and at the same time releasing more green space at the periphery.

STRATEGIES

The essential elements of creating a vibrant new city in China:

1. More quality public space

The three-dimensional public space creates more opportunities for pedestrians to communicate and relax.

2. Impressive city image

The image of a dense, tidy city will undoubtedly inspire confidence.

3. Convenient and sufficient space for vehicle use

Allowing vehicles to easily enter the underground space without crossing pedestrians.

Elevated Park Private Park Urban Park Sunken Garden Underground pass

Fig 31: ENLARGED PLAN

17F

Eight gourds on a vine. Common Street

BUILT WITH NATURE

Bamboo Exhibition

Location: Suzhou Cultural Creative Expo. , Jiangsu Province, China Date: January 2018 (2 weeks) Property: Personal Work Team Members: Yunxishan’s staffs Team Leader: Wanquan Feng Work Contribute: Design 100%, Drawing 20% Office: Yunxishan

About the Exhibition

It’ was an exhibition for Yunxishan Company in Suzhou Cultural Creative Expo. Mr He, the founder of the Company, is an environmentalist who loves nature. The company's products are also natural materials, and even the dyeing materials are leaves or plant roots. We want to reflect this concept in the exhibition, not just products. Thus we tried to bring nature into the exhibition while using recyclable materials.

The Expo was sponsored by the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture, and aimed to bridge the domestic and overseas creative design, gather the most representative creative contents in urban space design, architecture design, industrial product design, culture & art and other fields. Hence, nature and environmental friendliness have been identified as our theme for this exhibition, and we believe that this approach will make us stand out at this show.

About the Client

Yunxishan is a manufacturer of textile products. Its main products include household fabric products and fabric products around Chinese tea. It insists on using only natural materials such as cotton, linen, and silk. At the same time, the company also has a special plant dyeing studio, which can dye rich colors with isatis root and other plants. The founder of the company told me that he wanted to create a healthy and elegant home furnishing brand, hoping to present this concept in the exhibition space.

Fig 36: The location of the site

Entrance & Exit Site

Visit Route

Fig 37: Products from Yunxishan

Client’s Requirements

1.Visitors stay longer in this exhibition 2. Set up a place where you can drink tea with friends 3.Demonstrate company principle of using natural raw materials

Strategies

1. Extend the visit route 2. Move nature into the exhibition 3. Use natural materials to build and decorate the exhibition 4. Construction and decoration materials can be recycled

Entrance & Exit Landscape

Longer Route

About Materials

Dried bamboo

Local bamboo with a diameter of 35mm, and it is dried, insect-killed and fireproofed in the factory.

White stones

White stones with a diameter of 8mm, the landscape area uses this little stones to symbolize the water.

Arhat bamboo

Ordinary bamboo is difficult to survive for 3 days in the indoor environment. We chose the local Arhat bamboo with bulbs with a diameter of 200mm.

Fig 37: Ancient people drinking tea in

people in a bamboo grove

Recycled wood board

In order to control costs, old wood boards were purchased from the nearby old wood market, and the texture of the old boards is also very beautiful.

White yarn

White yarn is the raw material of the Yunxishan. After the exhibition, these white yarns are brought back to the factory . Hypnum is a kind of moss that is easy to survive, flakes, and the price is very cheap.

Hypnum plumaeform

screws, electric drill

About Build

It was an interesting building process. This was a new form of building and we were unable to find experienced workers to help us build it. Fortunately the client is a very handy company, so we built it ourselves. However, there was a serious problem to face and that was the venue's requirement for us to build and set up the exhibition in two days. We came up with a few ways to save time.

1. Fixing with screws. This is a method that is faster than the traditional method of string tying and which can be recycled after the bamboo and screws are removed.

2. Prefabricate basic structural units off-site. This measure saves us a great deal of construction time.

3. Reasonable group construction. Once positioned, the first group is responsible for constructing the structure, the second group works on the landscape at the same time, and finally all personnel work together to complete the furniture arrangement and skin.

Landscape

The Skin & Furniture

4. Photographs of the construction process

Fig 38: Bird’s Eye View Concept Rendering

OTHER WORKS

Manrong Urban Design

SITE AREA LOCATION DATE PROPERTY TEAM LEADER MEMBER WORK OFFICE

1,117,402 m 2

Shenyang, Liaoning Province December 2019 [6 weeks]

Professional Team Work Su Weicheng

Feng Wanquan, Zhu Lulu, Ruan Qing DESIGN 30%, DRAWING 40% EDS

Nantong Zilang Bay Commercial District

SITE AREA LOCATION DATE PROPERTY TEAM LEADER MEMBER WORK OFFICE

55,072 m 2

Nantong, Jiangsu Province May 2020 [4 weeks]

Professional Team Work Su Weicheng, Xie Mingxiu

Feng Wanquan, Zhu Lulu, Ruan Qing DESIGN 50%, DRAWING 40% EDS

Phoenix Mountain Villa Planning and Architectural Design

SITE AREA LOCATION DATE PROPERTY TEAM LEADER MEMBER WORK OFFICE

210,761 m 2

Chongzhou, Sichuan Province October 2019 [4 weeks]

Professional Team Work Su Weicheng

SITE AREA LOCATION DATE PROPERTY TEAM LEADER MEMBER WORK OFFICE

Feng Wanquan, Zhu Lulu, Ruan Qing DESIGN 70%, DRAWING 40% EDS 290, 129 m 2

Suzhou, Jiangsu Province April 2014 [10 weeks]

Professional Team Work Li Jin, Chen Chen Feng Wanquan, Dong Jiajia DESIGN 30%, DRAWING 40% Lacime Architects

Suzhou Dusu Lake Villa Planning and Architectural Design

Wanquan Feng | +44 792 570 8529 | wanquan.feng304@gmail.com