Yen Phoaw Portfolio Spring 2016

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PORTFOLIO yen phoaw

YEN PHOAW PORTFOLIO WORKS 01

HOT, WET, COOL

a hotel tower that embraces the climate with thermodynamism 02

SOCIAL MEDIA URBANISM

a data-centric urban landscape where the virtual collides with the real 03

SPINDLE OF PUBLIC GOOD a library tower for all to enjoy 04

SINGULAR MULTIPLICITIES

a student dormitory, a myraid of spaces with a singular premise 05

FLUX

a museum of Buddhist artifacts 06

PINK ELEPHANT

the Olympic Sports Center that invades the sleepy neighborhood of Charlestown 07

WEAPON OF MASS ENTERTAINMENT a tower made to entertain and disperse political oppression

I would like to thank everyone that has supported me throughout my journey. You know who you are :) your sincerely,

Yen

CONTACT Yen Shan Phoaw M - Arch 1 Candidate @ Harvard Graduate School of Design USA 39 Kirkland Street Apartment 204 Cambrdige, MA 02138 +1 857 928 5166 Singapore 34 Mei Hwan Drive Singapore 568396 +65 9177 3381 yenshanphoaw@gsd.harvard.edu *for full CV and additional work samples , please use the above contact channels

Hot, Wet, Cool A hotel offering the delights of the tropics. Harvard Graduate School of Design Core Studio III Instructor: Renata Sentkiewicz Fall 2015 Stemming from a similar notion, this project seeks to unravel and reveal the potentialities of the environment and technology without relegating technology into a mere means to an end. In the whole sequence of the building, technology is coupled with thermodynamic logics to bring about thermal delight and layers that unfolds into new spatial experiences. These devices are not artfully concealed but imbued within the very structures of the building itself. We need understand that architectural innovation and practice cannot stem from a singular train of thought and technology cannot exist as a pure means to an end. The climate is not a neutral external factor that is treated with a flurry of technological devices. The environment is the key standing reserve that should be tapped in ingrained into our architectural palette of spaces through the act of technology. The project ultimately champions the real act of technology as one that aspires to reveal and not conceal the standing reserve that the climate has to offer. Should architecture be able to address its relationship with technology, we can finally tap unforeseen boundaries that the environment gives us instead of shutting it out or combating it all together. Expounding on the tropicality of the site (Singapore), the project seeks to recreate a new form of tropical spatial atmosphere enabled by the methodologies of thermodynamic architectural techniques.

Exterior Rendering >

The ground persepctive view from Shenton Way, Singapore. A green tower with highly private sanctuary that pushes inhabitants out into the buzzing urban landscape.

Thermal Strategy Model

Use of alternating structural cores to act as a series of dispersed solar chimney and down-draft tower. These thermodynamic mechanics activate the demarcated spaces of program to a variance of environmental conditions.

Programmat

Allocation of programmatic main programmatic 1. Total open spaces 2.totally closed and climatic 3. semi-open spaces (spa and

tic Massing Model

c massing throughout the tower. Three spatial intents are highlighted. s like the (urban plaza - lobby) cally closed spaces (blackbox + gallery) d pool) that are nestled in between the cores

Structural Model

Key structural moments are highlighted in the model. The solid structural cores hold up the main loads with its alternating load path. A series of alternating shear walls contain and seal up the blackbox and gallery spaces while a series of filigree mesh work overtakes as the main structural system in the upper two volumes of the building.

Sect

Cross-section of b the various layers o programmatic z

Structure as environmental regulators

Structural system of the building support the general loading of the building and transport water throughout the building’s structural network. This transmitted water is chilled at some points and acts a cooling agent to the surrounding air as it passes through spaces. This causes the surrounding air to condense and dehumidify the air, creating cool wet zones within these spaces. Cool dry zones are created from the introduction of an induced air current through the spaces via convective pressures that are created by the structural cores that double up as solar chimneys.

tion

building showing of the hotel and its zoning strategy

Semi-outdoor hotel pools

Semi-outdoor hotel pools to allow inhabitants to bask in the constructed cool-wet climate. These pool are scattered across the mid-section of the building, away from the prying eyes from the exterior dense urban fabric.

Hyper-ventilated urban plaza

Downdraft towers draw cool air from the higher pressure surroundings at a higer height and chanel the air downwards onto the street level open plaza, cooling the plaza consequently. Self-shading and curated landscaping creates a green and cool oasis away from the surrounding hot tropical urban scape.

Park - Lobby

A thermally conditioned parkscape revokes the common notion of compact interiorized lobby spaces. The downdraft towers induce a constant air flow throughout the plaza. A myraid of siting/waiting zones are dispersed across the vegetated landscape with service cores and cafe back of house tucked away within the base of the structural cores.

Final Model

Full model of tower illustrated the main massing and programmatic ideas

Meshwork of Spa Spaces ^

Located within the wrapper of hotel rooms is a network of spa spaces that are a sensorium of environmental condition dependent on the density of structure and the provision of water/air circulation.

Detailed Section >

The detailed section of the hotel rooms illustrated the constant induced air flow within the room caused by the monsoon windows installed. These inventive fenestration designs allow for the circulation of into the building without risking any form of precipitation inlet. The constant air flow is managed by the constant suction force created by the core/solar chimney that draws air through.

< Blackbox Theatre

The blackbox theatre is a climatically inert space that reject the tropical exterior climate in totality. It is contained within a series of shear wall without fenestration in order to maintain sensitive lighting requirements and retain thermal integrity.

Gallery >

The gallery spaces are partitioned and planned in conjunction with the directionality of the structural shear walls that ties the suspended volume to the alternating structural cores. Spaces are punctured with occasional double/triple volume zones to provide sectional spatial variation and provision for artwork that required excessive ceiling spaces.

Roof-top Pool >

The roof-top pool provides hotel guest and its visitors an opportunity to basked in the tropical light. A multitude of tanning decks are dispersed throughout the periphery of the building outline in order to offer varying views of the surrounding urban cityscape.

< Water Gardens

A water garden acts as the delineating border between the completely public programs of the building from the private hotel spaces above. It also acts as the prelude of the thermally activated spa and treatment rooms spaces above it. It also doubles up as a water collection zone for the condesnation above

Social Media Urbanism Postulation of a new urban landscape defined by the realms of social media National University of Singapore AR 4102 Instructor: Florian Schatz Spring 2014 “When the real is not impossible, it is simply more and more artificial.� -Deluze and Guatarri. A deserted post-Sochi, an empty landscape with buildings not on time - never to be on time; fragments of Paris or Vienna stand isolated on a Chinese farmland; a building hollowed out for a tower of servers, the secrete heart of the city. There is nothing to see. But already, a revolution is happening. Virtual space rewrites the physical city. Splintered across space and time the urban landscape transcends its physical discontinuities in new networked logics. Space becomes the symptom of the new virtual reality. The real collapses into the virtual. Urbanism becomes Social Media Urbanism. The flexible architecture of the masses as envisioned by the late twentieth century avant garde, find their reality in the new possibilities of the digital world, and in the transformative power of social media. The curation of thoughts through social media reinvigorates the possibility of urbanism. The liberation of the individual no longer threatens the urban experience. The flexibility of space does not require the muteness of architecture. The event that shapes architecture is no longer arbitrary but curated. We hypothesize a future where virtual space permeates architectural space, becoming its stage for its excesses. We believe that architecture’s excesses will consume it. This new hyper modernism looks beyond lines circumscribed into the past towards a new future that emerges from the spaital understanding of contemporary technology.

Collaborators: Jessical Ardelia, K.K Loh, Alan Zhang, Eleanor Xu, Rachel Yang, L.T Pung, Sandy Khoo, Q.R Tan

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Looking into the Social Media City

The social media city morphs with the impulses of social media, creating an urban landscape of endless flux amongst the anti-data infrastructure. Buildings are constructed by nanobots that can build any form of structures willed by the trends that arise from the endless data feed.

Data Versus Anti-Data

A new city were the general common place is saturated and dictated by real time data feeds and the needs to seek solace from this virtual-real madness becomes a pivotal needs. The anti-data zone creates a zone of “realness� and also embodies the inner workings of the whole city, housing servers, nanobot production houses and anti-data safe zones.

#OMG

#OMG | #SARS | #LUNCH

These were the spatial suggestions selected. Each scenario (fueled by real time events) poised a different spatial arrangement within the city based on the imagery generated by the data feeds. Endless states of events from the city and the whims of individuals materialize into temporal tangible urban outcomes. Nothing is permanent, but everything is real.

#SAR

RS

#lunch

Data-fields and its Inherrent Physical Limitations The secondary data-field grid system transports the key essential from the major grid system into the various cityscapes created by the drones. This grid effectively overcomes the physical limitations of the micro-nature of the construction drones and also represents a poignant reminder of the physical infrastructural limitations of architecture and urbanism.

Physical Systemic Connections of the Social Media City In a city of flux, there is only infrastructure - the most primitive but effective form of architecture. The city’s structure is based on a grid that encompasses a major and minor grid. The major grid also contains the anti-data zones while the minor grid are the main bloodlines to supply organic matter to the inhabitants.

Inner Workings of the Anti-data Space The anti-data space acts as the primary base infrastructure that suspends the three dimensional data field. Packed within this casement of data-protection, mechanical and electrical life blood are channeled from the mains in the ground. The infrastructure also houses the charging areas and storage compactor of the drones, infusing the drones with the key essential energies to recreate the demands and whims of society

Building-scale infrastructure that divide the data and anti-data spheres

The Multi-scalar Nature of Infrastructure in the City of Flux The genesis of the social media city is premised on the multi-scalar nature of its inherent infrastructure. Constructed on a binary logic of macro and micro systems, the synergy between the two systems are pivotal to the optimal operation and space generation of this city. The macro super structure arches over the city and encompasses anti-data cavity within. Storage facilities for the micro infrastructure and utility delivery systems are infused into the macro structure sub layer. The micro structure comprises of a micro drone equipped with artificial intelligence that receives live social media feeds and recreates/ redefines the urban landscape

Micro-scale mini drones that construct the city base on the whims and demands of societal flux

Mega-scale infrastructure that is made up from primary infrastructure and the secondary data field grid

Spindle of Public Good A public library in a public park Harvard Graduate School of Design Core Studio II Instructor: Victor Navarro Spring 2015 The site offered was a pristine natural site or park land within the famed Emerald Necklace of Boston. The premise of this project lies in two main ideas. The first idea attempts to minimize the building footprint of the site to a bare minimum in order to reduce its impact onto the park’s land. This would allow most of the site to remain intact and retain its existing natural beauty. The second idea revolves around the notion of offering truly public views of the city. Urban cities often suffer from the commoditization of views within the scenic cityscape. Vantage points within the city are commoditized into various roof top bars and observatories. As the multitudes of programmatic requirements entail a great increase in overall building height in order for the tower to house the programs. By utilizing the extensive overall building height of the library tower, library users are able to witness the celebrated and unobstructed view of the Bostonian skyline and its ample surrounding greenery. Main reading areas are located right at the top floors of the tower to maintain a great sense of public space within the most advantageous zone. A culmination of both ideas brings about a form that is extremely thin and minimal in its circulation and plan. Each floor plan is varied to generate a variety of interior conditions, programmatic demands and urban response to the site. The glass curtain wall wraps the floor plates and their idiosyncratic variations, giving form to its undulation in the tower’s facade.

Final Model >

The library is a culmination of minimalistic floor plates that vary in accordance to site, programmatic and spatial considerations.

Concept Models

The study of floor plates variations, circulation options and envelope conditions

Site Model

Site model illustrating the surrounding park land site adjacent to the river. The tower attempts to reduce its footprint to the smallest possbility without infringing excessively onto the park site.

Taxonomy of Floor Plans

The floor plate links the three structural cores by cirumventing and binding them. The floor plates expands and contract in its profile to provide for difference programmatic demands and spatial explorations. A persisting void condition is maintained within the building’s centre. Minor double/triple volume voids are created at the periphery condition of the floor plates by contracting the floor plates along its edges along every two to three floors. The general genealogy of floor plates are retained in its soft curves that offer an all around exposure towards the expansive Bostonian greenery.

Section

Due to the relatively minimalistic floor plates, the overall sectional intention is resultant from the contraction and expansion of the floor plates in correspondence with its curtain wall structure

Final Model

Showing the relationship of the tower to the ground condition.

Singular Multiplicities One floor plate, a uniform perimeter length, multiple spatial possibilities Harvard Graduate School of Design Core Studio I Instructor: Nerea Calvillo Fall 2014 The premise of the project is based on the need for a uniform and limited perimeter length throughout the various levels of the building. Facade elements are also regulated to uniform simple 4’ by 7’ openings. Programmatically, the building houses a student dormitory of 38 beds and a series of public common spaces. With the above set of fundamentals established, the project endeavors to create a building that is able to generate rich spatial multiplicities with a single floor plan. Understanding the basic programmatic requirements of the building, a series of parti volumes (bedrooms, service spaces, circulation, communal spaces) are generated and strung together to create a primary volumetric module. This amalgamated volumetric masses becomes the basis of the floor plate. Using the corners of the floor plates a pivot points, the singular floor plate undergoes a series of operational moves, flipping and rotating in the process of operative transformation in plan. The volumes are then stacked and each corner is punctured and classified as public communal spaces. The operational transformation of the volumes triggers a series of unexpected exterior and semi-public spaces that can be cross programmed to meet the demands of the dormitory’s inhabitants. This singular plan spawns multiple spatial eventualities with its combinations, generating new possibilities from intended limitations.

The Generation Process >

The Dormitory is generated through a process illustrated by the diagram on the facing page. The generation of the parti volumes that creates the primary floor plan is followed by a series of operational motivations to create a series of diverse spatial options and possbilities.

PATIO

Gallery Space

VIEW FROM UPPER PATIO

A series of thin gallery like space creates a linear viewing platform into the views of the courtyard and other outdoor communal spaces. These spaces are also proximity thresholds that separate the different room types and activity spaces. The gallery also dissolves the front facade of the building, reducing the overall visual bulk of the orthogonal massing.

VIEW OF CORRIDOR

STUDY VIEW OF CORRIDOR

VIEW FROM CENTRAL PATIO

SINGULAR MULTIPLICITY

VIEW FROM UPPER PATIO

VIEW OF CORRIDOR

IMPRESSIONS ONE FLOOR PLAN, THREE INDOOR COMMON SPACES, FIVE OUTDOOR COMMON SPACES, THREE ROOM TYPES, EIGHT BATHROOMS GENERATED BY FORMAL,EXPERIENTIAL, CIRCULATORY, PROGRAMMATIC PRIMERS

VIEW FROM CENTRAL PATIO

Indoor Communal Space

SINGULAR MULTIPLICITY IMPRESSIONS The indoor communal spaces of the buiding are located at the four corners of the building. Operationally and conceptually acting as the pivot point of the shifting floor plates, this pivot points also become programmatic zones of gravity. Main public circulation zones and vertical connectivity along with communal programs are packed into these spaces, constantly infusing such spaces with a public thoroughfare and communal atmosphere.

VIEW FROM UPPER PATIO

VIEW OF CORRIDOR STUDY

VIEW FROM CENTRAL PATIO

ONE FLOOR PLAN, THREE INDOOR COMMON SPACES, FIVE OUTDOOR COMMON SPACES, THREE ROOM TYPES, EIGHT BATHROOMS GENERATED BY FORMAL,EXPERIENTIAL, CIRCULATORY, PROGRAMMATIC PRIMERS

SINGULAR MULTIPLICITY IMPRESSIONS ONE FLOOR PLAN, THREE INDOOR COMMON SPACES, FIVE OUTDOOR COMMON SPACES, THREE ROOM TYPES, EIGHT BATHROOMS GENERATED BY FORMAL,EXPERIENTIAL, CIRCULATORY, PROGRAMMATIC PRIMERS

STUDY

VIEW FROM CENTRAL PATIO

SINGULAR MULTIPLICITY IMPRESSIONS ONE FLOOR PLAN, THREE INDOOR COMMON SPACES, FIVE OUTDOOR COMMON SPACES, THREE ROOM TYPES, EIGHT BATHROOMS GENERATED BY FORMAL,EXPERIENTIAL, CIRCULATORY, PROGRAMMATIC PRIMERS

Pivotal Light Wells

The communal zones are highlighted with a series of skylights and varying fenestrations patterns that are defined by the inner programmatic demands of the communal activity houses in the volume. The well-lit space are also intended to break the monotony of the corridor spaces and allow spatial contrast via a visual sptial expansion.

Outdoor Communal Space

The pimary floorplate automatically suggests an inner communal courtyard creating the hallmark communal space of the building. A series of smaller outdoor communal spaces are also created with the singular gap existing on the modular floor plan. By overlapping a mass over this gap as the floor plate rotates and flips, entrances and cavities are generated in the various floors. The outdoor communal spaces become a series of breakout zones that are capable of looking inwards and outwards of the building. In periods of events, these spaces can also become view patios for events occuring within the courtyard space.

The Continuous Facade

The facade of the building remains uninterrupted and seamless across. The placement of fenestrations are articulated to create visual contrast within the overall massing of the building. Aluminum is used to further remove the overall bulk of the building by imbuing the facade with lightness through the reflective materiality.

Flux A Museum of Buddhist Artifacts National University of Singapore AR 3102 Instructor: Kazuhiro Nakajima Spring 2013 The museum was conceived with the notion of Flux (impermanence) underpinning the “pilgrimage” of each visitor. An abstract exercise of visualising this “spatial flux” was done, and resulted in an imagery of a labyrinthine sacred tropical rainforest – a heterogeneously homogenous space. This “spatial flux” would allow the visitor to experience the sense of flux via the varying sense of scale, lighting and visual cues through floor plans that a designed to be free in nature. The Bodhi Tree was adapted for its structural patterns and lighting quality it provides under its blanket of vines. Ancient Buddhist scriptures provided the inspiration for the building’s linear scripture-like façade with perforations with every accent in the script.Both elements would become the main structural system that supports the building load, much like how these symbols and objects are mediums for devotees to attain enlightenment. Through an iterative process, these abstracted forms and strategies are fused with pragmatic programmatic requirements of the museum complex. Private and public zones are clearly demarcated and alternative routes of circulation considered. A complete internalized environment was imperative for the controlled climatic conditions the museum required. This internalized environment created new opportunities for the architecture to adopt an inward looking approach that shielded the ‘sacred artifacts’ from the dinghy urban surroundings while orchestrating a deeply sensual spatial experience. *this project was nominated for the RIBA President’s Medal 2013 Part 1 Category

The Sacred Forest >

The Buddhist Relic Museum expounds on the nature of this state of flux and a noble pursuit of enlightenment. The journey through its spaces would liken itself to a journey through a dense, labyrinthine forest where light glimmers and treasures await to be found in the most unlikely places. Although everything is stationary, nothing feels stationary - a state of flux in the pursuit of enlightenment.

The Sacred Structural Tree

Buddha sought enlightenment under a mystic Bodhi Tree. The “tree” is thus adopted and becomes a key element in the architecture; “supporting” the whole building literally and figuratively. Inhabitants unknowingly become under the canopy of this “tree” and are subjected to its structural capabilities and immense physical presence. The “tree” provides the main structural structural support for the floor slabs. The organically branched structure looks destablised but actually effectively balances itself. The branches are articulated with an abstraction of the Bodhi Tree, and counterbalances itself in both directions. Due to structural concerns, the maximum angle of inclination for each “branch” does not exit 45°

Geylang : the Chaotic Flux

Untouched by urban projects and developments and so far spared by the gentrification process that has changed the face of Singapore since the 1970s, activities of vice and questionable legality are still prevalent in this district along with the headquarters of clans and religious assosociations. The streets are noisy with and endless stream of frenzy that permeates the streets day and night. Each building structure becomes an abode of temporal respite as the walls shield the unwanted “noise�. The eclectic human activities at the site keeps the streets in a constant flux that churns endlessly with the span of time.

Monolith of Buddhist Relics

The building form adopts a neutral monolithic block that blends into the site’s urban landscape that consists of eclectic building typologies. Due to the nature of the programs, the facade of the building is introverted and conceal. The facade acts as a shield that eliminates the excessive noise from the surroundings. It also serves to de-contextualise the inner spaces from the rather “profane� site activities (prostitution, gambling and underground associations). The fenestration patterning is inspired by the innate rhythm found in the Buddhist scriptures, but executed with dexterous modernity. The facade modules have a galvanised steel finish that gives the building an overall subtle glint underneath the sunlight

Exterior Perspective

The armour that shields from the vice.

Floorplans

The floorplans indicate the spatial planning and the voids that are punctured througout the building. These voids create great space of volumetric flux that one experiences as he traverse through the building and invoke a sense of reverance from within.

The Gallery

The gallery embodies a sense of mystique and grandeur. Glimmering lights stream into the cloistered interiors with artefacts lining the path of progression. The experience is likens itself to a a dark tropical forest understorey that has random and specular diffused lighting sources.Through the progression of space, a sense of flux is imbued by the lighting and spatial implications of the light shafts as both factors overwhelms the visitor with changing sights.

Tea Room

Level 4 contains a myraid of programs that stimulates interaction in the process of learning. The open floor plan has the museum shop and tea room sprawled across the floor, maintaining a certain level of human buzz and social interactions. The glass-walled classrooms can be read as “exhibits of learning�, a foreword of what is to come on the upper levels.

Final Model

A central void carved from the floors above allows for a spectacular continuous view of the structural light shafts. On a semantic level, it suggests the indirect interconnectivity of all aspects and the comon thread that binds everything together in the state of flux.

Final Model (Interior)

Light shimmers through the facade and light shafts, illuminating the interiors with a mythical glow

Final Model (Interior)

Large oversized light shaft tower across the main gallery space, perpetuating a lengthening of space in a grand fashion

Exploded Axonometric #1

In order to allow for maximum freedom in the plan, the key programs of the museum are zoned and segmented in terms of the section. Each floor becomes a distinct zone of programmatic activities that have synergistic qualities. Programs that require a quieter ambience are located on the upper floors while the programs involving high level of humn interactions are zoned on the lower levels. The programs are articulated to provide a spatial journey throughout the building.

Exploded Axonometric #2

The main structural strategy of the building employs a series of cores that branches out throughout the buildings, providing the essential support for the floor plates. As an additional provision of structural support, the facade is designed to be structurally rigid.

Technical Spot Details (Facade Structure)

The facade system of the building utilises a modular system that consists of customised rectangular hollow sections. Each hollow section has two openings that are glazed and directly located from each other. Similarly, the interior of the module is fitted with a mirored surface that reflects the natural light from the exterior to the interior in an indirect manner. Waterproofing layers are also in place to procide the essential protection from the tropical weather.

Technical Spot Details (Core Structure)

The structural cores are mainly fabricated from a steel truss rigid frame structure that is fitted and welded to specifications. The external encasement of the steel frames consists of two separate layers, an inner later of mirrored surface and an external layer of annodised aluminium with a matte black finish. The encasement is perforated with holes to allow for the diffusion of light from the building’s exterior indirectly, creating a glimmering lighting effect.

Pink Elephant The Olympic sports center that invades the sleepy neighborhood of Charlestown Harvard Graduate School of Design Core Studio II Instructor: Victor Navarro Spring 2015 On Januarary 8, 2015 the New York Times announced that the USOC had chosen the city of Boston as the US nomination for the 2024 Summer Olympics. In the spirit of the Boston Olympic bid and in an effort to increase community sporting interest, this project endeavors to propose a sports center that serves both as a conditioning center for atheletes and neighborhood recreational facility. Many of such Olympic infrastructures have devolved into architectural “White Elephants� around the world, failing to serve any form of programmatic purpose post-Olympics. This proposal (Pink Elephant) insists that such buildings should transcend the fixation of Olympic atheletic standards and instead create an atheletic enclave that expounds upon the natural potential of the site. Understanding the site boundaries and existing topography conditions, the proposal breaks down the orginal fixation of overwhelming flatness in atheletic centers and instead captures the pivotal regions of flatness in each sporting activity via a modulated ground plane. This modulated plane revokes the delineation between spectator and atheletes as this plane effectively performs as the sporting grounds, spectator gallery and circulation/ ancillary spaces. Beyond the provision of programmatic demands, this project also creates a scenic viewing area for its users in this otherwise banal urban landscape.

Extension of Contextual Relief Profile and the Dialectic of Interior and Exterior Spaces The site plan illustrate the building’s continuation of the site’s relief profile. The rhythmic jittering of the site flows into the building. The longitudinal section and traverse section reflects clear division of interior and exterior spaces and their respective different quality. Exterior spaces are largely defined by cavernous zones while the interior spaces are relatively sealed up and compact in nature. Exterior spaces also house more public programs like the pool and multipurpose court at the base of the building. Interior sports activities are housed in the middle interior zone while the most private zones of the building (health spas) are located at the top interior spaces that are poignantly placed with lightwells cavities that bring light into the central exterior space and the space areas.

Longitudinal Section

Traverse Section

The Recreational Cavern The “white elephant� syndrome of Olympic facilities remains a perenial issue for every Olympic host city. To alleviate such issues, this buildings privileges the post Olympic capabilities via the provision of key recreational sporting facilities for its very urban surroundings. The massive amorphous massing creates a delightful elevated cavernous space that expedites the advantageous siting; allowing a clear unobstructed view into the Boston skyline across the river. Inhabitants can relish this sight as they enjoy a mid day dip in the elevated pool. This pool embodies the capabilities of an Olympic standard pool but ultimately performs as a pleasurable unique public zone. As one progresses through the building, the mass of the building is constantly in flux as the modular structure is varied in a series of different amplitudes, generating a rich voluminous striation in section. The ground plane is fragmented into a set of modular steps, creating a unique spatial irregular spatial landscape, each providing an individualized platform into the vantage point and simultaneously acting as the main form of circulation across the space.

Shifting of the volumetric mass through the building

Peering through the Vantage Point

Weapon of Mass Entertainment A Weaponized Tower conceived to Disperse Political Oppression through Cultural Infilration and Relay 2015 Evolo Skyscraper Competition Entry Fall 2014 In modern society, the visual is paramount. Kaleidoscopic arrays of advertising assaults us relentlessly. Goddesses in denim and underwear become the succubi of modern consumption establishing visual standards of desire and societal reflection. This visual sensorial overload is pivotal upon the virulent nature of pop culture and its affective capacity. Pop culture has emerged as the contemporary societal religion that inadvertently unites and directs us. Recognizable by its colors and idols, the capacity of pop culture transcends its primary role of a consumerist antagonist into the seed of societal standards. North Korea is an exception to this. The hermit kingdom goes through great lengths to shut out media and pop influences to solidify the Kim dynasty foothold. Although the North Korean people share the same language as South Korea their cultures could not be more different. Public attacks on physical infrastructure can be directly countered. Physical demolition of urban fabric and structures can be reforged. Attacks to the digital infrastructure are manifold. They exist in a realm immune to the tangible and free from corporeal intervention. The remnants of such digital attacks thrive in the minds of individuals, infecting the psychological realm of victims. Weapon of Mass Entertainment seeks to uproot the fragile power of a totalitarian regime by fighting propaganda with propaganda. Weaponizing South Korean pop culture to seize a national landmark presents a far more potent consequence than mere demonstrations of military might.

Collaborators: Timo Tsui, Paul Mok, Bryant Nguyen

Weapon of Mass Entertainment

Power of Virtual Make-B

The hotel is an urban visual cue of poltical domination. Public attacks on physical infrastructure can be countered using direct means.

In modern society, the visual is paramount. us relentlessly. Goddesses in denim and u consumption establishing visual standards o sensorial overload is pivotal upon the virulent n

Physical demolition of urban fabric and structures can be reforged. Attacks to the digital infrastructure are manifold. They exist in a realm immune to the tangible and free from corporeal intervention. The remants of such digital attacks thrive in the minds of individuals, infecting the psychological realm of its victims. Weapon of Mass Entertainment seeks to uproot the fragile power of a totalitarian regime by fighting propaganda with propaganda. Weaponizing South Korean pop culture to seize a national landmark presents a far more potent consequence than mere demonstrations of military might.

This era of modern society marshals two form physical realm is firmly rooted in materiality a intangible and ephemeral. With the ubiquitou through the digital realm, we live in a world make-believe.

Believe

Beacon of Pop Culture

Kaleidoscopic arrays of advertising assaults underwear become the succubi of modern of desire and societal reflection. This visual nature of pop culture and its affective capacity.

Pop culture has emerged as the contemporary societal religion that inadvertantly unites and directs us. Recognizable by its bright colors and faces of idols, the capacity of pop culture transcends its primary role of a consumerist antagonist into the seed of societal standards.

ms of infrastructure: physical and digital. The and the haptic while the digital embraces the us influence of pop culture and its proliferation saturated in the visual. We live in the virtual

Weapon of Mass Entertainment seeks to uproot the fragile power of a totalitarian regime by fighting propaganda with propaganda. Weaponizing South Korean pop culture to seize a national landmark presents a far more potent consequence than mere demonstrations of military might.

Launch Sequence

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Launch of Missile Into Air Space from the outskirts of Seoul at 5.30pm.

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Evolution of Ryugyong tower into a beacon of pop culture via the cloak of filigree projection structures. holographic projections of pop culture projected becomes the tower’s faceted facade.

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Dispersal of primary hologram projector membrane onto Ryugyong hotel tower and secondary hologam projector units into surrounding North Korean ubran fabric

The re-appropriated Ryugyong tower becomes the harbinger of pop culture, connecting the secondary devices, establishing a robust holographic transmission network that alters the visual urban reality of the North Korean urban landscape.

Secondary projection units latches itself onto the facade of North Korean buildings. these devices cast holographic imagery into the north korean urban landscape depicting the daily happenings of South Korean living.

Recasting the Icon of Oppression via Pop Culture Aggressively controlling information whilst painting the leader as a demi god discourages defectors. His power is proudly displayed through monumental works such as the Ryugyong Hotel and various monuments that dot the capital’s urban fabric. However, the hotel is farcical, its rooms remain unoccupied and its façade unfinished. The hotel’s only purpose is to serve as an urban symbol of political authority. Public attacks on physical infrastructure can be directly countered. Physical demolition of urban fabric and structures can be reforged. Attacks to the digital infrastructure are manifold. They exist in a realm immune to the

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