YE ZHANG | SELECTED WORKS
00 CONTENTS
01Work
Mixed-use development in Xi’an, China RTKL Associates, Inc
02Work
Restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland Streetsense Consulting
03Internship
2012-2013 Location: Xi’an, China
2013 Location: Bethesda, Maryland
2010 Location: Shanghai, China
Campus renovation and expansion, masterplan and architectural design, Approach Architecture
04Thesis
05 Competition
From Exacerbated Difference to Productive Difference, a SMLXL urban strategy that survives informal vendors within Shenzhen’s “top-down” urbanism
Urban Accordion, NY Figment Competition 2013-2014 Finalist proposal for a pavilion on Governor’s Island
2011-2012 Location: Shenzhen, China Primary Advisor: Anne Munly Secondary Advisor: Susan Henderson
2013 Afoam collaborators: Lina Bondarenko, Xiao Chen, Sunchung Min, Mario Mohan, Marvin Nardo, Michael Nartey, Wei-Yi Tseng, Tanawat Vichaiwatanapanich, Yaya Wang, Andrew Weigand, Wanjing Xiao, Ye Zhang
06 Comprehensive
Brooklyn Navy Yard Airport, Converting abandoned industrial site into an airport that serves downtown Manhattan
Spring 2010 Location: Brooklyn, NY Collaborated with Minh Lam Professor: Michael Pelken
01Work
Mixed-use development in Xi’an, China RTKL Associates, Inc
2012-2013 Location: Xi’an, China
Xi’an Center is a 500,000m2 development in downtown Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, China. The project has three parcels of land with two malls, four office towers, 3 serviced apartment buildings and 4 residential buildings. It is located on the North South axial road of Xi’an, and the designed circulation layout will invite patrons to meander through shopping concourses and public plazas during their walk along Chang’an road. I worked on this project from concept phase to schematic phase while working at RTKL Associates in Washington DC. I had various roles within the design team including massing and masterplan studies, modeling of tower curtain wall and podium facades. I also led the basement design of below ground retail, loading and visitor circulation, cores and equipment organizations.
The north podium is a seven story structure with programs ranging from retail and restaurants, to cinemas and hotel ballrooms. A central atrium serves as the heart of the podium bringing natural light to lower floors. Express escalators cross the atrium moving patrons to upper floors. The podium utilizes double skin glazing where the outer skin acts as a veil, hinting at merchandise and activities inside, while limiting solar heat gain form the western sun. The concept for he two towers employs the symbol of “Ding�, an ancient Chinese vessel used for wine storage and preparation of ritual offerings to ancestors. The vessel is a symbol of establishment and authority.
西安天地项目总体规划方案一
主要概念
历史
Major Concept | Option 1 要
接
次
连 要
•
4组不同的商业体验 4 clusters of different commercial experiences
接
主
一条主要视觉联系，象征历史与现代 的连接, 这条中轴线是进入项目的主 要通道 Create a primary visual connection from the Temple of Heaven to the TV Tower, signifies a connection from China’s splendid past to her prosperous future. This axis is the major gateway to the project.
连
次要连接
•
商业村
室外商业 项目主要 空间 商业中心
主要标
志
绿地 性 入
口
西安天地项目总体规划方案一
现代
主要概念
会展中心
Major Concept | Option 1 •
流畅的线条连接不同的商业体验 a fluid connection sweeps through the different experiences
目的地
目的地 目的地
concept phase option 1 西安天地项目总体规划方案二
主要概念
天坛
Major Concept | Option 2 •
创造一条室内街道，这条街道连接了 公共广场与项目中央的商业娱乐目的 地 Create internal retail streets that connect public plaza to the project’s central destination – retail/entertainment plaza.
•
创建一系列独立的但又连接在一起的 重要空间：社区-目的地-城市广场 Create a separated yet connected series of important spaces: community destination – urban plaza.
•
商业村与商业中心占据雁展路上的重 要位置 Retail village and Mall have strong presence on Yanzhan Road.
•
高层建筑采用最佳朝向以优化其性能 Buildings are oriented in an optimal
住宅区 街道 步行
办公 商业 城
酒店
市街道
商业村 商业中心
最聚商业价值
orientation to maximize their 西安天地项目总体规划方案二 performance.
主要概念
会展中心
Major Concept | Option 2 •
流畅的线条连接各主要节点 sweeping spine connect all major nodes
商
社区 住宅
的地 乐目 娱 业 办公节点
层
城市
超高
主要
的地 目
中心室内 商业
concept phase option 2
超高
主要
层
西安天地项目总体规划方案三
主要概念
天坛
Major Concept | Option 3
最佳朝向
•
强调重点：具有标志性的办公楼放在 基地的西南角 Address : Place an Iconic Office Tower on the South West Corner of the Site.
•
目的地：创建一个中央商业村，集零 售，娱乐和餐饮为一体 Destination : Create a central retail village that hosts Retail, entertainment and dining venues.
•
优化性能：建筑采用最佳的东南朝 向，这样节省了冬天的采暖费用 Optimize: Orient the buildings to the South East to reduce heating costs in Winter.
最佳朝向
目的地
最聚商业价值 最佳朝向
西安天地项目总体规划方案三 高层建筑 会展中心
concept phase option 2
目的地
总平面图
Site Plan | Option 3
•
中央商业村向四周辐射，方便地连接 了基地周围所有的地标（天坛，会展 中心）和重要业态功能（商业中心， 写字楼） The Central Retail Village radiates in all directions and is accessible from all neighboring sites (Temple of Heaven, Exhibition Center…) and functions (Mall, Office Towers…).
•
大部分高层建筑有一面朝向商业村的 中央广场 The majority of the buildings have direct frontage to the Main plaza of the retail village 主要商业动线 商业 重要出入口
02Work
Restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland Streetsense Consulting
2013 Location: Bethesda, Maryland
This is a restaurant project I worked on in Bethsda, Maryland while working with the interior team at Streetsense Washington DC. ShopHouse is Chipotle’s new chain of Asian cuisine, and this Bethesda location is the third to be rolled out after the first test location in Dupont Circle, Washington, DC, and the first in Maryland. This new concept of restaurant was inspired by the common architectural typology in Southeast Asia - lining the narrow streets in the older quarters of such cities as Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpor and Hanoi, Shophouse typically dwells hardworking entrepreneurial families upstairs who run bustling restaurants and markets on the ground floor. These shops serve Asia’s version of fast food - their tiny kitchens turning out fresh rice and noodle bowls laced with spices, marinated meat, herbs and vegetables in an astonishing array of different combinations. ShopHouse shared similar design ideas to that of Chipotle, for example the assembly line service and a loop circulation for customers, using simple yet modern decor.
03Internship
Campus renovation and expansion, masterplan and architectural design, Approach Architecture
2010 Location: Shanghai, China
This is a competition I joined during an internship with Approach Architecture in 2010. The project calls for a campus renovation and expansion in Shanghai, which includes a new masterplan for the campus and renovation plan for the existing buildings. I was responsible for the facade renovation for two buildings - the library and the L-shaped classroom building. The idea is to create more communal spaces behind the facade which are also light and airy. The intensity of the pattern responds to the lighting level required for the specific program directly behind it.
政图文中心 立面分析
上海新闻出版职业技术学校青浦校区一期工程设计方案
2010.7.26
阅览区 阅览区 阅览区 门厅 阅览区
办公区 办公区 报告厅
因为功能要求的不同形成了对采光需求不同的区域。
遮阳板根据不同的采光需求形成了丰富多变的立面图案和空间变化。
穿孔板表面孔洞大小变化灵感来自印刷技术中的“半调(halftone)”技术， 巧妙地体现出学校的出版印刷行业特点和文化品味。
设计概念 68
library building renovation
上海新闻出版职业技术学校青浦校区一期工程设计方案
2010.7.26
上海新闻出版职业技术学校青浦校区一期工程设计方案
教学楼新方案重点： 局部加宽走廊，种植绿化，形 成学生课间活动的空中花园
classroom building renovation
2010.7.26
教学楼新方案重点： 将现有外墙瓷砖去除，贴外保温材料，外 墙换成涂料；将现有外门窗换成保温性能更好 的断桥铝合金双层中空玻璃窗和保温门；重 新处理好保温的教室将获得更加适宜的使用温 度，因此我们建议保持大部分外廊开敞，充分 保持原有的自然通风采光优点
教学楼新方案重点： 拆除原楼梯，补建一部新楼梯 到四层，解决缺少楼梯的问题
设计概念 36
设计概念 38
04Thesis
From Exacerbated Difference to Productive Difference, a SMLXL urban strategy that survives informal vendors within Shenzhen’s “top-down” urbanism
2011-2012 Location: Shenzhen, China Primary Advisor: Anne Munly Secondary Advisor: Susan Henderson
Informal urban assemblages respond to what “mega-block urbanism” cannot offer within China’s rapid urbanization. However, they are subject to be cleaned up by the city authority because the lack of organization and poor hygiene is polluting China’s image of urban modernization and potentially escalating the wide-spread food safety crisis within the nation. This thesis is a SMLXL urban strategy that helps to survive the informal assemblage, especially the streets vendors in Shenzhen. The scalable forms mediate between the disjunction of the informal to the “mega”, and its aggregation forms a forever changing urban landscape. For thesis research please click: here
Exacerbated Difference 120 km
XXL
region
layered exploitation between HK, SZ &DG
Crisis XL
27 km
Response
city
tabula rasa vs hierachical grid vs garden city
Mega-block
L
Urban Village regulates
response 1 surrounding development and policy changes 2 need for affordable housing 4 rejection of physical boundaries
1.5 km
M S
block
mega-block vs urban village
Top-Down
3 the missing ephemeral qualities
Bottom-Up over-power vulnerabilities
limited in what offers
Infrastructure
vs
Informal Activities
parasitic
Urban Village
Mega-block Infrastructure
Informal Activities
Top-Down
Bottom-Up
(upgrade)
to be demolished informal vending to be cleaned up
feedback
surveilled
subversive
monumental
mobile
re-conceptualize
temporal vibrant effect on flow
System of Difference coherent, spontaneous
The research part of this project starts with an analysis of Shenzhen from the XL scale of the city to the L scale of the urban villages within, to the M scale of the streets in the village and finally to the S scale of the informal vending activities on these streets. The urban village in Shenzhen is not a left-over product of China’s rapid urbanization but it evolves as the city grows, responding to what the “megablock” urbanism cannot offer. It builds affordable communities and convenient lifestyle with an exuberant assemblages of commercial activities. However, these bottom-up phenomena are subject to be cleaned by the top-down urbanism because they are associated with many socioeconomic problems - migrant labor, lack of organization, limited resource to clean energy, poor public hygiene etc. The proposal of thesis design on the next page aims to survive these informal urban assemblage by giving them organization, clean energy and proper hygiene. The strategy starts from the S scale of upgrading their equipments, to the building of control centers and communities centers at M and L scale, and finally a roll-out strategy in the city at L scale.
Early morning 6am, vendors start to come in to collect their equipment
The system is comparable to bees and their beehive, where the beehive is the headquarter, storage, resource center and community, and the bees roll out from the hive into selected locations.
section through atrium
Early morning 7am, half the equipment is rolled out from this control center onto the streets
Early morning 8am, building fully de-materialized
section through storage units
Type_A is the basic prototype in a typical urban village. It is located in the center of the village which oversees all the activities in the village, and the atrium inside also provides space for public gathering. The plans above depict two conditions of type A - how the market could roll out on a regular market day versus on a festival day. Type_A has storage containers of 3 different sizes and an automated arm that organizes these containers vertically. There are also water tanks and wind mills on the roof to provide resources and energy.
Using the criteria I studied during thesis prep, the intervention could be implanted on multiple sites where it can facilitate the growth of informal assemblage. Type B locates at the boundary between a gated mega-block community and an urban village. It rebuilds a new kind of boundary that divides and also unites between the two. During the day, the intervention de-materializes and rolls out to become a market on the garden that unites the two sides; at night, the intervention re-collects itself to establish the boundary for security and protection. Type C is a linked bridge that connects the mega-blocks and completes a looped circulation with informal programs.
S, M, L
The intervention mediates between the dis-junctional scale between the urban villages and the mega-blocks. As the adjacent scale gets bigger the intervention gets bigger to incorporate more community programs such as skateboard ring, children’s playground, gymnasium, library, performance space etc.
XL
The intervention could be inserted into many neighborhoods of the city, it could be the local grocery store or the local parish church. The double circles define a short/medium walking radius, which in turn defines the service level in each module. The circle also defines a suggested maximum expansion for informal vendors. The blue line indicates direction for market expansion which catches pedestrian flow but not to interfere with automobile traffic.
These informal markets fluctuate during different hours of the day, making a forever changing urban landscape (refer to studies in thesis prep: click here)
05 Competition
Urban Accordion, Finalist for the next Figment Pavilion on Governors Island, Figment NYC City of Dream Competition
2013-now Afoam collaborators: Lina Bondarenko, Xiao Chen, Sunchung Min, Mario Mohan, Marvin Nardo, Michael Nartey, Wei-Yi Tseng, Tanawat Vichaiwatanapanich, Yaya Wang, Andrew Weigand, Wanjing Xiao, Ye Zhang
Our present city is overrun by private buildings, limiting access to public space. Urban Accordion is a microcosm of an alternate urban condition: a City of Dreams. Four fabric ‘blocks’ expand and contract, creating different levels of enclosure to suit a range of programming, while the space contained by the structures forms a larger communal area for events and chance encounters between the juxtaposed programs. Urban Accordion is a new urban condition: a flexible assembly for serendipity and public events that fluctuates to meet users’ demands. For official press release please visit: here
Our present city our present city
is overrun with privatized
space isenvironments, overun withregulated privatized environments, regulated space
A city of dreams
Our present city
a city of dreams
creates public opportunities
to experience social life creates public opportunities to experience social life
The pavilion can be arranged in a number of different ways. The opening inside the individual block and the open space defined by the blocks can be used for different purposes simultaneiusly, while the translucent fabric still creates visual connections between the spaces.
is dominated by buildings and infrastructure
Furthermore, the blocks can expand up to 28’ in length to accommodate a performance or workshop.
An open city
creates free exchange between citizens
For example, the pavilion could function as four sculpture galleries...
that resonds &
and creates new public space on demand
adapts to our needs
hosting arts, humanities, sciences and everything in between
or accomodate a mix of arts and performances all at once.
Or, the pavilions can be compressed to be only 8’ wide and act as kiosks for information or equipment, creating a much larger informal gathering space.
They may also be rotated, increasing the feeling of enclosure for more intimate performances...
If needed, they can remain extended all pull apart, to allow for larger events with a mix of spatial needs.
... or opened into a “horseshoe” form to create an even larger gathering space, open to the parade grounds.
The physical manifestation of our dream has gone through several iterations since the initial competition phase, when we proposed a reclaimed lumber frame and canvas scrim.
Spanning between the columns is a system of locking, sliding woods 1x3 cross bracing which creates lateral stability while allowing the pavilion to expand and contract. This bracing is inset in the beams, allowing the interior and exterior of the pavilion to retain their clean lines.
The fabric is held off the structure and free from the moving bracing on a series of cables and eyescrews. This also allows for the adjustment of the fabircs tension and allows for the structure and the cladding to be assembled separately.
Following the Jury’s comments regarding the framing of the structure, we explored aluminium extrusions and steel channels as alternatives to our initial wood framing system. However, they would significantly impact the expense of the pavilion, the ecological footprint of the materials, and would require specialized equipment to fabricate.
06 Comprehensive
Brooklyn Navy Yard Airport, Converting abandoned industrial site into an airport that serves downtown Manhattan
Spring 2010 Location: Brooklyn, NY Collaborated with Minh Lam Professor: Michael Pelken
Brooklyn Navy Yard is a 300 acre industrial park that used to be a ship yard in the 1940s. There are over 40 buildings on the site and 4 million square feet of leasable space, but it is still vastly unoccupied. This project explores the possibility of inserting a small airport as a method of renovating the site. The site is across the river to downtown Manhattan, making it an ideal location for a small airport that serves the financial district. The docks are converted into run-ways and abandoned buildings are renovated into airport service facilities.
SOLAR club 7,000ft2
collect rain water to flush the toilets
observation deck 5,000ft2 exhibition 5,000ft2
SOLAR accomodation 9,500ft2
VIRGIN headquaters 800ft2 staff support 800ft2
slope roof for maximum solar gain in winters
BNY branch office 800ft2
shared facilities 800ft2
restaurants 6,000ft2
reception 700ft2
use sea breeze to ventilate the building
air use the hot water from the food processing industry to heat the building in winters
hydrogen fuel cells generated from splitting the wastewater from the sugar refining facotry
charter flights 6,000ft2
depature lobby 6,000ft2
staff supports 8,500ft2
atrium 15,000ft2 check-in 1,500ft2
first-aid 300ft2
delivery zone 500ft2
basement 10,000ft2
We studied the structures of bird’s wings and feather. The wing’s triangular shape and the bent in the its form give birds the ability to maneuver air flow. We translated this study into a tensile structure that directs air ventilation with shading capabilities.
study of environmental sustainability around the site
study of airport program and circulation
land
first firstlevel levelplan plan
second level plan
third level plan
egress
ventilation HVAC zone
buffer zones
radiant floor
ventilation