YUECHAO ZHANG

Architecture Portfolio

For me, architecture is a process of constantly deconstructing and reshaping my view of reality. It is a collection of a series of concepts, a combination of form and thought, a poem composed of spatial vocabulary, and a concretization of the relationship between things.

Architecture should have no boundaries, it can start from a story imagination, a cultural interpretation, a social observation, a visualization of time, etc. in this portfolio, I take a variety of topics as the driving force of architectural design, and try to build diverse architectural worlds.

Under The Wave

Site: Putian, China

Summer 2021

Instructor: Zhao Wen

Personal Work

This project is an exhibition center designed to commemorate the history of fishermen on Meizhou Island, China. Underwater space and resources are the basis for fishermen to survive for generations, due to which the history of fishermen does not only exist on the ground but also underwater. We need an exhibition center with symbolic significance as important as functional significance, which can narrate the stories above and below the waves in a realistic and fantasy way.

Starting from the imagination of underwater space, the project discusses three aspects of architectural design: the flowability of interior space , the shaping of the earth landscape, and the construction of light and darkness atmosphere.

Although fishermen accompany the waves day and night and enjoy the gifts brought by the waves, few people care about what the world looks like under the waves. If we incarnate as a fish, we will have a deeper understanding of the waves on which fishermen depend. We are fish living on land.

By observing the swimming state of fish underwater, it can be found that the swimming trajectory of fish in the water blurs the level and boundary of space, and the spatial characteristic that can foster horizontal and vertical free shuttle is the so-called flowability of space.

The shape of the wave is gradually abstracted from complex to simple, and the final shape is extracted as the overall shape of the project, which expresses the theme "under the wave", and also creates a land landscape undulating on the beach, reflecting the fantasy of the project.

Skylights

Five skylights are set on the roof of the project. The light from the skylights can be seen but not reached, attracting people to keep chasing the light like fish. At the same time, these five skylights also serve as guides in the east-west direction.

Teahouse: Scroll

Site: Xiamen, China

Fall 2020

Instructor: Zhao When

Personal Work

Located in Xiamen University, the project is a place for teachers and students to drink tea, visit and rest. I take the action of curling as the driving force of the whole project, extract and deconstruct the concepts of traditional Chinese landscape painting and traditional Chinese garden, and finally endow the project with the spatial characteristics of traditional culture by using modern design techniques so that the teahouse is not only a building but also a carrier of culture and metaphor.

This project also tries to combine Colin Rowe's Phenomenon Transparency theory with traditional Chinese garden design theory, to create a rich tour experience for people in a limited space and realize the integration of traditional culture and modern theory at the theoretical level.

Scroll Concept Context & Site Plan

Traditional Chinese landscape painting adopts the method of scattered point perspective. Due to the length of the scroll, visitors have to walk while viewing the painting. In this way, the person watching the painting seems to be in the scenery of the painting. If we roll up the painting and make holes in it, sceneries can be juxtaposed on one spot and we can enjoy them at the same time. In this case, we realize the superposition of information and atmosphere, which is called Phenomenon Transparency.

Peep at Framed Scenery

Scenery Counterpoint

There are four types of forms of window holes, which can meet the tourists' space experience of peeping at the chink, root, crown, and whole and enrich visitors' visual experience.

The landscape counterpoint comes from the Chinese traditional garden. Make use of the opposite scenery, barrier scenery, and clamp scenery to enrich visitors' tour experience.

Curling Iteration

1. The strip-shaped interior space and courtyard space are rolled in side by side.

2. Rotating the inner wall to weaken the sense of direction of the space.

3. The attributes of indoor space and courtyard space are replaced with each other.

4. Break up the interior space and courtyard space.

5. Reorganize the interior space and courtyard space orderly.

Hiding and Exposing

The roof is cut to provide ramps to connect the upper and lower platforms. The height relationship of the interior part of the wall is reversed to prevent the internal space of the building from being seen at a glance.

Field Breaking

By creating window holes, the courtyard and indoor space penetrate each other, blurring the boundary between indoor and outdoor. By adding terraces, we can further realize the mutual integration of architecture and nature.

Functional Partition

The trapezoid is a shape that represents kinetic energy. One of the meanings of shaping the rooms in the teahouse into trapezoids is that the trapezoidal spatial form can create an invisible force, which urges tourists to visit from one room to another and from one landscape to another in the teahouse.

All rooms in the teahouse are connected in series by using a linear Route to complete a spatial narrative in the painting. The walls and space are elongated, and tourists become both observers and participants in the painting.

Network Heterotopia

Fall 2021

Instructor: Dewen Ju

Personal Work

In the Internet age, the network world has become an extension of the real world and the main platform for people to communicate. The law of individual behavior and the phenomenon of mutual penetration and integration of the private sphere and public sphere are exposed in the network world.

This project combines Foucault's heterotopia concept, Habermas' public sphere theory, and Roland Barthes' signification system, trying to use the disassembly and reorganization of the concept and form of space to present a real network heterotopia.

Foucault's "heterotopia" is a real-world, but people should understand the real meaning of the world through people's imagination. People should imagine the world through their brains, not through their eyes.

Roland Barthes

According to the third-grade signification system, we can use architectural space to express public sphere theory.

Habermas

The public sphere refers to an open environment and extensive public participation; The private sphere means covert, private personal activities, and intimate relationships. Traditionally, the public sphere and the private sphere are opposite.

The public sphere corresponds to thinking, and the private sphere corresponds to emotion. these two human behavior characteristics are closely related to human organs. Human medicine shows that the brain represents thinking, and the five human viscera represent the five most basic human emotions.

Organ Translation

The structural features of organs and sensory features of emotions are extracted and translated into space. The translated space is orderly arranged to form the public sphere and the private sphere.

Pernetrate And Break

The Changing Process Of Spheres

The Traditional Form

The public sphere is open to each other; The private sphere is isolated from each other.

The public sphere, which should be objective and rational, has been mixed with the subjective emotion of the private sphere.

The

in The Future

Emotions in the private sphere are influenced by positions in the public sphere.

The private sphere permeates each other and is gradually open, and privacy no longer exists.

Rooftop Walk

Site: Busan, South Korea

Fall 2021

Instructor: Bo Pang

Group Work with Xiyan Huang, Xuyun Lin

Role: Research and Concept 35%, Design 70%, Drawings 60%

The project site can be seen as a typical location that properly evidences the past and present status of Busan. There are commercial areas, residential development behind the traditional market, public offices, and schools, but the streets are under very bad conditions: there we can see only the least spaces for passage, not enough facilities or spaces where pedestrians can stay for a moment

This project is to create pedestrian-friendly urban milieus within the distance of 15 minutes the average time is taken for a human being to walk 1 km and suggest spaces where residents can stay communicating with one another.

Site Analysis

Problems and Strategies

According to the different needs of residents, 8 lines with different themes and from different layers are created. These linear spaces become the carriers of events and provide a platform for the communication of people from different groups.

Space Type Examples

20 space types with different functions and forms are used to meet the different daily activities needs of residents. And the same space type can be used on a variety of theme footpaths.