UCL MArch Architecture Design Application Portfolio of QIAN ZHANG

APPLICATION FOR MArch ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

[PORTFOLIO] 2021-2022

SELECTED WORKS

QIAN ZHANG

BArch, Chongqing University, China Application Number: 23114465 Email: qianzcqu@outlook.com Tel: 86-18202293307

QIAN ZHANG

Email: qianzcqu@outlook.com Tel: 86-18202293307

EDUCATION

Chongqing University (CQU)

Bachelor of Architecture | Major: Architecture

GPA: 3.4/4.00 | Average score: 84.31/100

CAMBRIDGE AI+ ACADEMIC PROGRAMME

Score: 97.8/100

About: Site and Route Optimization of Public Trash Disposal System Based on Artificial Intelligence

Advisor: Prof. Katrina Rust, Thomas'Sauerwald, and Pietro Lio'

Outcome: Awarded with “BEST GROUP”

INTERNSHIP

China Merchants She Kou Real Estate (Chongqing) Co., Ltd

Assistant Architect

Detail: - Modification of the general drawing of the forced emission project of Guizhou Party School

- 2t12 plan drawing; architecture layout and general layout adjustment of Chongqing Orchid Village Project

Sept. 2018 - Jun. 2023

Jul. - Aug. 2021

PROLOGUE

I fervently painted Vincent's Bedroom in Arles while sat at the 2018 Central Academy of Fine Arts entrance exam venue. That is when my initial conceptions of how space was created emerged. My desire to become an architect was bolstered when I realised that even a modest space should have an aesthetic perception of perspective. I ultimately enrolled at Chongqing University to pursue a degree in architecture after placing first in Tianjin despite the challenge of balancing a rigorous academic workload with the pursuit of artistic expression. Initially, becoming an art student presented me with some difficulties. My creative and compassionate nature frequently hampered my design processes. In spite of this, precisely these delicate and intuitive characteristics emancipated my mind from the confines of conventional design doctrine and inspired me to explore the creativity, humanity, and possibilities embedded in architecture.

My passion for architectural algorithms and cutting-edge technology stems from my enrollment at the Cambridge AI+ Academic Programme during my junior summer vacation. This was my first attempt to use algorithmic AI to address the problem of optimising the site and route of public trash disposal. My group was eventually acknowledged as the "BEST GROUP". This led me to believe that technology can be coupled with artistic ability and concern for humanity. With all their cold discipline, science and technology serve humanism with all its warm sympathies. Using the power of science and technology, I envisioned making this world a more hospitable place to live. Considering the passage of time, I attempt to bridge the gap between the past, present, and future by integrating technological developments into architecture.

My undergraduate education has equipped me with architectural theories and practice, providing a solid academic foundation that let me stand out from competitors. Throughout my graduate studies, I intend to acquire state-of-the-art knowledge and technology to investigate the intersection of architecture and technology and to assume an architect's humanistic care and social responsibility. The cutting-edge scientific and technological resources and pedagogies at the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture can assist me to achieve my career goals and develop my self-worth. Simultaneously, my affinity for architectural algorithms, expertise in artificial intelligence automation, and sensitivity to artistic aesthetics can contribute to the programme.

Extracurricular activities have enabled me to build strong leadership and communication abilities in addition to an excellent academic record. I was the freshmen representative in 2018, addressing nearly 6,400 students and faculty. Concurrently, my passion for art never diminished. In addition to my lifelong hobby of painting, I founded a hip-hop club with my schoolmates and participated in several competitions. My professional knowledge, experiences, and passion for learning have equipped me with new responsibilities. have long wished I could use my paintbrush to make the world a more pleasant place to live. Life is filled with obstacles and opportunities, but I am prepared to dedicate myself to enhancing the lives of others and making the world a better place.

Jan. - Feb. 2021

COMPETITION

2022 WUPENiCity International Competition on Students Course Work of Urban Design Nomination Award

Project: - Welcome to Metacity

About: - A future shared, neuron, smart city design based on digitalize, network and intellectualize

Detail: - Conceptual design, overall modeling

- Modeling of urban brain-neuron system using Physarum (Slime Mold) Simulations, modeling of intelligent connection resource tower and its surface

- Completion of all the effect drawings

ACTIVITY

Volunteer |Community Anti Covid-19 Nucleic Acid Tests2012

Member| Fine Arts Department of Student Union

One of the founders | School Mustang Hip Hop Club

- Top 2% in School Sign Language Dance Competition

Student Representative of 2018 CQU Freshmen

Member| Future Architects School Club

PROFICIENCY

Language English (IELTS: 7) | Mandarin (Native)

Skill Advanced: Photoshop, Auto CAD, Rhino, Grasshopper, Sketch-Up Adobe Illustrator, Lumion, Enscape

Beginning: Blender, V-ray

Hobby Drawing: More than ten years of systematic art training before entering university, including sketch, watercolour, gouache

Dance: Chinese dance, hip hop, K-pop dance

Jul. 2022

2022 2019-2021 2019 2019 2018 2018

01 NEW TSUKIJI

Acdemic Studio

October, 2021

Site: Tokyo, Japan

Individual Work

With the arrival of the Olympics in 2020, the government can finally move Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market into the Toyosu Market because of the old market’s limited function. Due to the relocation, the split between the inner and outer markets increases transportation costs and cuts down the connection with the city. The TSUKIJI CULTURE is slowly dying out in the highly closed, technologically intelligent Toyosu indoor market.

While that doesn't mean the old TSUKIJI FISHING MARKET is perfect, it also shows some shortcomings. To begin with, people in the Tsukiji only focus on the exterior, giant signboard with striking Fish-logo and Janpanese, but failling to address the traditional spatial in the interior. Secondly, compact and dense shops and narrow and crowded streets not only can not carry the growing number of people and goods, but also are far from the traditional Japanese space which major focusing on private. Thirdly, the closure of the inner market makes people only experience part of the Tsukiji process and cannot touch the core of the TSUKIJI CULTURE.

Therefore, this thesis aims to adapt the traditional TSUKIJI typologies into modern programs, bringing forth the TSUKIJI-NESS through spatial organization rather than symbols and decorations to reconcile the interiorexterior relationship. And depending on functions, generating vary-sized space forms assorted and efficient routes. I hope this project can represent the complete TSUKIJI CULTURE to the public, forming a group space that is daily and ritualistic and closely related to the city.

market: sketch stall plans. Credit: Alice Colverd and Alexander McLean.

Inner

--Renovation of Tokyo's Tsukiji Fish Market

1868

Initial Fishing Booaming 1970

Due to policy support and the unique geographical location near the sea and the city, the Tsukiji market has developed rapidly by relying on fisheries.

Although rapid urbanization has accelerated the growth of the Tsukiji market, it has become more incompatible with surrounding cities. The barrier between citizens and TSUKIJI culture is increasing.

Abandoned & Fading Culture

Relocating to Toyosu Indoor Market makes people more disconnected from the TSUKIJI culture. The vacancy of the original site provides space for the regeneration of the TSUKIJI culture

In the summer of 2018, when I walked into Tsukiji Market, its internal organization was chaotic , with the constant flow of trucks, forklifts and people making me confused. If you are not a character who has been here all year round, it will be difficult to appreciate and enjoy TSUKIJI.

According to the 4 processes of the old TSUKIJI market, I devided the modular unit into 4 categories. When extracting and retaining the TSUKIJI culture and function , I try to translated the traditional typology into a modern program to solve its overcrowded and chaotic problems. Combinning with public modular unites, I want to use it to provide a transition zone for the general public, and enhance the bonding between the TSUKIJI market and the city.

Extension of Urban Texture

The road structure of the site is determined according to the surrounding urban texture, so that the site scale can be integrated into the city.

Partition under OLD

YSUKIJI Process

According to the order of commodity logistics and spatial flow in the old Tsukiji Market, creat the functional partitions.

Reshape Street with Modular Units

Reproduce the old market streets and alleys by combining the units extracted from the space in the original Tsukiji Market.

Insert Roof according to

Old TSUKIJI

The giant roof is extracted from the shape of the main building of the original Tsukiji market and reconstructed to form a lighter and more integrated shape.

Reconnection to

Landscape

Using landscape and urban monomers to provide buffer zones makes the whole design more integrated into the city and makes it easier for people to use.

East Ginza Waterfront

Internal Perspective

02 BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

--Bohemian Residence Complex

Acdemic Studio May, 2021

Site: Belgrade, Serbia

Focus on the present, technology can give displaced people a roof over their heads. Bohemian camper vans have long been an important cultural icon and shelter for their communities' members. Since Bohemians were still living a nomadic life, began my Bohemian Rhapsody project in Belgrade's Bohemian slum to deal with the social oppression in the face of European migration by creating flexible, mobile communities whose residents could quickly build modular parts as needed. The prefab home takes shape from a bohemian camper van, which could grow or shrink to fit the people’s needs who live in it. The residents' everyday lives were connected by the marketplace located between the residential buildings. It encouraged a vibrant commercial and cultural environment for a more robust local economy and standard of living. Therefore, it evolved into an adaptable community that could be deployed either temporarily or permanently.

Photo credit: dejan_k/Shutterstock.com

Serbia, the bohemian neighborhood of Belgrade.Credit:shutterstock@Cryptographer

A typical Bohemian family consists of three generations, the grandparents and their sons and daughters-in-law, and the sons and daughters-in-law's children, reflecting the heavy family values of Bohemians. The towers in the project are inspired by this extended family system, and are realized through the logic of prefabricated modules, extended family group, community. The large family group is placed on the core tube in a suspended structure. The prefabricated modules can change according to the addition and removal of family members. Bohemians will live here in the extended family system, free from vagrancy.

Sava River View

Strategy

03 BETWEEN THE MOUNTAINS AND THE WATERS

1. Analyze the current status of site accessibility and clarify goals. 2. Set up roads to enhance the northsouth accessibility of the site.

3. The training hall is sunken and the greenery of the site is increased.

4. Establish a site roof to create a semioutdoor space.

5. Refine the shape and link the roofs together. 6. The cable stayed bridge is designed to connect the east and west sites.

Site Plan 1:500

7. Southeast facing main viewing surface to appreciate the building form. 1. Feel the vitality of the site from the northwest sub-viewing surface. N

Between the Mountains and the Waters medium-sized gymnasium is located on Democracy Lake in Area A of Chongqing University. Inspired by the fluid geometry of water in motion, it creates a space and environment for the surrounding area that is consistent with the landscape of Chongqing University's campus. The gracefully curved roof sweeps across the ground like a wave, blossoming in the middle of the lake in a consistent and fluid morphological language, while revealing the volume of the medium-sized gymnasium. The design of the cable-stayed bridge echoes the distant mountains in form and connects the east and west sites in function, increasing the accessibility of the stadium. Between the Mountains and the Waters stadium is flexible enough to accommodate the size and capacity of professional events, while at the same time accommodating the size and volume of post-event training for athletes and sporting activities for residents and students.

Technical and economic index

Total Site Area 11472m2

Total Floor Area13197m2

Plot Ratio 1.15

Site coverage Intensity60.8% Green Ratio 16%

Underground Garage Area836.7m2 Parking Space for Vehicles (Underground) 30

Acdemic Studio February, 2022

Site: Chongqing, China

--Medium-sized gymnasium design on campus Individual Work

04 DOOMSDAY SHELTER

--Underground Skyscraper Conceptual Design

Summer Studio

June, 2022

Site: Chongqing, China

Team Work: Zhang Qian, Xia Junbo

ROLE IN TEAM: Modeling: 50% Design:50% Drawing:50%

War is an old theme, though time flies— From the Peloponnese to today's Eastern Europe, the iron cavalry of Ares

Driven by the foolish desires of man, Stepping through the peaceful city, People's beautiful life will be wiped out.

Destruction and rebuilding again and again, changing Just the way the city is ruined.

When Pandora's box is opened, Mixed with the desire of human expansion, the end of everything, Will come as the mushroom cloud disperses. The city is reduced to ashes, the fire spreads over the earth, All life is gone Where is the human race going?

816 project site cave current status model map.

PEACEFUL USE OF WAR FACILITIES

The site is located in Chongqing, China, hidden in the mountains. Originally a production site for nuclear weapons raw materials, due to the unique geological environment the entire project has a strong anti-destructive power, and it is a useful location for a doomsday city after the outbreak of a nuclear war in the future.

RESIDENCE INDUSTRY PLANE CONNECTION

INITIALBOX-1

INITIALBOX-2

PUBLIC SPACE PLANETATION VERTICAL CONNECTION

INITIALBOX-4

INITIALBOX-5 INITIALBOX-6

05 CIVILIZATION TO THE YEARS

Site: Paris, France Individual Work

From a historical perspective, technology can bring ruined architectural heritage back to life and preserve it forever through virtual reality. In my project, Civilization to the Years, I reconstructed the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris with a touch of boldness after it was destroyed in a fire. I propose that one edifice embodies human civilization, demonstrating humanity's pursuit of exploring the world. Therefore, by adopting the water element as a design inspiration because of its capacity to hold and unite disparate factors, I borrowed heavily from the ocean element to express religion and race harmony, as well as the search for common ground while respecting individuality, to create a pantheon of human civilization. In this context, water served as a medium connecting the many forms of architectural styles worldwide. In my early design stage, I employed the AI-based painting tool, DISCO DIFFUSION, to create supplemental paintings that brought my conceptual image of the ideal city to reality. I designed the skin to mimic the bark of a tree to conceal the plumbing pipes that carried water to the various floors. The stairs were incorporated into the structures. After finishing the construction, visitors could use augmented reality on a smartphone to interact with the virtual components placed on top of the physical building materials. The space's switching scenery, including the rocks and waterfalls, could create the ambiance, completing the spiritual discourse with tourists.

Acdemic Studio October, 2022

--The Rebirth of Notre Dame de Paris

Of The

The

Portal Of The Last Judgement

Rooster

The west rose window is found on the front of NotreDame Cathedral.

In the center, the Virgin and Child are flanked by the King of France and the Bishop of Paris, a testament to the close ties between royalty and Christendom.

During their day at Notre Dame in Paris, the faithful began to imagine what the real Garden of Eden would be like.

In the Bible, God created Adam from clay and Eve from Adam's rib, and raised them in a paradise full of exotic flowers. Human beings originated from the clay and became one with nature.

The faithful witnessed this sad scene on the banks of the Seine. They were determined to rebuild Notre Dame at all costs.

What a holy sight it would be if the rose window consisted of real roses and plants!

OTHER PROJECTS

Plastic Polypropylene Sheet Design and Construction

This is a field construction project using pp sheets. We took advantage of the light-transmitting properties of the pp sheets in the form of a spire to highlight the divinity with the aid of light. We purchased 1.2m long, 3mm diameter thin steel bars and inserted them into the pp sheets of the two sheets to complete the connection between the two sheets. This type of connection makes good use of the fact that the pp sheets have a channel in the middle and that the same connection is not applicable to other materials and has its own specificities.

Welcome to Metacity

-Based on digital, networked and intelligent shared brain-neuron

Acdemic Studio July, 2022

Site: Chongqing, China

Team Work: Zhang Qian, Zhang Shuning

Role in Team: Modeling: 80% Design:70% Drawing:70%

Through the construction of "urban brain - core hub of logistics, transportation and life" (community smart ring) and "neuron smart perception pipe network" (intelligent connection resource tower), the design brings together the Internet of Things, Vision, etc.Utilize the urban brainneuron system to build an urban ecology for daily IoT socialization-prevention and control resource allocation during epidemics.

2022 WUPENiCity International Competition on Students Course Work of Urban Design Nomination Award

Urban Brain

Neighborhood Commercial

THANK YOU

QIAN ZHANG

BArch, Chongqing University, China Application Number: 23114465 Email: qianzcqu@outlook.com Tel: 86-18202293307