Yaowen Zhang - Architecture Undergraduate Application Portfolio Bartlett, AA, CSM, Edinburgh

YAOWEN ZHANG PORTFOLIO ARCHITECTURE DESIGN 2019-2020

Architecture has healing and restorative abilities, and that architects have a responsibility to design buildings which harness this power - James Polshek

My interest of architectural design develop with my love and appreciation of immersive installation art, which combines social attributes, functionality, and aesthetics in a specific space. The dissemination, experience and sociality of installation art make me think that it may be the most architectural form of expression within modern art.

Installation art is concerned to focus on the artist's formal or conceptual ideas. Architecture to me follows a similar structure, but it needs to consider the essence of architectural design as an applied art and the combination of its functionality and aesthetic. When I consider a space, it is not merely a shell to inhabit, it is an embodiment of people's imagination and knowledge, with a complex, subtle underlyingly influence on those that use the space.

Architecture can be the carrier of time, and the trace of time just stays in the atmosphere of architecture. Atmosphere is a field that combines materials, structure, contributor, temperature and the trace of the occupant 's life together, maps them into the occupant's heart and forming a subtle and imperceptible attraction top the space. Architecture is like a reflection of human environment from the perspective of time and space. Compared with installation art, which have a more outward and artistic expression, and the atmosphere of architecture is more introverted and permanent.

The progression of architecture, which lies hand in hand witWh that of art, is endless and ceaseless, and I hope to have an opportunity to further explore this in an institution where my creative potential can be pushed and where I can gain various transferable skills to apply to my future career in architecture.

CONTENTS

[REPAYING NATURE] -- Environment Art

01

[THE POTENIAL OF PAPER] -- Modeling

04

[LIFE POSSIBILITY] -- Installtion Art

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[BREATHE AREA] -- Public Installation Art

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[TEXTURE] -- Modeling

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[FOMULA] -- Immersive Installation Art

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[SIGN SCULPTURE FOR XINNAN WORLD] -- Sculpture Design

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[INSTALLATIONS DESIGN FOR CHINESE CHARITY FAIR] -- Interactive Installation Design, Internship

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[MONDAY MORNING] -- Short Film

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[ARTWORK]

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[SKETCHBOOK]

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ENVIRONMENT ART

01. REPAYING NATURE Environmental art, Photography, Newspaper | 2 Months in 2020 The deforestation of trees has been getting worse and worse.

We should think about how to repay the nature. I used the most childlike way to repay the nature, fill the nature product - papers back into nature. This action is certainly useless, but I want to use this absurd behavior to arouse people to think about how to really return to nature.

01

ENVIRONMENT ART

FIELD TRIP On a walk in the mountains, I saw many trees that had been painted and carved by people, which made me wonder how we should respect these trees. Having identified newspapers as the main material, I looked at the textures of many trees.

TESTING 2 I made a lot of models out of Chevy boards and newspapers to imitate

the texture and feature of different type of trees . Then according to the test results, I drew some sketch of the final product.

TESTING 1 I found that the newspaper is very good water imbibition, then I put some seeds into a newspaper with water, after three weeks, it finally sprouted. This proves that newspaper have vitality and it can

replace some living things in nature.

WEEK - 1

02

WEEK - 2

WEEK - 3

ENVIRONMENT ART

BANYAN - IMITATE THE ROOT

COCONUT TREE - IMITATE TREE TRUNK TEXTURE

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COCONUT TREE - IMITATE THE ROOT

PLUMARIA - IMITATE THE TRUNK

PLUMARIA - IMITATE THE TRUNK

THE POTENTIAL OF PAPER (ON-GOING)

04

Shigeru Ban's application of a single material -- paper tube gave me some inspiration about invest the potential of a single material - paper.

This is one of the work I participated in designing during my internship, a room for displaying the progress of charitable achievements. The design of this room is inspired by the curved or folded edges of paper. I think the discussion of a material is endless, and the plasticity of a material is also infinite

INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION

Interactive Installation Paper | 3 weeks in 2021 We all want to make ourselves appear more mature or younger by playing the role of another age. I used paper to create several shadows. When the audience merged with the shadow, he might see another self.

05

INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION

The clarity of the light's shadow on the audience’s face depends on the thickness and amount of the paper, the distance of the light, and the distance between the paper and the audience. In order to find the most appropriate thickness and distance, I conducted some testing and finally completed this interactive work which focus on investaged the intuitive facial changes such as sagging apple muscles and wrinkles.

13 06

THE POTENTIAL OF PAPER/MODEL - TESTING

Model, Paper | 3 Weeks in 2019 A piece of paper is 2D, but it can turn to 3D by cutting, sliding and folding. Incorporating curve, straight lines, circles, triangles, squares and rectangles, the paper pops up from the background and form artistic configuration.

05 07

THE POTENTIAL OF PAPER/MODEL - TESTING

I used nine pieces of 9cm x 9cm paper. I think the interesting part of this work is that it can discuss not only the site planning, but also the production of building models and the building facade.

06 08

THE POTENTIAL OF PAPER/MODEL - TESTING

Model, Paper | 2 weeks in 2020 One piece of paper were cut into three part and three object were constructed. Factors like spacial relationship, light and shadow, and practicability were integrated in this piece. I set the production direction of these objects in the direction of architectural design, and indirectly discussed the application of paper in the process of model making.

07 09

THE POTENTIAL OF PAPER/MODEL - TESTING

The inspiration of this work comes from the design of MAD Studio's Yiwu Grand Theater. The architect used sulphate paper for the model and this translucent paper brings a lightweight atmosphere to the whole work. This work made me start to notice the application of paper in model making and atmosphere creation. This work also discussed how to establish the relationship between individual buildings and building groups. Compared with the previous 2D to 3D, the starting point of this work is more pure space, and the audience is considered in the model

08 10

THE POTENTIAL OF PAPER/COSTUME DESIGN - TESTING

Costume design, Paper | 2 weeks in 2019 What kind of collision would occur when experience and costume design elements were added to art works?

09 11

THE POTENTIAL OF PAPER/COSTUME DESIGN - TESTING

I cut out different radians and sizes of arcs on three pieces paper respectively, so that they cover each other and merge into the shape of human body. This work create a workable costume concept by bending, cutting, folding and overlapping paper, and discusses the application of paper in clothing design. The starting point of this work is people, which more purely discusses the application of paper on human body. In fact, costume design can also be regarded as a small space design starting from people.

12

INSTALLATION ART

LIFE POSSIBILITIES Installation art, Mixed medium | 3 weeks in 2020 Freud summed up his life before the age of 20 into five stages, which made me start to think about my current stage of life. I also divide my life into five stages.

13

INSTALLATION ART

When the cylinders are suspended, they are parallel to the ground and arranged from large to small. When we look through the first cylinder, we can easily see the next four cylinders, but we cannot see the first four through the fifth cylinder. It means that we will never return to the limitless possibilities stage of our childhood. I love a quote by Picasso, “It took me four years to learn to paint like Raphael, but it took me a lifetime to paint like a child.”

14

INSTALLATION ART

Materials and emotional expression is one of the directions I explore in this work.

I define a theme for each stage and a material that can interpret the emotion of the theme. In the first stage, when I was 0-3 years old, I thought that what I had at that time was infinite possibilities, so I only adopted the metal frame and did not use other materials to define emotions.

3-7 years old was a happy childhood

for me. According to color psychology, rainbow colors can usually represent happy and diverse emotions, so I used PVC laser paper and light collision to

create rainbow colors. 7-12 years old is relatively dark for me, so I used the movie

3-7

7-12

12-15 12-15

15-18

I was most afraid of in my childhood -- Coraline's black wool and buttons to express this stage. From the age of

12-15 ,

I began to reflect on my own

advantages and decided to plan for the future, so I used mirror paper to represent the process of reflection. When I was 15-18 years old, I had a clear direction for the future, but I still wanted to live a more adventurous life, which made me confused, so I used fluorescent sticks to create a psychedelic atmosphere.

16 15

BREATHE AREA Poblic Installation Art | 4 weeks in 2021 With the development of social media and advertising, people are losing interest in exploring architecture or even any form of art. When we explore architecture, we are used to using our eyes instead of other senses, but this also greatly limits our perception of the architectural atmosphere. Therefore, I want to build a breathe area that can be implanted into any space, so as to arouse the audience's interest in observing buildings

16

TESTING AND CONSTRUCTION At the beginning of the work, I conducted research and testing on rice paper to make sure that I could explore its advantages. I found that rice paper has good strength and light transmittance, so I hope to design the whole structure by virtue of these two characteristics of rice paper. I think Cube can represent the unit of space and building construction, but this structure itself is not stable, so I added three support columns in each of the top corners of Cube to ensure the stability of the structure

17

I use the translucent feature of rice paper to block the sight of the audience, so that they could focus their attention on other senses, such as hearing, smell and touch. Finally, I used multisensory stimulation to arouse the audience's interest in the building

18

MODEL

05. TEXTURE Model, Staple | 3 weeks in 2020 In architecture, different kind of tectures can change a lot in the impression a building could give to people viewing it, then I used different texture with different arrangement to create this interesting piece.

17 19

MODEL

TESTING The stapler has uniform shapes and strong plasticity, which means that the effect of the final product depends on the arrangement and my creativity, which Is what I want to practice in discussing the application of single materials. I bent, cut and arranged the stapler to explore more deeply the possibility of a single material arrangement on the building's facade. At the same time, some pieces explore the concept of combining the miniature city, making the stapler have more diverse changes.

18 20

FORMULA Installation art, Academic research, Dry ice arcylic board | 3 weeks in 2020 Robin Collyer, Kersten Geers and Sharon Johnston's speech about the discussion on "Economy of mean" at Lisbon Triennale has made me start to presume how to quantify a successful architecture and artwork. Rowan Moore mentioned a formula in "Why We Build" - Environment X Construction X Marketing = Value. This formula successfully quantifies the Palm Islands in Dubai as a successful commercial building group,

IMMERSION + ENVIRONMENT + CONSTRUCTION + SENSORY STIMULI = CONSCIOUSNESS TO CONVEY

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People's understanding of installation art is largely derived from the inherent thinking, the origin of installation art is to combine multiple life scenes and commodity, it just WWlike the inherent thinking in mathematics - 1 + 1 = 2, which everyone knows, so as long as I make the art formula as simple as 1 + 1 = 2, then the work can be understood by the public. For a more professional audience, What I need is to make the background of the work stronger - make the formula of 1 + 1 = 2 more complicated internally.

IMMERSIVE INSTALLATION ART - 1

The choice of whether to smoke or not is one of the choices every teenager has to go through when they enter into the society. This work is intended to reflect this kind of social phenomenon and guide the audience to think about the option to smoke. In this work, each box represents a family, which is a unit of the society. And three families can form a society. For sensory stimulation, I added the smell of smoke in the room, which brought an olfactory shock to the audience. In the choice of environment, I chose a narrow indoor environment, which makes the sensory stimulation of the whole work more intense.

22

IMMERSIVE INSTALLATION ART - 2

Air pollution has always been the main cause of poor air quality. This work explores the relationship between social factors and air pollution, as well as the application of the formula. The damage to nature caused by air pollution is obvious, and the chain reaction will also cause irreparable harm to human beings, just like the traces left by dry ice on acrylic sheets. I think this work is a work with a time dimension. When the dry ice sublimates, it will be beautiful, but behind the dry ice, there are indelible traces on the acrylic plate. For the formula, I changed

the environment and the sensory stimuli, which resulted in different ideas being communicated.

23 20

SCULPTURE DESIGN

SIGN SCULPTURES FOR XINNAN WORLD Sculptures Design| 3 weeks in 2020

23

INSTALLATIONS GUIDE LINE

TEN MINUTES OF DISABILITY

INTERACTIVE INSTALLATIONS LOCATION MAP

TEAR

PLASTIC BOTTLE

CHARITY BLIND BOX YOU AND SHADOW

INSTALLTIONS DESIGN FOR THE 8TH CHINESE CHARITY FAIR visual and perceptible charity

24

During the summer of 2020, I interned at Sancao Muwen Shenzhen Architectural Firm. I participated in the interactive installation design for the 8th China Charity Fair. This internship experience has helped me learn many practical skills applicable when working in architectural practices, such as site planning and the use of Ai, Sketch up and other software. There are two people in charge of this project, and I am mainly responsible for preliminary planning, idea development and communication with Party A.

BOOKS AND CHILDREN'S LIVES

MERITORIOUS ROOM

INTERACTIVE INSTALLATIONS DESIGN

MERITORIOUS ROOM

Photo display area

The inspiration of the work comes from the charity club, which is a circulatory whole. The inspiration of the building itself comes from the use of paper. We use paper to imitate the building facade, combine, fold and bend to form a whole, and finally find the plan with the strongest visual impact.

Size: 9m x 9m Construction: gypsum board

PRINCIPLES OF DIMENSIONAL DESIGN OF INTERACTIVE INSTALLATIONS

Exits and Entrances

TEN MINUTES OF DISABILITY

The entrance area A - 1

The entrance area A - 2

Experience Area 1 The entrance area B - 1

TEAR

25

Experience Area 2

The entrance area B - 2

There is a links in Area A: 1. Silent dialogue: Participant A is required to present the learning sign language to Participant B. During the process, both parties are required to wear headphones and cannot speak for 3 minutes.

There are two links in Area B: 1. Learning in mobile Phone blind mode: Participant B learns the operation process of mobile phone in blind mode, with a time limit of 3 minutes.

3. Sign language transmission: Contestant B needs to input the statement that he/ she thinks is the correct option into the mobile memo in the blind mode.

In order to ensure the effectiveness of the device, each layer of the Mosaic size is different, the first will be a cover picture of the white paper, second picture is made up of 20 cm x 20 cm Mosaic paintings, the third layer is 15 cm x 15 cm Mosaic paintings, on the fourth floor is 10 cm x 10 cm of Mosaic paintings, while the last layer is a painting of the children, from this arrangement. There will be no threshold for the project, and everyone in the audience will be able to tear off the Mosaic stickers and take them away as souvenirs.

Size: 3M x 9m Construction: backplane, paper

INTERACTIVE INSTALLATIONS DESIGN BOOKS AND CHILDREN'S LIVES

MERITORIOUS ROOM

TEAR

MERITORIOUS ROOM

26

TEN MINUTES OF DISABILITY

TEAR

BOOKS AND CHILDREN'S LIVES

PAINTING

Japanese street 80cm x 60cm Arcylic color 2017 hours

CAT 80cm x 60cm Arcylic color 2018 8 hours

DRAWING STUDY FOR ONGOING PROJECT HAND

29

I like the process of drawing creation because it is like a period of time outside of independence and life. I can immerse myself in the conception and use of drawing techniques. This study of hands grasping at the air follow pervious work using smoke and other insubstantial vapour.

Seaside 30cm x 20cm Oli Color, Palette Knife 2018 7 hours

S K E T C H B O O K

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