PORTFOLIO
QIAOQI DAI Harvard Graduate School of Design Master of Landscape Architecture I
CONTENT 01
ACROSS RACIAL AND INFRASTRUCTURAL BOUNDARIES
02
INTERWEAVED PUBLIC REALM
14
ADDITIVE CITY
22
URBAN NETWORK . MOUNTAIN TRAIL
32
REGENERATING SOVEREIGNTY
38
METROPOLITAN PARK
48
LOST MEMORY
52
SHARED ROOF
58
MUSEUM OF MUSEUMS
62
BEYOND BOOKS
70
OTHER WORKS
78
INTERGRATED PARK IN OVERTOWN, MIAMI | Urban Design & Landscape Architecture Design
02
CHARLES RIVER LINEAR PARK | Landscape Architecture Design
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REIMAGINE BOSTON HARBOR | Urban Design & Landscape Architecture Design
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DAYANG MOUNTAIN TRAFFIC SYSTEM DESIGN | Landscape Architecture Design
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PUERTO RICO'S JUANA DIAZ WATERSHED PROJECT | Research & Design
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REDESIGN CENTRAL PARK | Landscape Architecture Design
07
WOLONG MOUNTAIN TOURIST ROUTE | Landscape Architecture Design
08
SEDHIOU CULTURAL CENTER | Architecture Design
09
NEW SHANGHAI MUSEUM DESIGN | Architecture Design
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COMMUNITY LIBRARY | Architecture Design
WORKS DURING INTERNSHIP | MVVA ECO-IMMIGRANT | RESPONSIVE BROWNFIELD REMEDIATION TEMPORAL GARDEN | WOOD PAVILION THE JOURNEY | LANDFORM INTERVENTIONS IN FRANKLIN PARK ACTIVE GROUND | DYNAMIC PUBLIC VITALITY MAPPING
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ACROSS RACIAL AND INFRASTRUCTURAL BOUNDARIES [INTERGRATED PARK IN OVERTOWN, MIAMI] Exhibited in Multiple Miamis Exhibition in Harvard Graduation School of Design Fall 2018 | Group Work Collaborator:Chengzhang Zhang This project focuses on the Overtown neighborhood in Miami. Overtown, once a vibrant black community, has witnessed high poverty rates, vacancy, and land speculation due to segregation by racial and infrastructural boundaries. This project proposes an integrated park, which embodies an urban strategy focusing on breaking boundaries and bringing investment for public in color town while avoiding gentrification. 02
From Geological Barrier to Public Realm
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ACROSS RACIAL AND INFRASTRUCTURAL BOUNDARIES [INTERGRATED PARK]: SITE ANALYSIS Overtown, Miami This project focuses on the Overtown neighborhood near downtown Miami, home to a predominantly African-American population partly rooted in historic waves of migration. A source of skilled labor and cultural vitality through Miami’s rapid growth, Overtown has also been a target of racial discrimination, violence, and dispossession. Following decades of redlining and segregation, its vibrant commercial / entertainment district and residential neighborhoods were decimated by two interstate highway projects in the 1960s. As Miami transitioned into a major global hub for capital, innovation, and tourism in subsequent decades, Overtown experienced overwhelming public and private disinvestment. Today, the effects of real estate speculation and boom, together with climate change and sea level rise, compound pressures on the neighborhood.
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Miami | History, Agriculture, Hydrology
Site
Boundary
The site of this project is on the joint of I-395 highway and the east edge of Overtown, as well as the historical color line and currently a freight railway. Divided by these infrastructural and racial boundaries, the site has a large ratio of vacant land. A new investment of a park on the site, proposed by Florida Department of Transportation as part of I-395 Highway extension, is unfortunately highly tourism oriented. Our proposal, on the other hand, reorients this investment to a continuous public park, which create physical stitch under the highway and over the rail between disparate parts of the community, fostering productive landscape and culture education as well as more than 600 affordable housing units as a revitalization of the community.
Vacancy
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ACROSS RACIAL AND INFRASTRUCTURAL BOUNDARIES [INTERGRATED PARK]: URBAN STRATEGY & PAR Urban Strategy
Framework: Four Systems Vegetation System
1. Urban Framework Redirecting The park proposed by the project covers several existing blocks, and redirecting the existing urban framework.
2. Lowland | Hydrology The lowland of the topography collects water from both Highway and the site, and also increases the space beneath the Highway
Circulation System
3. Highland | Street Wall The park proposed by the project covers several existing blocks, and redirecting the existing urban framework. Architecture System
4. Affordable Housing Buildings locates on the corner of the blocks, which better define the borders of the blocks. The buildings contain mostly affordable housing.
5. Public Realm Reinforcement The buildings stand on top of the topography, leaving space for a continuous public realm, which extends across the site. 06
Hydrology System
RK FRAMEWORK Masterplan
Cultural Zone Affordable Housing + Cultural Facility
Affordable Housing + Art Facility
Overtown Cultural Plaza Sculpture Park Flooding Court
Affordable Housing + Educational Facility
Residential Zone Flooding Court Food Plaza Affordable Housing Community Garden WetLand Community Garden Affoardable Housing
Business Zone Commercial Complex + Residence Recreation Lawn
Commercial Plaza
Parking Lot
Commercial Complex + Residence
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ACROSS RACIAL AND INFRASTRUCTURAL BOUNDARIES [INTERGRATED PARK]: CULTURE ZONE & AFFOR Culture Zone Illustrative Axon
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RDABLE HOUSING Affoardable Housing
Prefabricated Affordable Housing Units
Housing Corridor & Vertical Circulation
Public Facility: Library
Public Platform
Retail & Parking
Affordable housing: lifted + prefabricated On the edge of the park there are building intensifications to increase the density as well as provide more than 600 affordable housing units for the community. The housing is an assembly of basic 1-bedroom prefabricated units which allow removing side wall to become a larger unit. A continuous open public realm is created by lifting the housing apartments from the ground.
Continuous public realm: productive programs The park extends to the underneath of the housing, converting from public to semi-public forming a continuous public realm. The public programs are designed to meet the need of the community, especially emphasizing the productive rather than consumptive programs in order to avert gentrification, including community garden in the park to provide access to healthy food as well as job opportunities, and cultural and economic programs addressing education, career development and incubator. 09
ACROSS RACIAL AND INFRASTRUCTURAL BOUNDARIES [INTERGRATED PARK]: MODELS Urban Model
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Block Prototypes
Culture Zone Model
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ACROSS RACIAL AND INFRASTRUCTURAL BOUNDARIES [INTERGRATED PARK]: RENDERINGS
Community Garden
Section Perspective 12
Flooding Court
Street View
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INTERWEAVED PUBLIC REALM [CHARLES RIVER LINEAR PARK] Nominated for Platform 10 Fall 2016|Individual Work Tutor:Francesca Benedetto, Silvia Benedito The linear park is sited along Charles River, south of Harvard Square, which is currently the city center of Cambridge. The park is expected to become a new public center of Harvard University and even Cambridge. Thus, in this design, the park needs to create a nice urban waterfront while at the same time connect it to the current city center. 14
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INTERWEAVED PUBLIC REALM [CHARLES RIVER LINEAR PARK]: URBAN PLAN Urban Strategy The Charles River and the Harvard Campus are connected through three major pieces of public realms in the park, the Square on the corner of main streets, the Bridge connecting Harvard dormitory community to the park, and the Beach facing the river. These three realms interlink with each other through a wide alameda which is lower than the street to avoid noise and be closer to water. The same material, grey granite, is used in the three major public spce while in different paving texture to create a consistence with subtle varieties of atmosphere.
1. Three Public Realms
2. Topography Layers
2. Vegetation Strategy 16
Masterplan
Zoom-in Plan
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INTERWEAVED PUBLIC REALM [CHARLES RIVER LINEAR PARK]: ILLUSTRATIVE DRAWINGS Detail Design The Bridge tilt up to control the visual accessibility when providing physical accessibility. The structure of the Bridge is created to have a consistency with tree branches. Under it lies a long bench, separating the Beach area with the alameda, at the same time providing seats for both side.
Zoom-in Section 1
Zoom-in Section 2
10 ft 5 ft 0 ft
Cross Section 1
10 ft 5 ft 0 ft
Cross Section 2 18
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INTERWEAVED PUBLIC REALM [CHARLES RIVER LINEAR PARK]: FINAL MODEL
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ADDITIVE CITY [BOSTON HARBOR URBAN DESIGN] Fall 2017 | Group Work | Graduate School of Design Tutor: Pablo Perez-Ramos, Sergio Lopez-Pineiro Collaborator: Timothy Wibster, Namjung King Since the modern period, the city, based on the capital and industry, is seeking stability and safety, trying to reject and control natural rhythm through all kinds of infrastructure. Human is isolated from changing nature, who however still comes back, as catastrope. Can we let the city embrace natural rhythm from the very beginning and look for a choreography of nature change and urban program based on time? In this project, rather than a top-down, fixed urban design, we prefer a bottom-up, additive urban design. A prototype is chosen for the additive urban design, with a topography system comes from grids which provides various hydrological functions. 22
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ADDITIVE CITY [BOSTON HARBOR URBAN DESIGN]: HYDROLOGY REASEARCH Hydrology Score SEA LEVEL TEMPERATURE PRECIPITATION POPULATION
The Dynamic Boston Harbor In the Boston area, the relationship between the land and the sea is an ever-changing entity, geologically speaking. As illustrated by the score above, in different time scale, different forces shaped or are still shaping the land and the sea. In 10000-year scale, Boston Harbor formed because its bedrock, Cambridge Argilite, is softer and erodes more easily than other bedrock to the North and South. During the glacial period, thousands of tons of ice were moved over the Bos24
ton Harbor, and since the bedrock is soft, a depression was created. Once the glaciers melted, 18,000 years ago, sea levels rose and the Boston Harbor was filled with water. In 100-year scale, a great land fill project has been implemented by Bostonians to transform the landscape of the city during the industrial revolution in Massachusetts. The once small hilly peninsula less than 800 acres wide gradually grew into the current Boston city. In 1-year scale, tides and storms is still shaping the land periodically. Together with the constant
sea level rise, these forces has proved that the land is never fixed. Thus, an urban design should embrace the dynamic forces. Through topographical and hydrological study with models, as shown on the right, we create a topography system which embraces dynamic hydrological conditions and provides various hydrological functions.
Process Models Step 1: Prototypes
Step 2: Iterations
Step 3: Materiality
Step 4: Transformation
Step 5: Programs
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ADDITIVE CITY [BOSTON HARBOR URBAN DESIGN]: TAXONOMY & FRAMWORK Phase I Topography
Phase II Vegetation Low Density
Phase III Architecture High Density
Residential
Phase IV Connecting Edges Mixed Use
Stair
40M x 40M
Amphitheator
Wall
Low Density
High Density
Residential
Mixed Use Sloped Wall
Ramp
+
Grotto
40M x 80M
Canal
Terrace 1:1 Low Density
High Density
Residential
Mixed Use
Terrace 1:2
Vegetated 1:1
80M x 80M
Vegetated 1:2
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Meadow
Framework
Phasing
Vegetation
Architecture
Circulation
Topography
Year 0
Year 10
Year 30
Development Taxonomy and Framework A prototype is chosen for the additive urban design, with a topography system comes from grids which provides various hydrological functions. There are three modules of units in the grid system. In each module there are several different typography conditions. Every unit has the equal potential while slightly different and dynamic relationship with water. When units come together, they work as a dy-
namic and adaptive framework, which can be analyzed as four interlinked systems. The first one is topography and water flows. The topography results in diverse water condition, both sea water and run off. The second system is circulation. The highest edges of units determine the primary circulation system, occasionally connected with bridges. The edge connectors form a secondary circulation system, which allows pedestrians to move freely between different units, while work-
ing as the most active public space system at the same time. The architecture system and the vegetation system are arranged base on the taxonomy. In term of phasing, the topography and the primary circulation system will be done in the first phase. Then the secondary circulation, buildings and vegetations can grow on it. The homogeneity with difference embeded in this framework allows uncertainty and flexibility to emerge on it. 27
ADDITIVE CITY [BOSTON HARBOR URBAN DESIGN]: FINAL DESIGN Plan As Prototype
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The logic of the protype is universal. The Boston harbor is one possible example of its application.
0
30M
1
2
11
4 5 3 9 7
1: Beach
10
2: Salt Marsh 3: Waterscape 4: Wetland 5: Forest 6: Plaza 7: Meadow 8: Low Density Residence 9: High Density Residence 10: Public Building 11: Office Building 12: Civic Park 28
6
8 12
Serial Sections
Salt Marsh
High Density Residence
Salt Marsh
Low Density Residence
Salt Marsh
Beach
Beach
Salt Marsh
Salt Marsh
Low Density Residence
Wetland
Low Density Residence
Plaza
Office Building
Salt Marsh
Salt Marsh
Public Building
Public Building
Plaza
Public Building
Forest
Wetland
Civic Park
Office Building
High Density Residence
Civic Park
Wetland
Low Density Residence
Forest
Low Density Residence
Waterscape
Meadow
Meadow
Low Density Residence
Office Building
Wetland
Wetland
Civic Park
Office Building
Civic Park
Wetland
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ADDITIVE CITY [BOSTON HARBOR URBAN DESIGN]: FINAL MODEL
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URBAN NETWORK . MOUNTAIN TRAIL [DAYANG MOUNTAIN TRAFFIC SYSTEM DESIGN] Young Bird Plan Suzhou Dayang Mountain Slow Traffic System Conceptual Design Competition [Top 3 | Final Result Pending] Fall 2018 | Group Work Collaborator: Yifan Cai Dayang Mountain is an overlap of the city and the nature in Suzhou, China. By introduce a slow traffic system, we stitch Dayang Mountain into the urban context as a “green core”, an urban park to improve the quality and attraction of the whole area. We propose a circuits system as an infrastructure network to connect the mountain to its surrounding context, to unfold its unique history and culture, to support the emergence of future programs. 32
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URBAN NETWORK.MOUNTAIN TRAIL [MOUNTAIN TRAFFIC SYSTEM]: SITE ANALYSIS & FRAMWORK From Geological Barrier to Public Realm Situated in the high-tech development zone between downtown Suzhou and Tai Lake Nature preservation area, Dayang Mountain is an overlap of the city and the nature. However, the mountain today is an enclave of untouched nature, a topographic barrier, a pure travelling destination in the highly developed, and still developing area. Within Dayang Mountain, its abundant natural and cultural resources are fragmental due to the lack to unifying and organizing. By introduce a slow traffic system, we stitch Dayang Mountain into the urban context as a “green core�, an urban park to improve the quality and attraction of the whole area. Rather than merely a natural sightseeing trail, what we proposed here is a circuits system as an infrastructure network to connect the mountain to its surrounding context, to unfold its unique history and culture, to support the emergence of future programs. The program-based slow traffic system generates a spatial structure of the site. It is a network of distinct path for walking, running and cycling. The cycling systems provide skeleton connections between culture and natural resources and the urban traffic system while a series of more detailed experience and more flexible connections are brought by the walking and running system. Based on the circuit framework, considering the surrounding urban programs and the natural and cultural resources within Dayang Mountain, several unique program areas, such as agritourism area, forest sports and adventure area, religious culture and art area and so on, are imagined to emerge. A series of path spatial prototypes is designed to correspond to various topographic and programmatic conditions. At each joint of cycling system and walking and running system, an artifact is placed. It is a 12-meter tall structure, serving as a beacon to guide the way, a rest stop to provide shelter and supplies and a milestone to give identity to the slow traffic system. The artifacts enhanced the visual connection of activities at different joints, generating a layer of visual network. Physically, visually and programmatically, the slow traffic system manages to unify the Dayang Mountain into its urban context with its identity enhanced.
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Plan 35
URBAN NETWORK.MOUNTAIN TRAIL [MOUNTAIN TRAFFIC SYSTEM]: TRAIL DEISGN Elevation
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Trail Prototypes
Gentle Slope
Gentle Slope
Medium Slope
Steep Slope
Steep Slope
Cliff
Mountainside Trail Rendering
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REGENERATING SOVEREIGNTY [PUERTO RICO'S JUANA DIAZ WATERSHED PROJECT] Published on Platform 11 Spring 2018 | Groupl Work | Graduate School of Design Tutor: Pablo Perez-Ramos, Sergio Lopez-Pineiro Collaborator: Isabel Brostella, Oi Wai Charity Cheung, Luis Flores, Jenjira Holmes, Varat Limwibul, Qiao Xu
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REGENERATING SOVEREIGNTY [PUERTO RICO'S JUANA DIAZ WATERSHED PROJECT]: CONTESTED GRO
Natural Hazard in Puerto Rico Puerto Rico is a victim of disaster capitalism as it moves to privatize services, including its power grid. As an commonwealth or unincorporated territory of the United States, for decades Puerto Rico has been left mostly neglected. More than four months after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, a third of the island’s residents lack electricity and many people still have no running water. Tomorrow, January 31st, 40
marks the date that the U.S. will end all emergency food and water aid to the people of Puerto Rico. This project seeks to dissolve the colonial frameworks and infrastructures which have historically failed to adapt to instability and which inherently rob Puerto Rican’s of their sovereignty, and then replace these with regenerative systems that harness the hurricane to support redistribution,
self-reliance, and self-management of Puerto Ricans’ rightful resources: water, soil, food, and public space. Our study of the Juana Diaz Watershed, home of the defunct Ft. Allen U.S. Military Base, demonstrates prototypical and systematic approaches in which sovereignty over the land and resources can be regained from the hands of the colonial hegemony in Puerto Rico.
OUND
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REGENERATING SOVEREIGNTY [PUERTO RICO'S JUANA DIAZ WATERSHED PROJECT]: VALLEY SECTION
Lago Guayabal and Lago Toa Vaca reservoirs The mainland of Puerto Rico is split latitudinally by the Cordillera Central, a mountain range which casts a rain shadow on the southern half of the island nurturing a dry tropical forest ecology. These lands are particularly suitable for agriculture as the absence of rain allows greater control of moisture.
the Lago Guayabal and Lago Toa Vaca reservoirs hold a vast volume of water. Fearing structural failure during Hurricane Maria, downstream residents were evacuated during the storm. The reservoirs held but the threat of future collapse looms large as climate change is predicted to intensify hurricane patterns.
Resting in the foothills of the Cordillera Central,
The reservoirs were initially constructed in 1913
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to service the sugarcane industry, but today the demand for water has been greatly diminished. Now the reservoir provides poor-quality drinking water to local towns which can no longer rely on independent wells since the reservoir has prevented recharge of the region’s groundwater aquifer.
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REGENERATING SOVEREIGNTY [PUERTO RICO'S JUANA DIAZ WATERSHED PROJECT]: PLANT POTRAIT & Plants As Politics Two complex but overarching conditions have led to the current state of economic and population instability in Puerto Rico. The first is colonial, or “post-colonial”, rule which has exploited Puerto Rico’s rich land first to the benefit of Spain for 300 years and the United States since 1900. For centuries, Puerto Rico’s colonial powers dictated that the island should be an agricultural powerhouse of introduced crops until the 1950s when policies like Operation Bootstrap were set in place to move Puerto Rico’s economy toward industry, namely pharmaceutical research and production. The second condition is the island’s susceptibility to natural disasters like hurricanes, landslides, and tsunamis. While colonialist agricultural practices have eroded soils and destabilized land, weakening the island’s resilience against these climatic anomalies, natural disasters have repeatedly upended the agricultural agenda. Today the result of these forces is mass abandonment of agricultural land, human population redistribution away from the rural and into cities or off-island completely, and significant reforestation of post-agricultural plots across the island. During this module we critically analyzed how 12 plant species have been suppressed, objectified, modified, and dispatched by colonial forces and natural disasters as well as how these plants and their territories can be active agents in reclaiming sovereignty and in regenerating/reinforcing destabilized grounds. By analyzing manipulation and management practices at the plant scale and migration and distribution patterns at the territorial scale, we have developed four strategies which use plants and plant succession as design medium and process. These strategies were fleshed out into potential scenarios using some of the plants we have studied: PRESCRIBED NEGLECT Allowing the natural process of succession to rehabilitate land MULTIPLE USES + TEMPORALITIES (LANDUSE SCALE) Overlaying social, ecological, and economic needs MULTIPLE USES + TEMPORALITIES (PLANT SCALE) Utilizing crops/plants at all stages of their life cycle REFRAMING AND DEPLOYING INVASIVES Identify how aggressive behaviors can be channeled toward a purpose
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& WETNESS AND TIME The Cycle of Nutrion Implementation of water-controlling infrastructures influence gradients of wetness and salt intrusion below the land’s surface. This invisible condition is manifested over time above ground in changing plant species and plant communities. A future condition where hard infrastructures are scaled back or dismantled projects a future where agroforestry practices can replace the monofunctional land-use systems engendered by present-day infrastructure systems. As always, the hurricane is represented as a consistently reappearing phenomenon which creates moments of disturbance and saturation on the ground. The destruction of vegetal matter by hurricane events also disrupts typical nutrient cycles in the tropical dry forest, reinforcing a natural system of fertilization and soil replenishment.
Decomposer
Decomposer
Eutrophication
Eutrophication
Detrification
Detrification
Absorption
Absorption
Hurricanes in Puerto Rico can become the vector for production of fertile soils, using the natural processes of decomposition. This organic matter could potentially be used for agricultural production or replenishment of depleted post-agricultural soils. Currently the use of artificial fertilizers produces a high concentration of nutrients which runoff into bodies of water, inducing eutrophication.
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REGENERATING SOVEREIGNTY [PUERTO RICO'S JUANA DIAZ WATERSHED PROJECT]: STRATEGY & MOD Re-Distributing Toa Vaca and Guayabal We propose to reduce the reservoir’s volume by half and de-centralize Lago Toa Vaca into a hydrologic system of 30 smaller, scattered reservoirs that connect communities across the watershed. Water storage would be localized, the aquifer could be recharged, and the embankments of these ponds, inter-connected by timber weirs, could support different productive and social programs. We propose to incorporate the hurricane into a construction cycle where fallen trees are collected from the adjacent forests and used to rebuild the timber weirs whose destruction during the hurricane is expected and accepted. Sedimentation accumulated behind the weirs will be de-silted and re-purposed for reforestation and agriculture, small amounts of hydro-electricity will be generated for emergency use, and the extended shoreline of the reduced Toa Vaca reservoir will be reclaimed by successional forests.
Large Scale Model
The current model of a centralized reservoir encourages not only ecological risks but also political risks. Puerto Rico’s consolidated water system is ripe for privatization and acquisition by foreign corporations. Decentralizing the water supply gives water greater visibility in the eyes of a monitoring community and public water becomes part of the people, offering power over privatization.
Medium Scale Model
Small Scale Model 46
DELS
Overall Model 47
METROPOLITAN PARK [REDESIGN CENTRAL PARK] Selected to be Published on LA+ journal Summer 2018 | Group Work Collaborator: Yang Dui, Xun Liu The project is designing as a response to La+ ICONOCLAST Competition. We are asked to reimagine central park in the imaginary scenario where the central park has been destroyed by terrorists against environmental injustice. Our proposal is a new Metropolitan Park, which is a combination of a collection of more than 50 endangered ecosystems in 15 greenhouses and eight circulation towers with VTOL flight landing platform. With this design, the concepts of environmental justice, capitalism and globalization are inquired. 48
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METROPOLITAN PARK [REDESIGN CENTRAL PARK] But, is it really working? Under the camouflage of the surreal juxtaposition of beautiful nature scenes and the radical political and economic moves, the Metropolitan Park is still nothing more than a 19th century colonial botanical garden based on privilege and capital. It is a step back, not a step forward towards future urban park.
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LOST MEMORY [WOLONG MOUNTAIN TOURIST ROUTE] Summer 2015 | Group Work | Tongji University Tutor: Xiaofeng Zhu,Ercu Gorgu Collaborator:Tang Yini The project is designing a Tourist Route in a Wolong Mountain, Yinan.To maintain the special rural memory and respond to the spirit of place, we tried to turn the landscape formed by nature and human activities into a tourism resource. By choosing a route and placing four construction, we connected tourists to activities that once happened or be happening here. 52
Grave Yard | The Gentle Hill The thiner soil and the dense cypress forest at the gentle made it be used as graveyard.Enclosure of trees forming asilent atmosphere.
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LOST MEMORY [WOLONG MOUNTAIN TOURIST ROUTE]: SITE ANALYSIS & FOUR INTERVENTIONS Four Conditions Based on Elevation
Four Interventions
The dry climate and stony geology result in the variation of natural conditions as elevation rising: The relatively rich soil and various vegetation at the foot; The thinner soil and the dense cypress forest at the gentle hill; The massive stone and less dense cypress forest at the steep hill; The bare rock and the sparse cypress forest at the peak.
as graveyard for its gentle slope, bunch of dirt and the enclosure of trees, forming a silent atmosphere; The stony steep hill is used for lime stone quarry, with its grand scale delivering a scene of industry; At the peak, a Xiangu(fairy) Temple becomes a landmark and a visual center. Its location endows the temple with sacred ceremonial sense.
On account of the various environment, residents exploit the mountain spontaneously in suitable ways: The foot, the relatively rich area, had been exploit into terraced field; The gentle hill serves
These functions which are carefully placed in suitable sites, have changed the sheer nature into a place with spirit.
Terraced Field | The Foot of Hill
Grave Yard | The Gentle Hill
Ribb
Lime Stone Quarry | The Steep Hill
Temple | The Peak of Hill
Observ 54
bing | The Foot of Hill
vatory | The Steep Hill
Trestle | The Gentle Hill
Parapet | The Peak of Hill 55
LOST MEMORY [WOLONG MOUNTAIN TOURIST ROUTE]: DETAIL DESIGN Detail Design
Ribbing
1 Ribbing To reveal old terraced field, a landform of a repeated wave-shape is set, symbolizing its continuously rising and falling ribbing, upon which, corn straw paves the previous path. This site could be used to go sightseeing and rest, on the same time implies its agricultural memory.
3 Observatory A ramp digged downward from top of the precipice left by the quarry implies its excavating process of a quarry. Visitors’ experience of descending then turning up on a high observatory emphasizes its exaggerate scale. Materials like concrete and weather resisting steel offer a strong industrial sense.
2 Trestle As the path passing through the graveyard, a trestle is to set to let tourists disturb less to the graveyard visitors, and enjoy the forest from different height. The trestle is made by wood. The outward leaning toeboards minimizes the visual disturbance to the graveyard.
4 Parapet To separate the two functions of temple and viewing deck, the viewing deck is located below the temple. The temple is enclosed by stone wall and a lithe sheet of concrete stairs connects two platforms.
1
Trestle
2
3
4 56
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SHARED ROOF [SEDHIOU CULTURAL CENTER] Kaira Looro International Architecture Competition [Finallist] Spring 2018 | Group Work Collaborator:Chengzhang Zhang Sedhiou, a small town in Senegal, Africa, embraces natural rhythm while catalyzes abundant outdoor activities. Collective memories are being regenerated every single day, and passed on through oral narratives. However, still living in a diffusive and undefined environment, people in Sedhiou are missing a place to tie the inhabitants spatially, a container to accommodate their collective memories, a palimpsest to carry the culture and ritual which has no archive. A giant palm woven roof, as a spiritual and monumental space recording local memories, rituals and culture is our proposal for Sedhiou Cultural Center. 58
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SHARED ROOF [SEDHIOU CULTURAL CENTER]
Woven Palm Fence
Palm
Local Weaving Art
Woven Palm Roof
Woven Palm Fence
Palm Woven Roof A giant palm woven roof is our proposal to Sedhiou. Widely used as fences by local habitants, woven palm has been subconsciously acknowledged by people as the physical manifestation of separation. By transforming it from enclosure to cover, from fence to roof, we are repurposing both existing structure and ordinary material to become the incubator of collective memories. The making of the roof records the collective labor as well as adds a new narrative to their storybook. This culture center, on one hand, provides open and shaded place enabling flexible engagement; on the other hand, set a spiritual and monumental space recording local memories, rituals and culture. 60
Detail Section
Spatial Arrangement Gently descending towards the center due to its weight while opening up at periphery, the ovalshaped roof redefines the spatial property beneath it, thus creating a covered field that allows life to take place. Leaving an opening at the lowest point of the pendulous roof creats a channel for the natural light.
Plan
Section 61
MUSEUM OF MUSEUMS [NEW SHANGHAI MUSEUM DESIGN] 2016 International Young Architects Design Competition of Major Cultural Facilities in Shanghai [Excellent Prize] Spring 2016 | Group Work Collaborator:Bo Cheng, Dao Yu, Xi Guo A museum is always about providing education. As a twin museum of shanghai western museum, this museum should collect Chinese traditional painting and arts. In Chinese history book, it is well known that Chinese painting and Chinese words are from farming, which is a kind of fruits of human working. This museum is going to exhibit these “fruits “of Chinese civilization, and if the site is also going to show a kind of history, it would be a natural respond for us. So the Rice field site and the monumental museum are integrated. Our strategy is combining museum and site together to educate people, and supply people an informal and memorial environment to learn and remember. 62
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MUSEUM OF MUSEUMS [NEW SHANGHAI MUSEUM DESIGN]: URBAN STRATEGY Mountain & Farm
Illustrated Axon
Step 1 According to the regulatory plan, the Shanghai library should be on the north of the block while the commercial function be on the south. There will be two large volumes on one block. Step 2 Each block besides Shiji Avenue is dominated by one large massing. Put commercial function under the slope to hide its volume. The present block dominated by library only becomes homogeneous with the environment. Step 3 Shanghai Library forms a strip volume along Shiji Avenue creating forceful form to define its large scale. At the same time respond to surrounding heterogeneous buildings with the silent form as a mountain.
Step 1
Step 4 Towers rise on the west and east part of the buildingto respond to the height of buildings on both sides. BUilding is lift up to encourage passing through.Behind ‘the mountain’ is ‘urban farm’, surrounded by geography formed by commercial space to be isolated from the city.
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4 64
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MUSEUM OF MUSEUMS [NEW SHANGHAI MUSEUM DESIGN]: ARCHITECTURE STRATEGY Museum of Museums
Ground Floor Plan
In terms of typology, exhibition spaces in one single volume would fail to generate clear spatial images and good orientation for exhibition spaces as big as 5000 Sqm. Because of their gigantic scale, visitors would tend to be lost while lingering through the endless exhibition rooms one after another. MoM allocates different exhibition spaces in different volumes according to their topics. The cluster of exhibition "buildings" creates urban like space with appropriate scale. At the same time it's convenient to make zoning or change the exhibition without disturbing the other exhibition spaces.
Third Floor Plan
Precise controlled relationship between volumes allows easy orientation and provide secondary garden like promenade routes. Open exhibition spaces are formed in between volumes of permanent exhibitions, which provide generous spaces for contemporary artists to create artworks that will have an unavoidable dialogue with the ancient in house collections.
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Fifth Floor Plan
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MUSEUM OF MUSEUMS [NEW SHANGHAI MUSEUM DESIGN]: PERSPECTIVES
South Facade
North Facade 68
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BEYOND BOOKS [COUMMUNITY LIBRARY] Top 100 in Chinese Contest of the Rookies' Award for Architectural Students Spring 2014 | Individual Work | Tongji University Tutor: Xiaofeng Zhu The project is building a community library in a street corner along Meilong road, Shanghai.In digital times, library needs to overstep its traditional functions and find new roles in the society. With the creative structure system, specific atmosphere of space is obtained in this library to respond to its new social function. 70
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BEYOND BOOKS [COMMUNITY LIBRARY]: STRUCTURE STUDY Structure System
Two Spatial Atmosphere
The invention of computer and internet made the information turned to virtualization. It became much easier for public to collect information and get knowledge. Under this environment. The social function of library today has expended a lot,far beyond books. To satisfy new function, space require certain atmosphere. As a place for reading and collection, to create special reading experience by presenting spirituality of order and atmosphere of peace are the kernel. However, as an important public space in this district, it’s important to increase communication vitality, which call for flexible and free space atmosphere. To meet complex social needs, the library have to combine two different kinds of space atmosphere. We lift spiritual reading area up into second floor, leaving the ground floor an open space.
Reading Experience
To combine two different kinds of space in ground floor and first floor, a special structure system is needed. When structure directly intervenes into site and forms space and atmosphere, materiality of architecture can be presented. We tried various structure prototypes with different combination and finally chose one.
Structure Prototypes
Two concrete columns in the ground floor turning into four steel columns in first floor forms a structure units. Void formed by V-shaped structure can be used for equipments and pipelines. Units connected to each other to resistant horizontal force. Second floor obtains ordered and peaceful atmosphere. The void allowing the first floor to descend partly lead to abundant types of reading space. Ground floor obtains open and free atmosphere by arranging the direction of units. V-shaped structure makes first floor above seeme lighter.
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Community Vitality
Plan 1st Floor Plan 1 General Reading Room 2 Multimedia Reading Room 3 Science Reading Room 4 Children’s Reading Room 5 Rare Book Reading Room 6 Office 7 Mini Lecture Room
2nd Floor Plan 1 Lobby 2 Book Store 3 Cafe & Gallery 4 Classroom 5 Children’s Reading Room 6 Newspaper Reading Room
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BEYOND BOOKS [COMMUNITY LIBRARY]: SPATIAL ARRANGEMENT Overall Arragement & Reading Units Ground floor obtains open and free atmosphere by arranging the direction of units. V-shaped structure makes first floor above seem lighter. Second floor obtains ordered and peaceful atmosphere. The void allowing the first floor to descend partly lead to abundant types of reading space. Though presents a spirituality of order, space in the second floor is not monotonous. With the change of floors and roofs and different ways of combination, we create various kinds of space with different atmosphere and function.
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BEYOND BOOKS [COMMUNITY LIBRARY]: SECTIONS
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OTHER WORKS WORKS DURING INTERNSHIP | MVVA ECO-IMMIGRANT | RESPONSIVE BROWNFIELD REMEDIATION TEMPORAL GARDEN | WOOD PAVILION THE JOURNEY | LANDFORM INTERVENTIONS IN FRANKLIN PARK ACTIVE GROUND | DYNAMIC PUBLIC VITALITY MAPPING
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OTHER WORKS: WORKS DURING INTERNSHIP
WORKS DURING INTERNSHIP Summer 2018 | Practice Company: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Project Name: Cambridge Crossing
Construction Drawings
Models
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Renderings
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OTHER WORKS: ECO-IMMIGRANT [RESPONSIVE BROWNFIELD REMEDIATION]
ECO-IMMIGRANT [RESPONSIVE BROWNFIELD REMEDIATION] Penny White Project Fund | In Progress Fall 2018 | Group Work | Graduate School of Design Tutor: Steven Handel Collaborator:Xiwei Shen, Kai Chi Ng
Project Narrative
Toolkits: Invasive Species ID
The purpose of this project is to develop a responsive planting palette that is effective in revegetating marginal and polluted urban landscape. A catalog of plant species is developed for landscapes where the traditional listing of plants that typify most design work would not work. Many plant species, often not-native, thrive in these urban conditions, and that those plants can play an important role in adding ecological performance in these marginal sites under the rapidly changing climate. Brownfield sites in Boston metropolitan area will be used as demonstration sites for this project. A series of planting typologies that improve local conditions, do not threaten adjacent lands, useful in an urban setting will be developed for these potential sites based on our toolkit. Our toolkit will make the catalog of spontaneous plant species useful and available to a designer/ land manager that wishes to improve the landscape on these sites. Users who may not have much understanding of properties of plants will be pick the most suitable planting palette according to the needs of different sites with our toolkit. There are previous projects that have generated data of non-native plants including Peter Del Tredici’s book Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast: A Field Guide on non-native plants in New England regions and David Seiter’s book Spontaneous Urban Plants: Weeds in NYC together with his website. Based on these studies, our team will focus more on using species to play a useful role in adding ecological performance in marginal sites with our toolkit. In previous research, the team has developed an effective plants list based on a series of criteria. In the following stage, a series of planting typologies that improve local conditions, do not threaten adjacent lands, useful in an urban setting will be developed for these potential sites based on our toolkit, allowing users who may not have much understanding of properties of plants will be pick the most suitable planting palette according to the needs of different sites. Rather than keeping out our alien species, this study examines the possible use of non-native spontaneous plants in site / landscape that is challenging for local plants. Our website: http://www.eco-immigrant.com 82
Toolkits: Brownfield ID
Toolkits: Website
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OTHER WORKS: TEMPORAL GARDEN [WOOD PAVILION]
TEMPORAL GARDEN [WOOD PAVILION] Published on HUAZHONG ARCHITECTURE Journal Spring 2015 | Individual | Tongji University Tutor: Daixin Dai
Due to the increasing complexity and diversity of contemporary urban condition, social activities set higher demand on flexibility of urban public space. At the same time, we want to bring more green into urban space. Therefore, we decided to build a provisional garden setting in open space of Tongji university to meet the demand of both flexibility and quality.
Program The site is beside the environment research institution so the pavilion was required to be able to contain the exhibition hosted by the institution. When there is no exhibition, it will serve as a open resting space. As a design for environment institute, we decide to introduce more green into our pavilion. So we combined exhibition walls with green plants to form a Garden Exhibition Hall.
Elements & Construction Digging the potential of traditional Chinese timber craft called LuBan Lock, we design a construction frame system, which can be esaily dismantled, moved and rebuilt, without any metal connects. And then we added several elements into the frame system like planting boxes, panels and boards to meet different function.
Planting Box
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Boards
Panels
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OTHER WORKS: THE JOURNEY [LANDFORM INTERVENTIONS IN FRANKLIN PARK]
THE JOURNEY [LANDFORM INTERVENTIONS IN FRANKLIN PARK] Spring 2017 | Individual | Graduate School of Design Tutor: Jill Desimini, Danielle Choi Franklin Park, designed by Olmsted, now becomes the most depressed part of the Emerald Necklace. This project inserts a series of terraces designed to bridge the rigid and inflexible programmatic boundaries found throughout Franklin Park, boundaries between city and park, zoo and golf course, wilderness and playground. These boundaries, currently, are reinforced by topography, fencing and admission costs. The result is an inflexible park that is out of touch with its surroundings, a 19th century Olmstedian relic oblivious to its contemporary context. The topographic spaces and landforms, situated on high points and along these divisive topographical ridges, break the rigid boundaries currently restricting the park. They draw people in and through the space, by offering places for flexible uses and providing visual and physical connections across the park.
The Terrace
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The Path
The Observatory
The Pond
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OTHER WORKS: ACTIVE GROUND [DYNAMIC PUBLIC SPACE MAPPING]
ACTIVE GROUND [DYNAMIC PUBLIC VITALITY MAPPING] Spring 2018 | Group Work | Graduate School of Design Tutor: Robert Pietrusko Collaborator: Zishen Wen, Jiacheng Liu In this project, data indicating temporally vitality of public space in Boston are collected. Multiple media of mapping representing the choreography of public vitality are created, with the translation into a dynamic model as an active ground.
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QIAOQI DAI
15 Caldwell Ave, Somerville, Massachusetts, 02143 qiaoqi.g.dai@gmial.com | qdai@gsd.harvard.edu | 6173869536
Sept 2016 - May 2019 Sept 2011 - Jun 2015 Aug 2014 - Sept 2014
May 2018 - Aug 2018
May 2017 - Aug 2017 May 2016 - Aug 2016 Sept 2015 - Mar 2016
Jun 2015 - Aug 2015
Jun 2014 - Aug 2014
2019 2018 2019 2016 2014 2014 2013
2019 2019 2018 2018 2015 2014
EDUCATION
Harvard University Graduate School of Design, USA Master of Landscape Architecture Tongji University College of Architecture and Urban Planning, China Major in Architecture Bachelor of Engineering Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan Exchange Program in Achitecture
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc Landscape Architecture Internship Cambridge Crossing Urban Design | DD & CD phase Hazel Path Design | DD & CA phase Independent Reasearch Work with Landscape Architecture Professor Daixin Dai Temporal Landscape Practice in China | Two Articles Published Independent Work Cooperate with Hil Architects Project for International Competition of Major Cultural Facilities in Shanghai | Whole Process Tongji University Work with Landscape Architecture Professor Daixin Dai Wood Kiosk | Whole process Jiading Tongji Sports Center | SD & DD phase Trace Architecture Office Architecture Internship Waterfront Restaurant | SD phase Haikou Experimental Middle School | DD phase Scenic Architecture Office Architecture Internship Chongming Island Resort Project | SD phase Songjiang Green Group Research Institution | DD phase
HONORS Top 3 in YoungBirdPlan Suzhou Dayang Mountain Slow Traffic System Design Competition [Final Result Pending] Finalist of Kaira Looro International Architecture Competition 2019 Penny White Project Fund in Havard University Graduate School of Design Excellent Prize in International Young Architects Competition of Major Cultural Facilities in Shanghai Best 100 in Chinese Contest of the Rookies’ Award for Architectural Students Academic Scholarship in Tongji University Special Award in Shanghai Contemporary Academic Printmaking Exhibition
EXHIBITIONS & PUBLICATIONS Multiple Miamis Exhibition | Harvard Graduate School of Design LA+ ICONOCLAST issue | University of Pennsylvania School of Design Platform 11: Setting the Table | Harvard Graduate School of Design Traditional Wood Craft and Provisional Landscape: Reflection of an Exhibition Space Design | Huazhong Architecture | Vol 36 Similarities and Differences in the Teaching of Architectureal Design - Home Above Market 2 | Tongji University Press Archi-neering Design Exhibition | Tongji University
SKILLS
Digital: AutoCAD, GIS, Rhinoceros, Grasshopper, SketchUp, Vary, Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, After Effect, Unity, Processing, C# Physical: CNC Router, Laser Cutter, 3D Print, Carpentry 91
QIAOQI DAI Graduate School of Design MLA I qdai@gsd.harvard.edu 617-386-9536