Serena Lee - Selected Works

Page 1

Serena Y.Y. Lee B Sc Arch 2008 McGill University Selected Work 2004-2013

LEEDTMAP Canada GBC

M Arch I 2012 Cornell University

TITLE

Coexistence: Defining the Collective in Ethnoburbia

DATE Fall 2012 Masters Thesis ADVISORS Caroline O’Donnell and Neeraj Bhatia PROGRAM Masterplan; cultural and public infill SITE Richmond, Vancouver

THESIS How can diverse identities coexist within a collective public framework? In Canada, where growth is dependent on immigration, suburban developments have transformed into ethnoburbs such as Richmond, British Columbia. Here, contrasting desires are juxtaposed and overlaid: ethnic habits and suburban routine, single family houses and towering condominiums, Olympic infrastructure and foreign malls, inflated real estate and a sea of asphalt. Charged with the ambition to become a new urban node, Richmond poses a unique opportunity to redefine urbanization as a process of bridging between disconnections and differences with a distributed strategy: a stitching of fragments with fragments. The city’s identity emerges from the hybrid between cultural preservation and integration – between the singular and the collective.

IMMIGRATION AND THE SUBURBS More than 215 million people live outside their country of birth. Canada is one of the top 3 immigration countries, along with Australia and Saudi Arabia. In the last 5 years during the midst of the global economic recession, it experienced the highest growth in population amongst the G8 nations. This growth is largely due to the steady flow of incoming immigrants - evidence to the fact that this nation’s socio-economic change and development is dependent on the new population.

The expectations of the new Canadian life has been structured by the dominance of peripheral communities – the suburbs. The idealized image of large lots, single family dwellings, and automobile ownership have become representative of the new opportunities created through immigration. Upon moving, most find desirable rooting grounds in the first ring suburbs, where real estate is affordable, where the distance from the financial district is commutable, and where they find their ideal family life as a new Canadian. Over time, with increasing growth in population and byproducts of their adapted lifestyles, these suburbs have become Ethnoburbs, a contemporary cultural enclave just outside the major Canadian metropolitan nodes.

RICHMOND

BURNABY

WEST VANCOUVER

SURREY

SITE MODEL OF RICHMOND VANCOUVER 1.5m x 1.5m x 0.1m. Wood, etched acrylic, and acetate (credit to Edbert Cheng for help on model assembly)

REDEFINITION OF FIRST RING SUBURBS IN THE GREATER VANCOUVER REGION Collages showing how the proposed methodology could be applied to different suburbs to create unique identities for each neighbourhood.

SITE PLAN OF RICHMOND Proposed infill shown in white and black. The infill exists both as separate fragmented entities and also as a public collective forming two distinct and recognizable axis. The north-south axis forms the cultural collective; the east-west axis forms the sports collective. The result is a weaving of fragments (existing) with fragments (proposed).

SITE

EXISTING LAYERS OF FRAGMENTATION

Richmond is the breeding ground for large chain ethnic supermarkets, the first ethnic indoor mall in North America, and clusters of strip malls housing nothing but independent ethnic restaurants and boutiques. They have also imported the tradition of night markets, which take place in undeveloped industrial lands in the summer weekends. Densification and gentrification – through a sprouting field of 15-storey condominiums – have already begun taking place at Richmond City Centre, the hub of commercial activity within the suburban region.

In addition to the exploding growth in real estate and commerce, Richmond’s City Centre was left with valuable infrastructure from the hosting of the 2010 Winter Olympics. There are now three elevated light rail stations along the extended Canada Line, which connects this suburb directly with Downtown Vancouver. The waterfront boasts a speed skating venue – the Oval – which can host a multitude of athletic events and competitions throughout the year. All of these factors have pushed Richmond towards an overall ambition to transform a former suburb into a urban node which is on par with the cultural capacity of the Vancouver metropolis.

With so many ambitions and clashing conditions, an Ethnoburb like Richmond embodies layers upon layers of superimposed urban contradictions and cultural confusions. Hidden underneath the conformity of the suburban sprawl, Richmond actually exists in a series of unique public, typological, and ethnographic fragments. One can begin to delaminate the layers of Richmond to reveal the fragmented conditions of the existing site.

The Public Fragment. As an entirety, there exists little public spaces within walkable distances in Richmond. A Nolli Plan reveals that major public spaces in the area include the four large indoor malls, which in a strict sense should not be considered fully public as the use of the space is restricted through the regulations and hours of the private developer. A secondary layer of semi-public spaces include the myriad of commercial and food establishments. A third layer is the sea of parking asphalt, which sits in an ambiguous region between private and public space.

The Typological Fragment. All built typologies on the site fall into categories of suburban typologies. These privatized commercial types, along with its surrounding parking surfaces, create large island blocks that make territorial separations between adjacencies. The Ethnographic Fragment. A large portion of the typologies are adapted to become ethnic establishments. They have become the main gathering places for ethnic events, festivities, and concerts.

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Richmond, which is directly south of Downtown Vancouver, is a particularly notable example of the Ethnoburbs which at the brink of reaching the capacity to become a fully urban node. Richmond currently holds the highest percentage of foreign-born residents in a single Canadian municipality. Beginning as a fishing and salmon cannery village, Richmond has since transformed a hub for East Asian corporate satellite offices due to its proximity to the Pacific Ocean. The success and growth in Richmond can be seen through the explosion of the real estate market.

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IMMIGRATION: A GLOBAL CONDITION

a study of where the global migrating population migrates

LAYERS OF FRAGMENTATION

public, semi-public, parking asphalt

LAYERS OF FRAGMENTATION

typologies, islands of blocks, and ethnic divisions

PROPOSED STRATEGY

how to achieve a public collective via a tactical strategy

CRITIQUE AND PROPOSAL The City of Richmond’s 30 year plan is ambitious and yet problematic. It proposes to build new “urban villages� which are themed around entertainment and cultural programming. The entertainment district is a casino-driven development proposed on undeveloped industrial sites directly north of City Centre. A large open waterfront park is proposed to connect between the future entertainment district with the existing Olympic Oval.

EXISTING ASHPHALT LOTS

The critique for such a development is that it furthers the sprawl and fragmentation to the public spaces in Richmond. The proposal is thus to reinterpret the plan and inject the programming directly in the heart of existing activity. This would allow for a reorganization of the suburban community at the urban level and to allow for the breeding of a new collective identity that is built upon the existing establishments on site.

RESTRUCTURED PARKING

PROGRAMMATIC SURFACES

The proposed program manifests itself in nodes of activity that is distributed along two new axis. It is not simply about density but rather a process of bridging between disconnections and differences with a distributed strategy; a stitching of fragments with fragments.

METHODOLOGY AND LANGUAGE The goal of the process is to produce a language that reads cohesively yet maximizes variance in program. Systems of surfaces, lines, and objects operate as separate and self-organizing systems, yet the systems synthesize to connect at intersections where the different systems overlap in space.

The second step is to mark the periphery of the axis in the form of vertical garages. These structures will not only become a visual marker for the area of the site but they will be place holders which preserves the surfaces as future open pockets as the site continues to be swept through with condominium developments.

The first step is to identify the usable surfaces which exist on site. This includes both ground asphalt which is currently used as parking and flat roof surfaces.

PROGRAMMATIC OBJECTS

The fourth step is the re-stitching of the surfaces by an overlay of programmatic elements in the form of objects and lines. The objects are associated with the Cultural Axis, which house the more formal, indoor programming. The lines are associated with the Sports Axis, which provide trails and connections between the nodes.

The third step is the reinterpretation of the surfaces to suggest new public connections, which connect between existing adjacencies such as the strip mall or drive through. These surfaces are where more informal programming can take place, and along this axis this activity comes in the form of an open market or an open public square.

The final step involves the synthesis between the separate systems to create fragments that share the same formal language along the same axis. Each fragment nestles itself on parking surfaces, sometimes on existing roofs, and provides connections between adjacencies.

RESULTING COMBINATORY INFILL

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EXPLODED LAYERS OF THE CULTURAL AXIS

A cultural axis is overlaid along No. 3 Road. This is running parallel to the elevated rail and is anchored by the Aberdeen mall (a Chinese developer mall) and the Richmond Centre Mall to the south. The move brings the element of the event back into the everyday routine of shoppers and commuters as a way to preserve the cultural festivities and local activities that happen along this axis.

EXPLODED LAYERS OF THE SPORTS AXIS

A sports axis is overlaid as a perpendicular along Lansdowne Road, anchored by Lansdowne Mall and the Olympic Oval. Here, the element of the EVERYDAY is used to stitch local activity back to the symbolic Olympic venue. This encourages residents to engage with the local culture of the host nation and inject active habits into their lifestyle.

sidewalk food stalls

outdoor chinese food court

movie projection

performance auditorium

train station food stalls

weekly night market

outdoor chinese opera stage

signage and display

vertical landmark

movie theatres

connection to shopping mall

running track

outdoor food court

rooftop gardens

history of richmond museum

vertical landmark

sculpture garden

pedestrian bridge

multipurpose training route

landscaping

recreational pool

leisure route

resting area

pedestrian dock

Secondly, as it is not a solid built axis, it allows for fluctuations in the interpretation of such landmarks and reinforces the adjacent singularities existing along the axis.

The city’s identity therefore emerges from the hybrid between cultural preservation and integration – between the singular and the collective.

green wall

First, it provides a new structure which locals can associate themselves to. The surface which previously fragmented the site is now the surface which provides the adhesion to the site.

Lastly, the building of these collective nodes preserves public life near ground level rather than being continuously taken over by private residential developments. In 30 years as Richmond becomes a fully dense, urbanized community, these will be the only public spaces left.

natural beach

BUILDING OF A PUBLIC COLLECTIVE The result provides many interpretations to the breeding of a collective identity.

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NODE ON SPORTS AXIS A new pool and beach front provides leisure and recreational sporting activity to parallel the existing Olympic Oval. This node brings outdoor activity to the neglected waterfront of Richmond.

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NODE AT INTERSECTION OF CULTURAL AND SPORTS AXIS This node marks the center of Richmond and the junction between the two contrasting axis. Here, an art and history museum converges with an elevated track that connects to a series of jogging trails and pedestrian crossing. The surfaces provide outdoor space where public sculpture garden and outdoor eating areas exist together.

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NODE AT CULTURAL AXIS At the north end of the cultural axis is where an indoor theatre and performance complex is mixed with a series of surfaces that provide infrastructure for weekend night markets. adjacent ethnic restaurants can benefit through the weekly activities of the infill program.

SITE SECTION ALONG THE NORTH-SOUTH CULTURAL AXIS showing the proposed nodes of cultural infill (in yellow) amongst a projected development density (in grey) in the next 30 years. The infill program protects the space from the future expoding growth of residential and commercial development, thereby preserving the pockets of public space and the maintaining the identity of the collective.

TITLE

Combinatorial Forms

DATE Fall 2011 Masters Year 3, Semester 1 INSTRUCTORS Thom Mayne and Scott Lee (Morphosis) PROGRAM Combinatorial form explorations SITE 10x10x3 volume

ANALYTICAL DRAWING OF FINAL PRODUCT showing systemmatic rules (in red lines) and operations (in shaded regions)

AN OBJECTIVE EXERCISE This studio aimed to confront the often avoided subject of aesthetics, one which is muddled in round-about discussions of style and subjectivity. Here, form became a direct logical outcome determined by the interaction of several sets of forms where every decision adhered to a logical and systematic set of rules. The discussion of aesthetics was hence removed from immeasurable standards of subjective preference and was placed back within the contexts of objective criteria, legibility, and coherency. There were no such things as ugly or beautiful products; rather, only design outcomes deemed successful or not successful, where success was based on performative and organizational qualities of a system (the product) and it’s sub-systems (the inputs).

SYSTEMATIC FORM The direct derivatives are four prescribed subsystems: XY Lines + Z Lines + Surfaces + Objects. While the subsystems could be reduced down to simple geometric forms, each had its own inherent syntax of organizational rules, scale, and spatial distribution. They were the basis of the formal interrogative exercise and the site was a generic volume of empty space of 10 x 10 x 3 proportion. Within such idealized and abstracted project parameters far removed from the realities of program and construction, I found the process even more so relevant and applicable to the complexities of 21st century programmatic demands and situational contingencies.

ANALYTICAL DRAWING showing sysmatic rules and operations

Once these subsystems were superimposed over each other, a process of spatial negotiation begins. The differences in syntactic behaviour and operative hierarchy between systems causes a synthesis of new unprecedented forms. The same formal complexities could not have been achieved through a traditional and gestural design process - although visually alien, the product of the exercise remains true as the direct consequences of the process, is evidence to the definitions, behaviour, operations, and hierarchy of its sub-systems, and is a recording of the dialogue which takes place between the 4 self/inter-regulating formal systems.

While the products of such an exercise maximizes spatial differentiation of the given site and are even more abstract than its original sub-systems of simple lines, surfaces, and prisms, one can still begin to understand and read the forms through the very basic and critical conversations that ground our profession: light/dark, open/closed, low/high, sparse/dense. Form and space become a conversation on performance, organization, and physiognomic qualities. Whether it is an series of abstractions of historical palimcests or performative mechanical needs, the architectural design process is completely embedded within the notion of systems.

RENDERINGS exploring the space within the final composition

OBJECTS

FORM basic tetrahedron

y x

z

condition 1

condition 2

SURFACES

condition 1

condition 2

FORM simple surface with a single lifted edge ORGANIZATION repeated and stacked, with variation in rotation and location in space FORM cone-shaped, vertically oriented, with variable height

Z LINES

ORGANIZATION clustered fields

x

condition 1

condition 2

FORM variable sectional profile from end to end

XY LINES

ORGANIZATION parallel bundles, with lines connected at the ends

x

condition 1

ORGANIZATION each tetrahedron must connect to another at a vertice. two sets of scales are used in the final product (XL and XS)

condition 2

DEFINITION refinement in the formal organizational rules of each of the 4 core systems to provide a basic systematic syntax

2-3 SYSTEMS COMBINED: BEHAVIOUR experments in understanding the inherent organizational and operative behaviours of each individual system on its own and in the presence of others

4 SYSTEMS COMBINED: HEIRARCHY AND SYNTHESIS exercises in determining the significance of hierarchy between overlaying systems and the process of synthesizing new and unprecedented forms as a result of maximal differentiation of space within the 10x10x3 extent

PROCESS

SYNTAX The first step requires a refinement in the formal organizational rules of each of the 4 sub-systems to provide a basic systematic vocabulary. Each sub-systems adheres to simple, self-contained organizational rules that carry through-out the rest of the design process.

OPERATIONS The second step is the experimentation in understanding the inherent organizational and operative behaviours of each individual system on its own and in the presence of others. While keeping to its syntactic rules determined in the first step, now the vocabulary is given performative functions of simple addition and substraction of volume. Again, the operative rules given to one sub-system must remain true and consistent within itself.

HEIRARCHY The third step is exercises in determining the significance of hierarchy between superimposed systems. This is where the dialogue happens. Depending on the dominance of one system over another, the rules of addition and subtraction inherently assigned to each system will be performed according to such hierarchy and order.

SYNTHESIS The last step is the process of synthesizing new and unprecedented forms as a result of the synatax, operations, and hierarchy between each system. New forms emerge from this process and the results are always variable depending on the specific order which is given to each sub-system. The goal is to produce maximal differentiation of space within the 10x10x3 site. How far can one go in creating new alien form and space without losing the visual coherence of the original inputs?

PHOTOGRAPHS OF FINAL SCHEME 10x10x3 inch, 3d print in starch, cured with cyanoacrylate, finished with acrylic paint

TITLE

DATE Spring 2012 Masters Year 3, Semester 2

Linear Landscape

INSTRUCTORS Andrea Simitch Margrét Harðardóttir and Steve Christer (Studio Granda) PROGRAM Dock, Farm, and Farmhouse SITE Engey Island, Reykjavík, Iceland

SITE Engey is one of several islands approximately 1 km north of the coast of Reykjavík. Flat and barely noticeable in the otherwise dramatic landscape, the island was once farmland and fishing outlet for a small community that thrived from 1200 until late 1700s. Historically and geographically disjointed from Reykjavík, it has since been left baren with only an old lighthouse and remnants of foundations of the farmhouses that once stood on the island. The proposal sought to redefine the island through a single gesture that echoed itself in multiple scales to restore the productivity and relevance of Engey’s forgotten landscape. The line manifested as elements of the macro and the microcosm of Engey, reinventing itself in a pluralistic fashion in three specific scales.

A LINEAR DOCK The first and foremost element was the proposal of a subtracted line, cutting straight through the short dimension of Engey. The void is fitted with a retaining wall and a meandering walkway. Visitors can dock and emerge onto the island via the walkway that slopes up away from the city; or visitors can simple sail through the void and underneath the walkway, only to emerge on the other side of Engey. Although splitting the island into two pieces, the erasure brought reconnection of the whole island to the adjacent city. The line aligned itself to Aðalstræti , the first main street of Reykjavík. The void in the landscape became a visual extension of the city and thus marking the island as a significant annexe to the urban and cultural fabric of the capital.

A FARM AS A SERIES OF LINES The second manifestation of the line takes form of a farm. Here, Engey plays the counterpart to Reykjavík: where the city is the living and consumable half of the cycle, the island is the dead and regenerating other. The proposal is a mushroom farm which feeds off of the waste and dead matter of the city and in turn produces medicinal mushroom extracts. The farm exists as a systematic series of lines: rows of windrows that turn waste into usable compost, rows of trenches retained by a structural lattice which houses the cultivating units within a controlled environment, and rows of spent compost and soil byproduct. These additive lines begin to redefine the flat island into a new, productive, and undulating landscape.

A HOUSE WITHIN THE LINES Overtime, the writing and rewriting of the soil lines create new opportunities for rehabitation of the isolated island. The third part of the project confronts the inhabitation of the linear landscape, placing the program of a farmhouse within the soil byproducts of the mushroom farm. The same language of retaining lattice-work allows for inhabitable space to exist within the mass of the ground. The house is a device wedged between two solid trenches of soil: the circulation and public spaces exist in the open space between the trenches while the private interior rooms are buried into the soil on either side. The farmer and his house fully embodies the language of the negative and positive lines of the new Engey.

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existing condition: flat landscape

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PLAN

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resulting condition: new landscape

PLAN

THE SUBTRACTING LINE: RECONNECTING THE DISCONNECTED ISLAND

THE ADDITIVE LINE: RECREATING A PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPE

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THE INHABITABLE LINE: REINSERTING OF THE HUMAN SCALE

CULTIVATION

PREPARATION

organic waste collection -dead decaying matter -agricultural waste -animal waste -cotton waste -sawdust -household compost

1-2 WEEKS

4-5 WEEKS

6-8 WEEKS

vegetating - little air - no light - high temperature

fruiting - fresh air - light - low temperature

mechanical/manual harvesting

STORAGE

EXTRACTION

cold and moist environment

laboratory extraction and processing into nutriceutical products

spent compost re-nutritioned for re-use

preparation of fertile compost (dung+ + straw + gypsum)

SPECIES 1 maitake grifola frondosa

spreading mycelium + compost into cultivating units

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SPECIES 2 lion’s mane hericium erinaceus

SPECIES 3 reishi ganoderma lucidum

ITION

MYCE LIA LOOS E STRA W MUSH ROOM SPAW N SAWDU ST

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DIAGRAMMATIC PERSPECTIVE AND SECTION Explaining the process involved in the mushroom farm and the modular latticework. NEW TOPOGRAPHY

FARM HOUSE

MUSHROOM FARM

COMPOST WINDROWS

WASTE WAST TE PRODUC PRODUCTION TION inhabitants total in nhabitants in n reykjavik total waste waste total organic organic waste wastte

192 000 ppl 270 000 tons 150 000 tons

CURRENT CURR RENT WASTE E TREATMENT METHO METHODS ODS S

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM ICELAND Patterns and textures captured from site visit.

SITE SECTION AND SECTIONAL MODEL Timeline of sectional changes to the landscape. Sectional model in foam and wood, 2m in length.

MODEL OF FARMHOUSE Photographs of shadows produced by wooden lattice structure. Scale model in wood, 30x30x10 cm.

TITLE

Buoyancy

DATE Spring 2011 Masters Year 2, Semester 2 INSTRUCTOR Tulay Atak PROGRAM Community masterplan SITE Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans

A RESPONSIVE NEIGHBOURHOOD The Lower Ninth Ward was left a torn and abandoned after Hurricane Katrina brought complete devastation to the suburb of New Orleans. With the neighbourhood existing at near tabula rasa conditions after the disaster, it gave opportunity to propose a new community that was both environmentally responsive and community building. The proposed community of Lower Ninth Ward operates as a series of overlaid systems that each respond to different levels of flooding and engage different architectural elements appropriate for each scenario. In contrast to the previous suburban plan, the new master plan provides both the independency of single-family dwelling as well as the interdependency of an urban network.

REINTRODUCING THE WETLAND In attempt to replace the cultural division and ecological resistance caused by the previous 10-feet levee walls that surrounded the entire Lower Ninth Ward, a natural and existing wetland is welcomed as an important feature to the site. Stitching its ecological symbolism and significance with the new built community in a mutually dependent relationship, the wetland on the northern edge of the site would be expanded to create a larger natural storm surge buffer which doubles as a public park and attractive waterfront. It operates as a natural sponge to minor flooding and acts as a collection basin for rainwater run-off.

SYSTEMATIC LAYERS OF CONNECTION The grain of the built community registers the waterfront edge and it is from this new public edge that the modular community extends. The orthogonal grid of the former Lower Ninth Ward is left as a trace of the past: although it remains as the principal means of automobile access in the community, the proposed arrangement of modular single-family houses form a new tree-like network that is superimposed over the grid. This network of detached houses are buoyant, producing a community in frequent flux and adaptation to the geography.

In the case of moderate flooding situation, the network of houses responds by separating itself from the grid of vehicular roads, thereby engaging the network of rooftops which become the new principal means of pedestrian access between neighbours. Where the flooding is severe (such as the scenario brought upon by hurricane Katrina), the buoyant houses can reach the levels of raised platforms of public infrastructure (which normally operate as pedestrian overpasses above busier streets), allowing residents to maneuver themselves from their network of rooftops to communal aid and resources.

SITE SECTION AND TIMELINE OF CHANGE

SITE DIAGRAMS pre-flood, flood, and post-flood conditions showing changes in housing elevations that result in the engagement of different systems to respond to the flooding condition

SITE FIGURE GROUND pre-flood, flood, and post-flood conditions. the modular aggregated community responds to the reoccuring flooding conditions via layers of systems

SITE MODEL matteboard, wood, and acrylic.

SITE PLAN modular community aggregates autonomously, with registration towards the desired restored wetland waterfront. the public wetland park acts as a buffer in the north to control primary stages of flooding. localized constructed wetlands further provide drainage for the higher inland areas.

THE MODULAR DWELLING The new single-family dwellings are composed of three basic units of core, courtyard, and flex modules. A combination of modules form variations of houses that range between 3 to 5 unit-length houses. The interior corridor simply runs along one edge for the entire length of the house with individual rooms along the opposite edge in a row – a reference towards the shotgun house floor plan that is vernacular to New Orleans. The interior corridor is mirrored onto the roof as a rooftop walkway alongside an adjacent green roof.

THE MECHANICAL SYSTEM The modular dwellings are designed as self-regulating organisms with the ability to process rain and flood waters. Each dwelling is equipped with an exoskeleton that functions as both a structural lattice and a filtration system. Buoyancy of the dwellings are achieved through a concrete and foam slab system with a large crawl space and stability weights are provided by water collection tanks in the crawl space. As each dwelling floats, it begins to “shed off” the exoskeleton, leaving it behind as an anchor to the foundation. It keeps large debris from floating underneath the floating slab and provides structure to guide the lowering of the dwelling to its original position once floodwaters recede.

Neighbouring dwellings have one end module sitting adjacent and perpendicular to another’s courtyard module. This is the basic rule for the aggregation of the entire community. The arrangement ensures that adjacent rooftop walkways are connected and the roof network is engaged when a flood occurs. Although floating as individual houses, the network of roofs transform into a single communal and semi-public space to provide vital communal connections in emergency. The community thus alternates between a cluster of independent elements and a formalized branched network.

Rainwater is harvested on the green roof to be reused as appropriated inside and outside the dwelling. Greywater is drained and pumped into the exoskeleton, which is composed of modular structural casings enclosing drainage tubes. Gravity distributes the greywater through the exoskeleton, move the water through layers of filtration embedded within the exoskeleton system from top to bottom. When it reaches grade, it is released into the modular wetland system that is installed around the perimeter of each dwelling that acts as both domestic landscaping and a household scale flood buffer.

WALL SECTION W TRAVERSE A AXIS

BASIC MODULES: core courtyard flex space

CORE COURT FLEX +

ROOF ASSEMBLY L 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

+

EXTENSIVE GREEN ROOF MODULAR PLASTIC CONTAINING T UNIT CORRUGATED A METAL T DECK WATERRPOOFING MEMBRANE WA RIGID INSULATION A FLASHING WOOD DECK STEEL REVEAL STEEL BEAM GYPSUM BOARD INTERIOR CEILING DRAINING PIPE

WALL ASSEMBLY W L

UNITS 3 modules 4 modules

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

A 3-MODULE UNIT

GYPSUM W WALL INTERIOR FINISH POTABLE T WATER FILTR WA L A ATION UNIT RIGID INSULATION A VAPOUR BARRIER V STEEL STUDS STEEL CHANNEL POLY L CARBONATE A EXTERIOR CLADDING

INFRASTRUCTURAL LAT A TICE 19 20 21 22 23

B

INNER LAT A TICE OUTTER LAT A TICE CONSTRUCTED WETLAND WATER TESTING AREA WA CONCRETE CURB

FLOOR 24 25 26

5 modules

CONCRETE FLOOR SLAB CRAWL A SPA P CE POTABLE T WATER STORAGE TANKS WA T

FOUNDATION A 27 28

C

STEEL GRATE A FOUNDATION A

CIRCULATION on roof

CONNECTIONS between units

4-MODULE UNIT

5-MODULE UNIT

PRE-FLOOD SECTION showing the elevation differences between residential units and public sector

EXTERIOR EX EXT E X XT TERI ER ERI E R RIIO OR RR RE REN RENDERING END EN DER DE ER E RING RIN IN NG NG of interior of in int nte nt eri er rrio orr courtyards cou co c courty ou o urty rttyyard arrd a rds and an nd d communal co c com om ommun mu m un u na all life lliifife of lif of residents re esi es ssiid den de ents en ts

DETAIL OF EXOSKELETON showing modular assembly

FLOOD SECTION showing the elevation matching between floating residential units and public sector

ROOF ROO OOF P OOF OO PERSPECTIVE ER ERS RS S SPEC PE PEC P ECTIV EC CTIV TIV VE VE showing ssho showin ho owing win ng post-flood p post ost os ost s -flflood flood oo od connection od co c onne nne nn nect ctition cti on of of rooftop rroo ro o oo oftop fto top emergency to em mer me errg e ge gen en e nc cyy system syysstte sy sys tem em em

DETAILED WALL SECTION revealing mechanical and structural functions of exoskeleton

PROGRAM Youth Center for Troubled Teens SITE Red Hook, Brooklyn

SPACES OF SANCTUARY The initial understanding of the community emerged from mapping existing places of ‘santuary’: social locations, parks, and places of worship. The identification and acknowledgement of the importance of such sites led to the conclusion that in between every type of program (both in the context of rehabilitation and architecture), there should be a designated space intentionally left for the individual to reflect on his/her growth. This notion became the driving force behind the articulation of the proposed Teens Center programming as intersecting surfaces rather than traditional juxtaposed volumes.

SUPERVISOR

A series of rigorous diagrammatic studies started as an investigation in the interfaces and changes in the roles of the facilities’ users: the relationship between a projected supervisor (one who ran the institution) and a receiver (a teen who was admitted to this institution). The process of the receiver’s rehabilitation created a series of diagrams which further informed and suggested an appropriate undulating surface which were appropriated onto the given infill site. The overlaps between the undulating surfaces create the “solitary spaces”, an unexpected and unplanned emergent volume which would be used for self-guided therapy and reflection without surveillance.

PHYSICAL

WORKSHOPS

PSYCHOLOGICAL

These “solitary spaces” were formally and materially different from the rest of the building, offering an ambiguous and flexible space for meaningful individual use. Architecturally, it created a hidden network of private space embedded within the larger public institution. Symbolically, these spaces gave direct opportunities for personal attachment and ownership for the teens that participate in the institution’s programming.

THEATER MUSIC

AUDITORIUM

CREATIVE

ART

ADMIN.

SERVICES

SPACES AND MOMENTS OF INTEREST

3 RECREATION

SITE ANALYSIS mapping of existing points of ‘santuary’: social locations, parks, places of worship. The mapping exercise was the method of development of an emergent program inherent on the given site of Red Hook.

CONCEPTUAL MODELS explorations on generative surfaces and its resulting residual spaces. milled high density foam (left), lasercut mdf topographic study (right)

DIAGRAMMATIC EXPLORATION of surface interactions between a receiver and a supervisor. the red volume, created by the intersections of the surfaces, is identified as a special transitional space

PROGRAM

DINING

RECEIVER

4

GROUP

MULTI-USE

1

RESIDUAL SPACE = INDIVIDUAL FLEX PROGRAM

INSTRUCTORS Gisela Baurmann (Büro NY) and Brendan Hookway

TEEN CENTRE Red Hook is a neighbourhood in Brooklyn which, as a result of economic downfall in the 1970s, has been struggling to reduce its criminal activity and improve programs directed towards its youth. A new community justice court was introduced in the last decade and has brought an effective way of changing the lives of residents. This project was to propose an addition to the program currently provided by the justice court which would offer guidance, education, and support to the troubled youth in Red Hook who are awaiting for trial on their minor offenses.

MEDICAL

Embedded Sanctuaries

DATE Fall 2010 Masters Year 2, Semester 1

EDUCATION

TITLE

PROGRAM distribution by surface articulation which is determined by the requirements and trajectories of each part of the program

RESIDUAL SPACE identification of the left-over volumes created by the intersections of program surfaces

2

SOLITARY SPACE

SOLITARY SPACE

SOLITARY SPACE

ROOF GARDEN

CREATIVE WORKSHOPS

SMALL SEMINAR

ART THERAPY WORKSHOP

PSYCHOLOGICAL CARE

LONGITUDINAL SECTION, LOOKING WEST RECEPTION

GALLERY

ADMINISTRATION

MULTI-FUNCTION

SOLITARY SPACE

SOLITARY SPACE

ARTICULATION OF THE RESIDUAL SPACE These spaces provide a place for individuals to transform its function as they see fit - from reading space to reflection space. this is where the enrolled teens develop personally motivated growth and self-initiated rehabilitation. they are designed as a woven ribbed structure to achieve structural independence from the rest of the building

PHYSICAL CARE

LONGITUDINAL SECTION, LOOKING EAST

Winter 2008 Bachelors Year 4, Semester 2

INSTRUCTOR Robert Claiborne PROGRAM Future city of one million SITE

CHINA, IN THE FUTURE

INFRASTRUCTURE AND GROWTH

A theoretical exercise in attempting to propose solutions to living within an ultra-dense urban fabric, this project was a metaphorical interpretation of the crisis facing the future population of China. Eleven students and Professor Claiborne himself were each assigned pieces of land located in 徐州 Xúzhōu, Jiangsu to propose twelves cities each with a population of one million. The fragments of property, allowing development into the unlimited air space above and 300m below grade, entertwined to create a monolithic three-dimensional puzzle.

Constant’s New Babylon described a community whose collective culture evolved around a “no order” mandate. Striving to find sublimation with instigated creativity, the New Babylonian disposes of individual freedom but actualizes liberty through a recipricating reaction to his surroundings and peers. Using Constant’s theory as a foundation and personal experience of the traditional Chinese market as inspiration, the City became a spontaneous growth of nomadic modules consisting of live, work, and public infrastucture. The City, constantly morphing under the changes of environmental forces, was a dynamic community with the intimate social structure of a market. Taking upon the literal translation of the term “market” in Chinese (街市, jiē shì), the City became a manifestation of vertical and horizontal streets as a new form of the built environment addressing contemporary Chinese living while preserving the traditional Chinese heritage.

To understand the scale of infrastructure required for one million people, a visual analysis was conducted which compared existing ratios of primary, secondaring, and tertiary infrastructure to those of highly dense cities such as Hong Kong. The ideal ratio was then superimposed in space to compose the overall concept of the future City. With the intention of preserving the existing buildings, the city is projected to develop in phased layers stacked vertically. The growth of each phase mimicks that of natural stalagmites and stalactites, creating planar voids in section. Acting as public space where contrasting functions collide, these voids are urban gaps capturing moments of interactivity .

VALE R

IE

Xúzhōu, Jiangsu, China

RO

B

i rich farm

NIE JOA VI EL

ng

RE

IP ILL

H

N-P

SER

EN

JEA

r ic

h

SITE: RIVER - 23571 METERS SQUARED LAND - 224571 METERS SQUARED

tertiary 35% secondary 56% 9% primary

91.8% 8.1% 0.1% existing Xuzhou

INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ONE MILLION

soil

river

A

LE NE

街市 City of Streets

DATE

M AR

TITLE

far m

ing soil

EXISTING SITE NATURAL RESOURCES

EXISTING SITE BUILDING TYPOLOGIES

EXISTING SITE NODES OF INTEREST

75% 20% 5% Hong Kong (reference)

future Xuzhou

INFRASTRUCTURE SUPERIMPOSED IN SECTION

INFRASTRUCTURE SUPERIMPOSED IN SECTION (ALTERNATE)

INFRASTRUCTURE SUPERIMPOSED IN SECTION (SPONTANEOUS)

WET MARKETS Vertical growth of the market stemmed from the existing structures.

ARTISAN MARKETS Horizontal sprawl to fill the gaps between existing buildings to create cultural pathways.

LIBRARY Penetrating new forms into the old.

PERFORMANCE HALL Colliding highways and architecture together to manifest unique publicc environments.

TEMPLES, PAGODAS Translating buildings into places of worship.

THE MODULE Like that of a traditional market, the City of Streets is composed of cubic modules belonging to individual tradesmen. However, they do not follow the regulations of orthogonal streets instead, the modules are a nomadic element of the City allowing its user to detach and reattach itself to any suitable location as conditions see fit. It responds to its surroundings and recipricates in reaction to three environmental elements:

A

1 Architectural(spatial construction) 2 Climatic (spatial quality) 3 Pschological (spatial perception)

green s

pace

store fr ont stree

t fron tage

living

space trans porta tion

A’

market

Xuzhou.

market

et

Xuzhou.

Xuzhou. Xuzhou.Xuzhou.

A

A’

ACRYLIC MINIATURE OF THE CITY OF 12 MILLION showing the physically intertwined sites, which altogether composed a three-dimensional puzzle lending itself to inventive and unprecedented overlaps in projects

MODEL acrylic + wood + collage (comics and candy wrapper) The collage of clipped images on the base of the model was an exercise to visually define the formal ideas behind the city. Sharp shreds of Chinese comic strips and White Rabbit candy wrappers - reminescent of my personal childhood spent in Asia - reflect the explosive form of the city above.

FINAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CITY OF 12 MILLION duration: 2 hours people: 12 people, 24 hands size: approximately 4m x 4m

TITLE

Oculus

DATE Summer 2008 TEAM Stephanie Au and Derrick Lai (RAW Design) COMPETITION

thinkToronto Urban Design Competition 2008 hosted by Spacing Magazine

SITE Toronto, Ontario

BRIEF OCULUS is a series of capillaries which visually transfers information between the two levels of Toronto; it punctures the city’s streets in strategic locations, opening up the belowground pedestrian PATH to the above street level. It is also an identifiable element of downtown Toronto that becomes a recognizable visual motif for the PATH. Contributing to the public realm of Toronto downtown by enlivening the streetscape with colourful apertures, the OCULUS can be used as a prototype for future skylight and navigation systems in pathways throughout the world.

AWARD Finalist Entry

EXHIBITION 1 City Hall Rotunda, Jan 12-18, Toronto, Ontario 2 401 Richmond Urban Space Gallery, Feb 9-27, Toronto, Ontario 3 Harbourfront Centre, Mar 26, Toronto, Ontario

MEDIA 1 “City Planners Like PATH Skylights Proposal.” The National Post [Toronto] 13 Jan 2009 : A8. 2 “Eyes Down Below.” Spacing Magazine. Fall ‘08 - Winter ‘09 : 40. 3 “Imagining a New Toronto.” NOW Magazine. 29 Jan - 4 Feb 2009 : 14.

TITLE

SHIFT

DATE Summer 2009 TEAM Derrick Lai and Mark Kim (RAW Design) COMPETITION

Prefab 20X20 Competition hosted by IDS West

SITE Toronto, Ontario

BRIEF

SITE

STRUCTURE

UNIT

In every city there exist tight urban sites which pose extreme difficulty for redevelopment, inhabitation and usage. Complex and arduous city bylaws and building code restrictions render these sites virtually undevelopable. SHIFT explores the potential a prefabricated dwelling unit – selffunctioning on its own – to positively respond to such sites by linking and forming a greater whole that can fit itself into such challenging spaces.

The chosen example site, found in the heart of Toronto’s Kensington Market, is only 7m wide and 60m deep, with a single frontage, and is a site which has been empty for decades and passed over by many aspiring developers. The units respond to the limited width of the site by attaching themselves to either side of a vertical framework. The result is a pattern of modular dwellings arranged in a shifted manner, creating a network of public and semi private spaces meandering through the building as circulation and common space. SHIFT is a vertical community that demonstrates the perfect blending of public and private space.

The central framework serves as both structure and infrastructure: mechanical and electrical utilities are fed through the corridors and to the plugged-in prefabricated module. A special unit, composed with the same prefabricated techniques, can be attached near the back of the structure to serve as the main utility provider. Either singly, or as a collective, rainwater is collected from the rooftop spaces and is stored within the unit and used for irrigation and grey water. The publically accessible rooftop of each unit consists of paved gardens which together form an interlinked common space. Units at the ground level with street frontage function as public retail spaces.

The idea behind a SHIFT unit is to create a flexible space that enables and liberates the user, by being itself composed of a system of modular interlocking panels. On one wall of the interior, a series of horizontal planes are attached to a wall track system whose dynamic quality of the planes allow them all to be pushed to one side of the unit creating a flexible space and open space or organized in a way that creates opportunity for countertops, stairs, seating, tables, and shelving. Larger platforms provide the opportunities to create intimate spaces for sleeping, lounging, and studying. Exterior cladding is made up of combination of three types which include window, living wall, and reclaimed zinc.

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EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC OF MODULE

PERSPECTIVE FROM CIRCULATION SPACE

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