Academic Portfolio
Sijie Chen is an architect and artist who is living and working in New York City. Originally from China she graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a M.Arch degree in June 2014. Working with diverse medias including digital print, video, drawing and writing her work emphasizes on comprehending the doubled condition in contemporary society, oscillating the dichotomy of inner and outer, surface and substance, subject and object, digging for love, intuition and poetic imagination in architectural creation.
Architecture Personal Works
Love of Justice & a Poisonous Mushroom Selected Works Narrative, Drawing, Book and Furniture Design RISD, 2014
Based on the original question of how architecture responds to its doubled condition, my thesis project is an exploration of a possible world of fantasies in which certain spaces--the architectural whims, are inhabited by certain characters with their embodied spirit, memory and history. These drawings and writings were done in 4 months, during which period I had been fully indulged in this another world: I wondered back and forth the so-called reality and the dream land. Eventually without any aims or guides the work turned out to be myself, but with its own life and soul. It answered itself by the help of my muscles. We are inseparable parts, like two organs breathing together. The drawing paper is the mirror, I was at this side, the world of mushroom and justice was at the other. It was abominable to tell who reflects who, who multiplies who. Through drawing and writing, I was looking for a possible and ever-changing answer as to place, memory, dream, subconscious and language, or ambitiously speaking, the humanity.
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Sketch
Drawing Process
Chapter 1 A Love Letter
I am going to leave tomorrow. Though you have stripped all my clothes, Cigarettes that I smoke lives in the monkeys and skeletons; I live under the crust of a mushroom. You love me because you said I’m like a lake. Moon Lake
I love you because you have rigid edges; You wanted to grind me I can see stars, I can dive into lakes, I have eyes. Your eyes are fixed on me But you can’t see me. 7
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Phantom Theater Sunken Pyramid
masker actor FLOATING EYES falling crystal tulip bonded stage -- birdcage and triangle
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Chapter 2
Bulin and His Life
The small mushroom’s name is Bulin, which is given by Poet.
Bulin always jumps into Poet’s brain, like an imp, making him feel an irresistible force to scream, to dance, to tear down the straight walls. Bulin seldom smiles. But there is always a rising angle on the corner of his lips, in a subtle way making him look lonely. Bulin’s one hair is rigid, which is a yellow chimney; greyish yellow. He claimed that that was the reason for his name, “ Bulin is equal to hair that is not soft.” There are many pink speckles on his head. Salmon pink. Made of pig leather. Smoke, blossoms of smoke, come out of his head. He couldn’t say a word. Everything he uttered became foggy— foggy smoke, waving, 10
flourishing.
“ Spring is a broken lotus root; potato is pillow of winter.”
Bulin lives on incense that the incense man feeds him. He is a small poisonous mushroom. Useless. But justice fell in love with him, at the first sight. Love him, grind him. Justice fell in love with a small mushroom. “You little mushroom go to work Sooner or later You will become dish on the menu.”
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Prison
Bulin is prisoned in the glass box— He saw his reflections
I made a big mistake
Prison is a floating glass box. Bulin’s hair withered Becoming jam, not cheap.
He stuck his tongue out, the reflection stuck his tongue out He blinked, the reflection blinked,
Soaring tower of black marble Psalmed towards Bulin
He talked to the reflection: “My name is Bulin, and your name is Bulin.” Millions of millions of Bulin and Bulin. Glass is not a piece of paper
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Interlude
Oh My Tasty Little Creature
flying, staggering, wobbling, shimmering, quivering inspector secret cocoon TV robot wall hotel justice robot cloud tower candy shop glass prison of tree
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Chapter 4
Dancing, Waving, Swaying, Folding
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Chapter 5
Mushroom Church & Justice Tower four priests (farmer, drug dealer, silk grower, leaf ) four guards (politician, bank teller, teacher, doctor); researchers rose blossom tadpole mushroom lights (always changing colors)
Farmer died. with his grass hat on head,
Silk grower died, with his white curtain in hand, Drug dealer died, with his delusion in head, Leaf died, with his cloudy smoke.
Four Guards were like four statues, They winded, twisted, They scream in silence like huge brown stones I have to confess, Just as I have to love to die. Two roses The upward is whispering The downward is wiping.
I’m stuck, frozen, falling, creeping The blossoming rose is soaring high You can never reach the sky.
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confession booth for who used to be a farmer
Chapter 6
Veiling Tower & Reptile (farmer’s, drug dealer’s, silk grower’s, leaf’s) urn poet (couldn’t find home) record keeper library doorman the paranoid (sound-maker) medical students the man (who knows my name)
farmer died in an ash burner, so did the silk grower, the drug dealer, and the leaf you are the man who knows my name you are the end The paranoid is right at the center— Center of the world.
I heard your whispering, your mumbling, your screaming, your scratching, your breath, your breath is the secret the fruit,
the hanging bread I have to dress well to be near you, Pretending an old hand masking a smile drawn by pencil the other end is performing island a leaf in the ocean! floating, wrapped, isolated! The flying rose bud was the flowering, as a gun,
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stars fell on the ground
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collection room for leaves
Chapter 7
Truth Tower & Paradox Theater two wine bottles (hanged; buried) rose blossom (floating horizontally) two elephant nose (mirrored)
Truth Tower
Linguistic Nihilist
One transparent folded entrance
two tadpoles
Folding and unfolding, a twin tower of inversion
One solid
layers of enclosure;
straight entrance with an arc
falling reflective mushroom (with confronting islands) NIHILISTIC
Falling mushroom is the entry for nihilism
RISING mushroom is the escape of linguistics.
Paradox theater
Paradox theater is a two-fold theater that has its rising and falling, rights and wrongs, ups and downs. It’s a space at its opposite.
Paradox theater has two mirrored entrances as well, in between the marble performance hall that has four columns, two upwards, two downwards. Two wine bottles, one being buried, for secret keeper, one being hanged, space of telling
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space
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hanged wine bottle -- space of telling
Box within Box Brown University Media Center, Providence RISD, 2013
The spaces we inhabit in our daily life are all boxes: box of living, working, entertaining and transportation. We move between them, go through them, and live in them. We are used to live in these monotonous containers, which isolate us physically and spiritually. We are becoming victims of boxes. The project is envisoned as a new Media Center on Brown Campus. The program itself implies the questions: Does digital production and digital archive need a specific space? How can we mediate between the real space and the virtual space? And ultimately, how should we deal with the digitalized daily life spatially?
The concept is to explore the possiblities in boxes. Enclosed boxes provide space for vitual reality — digital production or digital archive; transparent boxes provide natural light and view. Different boxes are created for different program and activities. The boxes are connected in the project in a way that a new reality is created - where the real and the virtual, the enclosed and the open, and the private and the communal are comminggling with each other.
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Two Boxes: solid and transparent
Solid box: digital production, digital archive
Transparant: exhibition, cafe, circulation
Site Strategy
The site is at the corner of Brown University campus. It connects a main street with a pedestrian path in the back. To define the corner of campus and invite people to stay, (or even pass by), my strategy is to actively connect the main road with the path, and create a public space at the ground level. To archive that, the “solid box“ is lifted and a outdoor patio is created and surrounded by glass walls. 23
Concept and Site Study
Design Development and Iteration
Boxes of different materials, of different sizes and wall thickness become patio elevator private room outdoor lightwell enclosed mysterous lightwell public gathering room 24
roof
1. digital classroom 2. sound booth 3. auditorium 4. film screening 5. introspection island 6. luminous column 7. inner courtyard 8. reading area 9. peeping window 10. repose island
digital archive
digital classroom
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In-between the Solid and Transparent Box
The buffer space between two major boxes - the real and the virtual worlds - are defined as double-layered luminous facade, and repose space that contains a zigzaged stair, and mezzanine space.
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cafe
exhibition
outdoor gallery
audio art
ground level level 1 exhibition, cafe, outdoor gallery
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level 2 digital classroom
level 2 digital archive
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1 auditorium 2 film screening 3 repose island 4 private studio 5 sound installation open to below 6 sound booth 7 group study with a luminous column 8 seating 9 reading area 10 light well 11 archive 12 office 13 inner courtyard with a treeshape column 28
10 light well
3 repose island
4 private studio
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section a-a
section b-b
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section c-c
left: west facade
right: south facade
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13 inner courtyard
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Connected Separation Brown Institute of Brain Science Providence RISD, 2012
Separation is a common nature of our contemporary life. Alienation started take place since the beginning of industrialization, and nowadays technology has made it even worse. Separation, as a broad concept, exists in all aspects of life. How should we inhabit the space of ‘Separation’? How should we make connections to happen in the separated reality? Since brain science is a field tightly bound to spiritual and physical adventures, while the institute of brain science has the program of the divine - discovery of mind, and the mundane - recovery of body. With the two programs, the Brown Institute of Brain Science is a perfect testing ground for the question of separation and connection/hiding and revealing. The concept is to separate the two main programs: Clinic and Research, and connect them with an open space in-between. By creating unconventional ways of visual contact, the building provides the possibilities of connecting people in a unexpected way. Eventually, it becomes a place to foster new linkages. Connections happen in this ‘space of separation’.
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Volumetric Model Study
Connected Separation in Different Scales
In-between Space
Exterior Research Lab
Interior
Visual Tunnel
Clinic Lab
Normal Lab Specialized Lab
Between Labs
sketches/thumbnails
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Solid and Void
void and solid
The void is the mediated space, both connects and separate the solids. The void is the space that creates intimacy and distance, the space of waiting, seeing and imaging. The void, the public space connects different part of the solid —the private.
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Program
Research Labs In Between Clinic
The research labs are at the top, upwards to sky, whereas the clinic is buried underground, respectively relating to the divine and the mundane. In-between is where they interact, a middle ground.
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1. small square 2. library
3. public seating 4. cafe
5. viewing hall
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ground level
underground level
level 2
level 3
level 4
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1. shared lab 2. hanging island 3. peeping game 4. library 5. research lab 6. clinic ward 7. staircase 8. viewing reflection hall 9. deck 10. green belt 11. public seating 12. bridge 13. secret cube 39
1/8” = 1’-0” model
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Two labs are separated physically, but connected with visual connection.
Visual Connection
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Optical Devices
peeping game
Those visual tunnels create unexpected scene, avoiding direct visual contact, the SEPARATION, and bridging the seemingly irrelevant objects with certain space, the CONNECTION.
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shift of scenes
directed views
shift of scenes
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atrium space
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1/8” = 1’-0” model
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Boundary Storefornt Renovation Westend, Boston RISD, 2012
The site is in Westend, Boston. The existing store is a coffee shop. My idea of the project is to create a new boundary between inside and outside which mediates the difference. The buffer zone, which is the boundary makes the interior talks to the exterior. According to different site context there are three main spaces created which are the Porch on the east, the Enclosed garden, and the Communication Pocket that responds to the building on the opposite.
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The Cube Urban Design, Residential Complex Westend, Boston RISD, 2012
The site is at West End, Boston. At the heart of West End, it joints the Massachusetts General Hospital which is in the southwest and the residential area in the north. The site is at the joint of the public and the private, facing Blossom Street.
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To connect Public and Private
Located in the boundry of public and private space of the whole area, the project has a clear division of public and private space in response to the urban condition.
To Attract people
At the corner of the Blossom street, which
is the most important road inside west end, the project attracts and leads people from the Blossom to go into the site and then push them to the other side which is facing the river.
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The cube at center is the connector of the building, and the whole area as well. The huge cantilever is luring and sucking people to go into the cube. There are various accesses of the cube from different direction. The cube connects different programs: grocery store, shops, hotel and housing.
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level 02
level 03
typical floor
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unit layout
Pleasure Modular inhabitable structure Adaptable site RISD, 2012
The structure is inspired from the mapping of a music piece called “Pleasure”. It is a 20’ x 20’ x 20’ inhabitable space. Consisting of three main spaces - sitting, working and sleeping, the structure provides spaces from private to public, from dark to light and from enclosed to open through manipulating the modular hexagon cubes.
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Module
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XinAn Stadium Stadium Design, Xinan, Henan Zhengzhou University, 2010
Xin An is a mountainous district. A landmark, the stadium was designed to be evolving from the geography, as if emerging from land of dance. Responding to the program and circulation, the architecture acted as a spontaneous interaction between people and the natural environment.
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Mountainous District
topographic map
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ground level 57
Roof Detail
1. sealing, two layers; 100mm thermal insulation; 5mm polycarbonate sheet, transparent; galvanized-steel truss 2. 350mm steel, I beam; 3. 300mm steel, I section, 4. 900mm steel, I beam, welded to 300mm steel. 5. 1600/80 mm tubular steel beam, melded to 30 mm steel 6. 350mm/30mm steel tube flat bolted to 900mm steel.
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level 03
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Movable Pavilion Adjustable Pavilion on Campus ZZU, Zhengzhou Zhengzhou University, 2009
This pavilion is a device and structure that can be adjusted and provide different kinds of spaces. It incorporates user’s participation into the working of the structure. Its machinery characteristics, the use of pulley and rope brings about a sense of nostalgia about the golden age of Machinery.
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Joint Design and Making
The pavilion can be adjusted to accommodate and trigger different activities for different purposes, and at different times of a day.
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The Lines Shuanglong District Preservation Historical District Preservation and renewal, Urban Planning/Design Kaifeng, Henan Zhengzhou University, 2009
Phase 1 Urban Planing
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The project is a urban design of a historical district called Shuanglong Alley, located in Kaifeng, Henan, R.P.China. Context should be respected, while life standard should be optimized, thus it requires a clue to sort it out.
My strategy is based on systemic research work on traffic,history and site condition,as well as numerable investigation. My proposing of conception of “VIVID LINES’ covers circulation, routines and something relevant which could be depicted 05 as linear, aiming at responding to history and culture.
Lines in courtyard scale is walking traces of residents, referring to daily-life activities, which represent daily-life hidden in every ancient court. Time lines, traffic lines, commercial lines, and tourism lines are different expressions of ‘VIVID LINES’. Through adjusting and updating them with a certain strategy, a harmony block emerges, historical features. 05
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The Lines Historical Building Preservation; City Park Historical District Preservation and renewal, Urban Planning/Design Kaifeng, Henan Zhengzhou University, 2009
Phase 2 Urban Design
Lines are the cultural label extracted from the previous work of urban planning. In this phase of designing a park which the site of old industrial buildings, lines are planning to be the site of human activities. 20
Those lines are formulated according to the existing lines all over the area. And different behaviors are distributed along the lines, which will take place autonomously due to the lines’ form and space linking to them.
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Design/Fine Arts Personal Works
Front Door
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Digital Painting
Yellow Seesaw
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Sea
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Digital Painting
Window, Grass and Donuts
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The Kitchen
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Digital Painting
Kiss of Television and a Rose
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Justice and Mushroom
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Digital Painting
Sophisticated Innocence
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Natural Born Killer film title animation
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Animated Video
Achieved Utopia
real-time control video projection
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Furniture
Upside Down Stool
It’s an upside down stool with its legs which are antennas on top and cushion at the bottom. Instead of being supportive the legs become hands you can play with; the cushion at the bottom becomes a base that makes the stool to wobble when you sit on it.
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Installation
Folded Mirror
Illusions are overriding the reality. Reality became illusion. When you are staring at the mirror, do you know if you are at this side of the mirror or the other.
It’s a space of absence, revealing and folding: one becomes many, many become one. It’s a corner where illusion and reality overlap. It is there but beyond there, reconstructing the relationship between you, as a viewer and the space, linking your metal space to the physical environment.
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Eye
wood sculpture
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Line Drawing
50� x 30� pencil & charcoal on paper
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