DONG, Xiaoyan
Selected Works
Never-Land a parasitic approach for urbanization in China
Incubator-C a formal representation of social/programmatic dialogue
Waterloo Bridge exploration in social infiltration, design in consequential scales
Urban Winary program implantation, investigation in contextual response
Cross-pollination Block rethinking the defination of Live/Work space
Roma Redux experiment in civic surgery
Speculative Projects uni-hub/NYC-2036
01 02 03 04 05 06 07
NEVER-LAND ARC 605 Research Studio | Professor Anne Munly - 6 months thesis research + design project
The thesis proposes a parasitic and accumulative process for urbanization in China, utilizing construction site as a catalyst, suggesting a simultaneous progress between the growth of a city and the citizenization of its migrant workers. Ever since 1960s, European situationist and Japanese metabolist architects constantly reject the uniformity and totalitarian of modern architecture/urban design, seeking parasitic and dynamic approaches to post-war urbanization. Projects such as the Plug-In City and the Tokyo Bay dream of alternative urban scenarios by reversing traditional perceptions of infrastructure’s role in the city, combining architecture, technology and society together. However, these megastructure projects not only neglect the existing urban context but also lack political and economic driving force. As a result, they are considered “unbuildable dreams” by many contemporary critics. Fifty years later in China, fast urbanization process creates problems for both cities and people live in them. On one hand, massive construction sites create urban voids, disrupting the city’s identity. On the other hand, migrant workers get excluded from city’s social life, living a dystopian lifestyle. I believe that China’s centralized government and booming construction market provide strong political and economic support for a revolutionary urban experimentation, while the omnipresent construction sites and migrant workers offer appropriate location, labor and social requirement for an alternative architectural implementation. It is time to have a retrospective view at the idea of parasitic urbanism back in the 60s, readjusting it and applying it to current situation in China.
* section - “train” as a metaphor for China’s unstoppable urbanization process
Schedule & Traffic component
PROJECT 1: NEVER-LAND
Fencing wall component
On-site shelter component
Problem Current operation on urban construction sites in China is problematic. On one hand, the “walled-in� construction mechanism constraints the living and working activities of migrant workers, isolating them from the rest of the city. Thus, physical isolation intensifies social segregation. On the other hand, the dismountable temporary hut provides constant low-quality dwelling experience. Workers’ capital accumulation never result in physical improvement. Thus, migrant workers have no sense of ownership/citizenship. * collage - representation of the spatial condition of on-site shelters with a firstperson view point
Wall typology vs streetscape
Existing Streetscape situation
Proposed Streetscape situation
PROJECT 1: NEVER-LAND
Opportunity The omnipresent construction sites have positive impacts on the city. On one hand, workers’ living needs stimulate spontaneous business actions next to the fencing walls, which result in a diverse vernacular streetscape. On the other hand, workers create an invisible network based on recreational programs and existing infrastructures, which potentially can link migrant workers to the larger plurality of a city’s social life. * photo collage - representation of typical facade condition on China’s urban construction site.
Construction Compotents
PROJECT 1: NEVER-LAND
Unit Variations
Unit Configurations
PROJECT 1: NEVER-LAND
Communal Public Spaces
ci vi c
tre ea th
m ar ke t
e pl m te
pi az za
fo od
PROJECT 1: NEVER-LAND
Phrase One
Phrase Two
erect fencing walls around construction site structures provide accommodations for migrant workers
structure stimulates migrant worker commu fencing wall material can be recycled for bu
unities near construction site uilding new housing
Phrase Three
deconstruct fencing walls around original site build dynamic migrant workers’ village by reconfiguring living units
PROJECT 1: NEVER-LAND
Growth The expansion of the migrant village is a step-by-step process. Construction sites nearby introduce structure materials and migrant workers to the region. Construction workers then build fencing walls around site as their basic shelters. Both skeletons and living units are dismountable and can be recycled to make housings for migrant workers near the original site. Through reconfiguration, housing bars can accommodate different types of migrants. Thus, the growth of a migrant workers’ village becomes a dynamic and organic process. The village constantly updates itself with the working cycles of the construction sites nearby.
2016
2018
2020
PROJECT 1: NEVER-LAND
Vision of A Network As a critique to the existing apartment block-housing paradigm, the proposed migrant community tries to open up to its surroundings by breaking the boundary of individual blocks. The project introduces the neighboring streetscapes into the designed community complex. Vehicular roads and pedastrian streets continue passing through the complex without interruption. Perpendicular to the streets that running north to south, designed housing bars are placed parallel to each other, together creating “courtyard“ conditions inbetween. Each individual “courtyard” or covered outdoor space is progrmmed according to the needs of tenants living around it. Parks and greenaries fill in the gap between courtyards and streets, overlapping with each other, creating another infrastructure layer to the complex. Like a surgery, the community stitiches the surrounding urban fabric together, enhancing the “invisible network“ created by the migrant workers.
INCUBATOR-C ARCH SP17 VC Studio | Professor Julian Palacio - 3 months research + design project
Incubator-C is a design proposal of a Courtyard building for local Craftsmen in Centro la Candelaria (bogotá), Colombia. Due to the dramatic urban expansion process since 1940s, the city of Bogotá grows from a colonial town into a metropolis and becomes the political/financial capital of Colombia. Modern high-rise buildings gather around the new financial district, while the old center, La Candelaria, becomes a tourist destination in the daytime and a ghost town at night. Accordingly, local craftsmen, once the pride of the Bogotain, are forced to the outskirt of the city. However, despite governmental indifference, local NGOs and private sponsors are dedicated to rescuing and preserving crafts traditions in the heart of La Candelaria. One of them is Santo Domingo School of Arts and Crafts. The project is an extension of the existing school one block away. It’s program includes: workshops, exhibition spaces and dormitories for both apprentices and masters. The formal gesture of the project is simple. By carving out the exhibition volume from the mass of workshops + dorms and sliding/attaching it to the existing market building, the proposal incorporates craftsmanship into the commercial life within the block. While, on the other hand, the void creates a quiet courtyard environment, which is desirable for the studying and living of the local craftsmen and artists.
* 1:400 site model - 3D printed design proposal in CNC milled wooden base
PROJECT 2: INCUBATOR - C
Identifying site passage market
Carving exhibition vs school
Sliding exhibition vs courtyard vs market
Dorm
Workshop
Exhibition
Retail
* illustration - inner-block passage way with the exhibition space at its focal point
Introveted vs Extroverted The exhibition volume of the school is pushed out, hovering over the inner-block passage-way, creating a focal point and a sense of desire in the local commercial activities. While the courtyard, an objectified void, defined by the workshops, the dormitory and the exhibition space becomes its introverted twin. Thus, a constant tension is formed between the introverted and the extroverted; the solid and the void; the container and the contained...
2
3
PROJECT 2: INCUBATOR - C
1
Dialogue 1. The Mayor’s office building across the street has a very “serious-looking” facade, while the east facade of the school is de-composed and the school‘s visitors will aways be welcomed by a small bridge over the sunken library. 2. Workshops and dormitories are placed face-to-face with each other, flanking the central courtyard space. This particular arrangement promotes crossfield collaborations and inspirations from live to work. 3. The sunken library acts as a buffer zone between the active street life and quiet courtyard environment. The double height reading space obtains natural light from both sides, while its occupants are protected from undesirable noise on the ground floor.
PROJECT 2: INCUBATOR - C
Elevations The front facade of the school building follows the same proportion and rhythem of its colonial-style neighbors. Together, they creates a continuous streetscape. The courtyard elevations are composed mainly with red bricks. However, on the facade of the dormitory-wing, bricks are used as framing device; while in the case of the workshops, bricks create a rain-screen condition.
PROJECT 2: INCUBATOR - C
* model - courtyard
* model - roof terrace
* model - sunken library
* axon - networked urban experience
WATERLOO BRIDGE ARC 408 Design Studio | Professor Francisco Sanin - 3 months research & design project
The project is a linear strip of infrastructure aƩached to the exisƟng road (starƟng from the waterloo staƟon, stretching towards the river, across the waterloo bridge into the Somerset house at the north bank), connecting and re-acƟvaƟng a series of exisƟng insƟtuƟons along the way. Programmed as an “open college”, the strip consists of a series of public insƟtuƟons that respond respecƟvely to their immediate context. AƩaching, pulling back, wrapping around, enclosing, inserƟng etc., the architecture operates speciĮcally into the local condiƟons, like a surgery, sƟtching the isolated “urban plaƞorms” back together. Rather than simply adding up a collecƟon of exisƟng space and programs, the purpose of the operation is to sƟmulate and discover new potenƟal social acƟviƟes for the site. For example, with an elevated piazza connecƟng the naƟonal theatre the Hayward gallery, accompanied by a triple Ňoor studio/factory space, the events of fashion design study, producƟon, showcase and consume can happen in a collaboraƟve way, mulƟplying the experiences. By wrapping around the BFI IMAX building with a botanic garden, the insƟtuƟon provides a unique spaƟal condiƟon and study atmosphere for the students as well as the general public. With a series of insƟtuƟons like these, the proposal tries to acƟvate the potenƟal “urban plaƞorms” that were originally scaƩered over the site, develop new social events, and give the waterloo area a strong urban idenƟty.
PROJECT 3: WATERLOO BRIDGE
Analysis Exercise1 - Barbican Estate, various urban platforms allow for different civic events, creating a sense of community as a whole
Urban Platform In the Barbican project, those “urban platforms� at different levels have the ability of holding a great variety of civic events. Individually, the platforms showcase the educational, cultural and leisure life style of the community. Collaboratively, they encourage visual and physical interactions between those conventional civic events, enabling the birth of new communal social activities. This strategy has the potential to be applied to the poor organized area near waterloo station. * Palimpsest - historical layering map of Barbican Estate * collage - spatial study of level shifts * plan & section - a close study of urban platform conditions in Barbican Estate project
PROJECT 3: WATERLOO BRIDGE
Islands vs civic strip Existing on the site area, there are already a series of “platform” conditions, such as the upper level in waterloo station, St John’s church, BFI Imax, the “roof garden” of national theater, etc. However, because they are so disconnected from each other, both physically and programmatically, instead of providing one strong identity to the site, they cause local isolation and traffic chaos to the waterloo area. Most of the “platforms” remains less active, some even empty. The only pedestrian links interrupt the vehicular traffic on the ground floor, creating a mess to the circulation around site.
* diagram - examine level conditions on the existing site, isolated islands * sketch model - quick study of connections proposed to the site
* site plan - from waterloo station across the river to the Somerset House, the infrastructure operates specifically into the local context
PROJECT 3: WATERLOO BRIDGE
“Twin Library”
“Fashion Factory”
“Twin Library”
“Sky Garden”
“Sky Garden”
PROJECT 3: WATERLOO BRIDGE
“Fashion Factory”
PROJECT 3: WATERLOO BRIDGE
* sectional models - studying different operations impact on the local context, continuity vs specificity
* final model - laser cutted chipboard, basswood & plexi
URBAN WINARY ARC307 Design Studio | Professor Terrence Goode - 3 month design project Winaries are commonly located in the rural area on account of vast landuse and strict environmental control. The project, however, proposes an Urban Winary within the neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which raises several interesting questions. How the winary will impact on the neighborhood? How the social and cultural environment will shape the construction? The site is located near a highway(BQE), with a sharp corner defined by two commercial streets. There are several nice public spaces near the site, however each of them are disconnected. The urban strategy of the design is to connect these isolated public spaces and let people flow continuously between them and into the winary space. The project has two main gestures. Instead of letting the sharp corner cut the connection between spaces. The project redefine the street corner by holding back the building block, leaving an open public market space for visual and experiential connection. And by creating several designed moments, the project draw people into the building, letting them experience the wine making process as they move vertically, and provide them with a quiet, upper level park to have a better view back to the neighborhood.
PROJECT 4: URBAN WHINERY
* site strategy diagram - open street corner, controlled sequence, connecting public spaces * site plan - designed public spaces are connected by proposed under-bridge market and the winary
* site strategy diagram proposed activities arround the site within a year.
PROJECT 4: URBAN WHINERY Longitudinal Section AA
1/8”=1’ - 0”
In order to prevent disconnection between public spaces, and to achieve the continuity in terms of experience, the sequence of spaces is designed in such way that passages and programmed spaces are melted into each other. Sometimes these spaces can work as urban windows providing visual connection between in and out. Sometimes they can be programmed as markets or playgrounds, allowing for experienctial connection.
PROJECT 4: URBAN WHINERY
PROJECT 4: URBAN WHINERY
Structural Concept
Steel structures are used in Hotel floors to minimize weight Structural grids line up with hotel rooms to minimize spatial disruption
concrete structure and steel structure penetrate each other without any interruption
Concrete beams and columns are used in the lower wine tasting floor to create a heavy and solid feeling
CROSS-POLLINATION BLOCK ARC 409 Design Studio | Professor Anne Munly - 3 months research & design project The project rethinks the definition of LIVE/WORK space and explore the potential of this concept. Taking the idea of adaptability and stretching it to the limit, the project introduces a self-sufficient community in the city of Portland, and proposes a sustainable lifestyle to the whole neighborhood. The project approaches the idea of LIVE/WORK from the scale of a housing unit. By pushing the so called servant space (kitchen, bathroom, stairs, mechanics, even the bedroom) into a highly compacted zone, an open and column-free space is preserved for flexible arrangement of LIVE/WORK program. Housing units are arranged parallel to each other, spaced by shared communal rooms, and then attached to a deep and long working corridor space that runs at north and east side of the building. With great width and pre-designed furniture, the working corridor functions as an additional space for each housing unit as well as a single working room where cross-pollination occurs between neighbors. As the design scale goes up, the composition of housing units extends to the perimeter of an urban block (100’*200’), generating a “U-shaped” building with only its south side open to an urban farm. The urban farm is designed to sustain the whole block by fulfilling all vege-consumption of its residents. The cross-pollination block can be considered as a housing prototype, which has the potential of being adjusted and applied to a more extensive site within the city of Portland.
PROJECT 5: CROSS-POLLINATION BLOCK
Design Exercise1 - Live+Work Market, the idea of free attachment allows for spatial flexibility and program diversity
Flexible Units The project explores the concept of programmable wall based on a modular system. The thick and highly compacted programmable wall incorporates varies “servant spaces�, including not only utilities and mechanics but also functiondriven spaces such as kitchen, bathroom, staircase, and even bedrooms. Since the programmable wall is designed based on a modular system, each trunk of space can be pulled-out or plugged-in freely. Thus the wall can be organized and rearranged according to the need of the residents. With all the servant spaces pushed towards one side, an open and column-free space is preserved for flexible arrangement of any LIVE/ WORK program.
PROJECT 5: CROSS-POLLINATION BLOCK
Working corridor
A 15-feet corridor runs at n and east side of the buildin each floor, connecting eve housing unit on the same With great width and pre-d furniture, the corridor func an additional space for ea housing unit as well as a s working room where cross pollination occurs between neighbors.
north ng on ery floor. designed ctions as ch single sn
Urban farm and irrgation system
HVAC system
Sewage system
PROJECT 5: CROSS-POLLINATION BLOCK
South Facade-facing towards the urban farm inside the building block. This facade is more fragmented and residential.
Nouth Facade-facing towards the street outside. With the working corridor attached, this facade focuses more on horizontal striation and continuity.
pre-fabricated metal folding doors
steel beam
steel catwalk
clear float panes with horizontal silkscreens
10 mm outer panes 1.52 PVB 6 mm inner panes
D.G.U. 8+16+6 mm U value 1.4 W/m2K
North
wall detail scale 1/2”=1’-0”
PROJECT 5: CROSS-POLLINATION BLOCK
Urban Farm A urban farm is enclosed on three sides by the “U-shaped� building block. It serves not only as a focal point but also a gethering place for the residents in the cross-pollination block. Linear continuity is achieved both horizontally and vertically. Horizontal continuity is indicated by the materiality and succesive concave-convex shape of the south facade, whereas vertical continuity is represented by the transformation from one communal urban farm into several household green walls.
PROJECT 5: CROSS-POLLINATION BLOCK
Pre-fabricated modular wall fragments
Housing Unit attached to working corridor on one end
A typical floor plate with a series of housing units, shared communal rooms and corridor
Building occupies the whole urban block, which serves as a prototype that potentially can be applied to
a more extensive site
ROMA REDUX ARC 407 Design Studio | Professor Richard Rosa - 3 months research & design project There was a time when the book and the building could be said to have been a single thing; when it was stone that supported the inscription of historical and mythical narrative. Judith Wolin, “Outside and As If” The project tries to engage multiple questions about the nature of public architecture in the urban environment. The civic experiences of assembly and collectiveity; the architectural relationship between symbol and content, and the symbiotic relationship between the significant architectural figure and the condition of urban fabric. The site of the project, Garbatella, is a currently poor-organized industrial area outside the Rome city. Even though it has a very high land-to-building ratio, there is no defined public space for the neighborhood for meditation, congregation and contemplation. Instead, small public programs are scattered all over the site. The proposal is to create a defined “public-band” across the neighborhood, and to give the neighborhood a strong public identity. The 3 given programs are train station, prison & police headquarter and sacred space. The project focuses mainly on the sacred space. The sacred space is defined as a “grand path” parallel to the train tracks. It consists of a series of gardens for meditation, congregation and contemplation within the neighborhood. To the west, the “sacred path” reaches out across the Tiber River to an amphitheater at riverfront. To the east, it continues beyond the site boundary to the farm, wildness, and infinity. Following/ defining the “Sacred Path”, there is a “civic striation band”, which collects and re-organizes all civic programs originally scattered around the site, including the police headquarter and the prison area. The elongated housing fabrics are generated from the “sacred path”, and camouflage into the broader city context, trying to stitch the “public-band” into its surrounding neighborhood.
* edited mapping - figure ground map of Rome with project proposal drawn in
PROJECT 6: ROMA REDUX
Analysis Exercise1 - Cubist painting (Braque), multiple compositional and spatial readings on a single painting
Analysis Exercise2 - Lorentine Library , diverse interpretations of a single piece of architecture
PROJECT 6: ROMA REDUX
Urban Idenity vs. Context awareness The proposal suggests a strong urban move over the super chaotic and poorly organized site condition. It creates a series of urban striation bands: infrastructral, residential, spiritual, civic, etc., giving the site a distinct urban identity. On the other hand, to prevent the project from being a blind monster, ignoring its immediate context, a lot adjustments are made to it. Urban striation bands are bended and re-oriented according to the direction of city grids; New city blocks are sub-divided in order to match the scale of their contexts. All these “little moves” are trying to camouflage the “big idea” into the urban context without too much compromise.
* figure ground map - mapping the condition of public and private spaces in the urban scale, showing the “big move” of the proposal with its context * figure ground “Nolli” plan - the continuity of spaces and the programmatic information are revealed simultanously
PROJECT 6: ROMA REDUX
Abstraction vs. Specificity In an urban planing project, the ability of working between great shifts of scales is always important. From the master planning of the urban fabric texture to tiny details such as walls, fenestration or even joints, different scales of information tell us different stories about the project. However, how detail should we draw them, or how abstact (or specific) should the story be told, are usually tough questions to answer. Exposing different levels of specificity within a single drawing is one effective way to reveal the scale shifts as well as to emphasize the focus of the issue.
* site plan with project plan drawn in detail - even in a very zoomed-out scale, plan with certain level of specificity (walls, columns, openings, vertical circulaions) can reveal a sense of scale as well as potential experience within the project, preventing misinterpretations of space relationships and disjunction across scales.
PROJECT 6: ROMA REDUX
* exploded axon - suggest multiple readings (layers) of the urban proposal * photomontage site plan - put the proposal into its immediate context to examine the formal continuity
PROJECT 6: ROMA REDUX * process work - exploring multiple methods of working, xerox machine, ink over trace, physical model scaning, etc.
SPECULATIVE PROJECT: UNI-HUB ARC 4101 Design Studio | Professor Aleksandr Mergold - 2 months design project
SPECULATIVE PROJECT: NYC - 2036 AAP M.Arch II Summer Studio | Instructor Michael Young - 2 weeks design project