YA N G
XIA
LANDSC APE AR C HITEC TURE PO R TFOLIO University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Fine + Applied Arts Department of Landscape Architecture +1 217 904 3246 E-mail: yangx2@illinois.edu summersunxy@outlook.com
CONTENTS
01
{ BEFORE THE CITY, THERE WAS THE SAND } Calumet City, IL | Spring 19 02
{ POSTHUMAN } Chicago, IL | Fall 2018
“My desire is to set up a situation to which I take you and let you see. It becomes your experience.” ——James Turrell
03
{ IMAGINATIVE HORIZONS } Champaign, IL | Fall 2016
04 Through the study of landscape architecture, I became immersed in the surface performance of landscape in different scales and became increasingly curious about how the design of these landscapes could influence the way people perceive and draw value from them. I believe landscape can be conceptualized as an operational terrain for urbanizing processes. I perceive the landscape as a type of ecology that shaped by ephemeral qualities such as light, time, and shadows. I believe it is essential to understand landscape as a systematic, multi-dimensional terrain. It is always an enjoyable process of grounding myself to the social and ecological context of a site and bring something new to each project. Becoming a landscape architect is what I am enthusiastic about.
{ LAND BEYOND } Ruichang, China | Fall 2017
05
{ TOUCH ON THE MOONLIGHT } Las Vegas, NV | Spring 2018
06
{ A CLEARING IN THE WOODS } Lake Forest, IL | Spring 2019 *
{ OTHER WORKS }
B E F O R E T H E C I T Y, T H E R E W A S THE SAND Designing Rainwater in Calumet City
Studio Instuctor: Mary Pat McGuire Location: Calumet City, IL Collaborators: Mengdi Chi, Jingyi Li, Lauren Mathias, Bo Pang, Xi Wang, Lixian Zeng, Yi Zhao Spring 2019
This design and planning project explores the issue of urban flooding in southern Chicago region through a deep reading of its geological history. The soils and surficial sediments, the sands in particular, are an important part of the hydro-geologic and geographic history of the Great Lakes. These sands should “surface� and play a greater role in the spatial and infrastructural design of the urban landscape relative to water and stormwater management.
Photography of Natural Preserve Area
In this context, this project explores the material origins of a specific site, a 250 acre neighborhood in Calumet City. The site and community sit smack in the middle of industrial Chicago and near one of ecologically richest dune regions in southern Great Lakes. Our interdisciplinary team of landscape architecture, geology, and civil & environmental engineering students joined soil studies, modeling, and design to reveal patterns of the geological legacy of beach ridges and dune-swale ecology, We used these patterns as functional intermediaries for rainfall, but more importantly, as ways to construct new relationships of people with a forgotten landscape.
STUDY OF SIX SCALES
Soil
City
Surface
System
Site
Region
REVEALING PATTERNS OF THE LANDSCAPE
REVEALING PATTERNS OF THE LANDSCAPE
Sandy soils, typical of the site
Interpretive maps overlay multiple scales of the site--soil, surface, site, city, systems, and region--to generate insights and reconnections across currently fragmented systems.
1930 & PRESENT LAND TRANSITION Neighborhood Area 410.97 acres Impermeable Surface 149.14 acres, 36.3% Alley 10.4 acres, 2.5% Sidewalk 58.89 acres, 14.3% Street 61.6 acres, 15% Vacant Land 7.7 acres, 1.9% Parking 18.25 acres, 4.4%
Opportunity Surface 273.83 acres, 51.6% Alley 10.4 acres, 2.5% Vacant Land 7.7 acres, 1.9% Parking 18.25 acres, 4.4% Park 18 acres, 4.4% Sidewalk 58.89 acres, 14.3%
Riffing on William Cronon’s opening line of Nature’s Metropolis, we call this project “Before there was the City, there was the Sand.” Cronin describes the source of Chicago’s urban and economic development through its exploitation of the regional landscape. Here, we reclaim “Chicagoland”’s geological history in the imagination of the region’s future. Over time, sands been mined for site construction or easily leveled for urban development. Except in a few remnant nature preserves,
the surficial expression of coastal sands---in ancestral dunes and beach ridges (representing former shorelines of Lake Michigan) --have mainly been erased, altered, or paved over. Our approach to these entangled issues is to study the land--its geological history, material nature, and topological condition--in order to transform water as a problem--to an amenity--for people in the neighborhood.
LOW & HIGH POINTS ACROSS THE NEIGHBORHOOD
SURFACE PROTOTYPES
PATTERNS OF THE SITE
TOTAL SURFACE PERFORMANCE
Depresstion area & Oppotunity Surfaces
High Areas & Water Flow line & Oppotunity Surface
Wet Surface Pattern
Mesic & Xeric Surface Pattern Wet Surface
With the patterns of the region’s ridges and dune-swale geological origins in mind, we studied the pattern of low and high areas in the neighborhood as an emerging relationship between wet and dry areas across the neighborhood.
Mesic Surface
Xeric Surface
Vegetated Surface
Paved Surface
Surface and site types are cross-referenced with design strategies. The matrix of strategies are logically distributed across the neighborhood.
Downey Park
Pete’s Fresh Market
Yate’s Street
Sibley Elementary School
COMPREHENSIVE GREEN INFRUSTRUCTURE PLAN The primary areas of intervention are the streets - with a predominance of “wet street” design that frequently flood and are designed to infiltrate a lot of water. We also proposed designs for three site types in the community--a public park, a commercial parking lot, and a school yard. Although the typologies of each site differ, we introduced a regional aesthetic of landform surface design that integrates a shared palette of spatial experience and planting.
Landforms provide subtle clues to the geologic history of the site. Dunes and playmounds become exploration and lookout spaces for children at school and in the neighborhood, while using these landforms to conduct water flow to low areas for collection and infiltration.
DESIGN OF “WET“ STREET - YATE’S STREET
PLANTING STRATEGY Planting Strategy “Dune” – high and dry
Planting Strategy
“Swale” – low and wet
The plant palette contains species predominantly native to the region. As the plants develop and knit a root system together and nourish the soil, the surface should become like a sponge that processes rain through the planting through evapotranspiration. 1. Locate private parking lots through drive-way pattern.
2. Based on the pattern of private parking available, figure out where to site bio-infiltration raingardens and where to accommodate remaining parking areas on the street.
3. Explore which sections of sidewalk can be moved back based on the pattern of vegetation and needed parking areas.
4. Then, in each of the raingarden areas, the planting pattern follows the natural, regional pattern.
WALKING DOWN YATES BOULEVARD
PLAN OF DOWNEY PARK
COMMUNITY GARDEN AT DOWNEY PARK
PLAN OF PETE’S FRESH MARKET
RUNNING ERRANDS AT PETE’S FRESH MARKET
DETAILED SECTION OF PETE’S FRESH MARKET
SECTIONS OF DOWNEY PARK
Recalling the original glaciated coastal morphology, slight topographic changes integrated into the landscape provide strong sensorial, haptic, and aesthetic experiences. Key to helping the community and City make decisions for green stormwater infrastructure is showing how it works. We modeled the design for the neighborhood using the open-source software EPA-SWMM. The model accounts for variability of surface design interventions (thickness and depth) to simulate runoff reduction performance with the site’s native soils in response to changes in rainfall intensity (volume over time). The outputs from this model allowed the communities to see how reliable the proposed intervention will be under different soil and climate conditions, and how simple design changes can be used to improve that reliability.
Sections show the subtle topographic design, mounding “dunes” and carving “swales”.
POSTHUMAN
Designing a Framework for Multi-species Encounters Studio Instuctor: Conor O’Shea Location: Chicago, IL Collaborators: Zeyun Zheng, Xinyuan Lu Fall 2018 (an online handbook: https://posthumanchicago.cargo.site/)
Posthuman is a radical set of landscape ordinance guidelines for the City of Chicago that embraces urban wildlife. The core of this proposal is an online handbook, which helps promote public awareness, encourages adoption of the new laws by the professional community, and translates the code into an easy-to-read visual format for designers. As urban areas continue expanding, wild animals are confronted with new anthropogenic conditions. It is urgent that we think of novel ways to coexist using design and policy. The Posthuman Landscape Ordinance Guideline (PLOG) is a series of proposed codes to shape and construct biological communities within Chicago’s urban ecosystem. Unlike the traditional municipal codes, PLOG enables an ecological approach to urban design by mandating certain rules that enable humans and wildlife to more safely and productively coexist.
PLOG leverages new web design tools to translate the proposed code for a design audience. Though this guideline uses Chicago as an example, the Posthuman approach has universal value. The logic can be applied elsewhere for shaping a wildlife-rich urban landscape. Posthuman Landscape Ordinance Guideline (PLOG) grows from an acknowledgment that humans have deeply manipulated and urbanized Chicago’s ecosystems since the area was colonized. Critical benefits and issues of “wildness” in urban areas are addressed by both ecologists in Field Museum and Chicago based landscape architects we meet on the field trip. Posthuman recognizes the false nature and urban binary, and aims for design engaged with “Complex spatiality,” “more-than-human ecology” and “diverse life-forms spatiality.” PLOG takes on these principles and updates the most recent version of the ordinance from 1999 by explicitly focusing on urban wildlife and human uses. Instead of regulating the human-centric design, the guideline aims to manifest the strategies to realize the coexistence of human and wildlife in urban habitats.
URBAN WILDLIFE STUDY
URBAN METABOLISM
Image Created by Zeyun Zheng
Inhabitation Performances
Animal Behaviors
Human Behavior The proposal is to create a flexible environment to accommodate future unknown urban animal species, as opposed to only existing ones. We first study on some common animals in Chicago city, including their behaviors and habitats. Based on the knowledge, we conclude their inhabiting modes into four performances: embedding, implanting, attaching, and floating. We take a step further to learn about the existing metabolic processes in the city to find the potential ecological strategies for maintaining urban habitats, including both natural processes and engineering processes. We also get four strategic performances from this research: filtrating, degrading, exchanging and accelerating.
STRATEGIC ORDINANCE DESIGN 1.Embedding refers to the inhabitation style that the new habitat is embeded in the existing surface and will gradually grow to be an internal whole. 2.Implanting is the habitation style that developed within the substance. It will build up a new set of micro ecology from inside. 3.Attaching is refer to the way new habitat is attached to the structure and the two interface can continure to function seperatley.
TECHNOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
4.Floating is a temporal inhabitation style using the space between urban structures.
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Embedding (Underground Lots)
Implanting (Ecological Architecture)
Attaching (Green Roof )
Floating (Eco-Drone)
Filtrating (Wetland)
Degrading (Industrial Recreation Center)
Exchanging (City Park)
Accelerating (Stormwater Installation)
Embedding + Degrading (Abandoned Subway Station)
Implanting + Filtrating (Highway Intersection)
Attaching + Exchanging (Elevated Ventra Chicago)
Floating + Accelerating (Neighborhood Public Transpotation)
Warning (Traffic Signal)
Transiting (Receiver)
Communicating (Control Center)
Sensing (Detecting)
1.Filtrating refers to landscape that have capability to filtrate urban waste water for recycling use. 2.Degrading denotes space landscape that have ability of decomposing certain waste. 3.Exchanging refers to landscape, that can enhance the process of photosynthesis, carbon sequestration, and the flow of fresh air.
METABOLIC LANDSCAPE
4.Accelarating refers to landscape that has efficiency of response to extreme weather and climate change, such as absorbing storm water, dealing with global warming.
1.Warning is the signifier that raise people’s awareness of the existance of wildelifes.
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The ordinance should not only set up for what considered as “known fact”, but also for what regarded as “unknown potential”. The project aims to present the strategic typologies to guide the design of urban environment. Technological Environment: using advanced technical strategies to reconstruct the existing city structures to accommodate wildlife habitat. Metabolic Landscape: landscape that can regenerate, balance and adjust process of wildlife habitation. Informational Network: a designed system for managing the coexistence of human and other forms of life in cities.
HABITAT CORRIDOR
INFORMATIONAL NETWORK
2.Sensing is the designed process of detector collecting the data and transit them back to the headquatar 3.Transiting the designed process of information transit form top to the different departments and institutions in cities. 4.Communicating is the design system individuals and departments can share knowledge and respond to different wildlife’s behaviors.
FUTURE VISION This project divides the whole Chicago area into 46 sections to arrange those interventions into whole area. For the future vision, this project proposes the primary strategies in the first steps during 2018 – 2086, and it will extend strategies into other functional space in the second (2030 - 2090). Finally, by its self – growth, it will form a microclimate environment and habitat in whole Chicago area in 2050 to the beginning of the 22ed century.
2018 - 2068
2030 - 2090
2050 - 2100 Image Created by Xinyuan Lu
Habitat Patch (Technology Environment & Metabolic Landscape)
Habitat Corridor (Technology Environment + Metabolic Landscape)
Urban Ecological Pattern
SECTION NO. 18-19 PLAN
Image Created by Xinyuan Lu
Chicago Park District Community Garden
Public and Accessory Garage
Residential Units
Industrial Units
This project selects section no. 18 – 19 to practice different typologies. In the section plan, this project proposes detail design in four different land use, public and accessory garage, industrial units, Chicago park district community garden, and residential units. And it describes the requirement numbers of each intervention. Moreover, it also proposes the different habitat, animal behavior and the relationship between human behavior and animal behavior.
DETAIL DESIGN ONE
PUBLIC & ACCESSORY GARAGE
Plan
Ordinance Rewrite
Strategic Design
“Public garage�, means any structure, habitat, green space, enclosure, or other place, except a public way, within the city, where human vehicles are stored, in a condition ready for use, or where rent or compensation is paid to the owner, and supply for public animal activities, which should managed by parking lot owners and public POSTHUMAN administrative office. The major interventions for primary renewal public garage would be floating and exchanging, which would focus on urban park design and reservation area planting design.
Fauna & Flora
Image Created by Zeyun Zheng
DETAIL DESIGN TWO
CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT COMMUNITY GARDEN
Plan
The Community Gardening group is solely responsible for all necessary financing and ongoing maintenance of this space. The major interventions for primary renewal public garage would be floating and exchanging, which would focus on urban park design and reservation area planting design.
Strategic Design
Image Created by Zeyun Zheng
Ordinance Rewrite
Fauna & Flora
Defined as an assigned space within a park that is used by an organized group of community members for the purpose of growing ornamental or edible plants, improving environment quality of surrounding area, and supplying vertical habitat for multi-species.
DETAIL DESIGN THREE
RESIDENTIAL UNITS
Ordinance Rewrite
Plan Buildings, or parts thereof, designed or used for one or more family units or designed or used for sleeping accommodations other than family units, purifying environment quality, cooperating with more than human activities and habitats except institutional units as defined in Section 13-56050, shall be classified as Class A, residential units. The major interventions for primary renewal public garage would be attaching and accelarating, which would focus on green roof design and stormwater installation.
Strategic Design
Fauna & Flora
Image Created by Yang Xia
Image Created by Zeyun Zheng
DETAIL DESIGN FOUR Plan
INDUSTRIAL UNITS Ordinance Rewrite
Strategic Design
Buildings, or parts thereof, used primarily for manufacturing or in which five or more persons are engaged in fabricating, assembling, or processing of products or materials, which needs to give opportunities for animal go through, and purifying their own industrial waste by one of the strategies. The major interventions for primary renewal public garage would be planting and degrading, which would focus on green building structure design and industrial waste treatment space management.
Fauna & Flora
Image Created by Zeyun Zheng
I M A G I N AT I V E H O R I Z O N S Instuctor: Mary Pat McGuire Location: Champaign, IL Fall 2016
This design attempts to activate the rhythm of the site with an unbalanced sense of space. By designing a series of unparallel open Spaces, the site maximizes the interaction with the school of design, providing a diverse outdoor learning and communication space for art and design students.
From my study of cognitive neuroscience and embodied perception, “Walk it off ” literally can be a useful way to eliminate those negative energies such as rage or stress, since spacial changes activating one’s similar memories he or she used to hold is key source for inspiration and creative thoughts.
TBH
BELL TOWER
DAVID KINLEY HALL
ARCHITECTURE BUILDING EDUCATION BUILDING
WOHLERS HALL KRANNERT ART MUSEUM
ART + DESIIGN
DESIGN CENTER
GEORGE HUFF HALL
I believe that we unconsciously initiating thoughts when doing something we are really familiar to, such as walking. Raymond Carver once said “ What I talk about when I talk about love ”. Well, I hadn’t given much thought to that, but thinking of “what I think of when I’m walking” seems like a good to go for this project.
COLLEDGE OF BUSINESS
CONTEXT
LANDING
SURROUNDING ARCHITECTURES
LINE OF VISION
SITE
HISTORY OF WALKING When I stepped into the site for the first time, the way how people passing through drew myattention. From my understanding, the site is rectangular bare lawn as if a set for passengers (students off classes or ahead for classes), whose spirit is multiple interrelated linear spaces defined by users. In addition, the site can be divided into three time periods by use, from military axis to band parade to a place served for future art & design students.
Military Axis
Drum & Bulge Corps Parade
Art & Design
MASTER PLAN
DESIGN STRATEGY From my study of cognitive neuroscience and embodied perception, “Walk it off ” literally can be a useful way to eliminate those negative energies such as rage or stress, since spacial changes activating one’s similar memories he or she used to hold is key source for inspiration and creative thoughts.
PROCESS The design strategies of spacial form are “bring in” & “extent out”. By analyzing the site surrounding, building orientations and observation of people’s movements, the design brings in the organizing lines of the context and extents out the desire line of users. To formulate a relative flexible space and different perception from different perspective, the design shifts the lines in the site both horizontally and vertically. And it also gives users a spacial transition from outside into design center.
ONE
TWO
THREE
MODEL & PERSPECTIVE
SECTIONAL SEQUENCE
DESIGN ANALYSIS
SECTIONAL DESIGN DETAILS
The site has different vertical changes from east to west and from south to north. Vertical rhythm changes can win students from the usual campus space gradually into a different artistic atmosphere.
DETAILED DESIGN
A series of movable seats are set in the entrance space, and the Angle can be adjusted according to the needs of students to maximize the communication needs of students.
VISION
PERSPECTIVE
PERSPECTIVE Students from the design center can view. The land canbe visualized as a knid of land sculpture instead of traditional American campus landscape.
L A N D B E YO N D
Intergrating Productive Landscape into Eco-industrial Landscape 2nd Prize of L&A International Design Competition, 2017 Instuctor: Conor O’shea, Kyung-Kuhn Lee Location: Ruichang, China Collaborators: Sijia Yang, Xinyuan Lu, Yi Yang Fall 2017
This project by studying the ecological infrastructure in the landscape design practice, committed to combining temporal industrial sites, cultural and historical background and the potential ecological restoration ability, giving the site based on the dynamic relationship between the natural and industrial. Mine, farmland and forest together organically as a means of repair and productive landscape, giving impetus to the development of tourism, explore a new mode of industry and provide diversified activities experience for local residents and potential. Ecological restoration, our use of energy and material needs of mining, the mine into positive
rooted in natural ecological pool, according to the location of different mines, functionally divided into aeration tank and artificial wetland. Farmland, as the product of ancient survival needs, is introduced into the landscape as a secondary purification zone, which will be rebuilt on the abandoned industrial building framework. The combination of agriculture and farmland as tertiary purification area is a productive landscape on the edge of chaohu lake. Combined with the minimal intervention of landscape intervention, jiangzhou shipyard and other sites may be linked as ecological corridors in the future.
LOCAL-REGINAL TOURISM RESOURCE & POTENTIAL
THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS Ruichang is located in jiujiang, nanchang, wuhan, changsha and other big “metropolitan areas� in the combination zone. In the tourism market which tends to homogeneity a great development potential and advantages. The city of ruichang is rich in natural and cultural landscapes with obvious features, such as fresh environment, mountain forest, wetland, cultural heritage, etc. The formation of an industrial site in the urban area is prominent in the natural landscape, which is distinctive from other regions.
Ruichang is located on the route of birds migration. There are several wetland park around the site. And most of them are in the danger of envionmental pollution and the living condition for migration and ecosystem is being damaged with urbanization
SOURCE OF TOURISTS
Primary Target Market - Core
Secondary Target Market - Major
N 0
6km
12km
Thirdly Target Market - Potential
MASTER PLAN
LANDSCAPE STRATA
REGIONAL FRAMEWORK
On the whole, our plane is the superposition of three “Strata”. The first floor is plant, the site is mainly covered by
The industrial landscape in the whole region as a new landscape interface in its surrounding environment. By raising people’s activity space, retaining industrial skeleton as industrial catalysis and removing hard surface, this new landscape type will integrate surrounding environment as a means of repair and productive landscape. This new landscape interface can make Ruichang’s industrial sites invisible into an ecological landscape necklace. It can improve environmental quality, export landscape products, enhance cultural consensus and increase employment opportunities. The return of tourists and new labor force can not only spawn good tourism, but also revitalize the local communities, forming a virtuous circle of local economy.
woodland, combined with restoration plants, and the park is a large area of grassland. The second floor, which we call the production layer, is mainly covered by farmland and productive nurseries. The third layer is the basic construction layer formed by the industrial skeleton and the aerial corridor.
Young Labor Surplus Labor Return Transfom
Tourists
Consumption
Environmental Landscape Cultrual Improvment Products Enhancement
Landscape as Interface
Job Oppotunities
Elevated Promenade
Construction
Industrial Skeleton Booming Tourism
Embedded Community
Thickened Strata
Living Quality
Water
Agriculture
Mountain
Vegetation
Village
Urban
......
Social Structure
Eco-industrial Necklace
Economic Structure
Economic Growth
Bamboo Forest
Image Created by Yang Xia
DESIGN PHASING Mineral fields, farmland, mountain forests and lakes are organically combined as a means of repair and productive landscape. We will need the material energy and mining, mining brought into positive roots in the natural ecological pool, so as to form the Forest Wetland Center, abundant waterfowl habitat. Farmland, as an old product of survival demand, has been introduced into the landscape as a two level purification area and applied to the abandoned industrial architecture. The combination of aquaculture and lakeside wetland is the three level purification area, which is a productive landscape on the lakeside. Image Created by Yang Xia CURRENT STATUS
PHASE ONE
PHASE TWO
softening the land
PHASE THREE
setting the interface phytoremediation
capping
mining hill
designer
invesitor
factory worker
enhancing land attraction
eco-system renaissance
tourist
farmer
introducing productive landscape
site
Productive Land
industrial skeleton as framework
lake
WATER PURIFYING & ECOLOGICAL CYCLE
Connections & Infrastructures
N 0
300M
Image Created by Xinyuan Lu
SCHEMATIC LANDSCAPE TYPOLOGY We analyzed different landscape types and analyzed the types of landscape in combination with the characteristics of the site. The landscape in the field is mainly divided into four types: natural experience landscape, prolific landscape, industrial heritage transformation landscape, and recreational facilities.
Industrial trial
Hostel (community ) renovation
Invigorating abandoned infrastructure as overlook platform
Colorful elevated jogging path
Architecture framed argiculture with activities
Argiculture and aquaculture with activities
Constructive wetland based habitat
SEASONAL PLANTING METHODS
Quarry as aeration tank
PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPE
INDUSTRAIL HERITAGE RENOVATION LANDSCAPE
Landscape Oenamental
Forest trail
Quin adaptive landscape
Quarry camping campus
Waterfront promnade
Potential music festival site
Amphitheater
Commercial district and famer’s market
Children playground
Succession of Crops NATURE EXPERIENCE LANDSCAPE Image Created by Sijia Yang
LEISURE LANDSCAPE INFRASTRUCTURE
LANDSCAPE PERCEPTION
VISION ONE
When people stand on the ringshaped flyovers and see the train coming.
VISION TWO
People experience farming tastes in the economic fields.
VISION THREE
When you are walking on the rainbow runway with a child’s view
ARCHITECTURE EXPLODED DIAGRAM & SECTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Image Created by Sijia Yang & Xinyuan Lu
ROOF
ENERGY RUNWAY
STRUCTURE
WALL
PLANT
STAIRS
VISION FOUR When people visiting the southern end of the greenhouse, the distant wetland and the mountain forest are called the beautiful background.
ARCHITECTURAL FACADE
TOUCH ON THE MOONLIGHT A Wakeway to Desert Night Instuctor: Craig Reschke Location: Las Vegas, NV Spring 2018
Nocturnal Illumination in desert Vegas leaves modern citizens an apparent ignorance of the appreciation of the moonlight. This project seeks to create a nocturnal landscape that puts us back to the pristine awareness of moonlight rather than the overwhelmed neon illumination in urban Las Vegas. Using the transmission site to arranging solar panels in current higher flooding areas, a trail between Las Vegas to the Lake Mead allows me to re-imagine a site condition that can evoke the primitive dialogue between human and space. Night in the Vegas, unlike other urban places, there is clear division of places where is illuminated and places is not. Other than
that, dramatic temperature drop also make people cluster in the urban center. Thus, the project is trying to explore the relationships between landscape and atmosphere, as design media, for sensory and physiological well-being. Elements like humidity, temperature, sound, light are all formative for design. The landscape is about embracing the haptic feeling of nocturnal environment. The moonlight washing down, the breeze, the heat of rocks after sunny day, these situation are setting up for urban people in Las Vegas to experience night and desert.
BLUE MOON MEDITATION Sculpture, Space Art Collaborative Project Collaborators: Sijia Yang, Kexin Tang
Nocturnal Landscape As a Heterotopia “Blue Moon Meditation“ is a experimental design of a nocturnal space. A closed sunken wooded space is hidden within an undulating terrain. A blue circle of lights hung from the branches of different trees, facing a mirror at the end of the forest. When people enter space, the reflection of the light in the mirror drew them to go further into. When they finally reach the mirror, they will realize the illusion and they have already passed by the reality.
LOCATION & SITE CONDITION
SENSORIAL ANALYSIS, TOPOGRAPHY & MOON PHASE
The project studies the ephemeral elements of the desert Vegas, as well as the geologic condition which forms the land. The characristic of rocks in the site can be a element for trial intervention.
Sections
With topographic ups and downs, the relationship between trail and the Moon changes. The transmission line serves as a guidance for night walkers to experience the darkness of desert.
TRAIL ROUTE
STUDY MODEL
THE MOON PARK- MOON LIGHT, TIME, AND LANDSCAPE
Using the transmission site to arranging solar panels in current higher flooding areas, a trail between Las Vegas to the Lake Mead allows me to re-imagine a site condition that can evoke the primitive dialogue between human and space. The design of the trial starts with a close analysis towards the topography. The vavious land forms create different site conditions. Design intervations vary from site to site.
Site one
Site two
The Moon Park 1
Site three
In Mid Summer, a rainfall quickly cools the terrain from the day. Water gathers in the crater, which creates a mirrored surface that draws people to go inside and enjoy the soft moonlight.
SCENARIO ONE
SCENARIO TWO
SCENARIO THREE
The Moon Park 2
The SOLAR PANEL LABYRINTH
THE RAIN FIELD
In the early fall, there is an annual event for the Mid Autumn Festival, the crater sets as art gallery for different artistic events.
The morning sun is gently shining on the sun board, sparkling.
The morning sun is gently shining on the sun board, sparkling.
A CLEARING IN THE WOODS 2019 Ragdale Ring Design Proposal Instuctor: Aaron Brakke Location: Lake Forest, IL Collaborators: Aaron Brakke, Shuang Sang, Yutian Wang, Sijia Yang, Litong Zeng Spring 2019
The proposal called A Clearing in the Woods enters a dialogue with what this site was before it was developed and calls attention to the evolution of the forests and surrounding fields. Lake Forest, Illinois sits on the continental divide. It is “junction point” where the landscape typologies of the great prairie and forest intersect. Trees were removed, agrarian fields took their place and (sub)urban grids extended northward from Chicago.
This proposal evokes the qualities of the mysterious and enchanted forest that previously covered this land. A Clearing in the Woods aims to create a framework that will set the stage for unique experiences to unravel for every visitor. This framework is an “anti-object” and is designed to create a field condition. This will be achieved by deploying a series of screens that setup a recognizable structure, yet will create a sense of separation from reality (disorientation). The conceptual idea of the ring is expanded also. It is now a porous threshold, an accentuated interstitial space that forces one to navigate their trajectory from arrival on site to the Heterotopia of “Ragdale Ring”.
PLAN
ISOMETRIC VIGNETTE
Image Created by Yutian Wang
ELEVATION A
ELEVATION B
CONFIGURATION MATRIX
EPHEMERAL LANDSCAPE MORNING & AFTERNOON
Model created by Shuang Sang
ENTRANCE TYPES
STAGE SET
STAGE PERSPECTIVE Image created by Sijia Yang
Visitors enter from the north. They are first confronted with the dilemma of determine which way is forward when they see what is behind them reflected on the mirrored surface.
Visitors enter from the east. They find themselves with layers of translucent screens in front of them. The fog like conditions make it difficult to see and so the visitor relies on hearing as they move towards the clearing.
Visitors will approach a large screen with an abstract grid pattern. As they move forward to pass, the panel will titillate due to the multi-layer translucent fabric that has been designed with a MoirĂŠ pattern.
The stage is composed of several planes. The platform for the stage is an assortment of movable horizontal planes constructed of wood. The vertical panel that serves as a backdrop is made of steel and clad in translucent fabric that is able to serve as a rear projection screen for abstract patterns of fields to be projected during evening gatherings. An awning plane is able to be added when inclement weather appears.
OTHER WORKS
Art Works Mappings Paintings Exhibitions Practices
Absence of Water
ReThinking the Surface
Study Model , Plaster Acdemic Project Instuctor: Mary Pat McGuire Location: Studio Spring 2019
Research, Mapping, Study Model & Gallery Acdemic Project Instuctor: Mary Pat McGuire Location: Campus TBH Collaborators: Seminar LA 587 Spring 2017
Fairchild Garden Plan Grading Plan Acdemic Project LA342 Site Engineering Fall 2017
Thing Power Field Regional Mapping Acdemic Project Instuctor: Brad Goeltz Location: Bradwood, IL Spring 2017
A Glimpse of Wangshi Garden Sketch during firldtrip in Suzhou 2015
Walking in the Mountain Sketch/Pen Drawing 2013
DONGPING Village Urban Design
When Meditation Becomes a LifeStyle
AECOM Internship Supervisor: Junyi Kevin Lin Location: Shanghai, China Collaborative Summer 2018
WENZHOU Historic Town Vision Design Plan AECOM Internship Supervisor: Junyi Kevin Lin Location: Shanghai, China Collaborative Summer 2018
Graduate Design Research Acdemic Project Instuctor: Liu Cui Location: Seda, China Indivisual Work Spring 2016
VIBRANT GROUND
Ruby Necklace
Open Space Design Acdemic Project Instuctor: Dongyun Liu Location: Beijing, China Indivisual Work Spring 2015
Riparian Design Acdemic Project Instuctor: Dongyun Liu Location: Henan, China Indivisual Work Fall 2014
Taj Mahal Water Color Rendering 2013
Selected Works...