. A Collection of Works . Mengdan Liu [ Harvard University Graduate School of Design ]
Oct. 2016
CONTENTS
URBAN RESPITE Revisioning Campus as Urban Park DOUBLE-SIDED BILLBOARD Polemics of Skyscraper Design at Hudson Yard LIVING ON THE BORDERS Constructing a New Collective Imaginary for Maranga A RESILIENT URBANISM West Malha Basin Redevelopment (RE)FABRICATING TECTONIC PROTOTYPES Reciprocal Frame Lettice ALT-81 Rehabilitation of I-81 highway VISION Intervention: Glowing surfaces for a cell unit A MATERIAL Design-built: Concrete, Wood & Metal
URBAN RESPITE Revisioning the Campus as an Urban Park GSD Option studio Professor: Felipe Correa & Carlos Garciavelez Alfaro Nominated for GSD Platform 8 SPRING 2015 | Monterrey, Mexico This option studio will examine the role of the academic institution as a driver of an intermediate scale urban project. The studio will focus on how the campus, conceived as an open canvas for architectural and urban experimentation, can serve as a generator of new spatial relationships between institution and city within the Purisima Alameda District in downtown Monterrey (Mexico). For 2016, the Universidad Regiomontana (U-ERRE) has agreed to construct the first gateless university in Mexico. With the implementation of a new institutional model, the campus must reframe the relationship between the spaces of the academy, the neighborhood, and the city at large. A fresh institutional perspective, paired with significant investment in the university’s campus, has an enormous potential to completely rethink the Purisima Alameda District and in doing so transform it into a new university city model for Monterrey and beyond. Taking this new institutional development initiative as a point of departure, the studio will explore the agency of architecture and design in shaping a new campus—all in an effort to construct new spatial formats that can help us rethink the space of the experimental campus for the 21st Century University.
Comparative Analysis: Program & Size Comparison of Urban Parks in Latin American Countries
The project functions as interactive landscape that mediates in between the city and the Alameda park.
Campus in the park Similar to other public parks in the world, Alameda Park has have been a historic component of the urban fabric, deeply ingrained into the urban life and culture of the Alameda-Pursima community. The proposed project integrates alameda park with a university campus, and transform it into an open-space system that consolidates a mix of academy, retail, wellness facilities and housing. As one potential city landmark, It seeks to become a more integrated, distinguishable, pedestrian-friendly city center that allows for various population groups to engage. However, currently the contiguous residential and commercial neighborhood witnessed an abandonment as well as a lack of interconnection between the park and the city. The park’s ability to serve the city is limited, as well a free movement from various destinations within the city organism is significantly discouraged.
Reproposed Ground Intervention The campus consists of five repeated rectangular stripes that extended from the Alameda. to incorporate The learning spaces that are programmed under those five greenery pathways that lift the pedestrian experience off the ground and into a different vantage point. These stripes touch and flirt with the ground on the park side, while preserving the park pedestrian flow into the campus, and on the north side the pathway rises into a 3-storey high building that allows new views for users.
Park within Institutional Space
The in-between spaces captured by the campus stripes are programed as a system of interconnected public spaces and courtyards that gives preview to the recreational amenities which are punctured underground. An art museum, a theatre, a stadium, a dining hall and a public library are framed on the underground level and are interwoven with the ground campus circulation through a series of corridors and plazas catalyzing the richness of the urban life above the ground and bringing it to the underground level through the infrastructure.
Pedestrian system between the campus & housing communities
Programmatic promenade | Semi-public courtyard
Underground Theatre Recreational amenities touch the institutional programs vertically, facilitating an enriched spatial experiences and interpersonal relationship.
Sectional Axonometric Campus, Pedestrian system & Housing Communities
Student Housing | Courtyard
Student Housing | Rooftop open space
DOUBLE-SIDED BILLBOARD Polemics of Skyscraper Design in Hudson Yard Syracuse SOA Fourth year studio In Collaboration with Yuxiang Luo Won 2nd Place in King + King “Comprehensive Studio� Design Competition SPRING 2012 | Manhattan, NY The Hudson Yards area of New York provides some of the last substantial open real estate space in the City. With a review of the area for redevelopment, multiple proposals have been made to turn the area into a thriving community of office, commercial and residential buildings. The area's proximity to Penn Station, Highline, the ferry and Jevits Center provide an opportune location for new office and commercial space. In addition the recent redevelopment of the High Line provides a recreatonal connection and incentive for a new residential area. All these factors leave the site a chaotic condition of unrelated network, as well create a vibrant area for new development. One challenge is to propose a contemporary method of constructing a urban icon, as well as preserving historical urban context. As part of a new development plan, this tower will adhere to the new zoning and FAR requirements of its specific site. The tower will contain cafes, commercial, residential and office space.
Neglect of the urban topography, the “path” becomes the dominant element driving the development rather than simply connecting the existing “nodes”
Driving the development on the east side by the means of “paths”
?
Creating new “nodes” with identity to drive the development on the west side
When developing these new nodes, to what degree should each of these redevelopment projects become autonomous structures?
Master Plan of the Hudson Yard Reevelopment
The project is positioned in the Hudson Yard Redevelopment, consisting of skyscrapers with ambitions to regenerate the West Side spatially, culturally and economically. Therefore, given its "fate" as a landmark on the site, the design questions the potency and mechanism for landmarks to be read by their perceivers and inhabitant.
Site Approach
EDEVELOPMENT
TWORK
CONTENTION
Hudson Yard Redevelopment
New Jersey
GURING THE NETWORK
ING THE NETWORK
Reconfiguring the network
Manhattan
GROUNDSCAPE & NETWORK
PL AZA AS PL ATFORM CONDITION NEAR THE HIGH LINE PLAZA AS PLATFORM CONDITION NEAR THE HIGH LINE
FILTER CONDITION ON FILTER CONDITION ON THE THE PARK SIDE PARK SIDE
THE PERMEABLE GROUND
THE PERMEABLE GROUND
15.00 FT LEVEL 1 RESTAURANT + GALLERY
0.00 FT GROUND LEVEL RESIDENTIAL LOBBY 0.00 FT GROUND LEVEL PLAZA 0.00 FT GROUND LEVEL RETAIL ENTRANCE 0.00 FT GROUND LEVEL SUBWAY ENTRANCE
-20.00 FT LEVEL B1 RETAIL -40.00 FT LEVEL B1 RETAIL -40.00 FT LEVEL B2 SUBWAY
DE DETAIL
FACADE DETAIL
ADE DETAIL
FACADE DETAIL
"BILLBOARD" STRATEGIES
GROUNDSCAPE URBAN SPACE & CONTEXT
LEVEL 1 PLAN | RESTAURANT + GALLERY
WEST - EAST SECTION
LEVEL 30 PLAN | RESIDENTIAL DUPLEX 10 FT
30 FT
70 FT
LEVEL 31 PLAN | RESIDENTIAL DUPLEX 10 FT
30 FT
70 FT
LEVEL 50 PLAN | OFFICE DUPLEX 10 FT
LEVEL 51 PLAN | OFFICE DUPLEX 10 FT
30 FT
70 FT
30 FT
70 FT
SOUTH-NORTH SECTION 70FT
TWSITING THE SLAB
WEST-EAST SECTION 70FT
ELEVATORING SYSTEM
LIVING ON THE BORDERS Constructing a new collective imaginary for Maranga GSD Option studio Professor: Jean Pierre Crousse & Einat Rosenkrantz Nominated for GSD Platform 9 In Collaboration with Long Zuo FALL 2016 | Lima, Peru In cities with fast urban growth, heritage and development have often created friction zones where economic logics collide with preservation policies. In Lima, more than 360 pre-Columbian archeological sites are located nowadays inside the urban grid. Surrounded by walls and neglected, these sites don’t participate in city life, and are seen by citizens as voids in the urban tissue. The absence of urban planning and the predominant informal urbanization have transformed these sites in genuine Urban Black Holes within the urban grid, hopelessly attracting urban growth, searching for new land to expand the city. The friction between rigid conservation policies and land value, added to misunderstanding of cultural heritage as an urban potential, is not exempt from violence. This studio aims to design and imagine innovative living borders, as an antidote for incremental growth and orthodox conservation in Lima. The project aims to revitalize the Maranga archeological complex area by re-imagining its current physical and social borders. Through the creation of an educational and cultural district, the project seeks to add value and meaning to the historical concepts associated with the preColumbian heritage sites of Lima, through the establishment of a new urban dialogue between the city and the huacas where they can be acknowledged and reinterpreted as a holistic urban image. Traditional Maranga complex contained impressive huge monuments, numerous pyramids, palaces, temples and administrative centers. Their vast scale and dominant layout used be very present in the urban imaginary of the citizens, due to the visual impact and connections among them in the city Urban land around Maranga complex was left undeveloped before 1960s. However as a result of the cities’ rapid expansion in recent 30 years, as the last piece of land adjacent to downtown Lima, this urban void was quickly filled in by large institutes and incremental housings without sophisticated urban plan strategies and necessary consideration of huacas. Some Huacas in Maranga complex are right now even in danger of physically disappearing due to the pressure of the developments.
Lima reimaginary: Dialogue between archaeological sites and human settlement As a consequence, borders were built to protect Huacas from the illegal invention brought by rapid urban growth, however, this physical borders eliminate the dialogue between this heritage sites and the city. The borders render the huacas as almost invisible on the streetscape and cut down the social, economical and cultural linkage between them, the citizens and the urban environment citizens. The development mode of the urban components is in a centrepid and autonomous pattern, borders are left underdeveloped, which resulted in a lack of dialogue and an absence of interactions of activities, social participations and exchanges within the in-between space and the urban components it defined. Similarly, borders are taking shape in various forms throughout the whole city. Acknowledging borders as an ubiquitous and important urban phenomenon, we approach the project by examining the element of the “border�, converting it into a permeable living space that accommodating student housings, educational programs, cultural facilities, creative industries which are lacking now in this district. By introducing the living borders with an integrated platform at various height and accesses, the intimate relationship of Maranga complex and the city is brought back.
Throughout the urbanization discourse of city of Lima, Maranga becomes the last piece large empty land that is currently filled with huacas, large insititutes and small family residents with physical borders that segregate each other.
In-between scenario of maranga huaca and one housing community.
University of San Marco (Public University Campus)
Parque de las leyendas (Zoo) PUCP (Private University Campus)
Wa l l i s a n u b i q u i t o u s segregating mechanism in the city of Lima. The different types of walls together delinate a city-wide border picture that disencourages the community interaction. However, it not only defines the distinct territories but more importantly gives a sense of security. By restructuring walls into programmatic civic facilities, a new urban typology is generated. WALL, HUACA & SETTLEMENT
Phase 1
Phase 2 PROGRAMMATIC ARTERY
Wa l l i s a n u b i q u i t o u s segregating mechanism in the city of Lima. The different types of walls together delinate a city-wide border picture that disencourages the community interaction. However, it not only defines the distinct territories but more importantly gives a sense of security. By restructuring walls into programmatic civic facilities, a new urban typology is generated. HYBRID STREETFRONT
Phase 1
Phase 2 PROGRAMMATIC ARTERY
The living border acts as a planning tool for directing development i n t h e c i t y. At d i s t r i c t s c a l e the addition of living border would facilitate a revitalized neighborhood, thus leveraging on existing important existing heritage sites. Educational facilities and linear parks would allow new interactions, activities and social participation in the adjacent surroundings.
Unit
Typology A: Ground-free border
Community
The linearality of the border intervention enables a vision of North-South urban spine that connects Maranga and the campuses to the coast, as well provides a replicable solution for the future development of the other urban nodes throughout the city.
semi-public
public
Living border
Narrative
Typology B: Permeating border
Huaca-student dormitory complex
Zoo
Elevated walking trek
Student dormitory
Conservation and preservation in the context of urbanization In cities with fast urban growth, heritage and development have often created friction zones where economic logics collide with preservation policies. In Lima, more than 360 pre-Columbian archeological sites are located nowadays inside the urban grid. Surrounded by walls and neglected, these sites don’t participate in city life, and are seen by citizens as voids in the urban tissue. The absence of urban planning and the predominant informal urbanization have transformed these sites in genuine Urban Black Holes within the urban grid, hopelessly attracting urban growth, searching for new land to expand the city. Re-structuring a huaca cluster landscape integrated
A RESILIENT URBANISM West Malha Basin Redevelopment GSD Option studio Professor: Alex Krieger & Ofa Manor Nominated for GSD Platform 9 In Collaboration with Pu Zhang SPRING 2016 | Jerusalem, Israel
Malha basin, a district with large institutes at the peri-urban periphery of the city of Jerusalem, seeks to become a more urban, pedestrian friendly city center. The proposed project is grounded in what is present in the Malha neighborhood, aiming to acknowledge and activate the un-connected neighborhoods and the adjacent large institutes such as a stadium, an arena, a shopping mall and an office park. Existing mass transit and infrastructure connections bring the traffic flow from the other parts of the city into this area, however, the vihecle-oriented urban fabric does not addres the local needs of nearby amenities and day-to-day necessities. This project proposes a radical mising of affordable housing, retail, community, center, wellness facilities and office park. Taking into account of the diversity of ethnicities, religions, ages and backgrounds of the people that a green aged in this district, this speculation seeks to re-organize the chaotic urban context in a way can fit the needs of the local residents.
CONCEP
Malha ba peripher ban, ped
The prop
Malha ne
un-conne
tutes suc fice park
bring the area, ho
dress the cessities
This proj
retail, co
Ta k i n g i n
ages and district, ban cont
Research Framework
Architecture (Element)
Frame (Urban Typology)
Existing (Region)
Network (City)
Network
The old city connects the city center of Jerualsem with the CBD area along Jaffa road towards the west, having the govenment district and university town as two vibrant urban nodes, the city is still missing an urban concentration at the Malha basin that could complete the wholistic urban vision. Existing
Density Arteries & neighborhood streets
Building scale Public services & Residential districts
Density Strategy
Existing Site
EXISTING
New Building Addition
Redensified Urban Node
Pedestrian Connectivity
Commercial Walkway
Small business-residence hybrid repopulates the streetfront
Community Public Space
Green Infrastructure
Affordable housing communities are proposed along infrastructure barrier.
Extension of office park straddles the urban-nature threshold.
b a n , p e d e s t r i a n f r i e n d l y c i t y c e n t e r.
u t e r i s a d i n t i s . S i p e r v i s s u m p e r r a t u r. E h e n t i c a e t i u r a ? E s b o
torunum nonsulturnum ad Cat, dum Romnihilina, portemquam The proposed project is grounded in what is present in the
Ectuus cote, qua nequidiena, ne fue quas publius, quium hin
Malha neighborhood, aiming to acknowledge and activate the
essimus, C. Sci publi, que te terem milium rentia in venam de
un-connected neighborhood s a n d t h e a d COMPLEX jacent large instiCOMMERCIAL
simo manunte atementilis laressi curnimihi, quam hum dicast
tutes such as a stadium, an arena, a shopping mall and an of-
quem re inequideor liam for ad id C. manum optem ingulin tu
fice park. Existing mass transit and infrastructure connections
inatri pon horaec octe, Ti. Lemnius bonloste, ego vereoraedin
b r i n g t h e t r a f f i c f l o w f r o m tCOMMERCIAL h e o t h e r p a r tCOMPLEX s of the city into this
Lin perfirmil henatudem larbena, qua st gratiam condam, que
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
a r e a , h o w e v e r, t h e v i h e c l e - o r i e n t e d u r b a n f a b r i c d o e s n o t a d -
fintis ademurei inatque civivirte pl. As facepon iussentio Cat
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
dress the local needs of nearby amenities and day-to-day ne-
conerum sendactum in sat, cupion iaci et vit.
cessities.
Fa c i a m p u l o c c h i n p r a a q u e p e r e d fo r u m l o s, C a t u s c e r f i n e m ,
neighborhood integration
OFFICE PARK
OFFICE PARK
OFFICE PARK
COMMERCIAL COMPLEX
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
strengthen the density of strengthen the density of existing commercial sector existing commercial sector
nium tem in sendic ius postribus hortus faciae etiu veribunu
This project proposes a radical mixing of affordable housing,
icaed sultorior que fec mentis; non sendiuscerte nondeludam
r e t a i l , c o m m u n i t y c e n t e r, w e l l n e s s f a c i l i t i e s a n d o f f i c e p a r k .
id is st pritrar issentilium perescibem igiliquod consulla cla c
Ta k i n g i n t o a c c o u n t o f t h e d i v e r s i t y o f e t h n i c i t i e s , r e l i g i o n s ,
suliu videmei peconsus aucon sinatore patius, oc, viveris. Gra
ages and backgrounds of the people that are engaged in this
ribe mquistem patum tanum, ute ego ma, nonsili cerempl. Li,
district, this speculation seeks to re-organize the chaotic ur-
ut conina, cercericer quasdactu inatus hacere ad inc vigili, q
ban context in a way can fit the needs of the local residents.
cultor querissed con tem alabit.
neighborhood integration neighborhood integration
Anu quonsultus forteri pra re facesidi in vivicepoer aucenium storavolut ommorio nsicautea reistrae con siliam ad consulis
neighborhood integration
Neighborhood integration strengthen the density of existing commercial sector
UNITY RK MUNITY ARK MALHA MALL
OFFICE PARK NEW ADDITION
CIVIC PLAZA
MALHA MALL
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
OFFICE PARK NEW ADDITION
CIVIC PLAZA
MALHA MALL
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
OFFICE PARK NEW ADDITION
CIVIC PLAZA
MALHA MALL
MALHA MALL ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
MUNITY ARK
strengthen the density of existing commercial sector MALHA MALL
strengthen the density of Strengthen thecommercial densitysector of existing existing commercial sector
affordable housing affordable housing
strengthen the density of existing commercial sector
URBAN PARK
affordable housing
E R S P E C T I V E O F M E T R O P O L I TA N PA R K - O F F I C E E X T E N S I O N T E N C E W H AT I T S H O W S / S C A L E I F A P P L I C A B L E ]
XONOME TRIC VIE W FROM DENSIFIED NEIGHBORHOOD T E N C E W H AT I T S H O W S / S C A L E I F A P P L I C A B L E ]
AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMPLEX
COMMUNITY PARK URBAN PARK COMMUNITY PARK
AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMPLEX
MALHA MALL
URBAN PARK AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMPLEX
MALHA MALL
COMMUNITY PARK MALHA MALL
affordable housing
Affordable housing
affordable housing FIG. 02: MASTER PLAN [ O N E S E N T E N C E W H AT I T S H O W S / S C A L E I F A P P L I C A B L E ]
affordable housing
id is st pritrar issentilium perescibem igiliquod consulla cla culiconTa k i n g i n t o a c c o u n t o f t h e d i v e r s i t y o f e t h n i c i t i e s , r e l i g i o n s ,
suliu videmei peconsus aucon sinatore patius, oc, viveris. Grae ina-
ages and backgrounds of the people that are engaged in this
ribe mquistem patum tanum, ute ego ma, nonsili cerempl. Li, nocatil
district, this speculation seeks to re-organize the chaotic ur-
ut conina, cercericer quasdactu inatus hacere ad inc vigili, que culvid
ban context in a way can fit the needs of the local residents.
cultor querissed con tem alabit. Anu quonsultus forteri pra re facesidi in vivicepoer aucenium poporta storavolut ommorio nsicautea reistrae con siliam ad consulis prissen
FIG. 02: MASTER PLAN [ O N E S E N T E N C E W H AT I T S H O W S / S C A L E I F A P P L I C A B L E ]
Masterplan of Revisioning Malha Basin
Scenario of public space connecting affordable housing and office park
Scenario of Small business-residence hybrid Housing Unit 1
Housing Unit 2
Unit Aggregation
STRATEGY2: AFFORDABLE HOUSING STRATEGY2: AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Scenario of public space connecting affordable housing and office park
STRATEGY2: AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Affordable housing unit study
Commercial plaza
MASTERPLAN
PERSPECTIVE: CIVIC PLAZA
Sectional model
(RE)FABRICATING TECTONIC PROTOTYPES Reciprocal Frame Lettice Distinction Project at GSD |Professor: Leire Asensio Villoria Nominated for GSD Platform 8 SPRING 2015 | In Collaboration with Niccolo Dambrosio and Pasquale Totaro
Taking Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome as the structural prototype, this project is evaluated testing and presenting the structural performance of the geometry as one self-supported system. The idea of taking triangulation as base structural unit is analyzed throughout the research process. Scaled mock-ups and models are utilized to study the joinery, planar reciprocal frame elements, integrated systems as well as the manufacturing methods that are involved. Fabrication of physical prototypes: One fifth of the geodesic is firstly extracted in order to realized Fuller's icosahedron subdivision,variations of the shear forces and bending moments are analyzed in the assembly and dis-assembly process of the unit configuration. After a comprehensive synthesis of various joint types, wide spanning constructions and triangulation modules, we realized that the linear reciprocal frame should be the most suitable joint scheme that gives the advantage of free-form geometry as well as optimizing the fabrication method. With the aid of Matlab we further advanced the approximation of the material members and the final form.
Prototype Study|Geodesic Dome
Reciprocal Frame Lettice
Unit Configuration
Optimization of Fabrication Members
Prototype Study|Geodesic Dome
To-Scale Unit Mockup
SPRING 2013
Syracuse, NY
ALT-81 [Rehabilitation of the I-81 highway]
Rehabilitation of the I-81 Advanced Design Studio 408 |Professor: Jonathon Solomon The ultimate goal is to make use of the structure that holds up the I-81 and utilize it as medium to connect it to that of the program so as to formally demonstrate the possibility of incorporation that exists in this decaying structure. Furthermore, we need to emphasize the importance the highway can have in the strengthening of this zone as a medical district. What exactly are the characteristics of the setting where the highway find itself in? First of all, the highway creates a infrastructural barrier that slices the medical district into two parts: the Downtown and University area. Secondly, the space underneath the highway is highly vacant. and creates a feeling of isolation for the pedestrians and people who live around. As a matter of fact, from government statics, an approximate of 30% of the spaces situated under highway are underutilized. Lack of Interaction The interaction between individual and medical geared facility is very specific to the needs of each individual and for that reason many of them do not have the opportunity engage with one another and create a more united community.
EXISTING CONDITION
?
PEOPLE FLOW WEAK
Medical facilities
A CONTROVERCIAL CHARACTER?
VEHICLE FLOW DOMINANT
SITE= UNDEFINED SETTING IN A MEDICAL ZONE
DEAD SPACE!
EXISTING NEIGHBORHOODS
I-6
90
I-481
The goal is to then utilize the area underneath and above the I-81 (closing down traffic) to create a fitness/education program that can further evolve this medical geared sector of the city. THE HYBRIDIZATION OF THE STRUCTURE
Having chosen a health fitness program in order to expand and fortify the health geared activity of this sector the project has come to the conclusion that the highway needs to play a huge part in the purpose of the program. The structure is the backbone of the highway and by literally connecting it with that of the health fitness a “fusion� in terms of material and structure can be achieved that truly makes use of our decision to keep the highway and as a result emphasize its importance as a character within the existing setting.
AMENITY PLANTING STRIP
AMENITY PLANTING STRIP
What Unites Them?
From the study of existing neighborhood, health is determined as uniting factor among these three groups because it is a type of activity that can consolidate the predominant medical activity that occurs in the site. These three distinct groups interact with medical institutions either through education, practice, or use. The individuals who live in this medical district interact with the medical geared program that composes it in many different ways. Education/Practice-The medical students either intern or study within the facilities. Use-The elderly depend on easy access to it for health reasons as they approach the later years of their life. Use/jobs-the low income families depend on it for work and for health benefits.
Refracted Light Prism
Mirror
Reflected View
A realistic view of the inhabitant him/herself is reflected by the set of facing mirrors.
An abstrac outside wo the prism, t the parallel m
Reflected Light Mirror
One of the least desirable lighting conditions in human environment is that in claustrophobic spaces, such as prison, asylum, and individual cell rooms. In those situations, isolation is required for certain purposes, but the issue of humanity is potentially neglected. Therefore, this project aspired to provide an intervention that, without interrupting the fundamental spatial structure of the room, could drastically change its spatial and psychological character with the vision of light.
Different micro arrangement allows for various percep number of assembly is small (as appeared on the slot o the mirror reflection will be not as legible as the light pen when a large number of prisms are installed (on the rig view will be dominant.
The device is intended to diffuse the light and reflect the outside. They can be attached to the structural/protective frame of t become a large glowing surface, or infill the openings on the wall and make slots of light. It can be free to arrange in various patte different ideological, aesthetical, or systematical concerns.
cted view of the orld is distorted by then brought in by mirrors.
ptions. When the of light on the left), netrating through; ght), the reflected
the cell room and erns according to
SUMMER 2012
VISION
[Lighting play for a cell room] Entry for International VELUX Award In Collaboration with Yuxiang Luo
Light is not only about illuminance. The quality of light is also associated with the
VISION it brings.
When light presents itself with an abstract view of the distance, habitants within the claustrophobic space will be enlightened by the humanity of the enriched light.
MUSHROOM HOUSE|Design-Built This project was designed and constructed as a group by the students from SOA, Syracuse University. The goal of the project was to create a small “play hut” for a local school that specialized in educating disabled children in an integrated environment.
The Mouse House was designed and then constructed from a technique driven process of design. Through manipulating the standard ideas of formwork we decided on our final process of casting the concrete between an rigid, designed, exterior and an undesigned, organic interior. With this technique we knew that we could create an object that looked complete and formed, almost like a geode or a rock. We designed the exterior formwork and pre-fabricated it in our facilities; CNC Milled insulation foam with our desired pattern and inlayed it in the wood formwork we created in our wood shop. The interior formwork was intentionally random. We stacked four hay bales in a pile seamed the gaps with mud from the site. These two contrasting methods would create the exact exterior we wanted coupled with the sheltered cavernous space inside we also desired. Varying standard sizes of PVC pipe were intersected in between the two formworks that after cast would leave a hole permeating the interior and exterior.
FUNK'N CHAIR|Design-Built This furniture piece is designed to encourage a reconsideration of object as a spatial agency. Made from cherry wood and pine wood, the pivot connections allow for easy dismantling and interchanging of the chair and table surface. 24“ 14“
7“
40“
26“
14“ 18.5“