SELECT PROJECTS
STUDIOS ARCHITECTURE 2005 - 2010
Benson C. Chen - arcbenson@gmail.com
UCSF Capital Program & Facilities Management
Design Studies
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, USA INTERIOR DESIGN 61,000 sf COMPLETED CONSTRUCTION 2009
Existing storage building re-conditioned and renovated for office occupancy. The construction and design intent was to salvage and reuse most of the timber from demolition, expose the existing wood structures, and use as much natural finish materials as possible, like cork and reclaimed wood, to create a warm and welcoming working environment. All the materials had been carefully selected, following LEED guidelines.
Benson C. Chen - arcbenson@gmail.com
Mission Bay Parcel 4 - Alexandria Development SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA ARCHITECTURE245,000 sf Completed T.B.D. Located in Mission Bay district in San Francisco, this project was one of the approved bio-tech development plan of this area. This 10 stories high-rise will house office and research program, with features aimed to lower energy consumption and solar heat gain.
SOLAR SHADOW STUDY Benson C. Chen - arcbenson@gmail.com
Alameda Point Collaborative Barn Studios’ pro bono volunteers got this project through Architecture for Humanity organization. As an active member of this group, I participated in the design , team meeting, and construction. The challenge was to raise sufficient amount of donation to get this project built, and to collaborate with local teenagers, homeless, and community volunteers to build this project, piece by piece, with all the possible donated materials we can get. Therefore, we need to design the construction method, to make it so simple that even teenagers can be taught to help. The program includes a barn, tool shed, a green house, and a fish pond, with the rest of the area dedicated for growing seasonal produce. The produce will be sold at the local organic market, with its income used to improve the well-being of local homeless. ALAMEDA, CALIFORNIA, USA PRO BONO COLLABORATION 1080 sf Construction in progress
Benson C. Chen - arcbenson@gmail.com
CalTech High Physics - Interior Design / Walkthrough Animation PASADENA, CA, USA Completed T.B.D. This three-story building houses the well known Cal Tech’s High Physics Department. As requested, we prepared a design proposal on the building renovation; also re-thinked how an academic and research facility can foster the interaction and discussion.
Benson C. Chen - arcbenson@gmail.com
Earth Smart SACRAMENTO, CA, USA Completed T.B.D. Located in state capital, this four-story building will be the future corporate display center. The architecture itself will serve as the example of the company’s green image, and being used to provide education to general public, promoting sustainalbe life style. A lecture hall on second floor will be used to provide public lectures and seminars.
Benson C. Chen - arcbenson@gmail.com
Shanghai Culture Square SHANGHAI, CHINA INTERIOR DESIGN 500,000 sf Construction in progress Studios in association with Team 7, designed the interiors for the public spaces within a three-level, 1800-seat theatre, including the lobby, VIP areas, main auditorium, cafe, and lounges.
Design Studies
The lobby “light funnel� functions as a light prism during the day, directing natural light down to the semi-underground gathering place, creating an airy spacial feeling while at the same time controlling solar heat gain. The theatre will host touring musicals and Broadway shows. The finish materials were inspired by feather, flamboyant and elegant, creating a luxurious yet less formal atmosphere than its opera house and symphony hall counterparts.
Benson C. Chen - arcbenson@gmail.com
CHIC INTERNATIONAL SHANGHAI, CHINA MASTER PLANNING, ARCHITECTURE, INTERIOR 300,000 sf Construction to begin in June 2010 Located in Jiading district of Shanghai, the campus will include a 50,000 to 65,000 sf headquarters building with office space, conferencing, dining, and fitness, a 32,000 sf research and development center, a 3,000 sf independent villa, and up to 16,000 sf of service apartment.
Benson C. Chen - arcbenson@gmail.com
ZHANG JIANG PLAZA SHANGHAI, CHINA MASTER PLANNING, ARCHITECTURE 1,000,000 sf Completed T.B.D. This office development will include an eight to ten-story interior, plus retail, plaza, and a transportation hub.
Benson C. Chen - arcbenson@gmail.com
LOTUS CENTER PUDONG, SHANGHAI, CHINA ARCHITECTURE DESIGN 645,000 sf Design in progress This project is a proposed low-rise office, university, and residential city. It will include 645,000 sf of office, retail, and civic space geared toward designers and artists, with additional 50,000 sf of cultural space. The cultural space has a permanent collection museum, and temporary installation galleries. The design gesture is to anchor the north end of this prospering city’s new culture zone, and to complete the city’s cultural program. The office bar frames the canal views, and surrounding the “lotus”, which is the cultural center. Emulating a lotus flower, the cultural center has a double skin of clear glass, with five translucent “ petals”, functioning as sun shade throughout the day. At dusk, the petals will be utilized as projection screen, receiving images, as a glowing flower along the new river edge.
Benson C. Chen - arcbenson@gmail.com
SELECT PROJECTS
ALYA 2010-2012
Benson C. Chen - arcbenson@gmail.com
Location: Beijing Program: Ceramic Art Gallery Scale: 160 m2 Design / Built: 2010/ 2010 Lighting Design: UnoLai Design Photograph: Jeremy San
No. 18 Guan Shu Yuan Hutong
The project calls for the renovation of a small courtyard house in Guan Shu Yuan Hutong, Beijing, which is located between the famed Yonghe Tibetan Temple and the historical Imperial Academy. The client is an art collector from Shanghai, whose wish is to reinvent this “pocket-house” into a gallery with a “Shanghai ambiance” for his ceramic art works.
Design starts with two parallel aspects: On the one hand, to infill a series of copper-plated steel display windows and veneered wood display shelves within the original wooden frames of the house, thus creating an integrated contrast of tradition and modernity; On the other hand, to recreate a courtyard reminiscent of the Jiangnan (south of Yangzi) regionalist expression and articulation.
Plan 1: 200
North: main hall
East: dining hall
West: exhibition hall Courtyard
East: front hall toilet office Etrance
Entrance
South hall: reception
West hall: gallery
West hall: gallery
North hall: main gallery
North hall: main gallery
East hall: dining
Courtyard
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East: dining hall
West: exhibition hall
Courtyard
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North: main hall
South: antehall
Courtyard at night
Corridor
Location: Jiading, Shanghai Program: Restaurant and Tea Lounge Scale: 850 m2 Design Team: Liu Yuyang, Benson Chen, Jimmy Poek, Liang Yongjiang, Zhao Gang Design/Built: 2010/2011 Structural Consultant: Liu Tao Façade Consultant: Kighton Facade Consultants Co. Ltd. Lighting Consultant: Unolai Design Photographer: Jeremy San
Chen Jia Shan Park Tea Lounge Renovation
The project is located in a newly built park in suburban Shanghai. The original structure was an annex building that has been left unused since it was built. Due to the recent opening of subway nearby, linking this area to the city center, a new development dynamics has emerged. As a result, the local government began to consider how to create something on this site-through new programming and architectural
concept--to better serve the potential visitors. The design adopts the notions of “Environment, Style, Culture” and through installing on the south-facing facade a series of copper plated water-jet hollowed stainless steel exterior sun-shading panels with tea leaf patters, the project aims to achieve an architecture that is energy-efficient, poetic, and representative of
© Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects
South elevation the Chinese tea culture. At the same time, through adding and adjusting the various volumetric composition of the existing building, the design seeks to overcome the previously open spaces which are lacking in narratives, creating a new sense of layering and spatial richness. Most particularly is the newly added cantilevered room with a non-orthogonal geometry at the western end of the building, besides fulfilling the functional requirement for accommodating a private dinning room, it presents a strong spatial dynamics and formal impression to the park visitors on approach in the otherwise flat and open landscape. The interior design continues the formal idea of the “tea� by using tea leaf laminated glass panels, dark green Chinese roof tiles, and the cutouts from exterior sun-shading panels creating in the tea-leaf shaped copper
South elevation 1:200
Š Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects
plated stainless steel, as inspiration for interior wall partitions and lighting fixtures designs. Before commencing on the detail design, the client also commissioned us to design the park entrance gate and the guardhouse, which were built immediately and to a certain degree served as useful references for our detail design and subsequent construction of the clubhouse itself.
View from lotus pond
View from south-west corner
Plan 1:800
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toilet green space reception road lotus pond
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Views from tea lounge roof deck
Views of entrance and courtyard
Natural and artificial lighting
Views of park entrance canopy & west corner of restaurant
Site: Qingpu, Shanghai Program: Offices, research labs, canteen, parking, boat dock Scale: 5,000 m2 Design/Built: 2009/2011 Design Institute: Shanghai City Architectural Design Co. Ltd Façade Consultant: Kighton Facade Consultants Co.,Ltd. Lighting Consultant: Unolai Design Photographer: Jeremy San
Qingpu Environmental Monitoring Station
This design combines the Western “scientific view of nature” and the ancient Chinese, “humanistic view of nature” and through an individual’s own observation of nature, intuitive experience of surrounding environment,forming an “phenomenal view of nature” .The design not only satisfies criteria of scientific functional layout and humanistic nature of space and form, but also utilize the visual moment when one situate in architecture to constitute the inherent relationship between man and natural environment. The design adopted the “three
walls, three courtyards, the third floor,” approach to blend the space in between wall and courtyard, and formed the entity of the architecture. Su Shi, “Wang Jiangnan • Spring” explains the root of Jiangnan cultural - the warm climate and detailed Xu style environment. This proposal is not focusing on the style of form of architecture, but rather, the relation between architecture and landscape (gardens, natural), and the visual moment of transitional space between buildings.
Entrance View
© Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects
Urban and massing diagrams
Urban context pre-2009
Urban context after 2011
Massing relation with adjacent Water Bureau
Conceptual models
一层平面图1：1000
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reception office toilet gatekeeper preparation room analysis room instrument room laboratory reagent room equipment room dressing room dining hall
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Ground floor 一层平面图1：1000
1 接待窗口 2 办公室 3 卫生间
垂直绿色遮阳系统
Diagrams
Vertical Landscape Brisole System
小鸟与网架 Birds and Mesh
绿色立面与散水 Green Facade and Apron
顶盖植栽 Canopy Planting
室外露台 Outdoor Sun Desks
地源热泵机房 Geothermal Mechanical Room
卵石花园
Pebble Garden
通风空调管线 HVAC(Heating Ventilation Air Condition) P i pes
雨水渗透铺地 Rainwater Permeable Pavement
Core Skin Analysis
Landscape Block Analysis
Eco-system Analysis
地源热泵预埋管井 Geothermal Heat Pump Tube Well
Etrance courtyard
Etrance canopy
Etrance canopy
Etrance canopy in the evening
Day and evening views of office block
View from south-east corner
Forms and tectonics
Brisole system
View of canteen and research block
© Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects
View of canteen and dock
SELECT PROJECTS
NBBJ 2012 - 2016
Benson C. Chen - arcbenson@gmail.com
diagram showing campus layout with focus on water
KARAMAY ENGINEERNG EDUCATION CAMPUS KARAMAY PHASE 1 & 2
Type: Education Client: Karamay City Size: 10,000 sqm Location: Karamay, Xin Jiang, China
Phase 1 Design Concept: Design refinement is based on the aesthetics of engineering, which favors mathematical regularity, precision, and rigorous logic. Within these ideals, the design goes on to introduce moments of delight and surprise, using line and texture to catch light, and block light from entering the building at critical areas of solar exposure. Much like the refinement for Petroleum Engineering, this design acknowledges the university to be largely organized around the goals of scientific engineering. The Public Teaching Building observes these same priorities, as it responds to a rigorous, systematized logic and clarity. Students who study here will feel the exhilaration of studying the science of engineering and education in general.
Phase 2 Design Concept: Phase 2 Concept Design continues the development of the central Academic Block of KEEB. The three Phase 2 buildings will be built directly across the Academic Green from Public Teaching Building #1 and Petroleum Engineering Building of Phase 1, and will provide 60% completion of the southwest half of the Academic Block. The buildings of Phase 1 and Phase 2 play an important role in the experience of entering the campus. The buildings not only serve as a terminus for the entrance approach from YinBin Road, but also help to frame and define the primary gateway into the Academic Green. The final phase development of the remaining four academic buildings on the northeast end of the Academic Green will complete the framing of the vista and processional experience from the main campus entrance to the lake.
Phase 2 - Electrical Engineering Building
circulation access
The Academic Block will offer a variety of landscape spaces and pedestrian paths that will connect all points of the campus and help make the Academic Green as the focal point and heart of the entire KEEB campus.
PETRO-ENGINEERING BLDG Phase 2 - Public Teaching Building
connections
landmarks
Building to shape the campus entrance
Shading and louver design were to provide shading during summer, while allowing indirect light to be reflected into the reading zone. During winter, the openings were oriented to receive direct sun. Both aim to decrease the use of electricity on lighting and increase building performance.
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Public programs, like campus history exhibition and conference, to be on display and energize the entry plaza.
KARAMAY ENGINEERNG EDUCATION CAMPUS
Internal courtyard, or street, is to provide decent out door experience and connect the adademic quad to ravine landscape.
KARAMAY PHASE 3 Type: Education Client: Karamay City Size: 61,000 sqm Location: Karamay, Xin Jiang, China
Design Concept: Phase 3 is the continue development of Phase 2 campus. Program including one 13,000sqm administration building to house teaching and campus operation staffs with meeting function, one 38,000sqm library perching on the waterfront which at its completion the biggest in northweat region of China, and one 10,000sqm International Exchange Center with visit scholor suits for major academic events. Both administration and exchange center frame the entry to the campus and mark the beginning of the Learning Axis, which continues toward the lake with its end marked by the magnificant library building. The facade design took local climate into consideration, both to minimize heat gain through shading design and allow as much indirect daylight as possible to maximize daylight autonomy.
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LIBRARY EXCHANGE CENTER & ADMIN. BUILDING
SUNNING RUICHENG NANJING PHASE 2
Retail and linking bridge facade details
Type: Mix-use/ Commercial Client: Suning Collaborations: ARUP, ALT, MKA Size: 333,450 sqm Location: Jiangsu, Nanjing, China Master plan Concept: Phase 2 intends to continue the design concept and principles from Phase 1 which is based on the Suning’s vision. The phase 2 site layout is in connection with phase 1 through a principle of C shape to define the public and private spaces, as well as the site usage and landscape characters. Parcels of E01 to E04 provide a great opportunity to create a unique multi-functional urban park for the region, as well as for the city. The great integration between the urban park and canal promenade (approx. 1km long) generates a thriving commercial, residential, Eco-various and R&D environment. The urban park and retail-canal corridor offers the diversity of public realm and enhances the quality of the local public space, a place for living, working and shopping with unique landscape character. The twin tower enhance the image and identity of this mix-use project and create a unique urban environment.
01 sketch _ flow Infinity Retail Loop > an experience of discovery-layering but clear circulation. > linked mulitiple-scale plazas. > elevated deck as multi-layer, extended circulation to activate more retails.
NANJING PHASE 3
Instigate of movement/flow
Type: Mix-use/ Commercial Client: Suning Collaborations: ARUP, ALT, MKA Size: 333,450 sqm Location: Jiangsu, Nanjing, China Paul Klee, Fish. Design Issues: Phase 3 site is narrow and long. The entire retail length around 350m. The challenge is to solve the long retail path and design retail street with rich layers when people walk through it, while integrate the office program above. Program distribution: The GFA 333,450sqm include 46,683sqm retail and 286.767sqm office program. Office program mainly resides in one 300m and another 200m tower. Podium are mainly for retail. One additional 150m hotel tower with the 200m office at the east end mark the east gateway entry.
Paul Klee, Actor’s Mask
The representation of a liquid status, the situation between flow and solid, the dissolving, blurring boundary between the functional (body, organ) and the nature (liquid).The flow movement is visualized through the shape of fish. This painting, Actor’s Mask, reminds one the forming process of human body. The blurring of distinct human features (ex. eye, lips) also symbolize the flow of information received and processed by the human body. The coastline of Ireland, the formation of rocks visualize the movement and force of water, which is in constant status of flux. The connection
Meain Island, Ireland
03_ massing / site study
area developed
SUNNING RUICHENG Representation of movement/flow
02 sketch model _ flow / infiltration
Toyo Ito, U-House
between the moving and the static, and the representation of movement with the solid is then possible, as depicted in the drawings of Paul Klee. The U-house, with its distinct curved wall, on the other hand, introduce movement through visual and spatial effect on human body. The paintings and the coastline image represent forms that suggest the sense of movement. The curvature, non-linear spatial layout instigate the happening of movement.
LUNENG DALIAN EAST HARBOR PLOT C05 Type: Mix-use/ Commercial Client: Dalian Luneng Collaborations: Four Season, ARUP, ALT, BIAD, HBA, Stricland Size: 127,000 sqm Location: Liaoning,Dalian, China Design Issues: Dalian is a city on the sea and captures the spirit of movement and travel. This option is inspired by the clean lines and simple forms of movement. The tower connects the urban life on the ground with the expanse of the sky in one graceful arc. The crisp edges imply an extension beyond the limits of the tower. Create a highly refined design that captures the spirit of movement with a single clean gesture. Maintain a high level of tower performance and efficiency while creating a soaring tower form that stands out from the surroundings.
HP INTERNATIONAL SOFTWARE TALENT & INDUSTRY BASE Type: Planning / Education Client: HP Size: 130,450 sqm Location: Jining, China Design Issues: The HP software talent industry base is comprised of the education campus, EXPO center, hotel, retail, student dormitory and housing development. The goal is to create an eco-campus and micro-economy that foster inter-program interaction. Program distribution: The phase 1 architecture includes 15,000sqm HP Talent Education campus, a 30,000sqm office tower and 2,000sqm EXPO campus. Retail, housing, and dormitory program detail will be released in the following steps.