PORTFOLIO undergraduate | master | selected projects
FEIFEI ZHANG
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strange relations replica staircase 1 stance informal threshold doubly vaguely staircase 2 instafamous
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Strange Relations 2GBX Studio | ElBulli Innovation Center
The strangest of nightmares often begin in idyllic dreams. Could one hold up a mirror to the familiar promises of a utopian coastal resort and deliver a picture of estrangement? Set across the town of Roses, on the site of ElBulli, our project proposal scatters across the landscape, forming a campus of rock-like monoliths. Where the town is intimate in its small scale, the monoliths rise up huge and mute in the distance. The strangeness of the monoliths lies in their unknowability. Instead of camouflaging themselves with familiar profiles and textures, they refuse to speak with their abstract geometry. However this muteness can simultaneously also appear expressive and figural. The monolith mutates its postures when viewed from different angles and under different light conditions. The simplified geometry erodes expressively at the voids, revealing mirrored surfaces that mimic and reflect physical geometry. While each monolith is autonomous, they are closely related to each other. The large voids that puncture each monolith look towards each other, forming a continuous network of gazes that pinball around the site. The monolith evolves when program demands, either undergoing mitosis to split into halves, or fusing with other geometries. As a collective entity, the monoliths sit in constant counterpoint to the site. Looking outwards, the voids frame views of the town and landscape. They sit mutely as neighbors. Some kind of camaraderie even exists in their common orientation to the sea. The intentions are unclear but an uneasy relationship begins to develop.
Ryoan-ji, diagram of stones
“rock� form
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Form arrangement study diagram
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Scattered rock forms sit across the whole site. Major components will be more
A void punctures through the body. Reflective textures erode the outer surface at different scale and density, contrasting the mundane, smooth darkness and shiny, rough lightness.
Zoom in detail of the texture: depth & layer
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Replica Graduate Thesis
“SHIKUMEN” – the residential lane house in Shanghai has been undergoing widespread demolition. In the effort to preserve the historical housing blocks, restoration primarily focuses on making identical façades. Old bricks have been replaced. Paint has been covered. In some cases, houses are demolished yet rebuilt with the “same” look but undergoing an implantation of different programs. The indifferent approach toward preservation is questionable. This project tackles the typical perception of preservation through the creation of replica – making replication based on the picture of SHIKUMEN. The manipulation speculates one point perspectival drawing by transforming existing information to re-imagine a possible space within the image. The space is reconfigured through literalizing the perspectival view of the inner lane. By deliberately taking apart and reconstructing the perspective for its elevation to appear exactly as in the original photo, new entrance spaces are created. The one point perspective entrance thus turns into multiples points of entering in the physical world. Its relationship with the pedestrian also alters by inverting the internal lanes and flipping outward. When the picture is taken, that classical façade framing the inner lane becomes the reality of SHIKUMEN. The replication through image offers insights to speculate with a more evocative and specific approach.
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1. Modified photograph of SHIKUMEN 2. Texture and form study with reduced detail 3. Detail and space study
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Elevation view blurs the border of front, side and back with staggered forms intruding and extruding through the wall. Section reveals the opening and inherit space within.
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Top down: 1. Plan view 2. Physical model 3. Front elevation render
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Placed in urban context in Shanghai
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Placed in suburb
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Staircase 1
Photomontage |Rapson hall basement
Hybrid drawing of the east concrete stairway in Rapson Hall. Analog drawings includes perspective, section, plan, and axonometric. Material quality is added digitaly as cropped images matching up the line drawings. The intent is to convey a sense of chaos yet order: intruding platforms and circular stairways.
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Stance
Applied study | Design Documentation
The project is a contiuation from previous studio work, with focus on a detailed of a single component of the building and the resolution of its structural system and building envelope as a whole. The investigation is through technology, the use of materials, systems intergration, and the archetypal analytical strategies of force, order, and character. We utilized basic construction methods, analysis of building codes, design structural and mechanical system, development of building materials, and integration of building components and systems. We selected my 3GAX studio work Copenhagen Modern Library (in collaboration with Ryan Odom) as the subject for its potential for studying the issues related to the implementation of design. For example, how to resolve initial design aesthetic - such as the colored panels and “voxels” with xisting structual system? What are the diffrent options for material / system and how do they affect the design? After weekly research, reviews and modifications the results were delivered as one MEGA DRAWING which is 9’ by 9’ which includes drawings of strucutual systems, detailed components drawings, HVAC, egrass and ADA circulation, and cost estimate. Shown right is the main sectional axonometric drawing which cuts through and exposes the main core of the building, envolope systems, components detials.
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Mega drawing
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Design Documentation
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Top & Right: Panel details Left: Metal voxel detail and exploded detail
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Glass box detail
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Window wall detail
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Panel detaoil
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Panel detaoil
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Core detaoil
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Primary structure Substructure Tertiary structure
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HVAC
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Egrass and ADA circulation
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ADA compliance diagram
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Cost estimate
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Porous G /\ p
Undergraduate studio | Public corridor
Porous gap is a project focusing on the relationship between material and space. The goal is to design a path connecting the street front to the Cedar Riverside community. The project has an emphasis on the nature of process. By photographing spatial sequence, I am triggered by the “slim� space between buildings. The in-between space lies in the gap. In plaster, the heavy solid volume has a strong contrast to the void space. The gap is created through pulling apart the solid. In paper, the planer quality allows the gap to be more porous. By staggering layers, I start to study the space between two planes- inhabitable gaps. My intention is to create a path taking advantage of the linear and planer surface quality. As one move through the path, he experiences the staggered space and receives porous views.
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The in between space in the plaster model transforms into the split of solid, running through as a volume of gap. By changing the scale of the gap, the space becomes either inhabitable or formal language. The lighting condition reflects the depth, emphasizing the idea of layering of planer material and spatial porosity.
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Doubly vaguely Advanced tectonics
This project selected “virus” - window / glass system from the Elbe Philharmonic Hall and applied it to its new “host” - Tokyo Opera House. The study focused on transforming a varieties of curved glassed into forming a new monolithic facade . Our interest was to accomplish a clear system yet maintain an unrevealing, illusional mass. The two slightly wavy layers of glasses in front of the inner program outlined a vague boarder of depth and space. The different curvature of glass panels lured eyes to its changing appearance based on lightings and angels. The combination of clear / frosted glasses concealed the interior shape.
Virus: Elbe Philharmonic Hall, located in HafenCity, was designed by Herzog & de Meuron. The towering monolithic façade is punctuated by a grid of 20” x 30” windows. Variation in the glass façade is achieved through parametric modelling and a system of interfaces between scripting and architecture. Grid widths are varied and the geometry of the windows undergo geometric transformations. A system of 200 screen prints was developed to create 4400 different variations that fulfilled different requirements (grid size, programme, g-value, radar requirements). Additional parameters allowed variation to loosen the grid in repetitive areas. Screens are sized larger than the glass panes and are displaced and rotated to achieve variation. The dots on the screen also frame the rooms by using different densities and gradients.
Host: Opera House, the unbuilt project ( of Jean Nouvel, locates in Tokyo, Japan. The initial concept sketches outlines a shiny, polished, puzzling and illusional facade. A mass that contains and conceals but whose monumental gate opens onto lights and gildings. The monolithic and mysterious appearance does not reveal its scale.
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Staircase 2
Hybrid drawing | Rapson hall
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INSTAFAMOUS
NYC Indie Film Festival Official Slection , 2017 In collaboration: Munyi Chen, Ruizi Qin, Vermont Hu, SCI-FI-LONDON Official Selection, 2017 Dylan Perkinson NYC Indie Film Festival Official Slection , 2017 Vincent Instagram star living in Los Angeles. He engagVincent VV Leonard Leonard(@vincentvleonard) (@vincentvleonard)isisanan Instagram es Yash Patel, a freelancing click farmer Yash to boost hisapopularity. Vincent’s and Yash’s worlds star living in Los Angeles. He engages Patel, begin to intertwine. freelancing click farmer to boost his popularity. Vincent’s and Yash’s worlds begin to intertwine. “Can you put a bird in it (Chai)?” asks Yash after seeing and liking for the latte picture with a bird he behaves likeafter Vincent, dresses like Vincent and makes pos“Canpattern. you putClicks a birdby in clicks, it (Chai)?” asks Yash seeing ing Vincent would. lifewith in Mumbai to Clicks blend with Vincent’s. Ferris wheel from andas liking for the latteYash’s picture a bird starts pattern. Santa Monica appears across the bay, aligning next to the buildings and slums in Mumbai. by clicks, he behaves like Vincent, dresses like Vincent More and more, the image of Los Angeles marks its place and makes posing as Vincent would. Yash’s life in Mum- in Mumbai - the one that Yash lives in. Soon, he will find out the reality behind all the clicks and likes. bai starts to blend with Vincent’s. Ferris wheel from Santa Monica appears across the bay, aligning next to Reality is what we construct. Through ficition, place and space are liberated from the physthe buildings and slums in Mumbai. More and more, the ical boundry. We construct alternative worlds as a means to understand our own world in image of Los Angelesarchitectural marks its place in Mumbai theone of the dominant apps in present new ways as another media. Instgram,- as one Yashhow liveswein.perceive Soon, hethe will find through out the reality days,that shapes world, speculative editting and trimming, filters behind all the clicks and likes. and hashtags.
Reality is what we construct. Through ficition, place and Full film can be viewed at: https://vimeo.com/167836974 password: vincent
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matte painting with nuke
Original: Yash sitting on the Juhu Beach ; Mumbai high rises and slums
Original: Yash’s room: green paints; hanging clothings; laundry bag
Matte painting: Santa Monica lifeguard station; Santa Monica Pier and Ferris Wheel
Matte painting: Hanging pictures and posters of Vincent’s photos on Instgram; Mark-ups , post notes and color cards;
Original: Yash walking on a local street in front of a authentic residential building in Mumbai, encountering a dog
Original: Commercial Street in Mumbai;
Matte painting: Palm trees and sand from Santa Monica; Insertion with beach condos components: bal
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Matte painting: Downtown Los Angeles; Hollywood sign