Wang Zhi-Ray | Application Portfolio 2023 | Admitted to MIT SMArchS Urbanism & Harvard GSD MAUD

Selected Projects 2015 - 2023

Bachelor of Architecture

National Cheng Kung University

ARCHITECTURE IS REVEALING THE STRUCTURE OF THE CONTEXT

As an architect and researcher based in Taipei, Taiwan, I have been fascinated by the symbiosis characteristic between architecture and the city since I was a child. In our community, the street can be a market for everyone to trade and socialize during the day and can be transformed into a linear event space for local residents at night. The diverse public activities on the streets present a unique characteristic of the place and a harmonious way of co-living for local residents. However, under the climate crisis, rapid urbanization, and social shifting, our world environment needs an urgent contextual transition, and so is the role of Architects.

I don't see architecture as a permanent object, but as an integrated solution when we face the challenges of future uncertainty. As a collective of demonstration, this portfolio exhibits my recent work in urbanism, architecture, exhibition, and interior. Ranging from the extra large to the extra small scale, I demonstrate several research-based design methods and collective forms derived from different contexts and critical issues. For each project, I listed the type "academic" or "professional" and my contribution. I produced all the images in this portfolio unless otherwise stated.

Content

Academic Project

1 Lost in Mystopia

The Structure of The Context

2 Kao Pue

Micron Urban Surgery

3 The Liquid City

Street as the Urban Architecture

4 Between the Community

Architecture as Collective Streets

5 Slope House

Adaptive Co-Housing Typology

6 Welcome to the Jungle

Exhibition Under the Trees

Professional Project

7 Kinmen Library + Museum

The Landscape of Culture

8 Appendix

Other Works

1

Lost in Mystopia

The Structure of The Context

How to create an image of the city?

When Italo Calvino describes the city, he thinks that the city is composed of many invisible structures, which are both universal and subjective.

Reviewing Taiwan's unique post-war urban development, this project uses hyper-real models and a series of virtual images to investigate the dynamic balance between large-scale urban structures and small-scale ordinary people's lives.

-Director's Choice Award, ARCH OUT LOUD: Render of the Year 2020

ACADEMIC WORK

Year: 2020

Location: Taiwan

Type: Collaborative International Competition

Team: Wang Zhi-Ray, Lee Hao, Song Meng-Xun, Yeh Yen-Ting (4)

Role: As a four-person design team member, I mainly focused on Detail Modeling, Context Research, Analysis Diagrams, and Final Rendering.

Parallel City: Re-imagine the Ordinary Context

The urban system is based on testing the adaptability of Taiwanese cities' structural form, proposes a hypothetical model of an ordinary parallel environment, and challenges the dual relationship between the structure and infill of the context.

Palimpsest Urbanism: The Pattern of Streetscape

When residents actively add a street with signs, objects, Etc., those anonymous buildings no longer tell about the works of specific designers but refer to the natural state of a place's operation, the proof that a city is continuously evolving and metabolizing itself.

The Image of Taiwanese City

Although we do not know where this city was located and when it was built, we understand that it came from a distant Asian island nation—drifting alone somewhere on the continent's edge.

2

Kao Pue

Micron Urban Surgery

How to regenerate old residential areas from the bottom up?

"Kao-Pue" is a Taiwanese saying which represents "Gathering".

The project proposes a self-aid system allowing residents to assemble the lightweight, affordable modular housing system quickly. In addition to infilling the lack of services and public functions in old house types, it also provides residents with the opportunity to rebuild a resilient and mutual support community network.

-Honorable Mention, Bee Breeders: Modular Home Design Challenge 2021

ACADEMIC WORK

Year: 2021

Location: Tainan, Taiwan

Type: Collaborative International Competition

Design Team: Wang Zhi-Ray, Tsao Chi-Chia, Tsai Cheng-Yen, Chu Hung-Yu (4)

Role: As a four-person design team member, I mainly focused on Site & House Type Analysis, Material Lifecycle, Narrative Diagram, 3D Model & Rendering, and Structure System Integration.

Urban Transition: Plug-into Existing Urban Housing Type

Cooperative Strategy: How Can We Build Together?

2. Site positioning.

9. Assemble the structure components on site.

13. Use secondary modular components and sustainable materials for customized furbishment.

14. Open house celebration after the cooperative construction.

10. Lift the columns' framework together.

11. Assemble the beams' framework.

12. Welcome party under the half-finished house.

15. Solar energy and rainwater recovery system.

16. The structure can be disassembled and recycled.

17. Send structures and materials back to the factory.

1. Loading materials from the factory.

3. Fast and light delivery.

6. Call the neighbors. 7. Let's build together. 8. Public worship the God of foundation before the start of construction.

4. Carry materials with light crane.

5. Unload materials on building site.

Exterior walls. 1 Flooring panels. 2 Flexible walls. 4 Movable tracks. 3

Combined-Column

Para-site: A Mutually Beneficial Co-living System

Gutter Roof

Shedding Rainhead Tank Overflow Drain to Stormwater

First Flush Diverter

Rainwater collected from a well-maintained system can be suitable for all domestic uses. By the installation of the simple sets, resident can significantly lower mains water usage as well as the waste of the natural resources. With the slim tank, no need to sacrifice precious living space to save filtered rainwater.

PV

Panels

Rail for installation Energy

Free

2 Freely continuous connectors allow the modulus unit to produce a variety of free growth under controlled conditions.

Steel

Tube Bar Cross

Steel

Structure System 6

Steel tube bar connected with steel plate underneath as a casing for the end of the structure column. With screw bolts, the casing set will be fixed to the concrete base with rebars well set inside the cube. With this flexible approach of structural foundation, the whole unit will be stable and safe for living no matter the concrete base be installed in or on the ground.

Adaptability: Structure & Infill System

Diversity: Customized

Variability: Machine for Flexible Living

Courtyard House Type: Redefine

Nowadays, courtyard houses face transformational rural households changes. The system introduces and corridor spaces to enhance flexibility traditional form rooted in Chinese culture.

Wing: Living Units

Mix: Multi-family Clusters

Center: Public Space

Redefine the Traditional Spaces

transformational challenges as the structure of introduces new relationships in courtyard flexibility and diversity while responding to its culture.

Street House Type: The Freedom on Public Rooftop

As a housing type locates adjacent to high-density streets, the system maximizes the potential of rooftops with single or clusters of units. The rooftops can be transformed into better co-living spaces by juxtaposing public streets between residents.

Single Rooftop

Double Rooftop Multi-Rooftop

Highrise Housing Type: Verticalized Urban Terrace Space

Aging high-rise public housing in Tainan usually lacks public spaces and with limited quality terraces. The new system provides access to nature and mutualaid community by expanding a series of terraces with variable possibilities.

Verticle Terrace Expandable Rooms

Green Facade

Walkup Apartment Type: Linking the Community

Under the limited fulfillment of codes, walk-up apartments were typically built with a minimum quality of public spaces. By complementing the lacking public spaces, and sustainable systems, the new apartments obtain potential for future symbiosis living.

Service Core

The Liquid City

Street as the Urban Architecture

How can architecture link the past and future of the city?

As described by Aldo Rossi, the permanence of architecture allows it to create the collective memory of the environment. However, as places disappear, memories will also be forgotten in rapid urbanization.

This thesis establishes a framework for the dialogue between urban history and contemporary life and serves as a public infrastructure that catalyzes future urban transformation.

-Thesis Prize, NCKU Department of Architecture

-Bronze Award, TEAM 20 Architecture & Urban Planning Competition

ACADEMIC WORK

Year: 2019 (Year 5)

Type: Thesis Project

Location: Taipei, Taiwan

Instructor: Yu-lin Chen

Born of City Wall

We built the city wall based on Fengshui theory and defended enemies.

Urban History: The Death and Life of Taipei City Wall

Wall as Colonial Domination

We tore down the city wall to control the people of the capital, develop the city's infrastructure, and declare our Japanese colonial power during the world war era.

Wall as Housing Complex

We built Chunghua Complex to claim the progress of our country while solving the problem of slums created by immigrants.

Wall as Vertical Urban Streets

We loved Chunghua Complex because of its wonderful public life and people from different places. It was the contemporary utopia of Taipei before the governments demolished it.

Removal of City Wall

We removed Chunghua Complex for Underground railway and MRT plans. Necessary sacrifices are inevitable!

First City Wall City Boulevard

Underground Construction Temporary Immigrant Huts 40th years Colonial Expo Chunghua Driveway

Chunghua Housing Complex + Sky Bridges

Taiwan Magistrate Liu Ao General of Revolutionary Army Chiang Kai-shek Mayer of Taipei Huang Da-zhou

Japanese Governor Kabayama Sukenori

Residents of Chunghua Complex Mrs Wang

Taipei Main Train & Highspeed Rail Station Complex

Office & Cultural

Historical Park

Camera Market

West Gate Station Complex

North Gate Station

Taipei Gateway Park

Education & Sports

Ximen Shopping District

C. South-Gate Area B. Unexcavated City Wall Area D. Zhong-Shan Public Hall Area

A. North-Gate Area

Qing Dynasty

Governor Office District

Military & University District

Military & Cultural

City Lack of Pedestrian & Green Spaces

Today, Chunghua Avenue acts as a city wall deviding the community from the city center and Also lacks accessible green space in highly commercially developed areas.

Residential + Commercial District

Without an Integrated Urban Regeneration Plan

Current city blocks consist of a high proportion of old buildings awaiting reconstruction and isolated historic sites without thoughtful urban connections.

Historic Monuments Neglected by Transit-Oriented Development

Between the underground Railway and MRT system, there are still unexcavated city wall relics, representing high scientific and historical value for urban culture.

E. Red House Area G. Ximen Commercial Area F. Nishi-Honganji Temple Area H. West-Gate MRT Complex

Post-war Martial Law ~ Democratic Period Japanese Occupation Period

Chunghua Complex: The Potential of Vertical Street Life

The Complex carries the collective memory of urban development and confirms vertical streets' potential. However, it was demolished without careful planning in transitoriented urban development. As a result, nothing left on the site but a 40m wide avenue.

Strategy: Merging Historic Landscape with Future Infrastructure

Historic Space

Urban Archeology

Existing Monument

Demolished Monument

Vanished River

Public Framework

Modular Construction

Existing Basement Service Core

Highline Level

Historical Park

Backfilling Landscape

Vertical Landscape Street Level Landscape

Taipei Gateway Park

Active Promenade

Variable Program

Commercial Area

Cultural & Historical Area

Administrative Area

Demolished

Year: 1961-1992 (31)

Length: 1.1km

Height: 15m (3F)

Material: RC

Partial Remains

Year: 1897-1904 (7)

Length: 5km

Height: 5m

Material: Stones

A place that connects the past and the future

The project proposes a new typology of architecture which both acts as a linear park and an urban framework to produce new relationship with street level and collective memory.

Linear Park

Linear Park City Wall Park Hybrid Mobile Hybrid Mobile

Pedestrian Pedestrian Cars Driveway

A. Chunghua Complex B. Taipei City Wall

Excavate city wall monuments and provide remarkable public spaces in between the avenue.

Existing pedestrian space and historical relics are blocked by overly wide Chunghua Avenue.

North-Gate Plaza & Park

Vertical Street Shops

Accessible Sky Lobby

Overlaying a New Pedestrian Level Above the City

As a green infrastructure, the proposal aims to stitch the old urban areas and historic sites together with the adjacent Taipei Gateway Park. By delivering friendly public flows, plazas, and ecological spaces supporting sustainable urban development with respect for history and people-oriented considerations.

Communal Terraces

Public Roof & Courtyard

Historic Landscape

Red House: City Rooftop Zhong-Shan Public Hall: Sky Plaza

The elevated plaza provides opportunities to view historical spaces at different heights while defining different levels of public space for the ground floor. Encourage public activities of various scales to take place in the circular plaza surrounding the monument.

Based on the unique courtyard type of the Red the urban space by introducing a series of ring-shaped The historic theater can also generate rich urban

Courtyard

House, the adjacent buildings vertically activate ring-shaped shared roof gardens and verandas. urban activities during non-performance periods.

Nishi-Honganji Temple: Historic Landscape

After a fire in 1975, only the base of the main hall and several surrounding buildings remained on site. Through the stitching of the landscape, culture and sports functions will be reinjected into the historical temple area, reborn as an intersection of urban leisure and sightseeing.

Highline Level (+12.5m)

Ground Level (+0m)

Underground Level (-7.5m)

Bringing Back Places for People & Memories

The design tries to solve the collective memories and infrastructural challenges by creating vibrant plazas, vertical streetscapes, and green pockets in between the existing transportation system while enhancing the accessibility of future public mobility.

North Gate City Park & Visitor Center

City-Moat Ruins & Ximen Commercial Area

North

Gate

Section A

Section B

Section C

The lineal proposition is based on a highly versatile programs while creating a new promenade for the to the unique characteristics according to the adjacent

City-Moat Concert Hall & Event Pool

Zhong-Shan City Plaza & Ice Palace

Dynamic Promenade: Variable

Public Spaces for Urban Events

versatile plan that provides variable capacities for hybrid the two city gates. Each urban section also responds adjacent context's demand or historical settings.

House Area

Culture Center & Nishi-Honganji Temple Area

+ University & South-Gate Area

Section F

Section D

Section E

South-Gate City Park & Historical Library City Department Store & Food Court

Nishi-Honganji Cultural Park

1. Adjustable Skylight 2. Public Seating 3. Drop-off Area 4. MRT Platform 5. Reflective Curtain Wall 6. Vierendeel Truss 7. Public Escalator 8. Service Core

1/100 Urban Section Models

New Urban Living Room for Taipei City

The historical park creates new types of shielded urban spaces, protected from rain and strong sunlight with comfortable connections to public transport. The collective of plazas and event spaces generously allows visitors to enjoy vigorous activities and offers chances to learn about the city's vanishing history.

Between the Community Architecture as Collective Streets

How to make architecture a catalyst for local street activities?

The multi-layered street blocks of Tainan City have inherited the unique texture from its past; it reflects the structure of regional culture and introduces vigorous street life.

This project aims to establish a three-dimensional micro-street block on the architectural scale and look for a new type of collective form as a bridge connecting the residents and the historic urban context.

-Bronze Award, HKIA Cross-Strait Architectural Design Awards

-Honorable Mention, Far Eastern Architectural Design Award

ACADEMIC WORK

Date: 2015 (Year 2)

Type: Studio Project

Location: Tainan, Taiwan

Instructor: Chien-Zhi Wu

Urban Voids: Absorbing Movement from Multi-Directions

The ground level generously provides open spaces such as pathways, plazas, pockets, Etc., linking the rich public activities with the existing urban texture.

Collective Form: Weaving with the Historic Urban Texture

In respect of the diverse scale of the existing housing context, the building breaks down the form as a whole but as a collective form, weaving into the city's fabric.

Vertical Plazas: Multi-Layered Activity Spaces

The layered plazas in between the spaces work as a micro-city and provide flexibility and opportunities for both formal and informal gatherings at any time.

Continuous Pathways: Networks for Communications

As a collective with various scales and levels of overlapping spaces, it introduces the excellent potential to enhance interaction and inspire people to communicate.

Embracing Urban Life in Most Intense Form

The design aims to recreate a new symbiotic public form rooted in Tainan's unique regional urban texture and civic culture. It is becoming the catalyst of variable public life while merging the gap between micro-human behaviors and the city scale.

Merging into the Regional Context

The vision for this project is to create layered open spaces for social welfare, education, coworking, and public events. The selected palette of natural materials such as red bricks, wood, iron sheet, and raw concrete also bridges the regional context with the collective form.

Slope House

Adaptive Co-Housing Typology

How to create human-scale cohabitation between the terrain?

"Slope House" is a typical housing type in Jiufen, usually built with retaining walls against the hills, shaping the common landscape in town. Due to the existing steep terrain, there are independent entrances upstairs and downstairs, which can be used as storefronts and garages seperately.

This housing type is currently being challenged as the local population structure shifting from nuclear to single-family in recent years. The project aims to provide further flexibility and affordability to the typology and encourage cooperative living.

ACADEMIC WORK

Date: 2018 (Year 4)

Type: Studio Project

Location: Jiufeng, Keelung

Instructor: Tze-Chun Wei

Co-living in Between the Landscape

This project is based on the premise of increasing dual-families and proposes a new co-living house type with more adaptability, flexibility, and affordability for the typical hillside terrain.

Co-Living Core

Dual Family

Slope House

A House with Two Ground Level

As the site locates between a slope, the upper level faces the living street, and the lower level connects to the main driveway. Both levels have independent entrances.

Double House: Two Families with One Public Core

Two families have separate rooms and studios, with shared carport, kitchen and living spaces. The public core provides opportunity to communicate in the process of going up and down.

Co-Living Space: Creating Atrium in Between the Terrain

The height difference is well connected through the atrium to introduce sufficient light and public views while shaping an appropriate scale for various flexible events between residents.

Weather-Adaptive Retaining Wall System

Responding to the local humid and rainy climate, rammed earth retaining walls are directly used as the finishing surface to regulate the humidity.

6

Welcome to the Jungle Exhibition Under the Trees

How to blur the boundary between narrative and context?

Over the past century, the old warehouse has been transformed from functional storage into ruined co-living with banyan trees.

In the thesis exhibition, between the multi-level identities of the trees and the house, the exhibition rooms are compiled according to the characteristics of different degrees of spatial enclosures so that the exhibition's narrative overlaps with the historical building's unique half-natured situation.

ACADEMIC WORK

Year: 2019 (Year 5)

Type: Collaborative Thesis Exhibition

Location: Tainan, Taiwan

Instructor: Wu Kwang-tyng

Role: As the main curator, I led a five-person design team to submit the design proposal to the government agency and integrated the whole class to execute the exhibition arrangement jointly.

-Main Curator, NCKU Architecture Thesis Summer Show

A. ENTRANCE ROOM B. INDEX ROOM C. READING ROOM D. EVENT ROOM E. DRAWING ROOM F. WORKSHOP AREA

The exhibition was held in a heritage warehouse attraction. Infilled exhibits were intertwined with the existing moving lines of tourists to introduce diverse ways of seeing.

Narrative In Between the Ruins and Nature

The half-roofed warehouse was parasitized by tree roots, forming a unique sense of place. The installation was suspended during the exhibition through the thin, transparent canvas and blurred the boundary with nature through oblique angles.

1. Wrap the wire rope around the steel beam.

2. Calibrate level with telescoping hardware.

3. Balance the weight of the drawing with aluminum rods.

In order to provide an in-situ temporary exhibition system, the canvases were attached to the steel frame of the warehouse, forming a wall-like spatial structure that divides the exhibition into various sections.

Suspended Canvases as Walls

Kinmen Library + Museum

The Landscape of Culture

How to transform a post-war landscape into a cultural landmark?

Kinmen, an island closer to China than Taiwan, with its unique geographical location and rich geological textures, has emerged from its tumultuous history with pride. Today, wellpreserved natural landforms and cold war battlefield relics coexist harmoniously, accumulating in distinctive architectural and cultural layers.

Adhering to respect for the humanities and the natural environment, we propose a sustainable transformation strategy based on meticulous environmental research.

-1st Prize, Comissioned to Built (Estimated Completion in 2026 )

PROFESSIONAL WORK

Date: 2022.02-Present (Competition & DD)

Location: Kinmen, Taiwan

Office: JJP Architects & Planners, Taiwan

Project Director: Pan Jih Joshua (FAIA), Su Chung-wei

Role: As one of the lead designers, I led a six-person design team and mainly focused on Site Analysis, Concept Design, 3D Modeling & Rendering, Plan Drawing, Interior Design, and Final Presentation.

Form Follows Context: In Line with Terrain and History

The architectural outline is designed according to the terrain of the river valley to minimize the disturbance to the environment and further connect the historical trench.

Archeology: Preserving the Topography and Geology of the River Valley

The unique geology of red earth has formed today's rich valley terrain and ecosystem after thousands of years of erosion. In respect of this, the initial configuration begins with the premise of fully preserving the environment.

Preserve the existing river valley ecology Elevate landscapes between valleys Connect the historical battlefield trench Integrate landscape into the earth

Valley Terrain Public Landscape Historical Pathway Cutural Landmark

The Shuang-Ru Military Base

The base is one of the most extensive underground military fortifications built in Kinmen after the artillery war in 1954. The ring-shaped tunnel runs through the entire military base and will become the core area of the Art and Culture Zone in the future.

Ecological Diversity

Reduce impact on ecologically sensitive areas, and completely preserve the original forest facies and protist habitats.

River Valley

Erosion effect of the river protection area is slowed down through massing retreat and green cover planting.

Natural Texture

Extract the natural color texture, so that the building can harmoniously integrates into the surrounding environment.

Historical Routes

Through the restoration and revitalization of the historical war tunnel to reconnect the Kinmen National Park .

Military Base

The existing military buildings, trenches and training fields are preserved, and reimagined with contemporary activities.

Ground Floor: Embracing the Natural Landscape

Regarding spacial organization, the library, art gallery, and public service facilities are zoned and time-controlled. Facing the natural river valley and forests, it also creates a maximized panoramic view and a series of indoor and outdoor activities.

Nowadays, libraries are no longer limited to learning from books but as a carrier for communication and sharing knowledge. As an intermediary space between the library and the museum, the public stairs provide different forms of cultural sharing.

Public Stairs: Cooperative Events for Library and Museum

1. Permanent Heritage Display

2. Multi-Media Performance

3. Cross-Cultural Exhibition

Traditional Facade of Kinmen Contemporary Painting of Kinmen Layered Double-skin System

The local brick walls reflect the transformation of private areas through the arrangement of unit's density.

The curved façade symbolizes the fluidity of culture and art, while also regulating the climate and light for the interior.

Local artist Lee Shi-chi describes the abstract impression from Kinmen island through flowing lines and colors.

1:100 Model / Landmark as a Cultural Landscape Facade Detail Section

The final model was assembled by Eagle Model Studio

A. Light-weight soil, H=500 mm

B. Cassette horizontal galvanized steel deck, 450X30 mm

C. Porous injection molding terracotta, 450x360x40 mm

D. Wind-resistant columns, 150x300 mm

E. Sunlight adjustment shades, W=1500 mm

F. Horizontal wind-resistant beam, 150x450 mm

G. Wind-resistant ring beam, 250x450 mm

H. Horizontal wind-resistant frame, 200x800 mm

ARCHITECTURE OF HISTORY & CULTURE

8

Appendix Other Works

How to define the role of the architects today?

For me, innovation in architecture comes from the integration and cross-referencing of research and practice. Under the influence of today's global and local environmental crises, the role of architects must also be more flexible. As a newgeneration architect, I strive to reimagine our world through various methods and tools within my reach.

Over years of working and self-practice, I have explored the possibility of expanding architecture's dimensions during my position. This chapter presents the highlights of projects I have personally executed or participated in, and each case presents a critical perspective on the purpose of contemporary practices.

National Museum of Korean Literature

Professional Work at JJP Architects & Planners, Taipei, Taiwan, 2021 Lead Concept Design, 3D Modeling, and Presentation in a three-person team

ARCHITECTURE OF MEMORY & FUTURE

F Project

Professional Work at Design 1st, Kyoto, Japan, 2017-2018

Site Survey & Design of Restoration & Addition House in a two-person team

ARCHITECTURE OF TECHTONIC & CRAFTSMAN

Venice Architecture Biennale Taiwan Pavilion 2021

Professional Work at Divooe Zein Architects, Taipei, Taiwan, 2019-2020

Material Test & Final Assembly of all the 1:1 Exhibits in a five-person team

ARCHITECTURE OF SUSTAINABLE LIFECYCLE

OLU OLU Restaurant

Self Work at Incomplete Design Studio, Taipei, Taiwan, 2021

The Whole Project was Individually Contracted, Designed and Supervised

ARCHITECTURE OF MATERIAL & FORM

CHILLIN' DAY Co-office & Shop

Self Work at Incomplete Design Studio, Taipei, Taiwan, 2022

The Whole Project was Individually Contracted, Designed and Supervised

Copyright © 2023 by Wang Zhi Ray. All Rights Reserved.