architectural portfolio
MICHAEL LAI WING CHUNG 2008 - 2011
TOOL ANALYSIS Hand-drawn analysis of a pen using basic techniques from elevation, section to axonometric drawings.
CUBE DESIGN Spatial idea taken from the analysis of the pen is translated to a system to be incorporated into a cube of 300mm x 300mm. The action of changing cartridge is translated to a 3D hexagonal prism. The prism is hence combined to form a structure approximated in the cubic boundary condition. The final model is made with copper rods and metal wires.
HOUSE ANALYSIS The house in analysis is Le Corbusier’s Villa Stein-de Monzie in Garches, France (1927). Attention is being made to the architectural promenade along which a visitor moves from the entrance to upper floors.
HOUSE DESIGN Le Corbusier’s Villa Stein is re-designed to fit into a triangular site in SOHO, Hong Kong. To compensate for the reduction in footprint, the house is extended upward. The idea of architectural promenade is multiplied by interweaving a secondary route of outdoor space to form a double-helix composition.
service circulation
Step 4
Step 5
outdoor route’ indoor route’
outdoor route
indoor route
PERFORMATIVE MODEL From the screening of Jim Jarmusch’s film “Night on Earth” (1991), idea is taken and explored in this short project. Nocturnal urban experience is depicted by means of selective spatial revelation by city lightings. At a selected point of interest, panoramic view is photographically documented. Hence, visually accessible space is 3-dimensionally plotted in relation to the point of observation. A frozen volume of light is thus visualised.
LANDSCAPE SPECTACLE Two programmes - a tennis court and a reading room - are designed to fit into a waterfront site in Kennedy Town. Blending with extensive artificial landscape, the tennis court merges into the contour while the reading room grows out of it. Pushing in and pulling out from the existing park and as an extension to it, the artificial landscape has its contour designed to maximize vantage views to the harbour. While the reading room also opens views to the rare natural scenaries at both ends.
data collection 23
32
21
18
20
29
31
9
22
15
19
28
24
10
14
16
17
6
27
11
12
13
35
5
26
25
3
34
36
8
7
4
33
2
1
busy
convenient
apm
apm
convenient
mtr
redevelopment elderlies
communal engagement
family violence drunk redevelopment prostitution triad robbery drugs molest elderlies
home
home
beautiful messy
photocopy shops banks
Hence, 36 sessions of qualitative interviews were carried out with pedestrians at fixed geographical intervals.
factories factories
furniture shops
They were asked to describe Kwun Tong, draw the local maps according to their memories and trace a route they frequent. A set of descriptive mappings of their cognitive relation to the district is produced as a result.
sensory / memory
dogs
old buildings
police siren
old district
old
overhang signs dripdops bad air police siren
beautiful
choi hong team coach ng
people unemploymoving ment out
dirty lots of people
“elderlies”
“busy traffics” “old buildings”
factories
impression old old district buildings
poverty
transfor- working mation class
tea restaurant
old lots of buildings people lots of people
home
“lots of people”
yue man sq
The study is carried out within a square area of 500m x 500m. Development of the city fabric is plotted in specific years.
factories
silver city po sing yue man sq apm yue man sq apm kt industrial silver city apm yue man sq apm fong fok swim.pool yue man sq shui wo market
landmark east
mtr kt road
tea restaurant
po sing
apm
the link
elderlies
may city apm yue man sq apm tea yue man sq restaurant
busy
URBAN STUDY - KWUN TONG
red-light area
apm swim.pool
busy
mtr
general places
waterfront
apm
busy
social phenomena elderlies
specific locations
transportation
30
“old buildings”
“old buildings!”
“haven’t seen a fit bird here for ages...”
“aging population”
“tea restaurants”
seafood market dessert place
lots of people
1980s
bad air cat feed
“apm” “...that new building with a huge sculpture...”
“choi hong football team!”
“home”
“apm”
“industrial buildings”
“...that new office building, is it bad for fungshui?”
“working class”
age 17
residence student
residence
age 7 student
university graduate residence
age 23
student
residence
age 18
non-residence
age 15
company manager
age 50 non-residence
student
1:500
Combined mappings of Kwun Tong in memories, routes frequented and resemblance; and a model to describe the collected information.
ARTIST VILLAGE IN TSUEN WAN As a regional cultural anchor, the proposed artist village in Tsuen Wan not only catalyses the artistis popularity of the district and rebrand the de-industrialising fabric; it also serves as multiple urban linkage to channel pedestrian flow within a creative ambience. The development of the village embraces the potential of growth, which carries the whole project into a community undertaking that responds to the cultural demand of the public.
case study #1 - fotan wah luen industrial centre
case study #2 - cattle depot artists village
case study #3 - centraal beheer office building
self-contained occupation
visual penetration
cellular system
office area circulation + load-bearing structure
cattle depot crowshed unit floor plan (1:200)
residue void
communal engagement
intra-cellular interaction inter-cellular visual connection fotan wah luen industrial centre floor plan (1:200)
cattle depot configuration (1:1000)
phase one
ground level
phase two
phase three
section a - a
first floor
section b - b
second floor
TOWER INSTALLATION (*in collaboration with Roberto Davolio and Marc Brulhart) During the Hong Kong Shenzhen Bi-city Biennale 2010, a parametrically designed tower is constructed as exhibition item. The whole construction process from joint testings, CNC milling of bamboo members to final assembly are carried out and exhibited during the Biennale, with the end product displaying upon the backdrop of the Victoria Harbour.
FACADE RENOVATION IN ZURICH Situated in the area of Aussersihl, the proposed facade inherits traits of the coherent streetscape, as well as instilling a new breath of contemporariness. Regular grid deployment of the facade is punctuated by recessed balconies, as well as eroded by double balconies, either vertical or horizontal, of bigger flats. On the outer skin, a cloth of travertine slabs radiates a breath of static elegance, consolidating the harmony of the new facade in its adaptation of the existing street view.
HOUSING EXTENSION IN ZURICH
senstras
se
Altw
Roswie
The project site in Schwamendinger, Zurich is prevailed by strong urban chararcters. The added storeys of the extension are seperately supported by a steel frame structure dropping on top and around the existing one, leaving the original structures and living units undisturbed. At circulation cores space is enlarged to house spontaneous and incremental communal interactions. The floor plans are freed from the limitation governed by the existing load bearing structures as the upper floors are seperately supported by the new steel frame. It is laterally divided into equal segments along the row, and recombined horizontally or vertically to larger living units. The floor plans allow the apartment interior to exhaust the entire depth or set back to make way for a south-facing balcony. The balconies are also combined horizontally and vertically, specific to each apartment. The population of the set-back balconies and the apartments going up-front - a set of rhythm perpendicular to the building front, as well as the window details orienting at either side - the secondary tangential rhythm - consititute the whole facade regime.
D端b
end
orfs
tras
se
iese
nstr asse
a
a
MUSEUM TRANSIENCE contemporary art museum of the 21st century In the late 20th century, popularization of camera and emergence of the internet shifted the paradigm of artistic museum. For the first time in human history, artwork travels to the screens of our personal computers instead of us to the museums. In regards of artworks in traditional formats, the essence of an artistic museum is relegated to a warehouse of the originals. Seeking formal liberation, contemporary artists exploiting innovative creative processes start taking control of the ambience of artistic display. For instance, the weather project by Olafur Eliasson in Tate Modern employed the structural capability of the museum infrastructure to create an unprecedented artistic experience. Museum Transience answers to the call for curatorial appropriation. The gigantic envelope operates as artistic infrastructure to accommodate creative improvisation of physical display conditions. Multi-scaled undertakings of hanging, projecting, enclosing, standing, etc. are fulfilled by the 3D trusses running along the structural shell. In addition, the proposed museum is underlined by the greater agenda of urbanistic benefits. Stitching the regional elevated walkway system, Museum Transience provides undiscriminating artistic display to the general public – fulfilling the logistic and educational metabolism of the society. Michael Lai
entrance conditions
double ramping circulation
centre pushed aside by public path
public podium opened up
subsidary programmes to carve out exhibition area
monolithic evelope to circumscribe the space
one side pushed down to open view
skirt raised to channel entry
central courtyard
primary truss
secondary truss
window cladding
curtain facade