Bin Yuan
Selected Work 2014-2017
Bin Yuan
kinny.yuanbin@gmail.com
Professtional Experience
Allied Works Architecture
+1.314.817.4768
Architectural Designer, Portland, Oct 2018- Jan 2019
[ Estcada Library ] SD-DD, Scheme design and development
[ Abbott Claim Winery ] SD-DD, Scheme design and development
Iwamotoscott Architecture
Architectural Designer, San Francisco, May-Oct 2018
[ Pinterest Chicago Office ] SD-DD, Interior Restructure and Development
[ Fortinet New Headquarter ] SD-DD, Interior floor plan scheme and development
Jan Ulmer Architecture Architectural Assistant, Berlin, Germany, Feb-Apr, 2018
[ Leitbild Museum Friedland International Competition ] SD, Facade design and detailing
4th Prize
Eskew+Dumez+Ripple Intern, New Orleans, May-Sep 2017
[ Georgia Tech Dalney Deck Competition ] SD, Site planning and digital production 1th Prize
[ Holesovice-Karlin Bridge International Competition] SD, Concept design and development
LYCS Architecture Intern, Hangzhou, May-Sep 2016
[ Shanghai Baoye Center] DD-CD, Facade development and detailing
[ Hangzhou NO.2 School of Sci-Tech City] SD, Digital production
Website:
Education
https://bill-yuan.squarespace.com/
Washington University in St. Louis Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, St. Louis Master of Architecture, 2014-2017
Honors and Awards
4th Prize Leitbild Museum Friedland International Competition, 2018 1st Prize North St. Louis Art Performing Center Competition, 2016,05 1st Prize Georgia Tech Dalney Deck Competition, 2017 APPROACH
2016-2017, 2017-2018,
Sam Fox School Publication
Distinction in 2017 Fall Samfox School Degree Project
Skills and Languages
Softwares Revit, AutoCAD, Vectorworks, Rhino+Grasshopper+T-Splines, Adobe Suite, Vray, Maxwell Certificate LEED, Green Associate
Languages English, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish (basic)
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Ducan Data Center
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N. St. Louis Urbarts Gallery
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Manzanares Apartment
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Karlin Footbridge
Ducan Data Center Diploma, Thesis Project 2017 Prof. Chandler Ahrens, American Site: St. Louis, USA Key Word: Server Mass, Void, Micro-Climate SamFox APPROACH Publication
There’s an ever growing demand to accommodate the storage and processing of data in an urban context. And then the rising question is how to insert a data center, the massive cloud and opaque infrastructure, into our cultural context. In this project, an inner but urban void is created and defined by floating server masses on two sides and a physical library as a light filter on the top. This half enclosed courtyard blurs the boundary between inside and outside And a micro-climate is brought into this urban courtyard by recycling heat from servers with different schemes for summer and winter. And the ever changing drama of sunlight and shadows staged by openings between suspended library masses is creating another hierarchy of unique atmosphere. This project explores the negotiation between the post-human demands of infrastructures for data processing and the physical environment.
The Monumental Site The site for the data center is surrounded by the massive grain elevator and a huge flat structure of IKEA. Within the relatively flat landscape of central west American, the site bears a strong monumental character framed by the datacenter, grain elevator, and IKEA.
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Virtual Monumentality The ever-graowing virtual world on the Internet is radically changing our contemporary society and daily life of human beings. The virtual is even more monumental than Physical monuments
Floating Monument The massive structure of the server farm floats 13 feet above ground implying its virtuality. The reflective materiality blurs the boundary and the figural volume of the building. The landscape of modest bushes is intentionally introduced to the plaza as a reference of human size in contrast to the monumentality of the data center. The greyness of the steel meshes of the facade is trying to inspire an image of the data center as a massive rock.
Ground Floor Plan
Void
Connection
+0。0’
Axis
Plaza Vegetation
Bamboo Garden
Datacenter Entrance
Library Entrance
Urban Furniture
Monumental Void The landscape design of plaza implies the tension between the digital and physical environment. The directional bushes cut through the plaza, talking with the cracking facade and the suspended figural volumes of the library, in the meanwhile clearly hightlight and leading to the entrance of the library within the monumental void through the “rock cracks”.
Cracking Facade Data Center as an isolated infrastructure is usually wrapped with the opaque and monolithic facade to be technologically efficient. The cracking facade grants the data center a sense of permeability as a counterpart of the typology of the infrastructure of data storage.
Digital Canyon The “crack” opens a lane at the bottom of the “rock” leading visitors to the central bamboo garden from the front plaza. The landscape talk to each other through the digital canyon.
Through Canyon to Bamboo Forest The inside void space is design as a bamboo garden and creates a new urban space for people to stay and talk. Also, the garden frames the entrance to the public library hovering above.
Scheme Developement
Typical Plan
Site Design
Transverse Section
longitudinal Section
The scheme was developed through studying sections, plans and landscape strategies.
Microclimate in the Void of Energy A micro-climate is brought into this urban void by recycling heat from servers with different schemes for summer and winter. The ever changing climate is then mitigated.
Reading Hall as the Physical Island The reading hall surrounded by physical books and wooden shelves is an isolated island of information and knowledge from the virtual environment.
Physicalizing Virtuality through Exhibition The server farm is exhibited through the bulletproof glass to the public. The heaviness of data is then clarified. And at the same time, its virtuality is physicalized.
The Drama of light and shadow And the ever-changing drama of sunlight and shadows staged by openings between suspended library masses is creating another hierarchy of unique atmosphere.
Tempered Urban Space The year-around tempered environment provides unique opportunities and public space for urban gatherings and activities in extreme climate.
N. St.Louis Urbarts Gallery Optional Studio, Fall, 2016 Prof. Jan Ulmer, Germany Site: St. Louis, USA Publication: SamFox Approach 2015-2016
The community of North St. Louis has been experienced shrinking since the second half of 20th century. This Project called for an extension of a decaying church to a new art galley as the first phase of the plan revitalizing the neighborhoods of North. Louis. The church was built as an immgrants home for homeless travellers from European countury in 19th century. It served as a temporary shelter for people who was coming and going in that whole centruy and then was left alone suffering from hash weather. The desgin approaches its histroy in a silent way trying to heal its fragility and strngthen its monumentality. The unique landscape is precious to be preserved. Instead of transforming the ruin into a fancy gallery, the strategy is to treasure the quality of the ruin with a contemporary understanding and reinterpretation of the ruinscape.
North St. Louis as a Vacuum Island The community of North St. Louis has been shrinking and lost population since the second half of 20th century. And the neighborhoods are increasingly becoming a vacuum island in the city of St. Louis as a result of vacancy of the land.
The Landscape of Ruins As a counterpart of losing population and houses decaying, the vegetation of North St. Louis has been flourishing through time. The coexistence of the nature and ruins grants the community a unique atmosphere of ruin-scape.
Brick Ruin as the Site The ruin-scape of the North St. Louis community is composed of unique materiality. The monolithic brick facade and local vegetation grant the neighborhoods a distinct tone and roughness with a strong sense of belonging.
Renovating Ruins into Ruins The unique roughness of the landscape is precious to be preserved. Instead of transforming the ruin into a fancy gallery, the strategy is to treasure the quality of the ruin with a contemporary understanding and reinterpretation of the ruinscape.
Landscape coexists with Roman ruins
Vegetation around Local Ruins
The Character of Ruin Plants The plants around ruins bear a different character from the well-nurtured city landscape. They are wild and free creatures in a anarchic manner with an aggressive mind.
Technical Section through the Courtyard
Renovating Through Vegetating Five brick courtyards define the periphery of the site, as the extension of the existing brick ruin. And the yards are vegetated with native plants implying roofless ruins.
Section through Courtyards The gallery spaces stagger with brick courtyards. Visitors always have a close connection with the nature and the image of ruinscape within the neighborhoods.
Section through the Existing Ruin An inner sloping courtyard is created within the existing building by removing part of the roof. The yard renovates the old ruin into a new roofless ruin.
Veranda Loop
Courtyards Loop
Gallery Loop
Gallery Floor Plan The gallery on the ground floor is organized in a layering system bringing the green vegetation, brick, and art in coexistence
Courtyards
Staircases
Public Bench
Brick Plaza Floor Plan The brick plaza on the roof floor fuses the old and new with the monolithic brick materiality and also provides an urban balcony for the public.
A Civic Plaza The new ruin grants itself the quality of a civic plaza instead of a fancy gallery, the sense of citizenship instead of conditioned membership, an aroma of roughness instead of being delicate and fragile. It mirrors the history and character of local people.
The Ruin Memorial The flat extension of the building serving as an exhibition stand brings the existing ruin into a memorial position. The plaza and courtyard provide a calm place for the local people to reflect on the history of the North. St. Louis and its people.
Manzanares Apartments Optional Studio, Spring, 2016 Prof. Javier Maroto, Spainish Site: Madrid, Spain
This design of Manzanares Apartments is trying to negotiate and mitigate the tension between the public and private, symmetry and asymmetry, as well as the urban structure and natural landscape. The site is located by the side of Manzanares River Park which is becoming a very popular destination for the Madrid citizens and tourists. The needs for the dwelling privacy becomes extremely crucial in this circumstance. In front of the site is a historic building with classical architectural design in a robust symmetric character. Also, a dense landscape on the site is precious to be preserved. A snaking inhabitable “fence� is then created to mitigate all the contradictions around the site.
The Rhythm of Public Gathering There’s an ever growing demand to accommodate the storage and pro-
The Rhythm of Public Gathering The site is located in an extreme public circumstance with the rhythmic gathering of the people threating the dewelling pravicy annd quality.
Modular Study
Form and Volume Study
Hide and Seek The extremely thin volume of the building snakes through the landscape and hide from the public by displacing the dense vegetation on the site.
Physcial Model
Symmetry and Asymmetry The existing historical preserved building bears a robust symmetric character. And the form of the apartment reinterprets it asymmetrically.
Plan
South Elevation
South Elevation
An Inhabitable Fence The multiple openings at the bottom and on the top of the facade reconnect landscape on two sides of the apartment visually and physically.
Snaking through the Landscape The apartment snakes through the dense woods creating “niches� both horizontally and vertically by displacing the landscape.
Dimished into Nature
Dwelling in Tension, Opequeness and Transparency The apartment is composed of a transparent bar volume for daytime and an opaque bar volume for nighttime with a tension between the public and privacy.
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Day Bar_ Living in the Air The living room and dinning space is placed in the day bar with a high level of transparency and connection with surrounding landscape.
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Night Bar_ Hidden in the Cave The night bar hosts the private bedrooms and restrooms. The opaqueness of this wooden cave exposes the deepest nature of individuals.
A Cascade of Balconies A series of balconies on every floor extend the territory of interior space and provide more connection between the residents and the surrounding nature, In the meanwhile, blocking the direct views and interruptions from the public.
Soft Shadows from Vertical Permeability Virtical voids between different bars allow sunlight to pass through the volume of building and creating another hicharchy of permeablity and connection.
Karlin Footbridge Karlin, Prague, Czech Republic Critic: Jose Alvarez, EDR International Competition
The Footbridge Holešovice - Karlín brings an architectural and structural design proposal for a pedestrian bridge across the Vltava River. This bridge will connect the riverbanks of Karlín, Holešovice and the Štvanice Island. Up to this day the Prague districts Karlín and Holešovice suffer from the lack of good pedestrian and cycling connection. The idea of building a footbridge in this places was a part of the Prague Land-Use Plan for a long time. In 1999 an architectural competition was held to define the appearance of the footbridge. However, after the floods in 2002, the flood protection measures were reinforced. The most important requirements in relation to the design should deal with the flood protection, water flow and water management, urban situation on both riverbanks and barrier-free ac-
cess on the bridge.
An Urban Oasis The Bridge is a pedestrian connection of riverbanks of Karlín, Holešovice and the Štvanice Island which is a rare land of idyllic beauty in the city of Prague.
Conceptual Collage
Bridge as a new Typology of Pavillion A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles without closing the way underneath such as a body of water, valley, or road, to provide passage over the barrier. Designs of bridges vary depending on the function of the bridge, the nature of the terrain where the bridge is constructed and anchored. In this case, the bridge is not trying to be lifted over the obstacle, instead to touch it and become an integral part of the island and disappear soon after in the beautiful landscape. Here the bridge not only connects the river banks but also stitches the island together. The landscape flow through the bridge, and in the meanwhile, the bridge passes through the island in a gentle manner.
Contemporary pavillions are usually free-standing structure enjoy the lightness and transparency in contrast to the historic pavilion as a relatively massive attachment to the main building. When contemporary architecture is designed more transparent and lighter, the other typology of architecture is also can be referred to as a pavilion. The pavilion here is stretched into a bridge with a close connection with the water, ground, and sky. It is not a traditional bridge trying to connect the river banks. However, it grows from the island and becomes curious about the river and city, and finally growing longitudinal to both side of the river, kissing the bank to say hi.
A Transparent Urban Gallery The elevation and section through the bridge reveal the transparency that enables the bridge as an open pavilion that exhibits the city scape of Prague.
A Pavillion Growing from the Island The bridge as a pavilion is nurtured from the landscape on the island instead of intentional bridging the river banks and blind to the beauty of the island.
Structure as a New Island An new concrete island is created for structural purpose and also helps define the boundary of the aquatic sports center of the city.
Reorientation of the Movement A small triangular plaza between the river bank and the bridge helps reorient and buffering the movement of people from different direction.
Elevation
Short Section
Roof Plan
Bridge as Geographical Measurement A series of transverse section reveal the variation of the height and width of the bridge as a synthesis result of the landscape of the island, flooding and navigation regulation.
Structure Talking to the Landscape The roof structure turns into more organic when approaching the island and accordingly the roof openings and shadows becoming more organic talking to the landscape.
Steel Forest in the Air The diameter of the steel columns is variated according to the value of the structural moment. Columns with different diameters inspire the sense of forest with a diversity of trees.
AXON DIAGRAM