Portfolio - 2019

AMY XIANG

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY M.S.AAD ‘19

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CONTENT GSAPP Academic Works

01 Elephant Puzzle 02 The Interchange 03 Ethno-music-ology 04 Infrastructural Configuration

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01 ELEPHANT PUZZLE

GSAPP Advanced Studio Professor: Laurie Hawkinson TA: Alex Mann Partners: Shuang Zhao, Junru Xu 2019 Fall This project breaks down traditional office building to decentralize work space and introduce a new movement system to provide flexibility for the future of working.

This project started with a potential proposal for the Amazon HQ2 in Long Island City.

After extensive research about the site, Public-Private Partnership and Business Improvement District, Amazon decided to abandon the project. Therefore, the Elephant Puzzle seeks a different Public-Private Partnership with smaller businesses and provides a baseline of democratic spaces for the negotiation between government, the public and private sector.

The belief is that as technology moves forward, traditional office buildings could no longer suffice the need of people’s use. Thus, a movement system is introduced at the site. A system that transports people, work spaces, public amenities, resources, etc.

The project is done by a group of three where each member of the group took one part of the site and develop.

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The site is at a prime location in Long Island City, with subways, ferries and Brooklyn-Queens Express tram, which will be done in 2024 passing through.

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The internal moving system connects different parts of the site with public transportation, for cars, moving spaces, pedestrian and bikes.

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OFFICE

MAKER SPACE

LIBRARY

THEATRE

CAFE

OFFICE

MAKER SPACE

LIBRARY

POOL / ICE RINK

CAFE

OFFICE

CONFERENCE ROOM

CLASSROOM

GYM

PAVILION

GALLERY

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KIOSK

Spaces of difference sizes, accommadating different programs travels along the movement system. The programs are categorized into four types: Work, Learn, Play and Relax. These spaces are deployed at different frequency, from daily, weekly to seasonal.

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Site Plan Ground Level

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Site Plan Track Level

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The series of images shows how spaces travel through the system.

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Section Space Station

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The series of images show how the movable pieces are stored within the space station when not in use.

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Because of the moving system, Elephant Puzzle results in a highly dynamic, interactive project. The possibility and flexibility create ideal environment and space for both the public and small start-up businesses.

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02 THE INTERCHANGE

GSAPP Advanced Studio Professor: Jinhee Park TA: Dongil Kim 2018 Fall

The Interchange, sites in Geoje, Korea, aims to provide an interface for the disconnection between highways and villages.

Geoje has been under rapid development over the last few decades. Because of the fast sprawl, a massive highway system is placed on the island with no respect or consideration for the current residents and villages. The highway connects Busan and Tongyeung which does not benefit Geoje even though a large amount of traffic passing by everyday.

The Interchange, as a prototype, gives possibility to fill in the huge gap between the highway and the village. It provides easy access to the village for visitors and to the highway for local residents.

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Based on the Sea Level Rising report, in 2100s, the sea level would rise 25 ft, which would put one-third of Geoje Island in water. Because of the steep topographic condition of the island, most developable area are within the flooding zone.

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At the initial research phase of the project, strategies were developed to build a new way of living in order to deal with sea level rising, while employing the world-famous shipbuilding technologies of Geoje.

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0 km

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10 km

Site Plan

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Plan Lower Level

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Upper Level

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03 ETHNO-MUSIC-OLOGY

GSAPP Advanced Studio Professor: Mark Rakadansky TA: Aude Azzi 2018 Summer

ETHNO-MUSIC-OLOGY is an addition to the american museum of natural history, in order to engage with the problems of current museum as well as to explore the potential in exhibitions and curatorial narrative. Like most museums, the american museum of natural history has a serious disengagement with the surrounding, both architectural context and community association.

One misconception of museums is that most artifacts are taken out of context. For example, an exhibitions of music should include a lot more than the instruments themselves, but the music culture and background histories in the form of documentaries, artworks, sound, performances etc. The project aims to develop a narrative of how ancient civilizations affect contemporary music culture of the current society as well as to explore more interactive way of exhibiting musical instruments.

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The project started from transformation between two artifacts. Though the two instruments are from different regions and different time period, there are similarities in the composition and material.

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04 INFRASTRUCTURAL CONFIGURATION

GSAPP Architectural Photography Professor: Henriette Attali TA: Daniel Zuvia 2018 Fall

Cities was created through configuration based on their infrastructure system. Infrastructure is considered to be the binding medium between objects of positive consequence, shape, and law. Buildings are no longer singarly crafted unique enclosures, but reproducible products set within similar urban arrangements. Not only buildings and public spaces, but also entire world cities are constructed according to a formula - an INFRASTRUCTURAL CONFIGURATION. Infrastructure is not the urban substructure but the urban structure itself - the very parameters of global urbanism. The information resides in invisible powerful activities that determine how objects and content are organized and articulated. Infrastructure space, with the power and currency of software, is an operating system of shaping the city.

Infrastructure space is a form, but not like a building is a form; it is an updating platform unfolding in time to handle new circumstances, encoding the relationships between buildings, or dictating logics. There is no such thing, in a social sense as empty pace.

Space is always and only produced as a complex of relationship and seperations, presences and absences. Urban forms are made not only out of materials and things but out of meanings, language and symbols.

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