STUDIO WORK SAMPLE
The conversation about architecture, is essentially the conversation between human and the world: the inhabitat.
01
Stepped Residential Hotel
02
Drape Tower
03
Floating Block
04
Interactive Pavillion
2014 Fall | Theme: Semi-Public Space
2015 Spring | Theme: Sustainable Strategies
2015 Summer | Theme: Urbanism & Preservation
2016 Thesis | Theme: Techtonic Design & Responsive Tech
COMPETITION WORK SAMPLE 05
Asset Skyscrapper
2017 Summer | Evolo Competition 2018
01 Stepped Residential Hotel 2014 Fall | Theme: Semi-Public Space Manhattan, New York | Prof. Terrance Goode
In a metropolitan like New York City, many luxury residential towers or residential hotels pay high attention to security. Thus, they usually have security guards sitting in the lobby to check the identity of strangers, to make sure that residents invite them. However, this security strategy inevitably discourages nonresidents to stop by and visit their friends, not to mention using the semi-public space (residential-only gym, roof garden, etc.) inside.
Thus, in New York City, when people complain that they can not find quality public space, there is much semi-public space empty in residential buildings.
What if the semi-public space becomes a buffer zone between the streets and residents’ apartments? Rather than filtering visitors and residents with an unfriendly security inspection, isn’t a social space more attractive, useful, and natural?
This project to design a residential hotel for visiting faculties of all universities and colleges in Manhattan, NY. The aim of the concept is exploring the potential of circulation space to be using as a buffer-zone between public and private spaces, to have a broaden and a blurred boundary between social activities and privacy.
STEP 1. Concept/Site Typical Residential Building
“Residents Filter”
Proposed Residential Building “Buffer Zone”
“Residential Filter” vs. “Buffer Zone” In typical residential building, the residents-only space (“semipublic”) are always underuse. The safety-strategy of having doormans to check and permit only residents or invited visitors to enter (“residential filter”) makes non-residents users unconvenient.
Public
Stranger
Semi-Public
Visitor
In the proposed residential building, the “semi-public” space is designed as a “buffer zone” between the public and private area. Nonresidents can easily access to them and will not be checked as long as they don’t go to the private space.
Private
Residents
Sunlight Site Build Area Green Space Residential Space Buffer zone Roof Social Terrace Common Room Academic Exhibitional Programs Commercial Space Reference Line
Resident Entry
Visitor Entry
Activities of “Buffer Zone” As a residential hotel designed for visiting scholars in New York City, there should be space specifically used for academic or social activities by residents and their visitors.
Main Entry
View
STEP 2. Programs/Circulation 3rd floor
4th floor
5th floor
discussion room
6th floor
discussion room
discussion room
7th floor
8th floor
discussion room
9th floor
office
social terrace
social terrace buffer zone (semi-public)
discussion room
discussion room
2nd floor gallery store exercise/exhibition gallery research/exhibition gallery lobby gallery storage 1st floor auditorium lobby auditorium
Buffer Path Consider the desire of privacy and the expectation of visitors, the academic-use space is designed as a buffer path for both visitors and residents to circulate. Programs that open to large group of people, such as gallery, auditorium, exhibition (and related space) will be put on the second level to be easily accessd. Programs that randomly open to small group of people such as discussion room, meeting room, office, will be put on each residential floor to make a continuous ramp from the second floor to the social roof terrace.
STEP 3. Detail Buffer Zone in Housing Units studio
The design of housing units is also guided by the concept of using circulation and service space as a buffer zone between public and private. In each housing units, the kitchen and restroom is used as a core to separate living room and bedromm(s). Thus, visitors can access to these space without enter the bedroom(s) by mistake.
Function of Buffer Zone 1-bed apartment
2-bed apartment
heat storage
ventilation
light distribution For sustainable strategy concerns, the corridor is designed to enclosed with double-glazing facade, and will be used as a buffer zone in the building’s heating, ventilation, and lighting distribution, in order to have a better energy performance.
02 Drape Tower 2015 Spring | Theme: Sustainable Strategies Syracuse, New York | Prof. Bruce Abbey | Collaborate with Winnie Tu
The history of clothes might be as long as the history of human civilization. The prototype of clothes --- a piece of leave, has the effect of protecting privacy. Similarly, one of the primary function of a facade to its building is to hide private space. However, just as clothes now can also protect from miserable weather, can express personal tastes, can produce heat, and so on.
The goal of this project is exploring the potential functions of the facade as “pieces of cloth for the building.� For a mixed-use tower in the central business district in Syracuse downtown, the facade will not only provide different functions to support the various programs but also be a continuous envelope that organizes the serial of programs and structural systems into one entirety.
STEP 1. Site/Programs penthouse office mechanical restaurant Jan 10.5 mph
Feb +
Mar
Apr
May
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
+
Dec
retail 11 mph (6 in) (100%) (40 in)
dance studio lobby
_ Precipitation
30 in
public garden
+ _
+ storage
_
cistern
Sunshine
50%
28% 5 in
Jul
Windspeed
9.3 mph
3 in
Jun
Circulation
+ +
Snowfall 0
Climate (Syracuse vs. US Average) Because located closed to the Great Lakes, the snow days in Syracuse is usally start from October to May, and in the other time, it also rains much more than the average precipitation amount in the US. The sunshine is lower than US Average all year long and the wind speed is also higher than US Average during the snow season.
-
0
The site and its adjacent building break up the path of green space in Syracuse downtown. To continue the “green path” and to revive the street in between, the designed circulation is extended from current “green path” to the park at the west site and turned as a knot at the east site to shape the base and the tower.
STEP 2. Concept/Activities
human
space
protect from environment
storage collect resource from environment
privacy
identity
Clothes for Building In a bad weather condition such as snow or rain, people’s first strategy is to wear the right clothes. People also wear clothes to cover our body, to emphasize identities, to carry wallet and cellphone. Some clothes can even use solar energy to produce heat. In an extreme climate condition as Syracuse, a building may also need a piece of clothes --- a drape facade. The function of the facade is similar to clothes: it should keep the interior in a good temperature condition, should be able to collect natural resource, and should emphasize identity.
chimney effect (summer)
thermal buffer (winter)
rain collection
unified structural design
STEP 3. Detail
03 Floating Block 2015 Summer | Theme: Urbanism & Preservation Williamsburg, New York | Instructor: Kristian Koreman | Collaborate with Xiao Han
Williamsburg became neither Manhattan nor Brooklyn. It is a lobby. People who live there, work someplace else for higher income. People who work there, live someplace else for lower rents. Gentrification brings the carnival in weekends, leaves empty shops and streets in weekdays.
Williamsburg becomes neither old nor new. It is eternal. The old industrial façade still tells the story of the mass production; The stores and pubs and flea markets present a stylish and modern lifestyle. The process diversifies demography and occupancy, juxtapose modern and historic architecture.
What if Williamsburg became an exhibition --- glass walls protect the existing urban fabric from gentrification? What if Williamsburg became a billboard --- residential buildings rising along the river telling “I am a Lobby�? What if Williamsburg became a plaza --- old historical buildings turn to public spaces and residents live on top?
Williamsburg should step neither forward nor backward. It should stay still. The increasing housing market is too greedy to be welcomed; The leaving artistic spirits have gone too far to be retrieved. Rather than to recall the nostalgia sense, it is more practical to take care whoever is there now.
STEP 1. Site
Space Manhattan Gentrification expands from Manhattan to Brooklyn, caused lack of public space. People can only gathering at the parks that locates at the boundary of this neighborhood, or gathering at commercial space (pubs and restaurants), The problem of gentrification is essentially the problem between the increasing population and the distribution of limited resources, especially the land (space) resource. Meanwhile, the courtyard of the blocks is underused because the entry is either closed by private properties, or is too narrow and dark for passengers to go through.
Williamsburg (Lobby)
Brooklyn
Manhattan
Weekday
Weekend
Williamsburg
8:00 a
10:00 a
Warehouse Flea Market (Ext.) (Int.)
Activity
12:00 p
2:00 p
Medical Bdg. Cafe (Int.) (Ext.)
4:00 p
6:00 p
8:00 p
10:00 p 0:00 a
Warehouse Restaurant (Ext.) (Int.)
Many people live in Williamsburg but work in Manhattan, or work in Williamsburg but live in Brooklyn. Williamsburg become a “lobby“ between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Thus, Williamsburg is relatively empty during working hours, and popular during the nights and weekends. There are many commerical space such as restaurants and pubs serving visitors and residents during the nights and weekends, and due to this commerical demands, many historic buildings (such as warehouse, office, or ground floor of residential buildings) are modified and reused as commerical space.
STEP 2. Concept Scheme 1: Exhibition (preservation) A rotective zone of historic blocks defined by glass wall, to create a region that exhibit to citizens and relieve their nostalgia.
Scheme 2: Billboard (progression) Dense residential zone along the river, showing the city (Manhattan) of how gentrification diminish current Williamsburg’s diverse appearance and slowing down the expansion of high-rise buildings.
vs.
=
Scheme 3: Fun Palace (ever-changing) Scheme 1 is a passive strategy that refuse future improvement, while scheme 2 will inevitably expanding in the future. Scheme 3 take the idea from scheme 1 to keep Williamsburg’s diverse appearance, but also learn the lesson from scheme 2 to have a strategy that is expandable. This scheme preserve existing low-rise buildings for public use (commercial), and use the empty block courtyard for residential use without affect current street appearance.
Increased public activities along the streets
Current diverse historic builidngs are preserved
Residential floors for current and future Williamsburg residents
Block courtyard is used as public plaza
Preserved Historic building is reused for commercial use
Render: couryard Previous empty block couryard is reused as public plaza. it can be both the path and the destination to passengers. Historic buildings are preserved to be commerical (public )space, and can to be enter from both the street and the courtyard. These buildings also support the residential (private) space sitting above, and sunlight can pass through the boundary to lighten up the courtyard.
05 Interactive Pavilion 2016 Thesis | Theme: Techtonic Design & Responsive Tech New York, New York | Prof. Amber Bartosh
The impetus to change and the desire to maintain equilibrium are the two contradictory instincts of human nature. However, if the two instincts are redefined as “adaptivity” and “control” then it is possible to satisfy both requirements at the same time. This thesis is to explore the possibility and tools for creating both in architecture through an adaptive structural system.
In today’s dynamic and diverse social and urban context, responsive architecture has developed to satisfy various design purpose, from spatial preferences to functional requirements. It not only allows for the variation of views and adaption to context, but also provides for energy collection, footprint reduction, space extension, and so on. However, the current study of interactive architecture focuses more on the facade or other components of a building, rather than the entire architectural work, or to be more specific, the primary structure system of an architectural work.
With the personal interest in tectonic design and kinetic structure arts. This study is aimed to explore the applications of interactive technology in the transformation of the structure system in a tectonic architecture design--- to cross the gap between static tectonic design and dynamic structure in small scale. The responsive pavilion will sense and respond to the variation of gravity loads (with occupancy detection) and lights (for solar energy), with the spatial transformation of the entire structure system. As a result, the form of the architecture will follow the function. The responsive pavilion will spatially respond to the varied occupancy (loads), lighting, and certain program demands.
STEP 1. Interactive Architecture Sensors
Sensors Demands
Control
Control
Demands
Control Mechanism: Predefined Instruction
Change 1960s: Building can Learn
Control Mechanism: Predefined Instruction
Change
Record Change
1970s: Learn and Respond
1980s: Learn, Respond, and Remember
Sensors
“Interactive Architecture is a processes-oriented guide to creating dynamic spaces and objects capable of performing a range of pragmatic and humanistic functions.” --- Michael Fox, and Miles Kemp.
Demands
Interactive architecture, also called responsive or adaptive architecture, is a field in architectural practice that endows architecture works the ability of responding/ reacting to certain simulations (i.e. tactile input, movement, sound, light, wind, humidity, etc.) from people or the environment, with the usage of computation and kinetic systems.
Control
Control Mechanism: Predefined Instruction
Between the 1960s to 1990s, the interaction between human and buildings has been developed from the simple learn-and-feedback loop to the complex system that involves digital techniques to record the past interaction and to predict the future ones.
Record
Record
Change
Predict
Preference Patterns
At the end of the 1990s, With the intensified social and urban change in today’s era, the demands for a flexible architecture solution is more and more eager. Soon, the study of traditional kinetic aesthetics in architecture was reexamined and incorporated with the new technological innovations, to provide environmental adaptivity for computational information and programming (such as Robert Kronenberg’s series of exhibitions and conferences on transportable environments). With the new technologies and new approaches to mobility and transportation, there brought new solutions to the typical problems of motion, stasis, and order. Even though in recent decades, the focus of adaptive architecture study in the technologically driven human behavioral patterns has shifted from the mechanical paradigm to the biological one. The reason is that the former is quite repetitive while the latter is developmental as it emulates life (evolutions), I believe that there still are necessities in studying the mechanical systems.
Control
Demands
1990s: Learn, Respond, Remember, and Predict
Tranformation
Currently, most of the interactive architecture application is on transforming facade, controlling interior conditions, saving energies, etc. Though these undoubtedly are very significant achievements, there is less study on the spatial adaptation of an entire building (or, at least, a large portion of a building). I believe such a study will not only respond context and inhabitant’s demand of spaces in a new perspective but also saves energy, materials, as well as land/space resources.
According to research, besides interacting with users, most interactive architecture involve the concept of transformation/kinetics for eight common purposes. Among the eight purposes, the demand for reducing footprint and extending space will be one of the first subjects to be exploited, especially in such an era when the population is continuously growing much beyond current land resources can afford. The transformation of an interactive architecture are most likely to be controlled by three strategies: rotating (include rolling), expanding (including retracting), and/or shifting. Most transformable architecture involved one movement, and this project is designed to include two to three movements to challenge the potential of spatial dynamic in an interactive transformable design.
Demands Reduce Footprint
Extended Space
Varied Views
Varied Sites
Rolling (Rotating)
Expanding
Rotating
Shifting
Varied Circulation
Energy Collection
Sun Blocking
Open & Close
Shifting
Rotating
Expanding
Expanding
Control
STEP 2. Form-Finding Process Techtonic Systems According to Engel (1999), structural systems can be categorized into four types (except high-rise typology): 1) Form-active, 2) Section-active, 3) Vector-active, and 4) Surface-active. Among them, the surfaceactive system balanced the best between structural efficiency and form-freedom. One popular type of Surface-active structure is the Folded Plate Structure, which can be studied as Origami.
Control: 1. Folding Angle Physical to Digital: Sensor (Arduino)
Pattern (Grasshopper) Spot Folding Pattern
2. Pattern Length
Force simulation (Kangaroo)
(optional) Form-Optimizing (Galapagos)
Stress Analysis (Kangaroo)
pattern sample
Digital to Physical: Servo (Arduino)
Designed Space/Form (fold movement)
The pattern will create a relatively flat surface that need many control points to regulate transformation.
Too Flat
Ron-Resch Pattern The flatness increases when the number of pattern increases.
Too Flat
Diamond Pattern The pattern has the best structural performance and the most spatial transformation.
Best Structural Performance
Herringbone Pattern The pattern will create a relatively flat surface that only transform in one direction.
Too Flat
applied in architecture
STEP 3. Tranformation/Joints
STEP 4. Public Space in Sites The project is designed to provide an adaptive multi-use public space, to save footprint and respond to different temperature/light conditions. Thus, the site is selected in the dense area with four seasons, which will be metropolitans in the Temperate zones. And among all the metropolitans closest to the midline in the Temperate zones, I select New York in America, Rome in Europe, and Beijing in Asia.
Seattle Ottawa Chicago Toronto San Francisco New York Los Angeles
Asuncion Cordoba Rosario Buenos Aires Santiago Montevideo
Moscow Novosibirsk BerlinWarsaw London Prague Astana Paris Vienna Madrid Rome Riyadh New Delhi
Beijing
Osaka Shanghai Taipei
New York City: Free-Flowing The public space in New York usually provided some defined area/installations for small groups of people to rest, view, and exhibit. The circulation path is not clear. People often move along the streets surrounding the square/ park, but the streets usually are also occupied by artists, protesters, and exhibition. The center space is shared by many small groups of people (1~4), and each group has their activities.
Rome: Contained The public space in Rome usually does not contain many installations except stairs, status base, or fountain boundary for tourists to rest. The primary circulation is clearly at the edge of the plaza, and the center space is occupied by some retail kiosk, artists, and large groups of tourists.
Beijing: Defined The public space in China usually provided defined area/ installations for large group people to socializing, touring, and exercising. Exhibition (or protest) is relatively less often than in Western cities. The circulation path is not clear as the usually occupied by tourists and large groups of residents for exercising, square-dancing, marriage-marketing, and so on.
Seoul Tokyo
66.5°S
Pretoria Durban Cape Town
Brisbane Perth Sydney Adelaide Melbourne
Rome (sunny & rainy)
Shlter
Resting
Artists
Beijing (day & night)
Small-group Activities
NOTE Even though square-dancing can make lot of noise due to the music, it is more likely to create a separate space for other activities instead of to create one for dancers. Because most of the dancers are 40~60 years old, and under Chinese culture of respect for the elderly, they always have the previledge to use the large open space for better natural ventilation during exercising.
Passengers
Marriage Marketing
Square Dancing
New York
Audience
Viewing
Resting
Performance
Futher Development The aspect for further development in this project will be the combination of the transformable system and the stable installation. When The folded plates sitting on, curving over, or divided by the stable installation, it will not only get extra structural support, but also form different spaces.
06 Asset Skyscrapper 2017 Summer | Theme: Architecture & Discourse New York, New York | Instructor: Kutan Ayata and Michael Young | Collaborate with Zihong Hao
Rem Koolhaas compared “needle” and “globe” in his Delirious New York: The needle is “the thinnest, least voluminous structure to mark a location within the Grid. It combines maximum physical impact with a negligible consumption of ground”. The global, to the contrary, is “mathematically, the form that encloses the maximum interior volume with the least external skin. It has a promiscuous capacity to absorb objects, people, iconographies, symbolisms.”
A skyscraper can be considered as a combination of needle and global, and it represents the development of urbanism in vertical expansion, space breeding, and control over individual blocks. Since the first half of the twenty-first century, there is a “needle tower trend” in New York City, expanded from the central region of Manhattan to the edge regions of New York City. All these “needle towers” shared similarities in their gesture and purpose: These buildings are entities that enveloped by continued façades; most were designed as luxury apartments or hotels with only a few living units, and most of these units were empty even though they were already rented or sold; the needle tower’s gesture is quite notable, and in many ways, they have already received criticism that these towers were not designed to be affordable to the public.
This project designed designed to be a physical assets than places for living, even though it is presented to the public as a residential proposal. With eighteen elevators surrounding it to send visitors up to the sky, several different shapes of space for different programs: restaurant, gym, meeting space, theaters, etc. Most of the living units were accumulated on the top part to have better views. This structure plays like a scaffolding that allowed the project to keep expanding after its construction was initially completed, as the developer keeps getting more air-rights from its surrounding lots.
2018 2019 2019
2020 2020
2018
1500 ft
Central Park 2018 2019 2018 2020
1000 ft 500 ft 0 ft
30th
40th
50th
59th
Site Analysis: New Skyscrapers in Midtown by 2020 140th PLAN: PLATFORMS This project looks like an upside-down pyramid that is supported by its scaffold-grid structure that allows expansion in both the height and the width. The living units are accumulated like plug-ins on the top part of the grid structure to have better views. In the sky, there are platforms connect those living units with space for amenities: restaurant, gym, meeting space, theaters, etc.
Concept: Growth of Trees The design was inspired by the growth of trees, from a row of standing trunks to a group of trees that have expanding Branches connecting with each other.
Concept: Amenity & Vertical Circulation There are elevators surrounding the main structure and sending residents and visitors up to each platform in the sky.
GROUND PLAN: GROUND ACCESSBILITY There are elevators surrounding the main structure and sending residents and visitors up to each platform in the sky.