FORM CONTENT CONTEXT
Selected works from 2012 to 2016 of Xinru Liu
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Transformation Thesis project
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Framing Climate Change Climate Change Musuem
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Culture on Display Mayan Museum
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Bone & Flesh Minor League Baseball Park
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Form & Content Analysis of St. Mary Cathderal
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Reflection Selected collage of the critique of contemporary architecture
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Water Is a Gateway To An Alter Reality Selected B&W film photography
Transformation Thesis, RISD, 2016 Thesis Advisor: Peter Tagiuri
The project Transformation is driven by my curiosity of the content-form relation in finding how form relates to content and whether there is a derivative relation in between. Strongly influenced by contemporary critical thinking and philosophy, I juxtaposed language with architecture, comparing the semanticssyntax relation to content-form relation. In the process of finding what is the “being” of architecture, I encountered the concept of “Différance” developed by Derrida and adopted this concept in an experimental process of making architecture, which became the project Transformation.
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How to translate “Différance” in visual language is the first prompt in this process. In the experiment, I created a 12 inch by 12 inch device for creating the differing and deferring process of light filtering; two layers of opaque papers, each with different cutouts, are overlayed with a certain cavity in between. I documented a series of light patterns that generated by the device when confronting it to a light source.
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Device created for exploring the overlapping of light and shadow
Differánce is the non-full, non-simple “origin”; it is the structured and differing origin of differences. — Derrida
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The second experiment was made with charcoal and paper, in the form of drawing and paper model.
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The second experiment was made with charcoal and paper, in the form of drawing. In low density, an element has a large void. Void suggests potential, suggests unpredictability, suggests instability. The more and the denser elements become, the more confined the elements are. When the density reaches a level, void is minimized and all the other possibilities collapse.
The forming of ice is a process of emerging and the melting of it is a process of dissolving. This process is a physical representation of how language emerges and dissolves out of sound.
Water experiment_wave
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Water experiment_undulate
Water experiment_water surface tension II
Water experiment_water surface tension
Water experiment_water surface tension
Glacier arrives naturally as an embodiment of “Différance” The formation process of a glacier is a process of differing – the change of molecule density differentiates ice from water – as well as a process of deferring – the constant displacement of ice forms the geometry of glacier.
fig 1 Columbia Glacier, 1986 Alaska
fig 2 Columbia Glacier, 2014 Alaska
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Collage composed of multiple photos of the edge of Columbia Glacier over time.
The formation of glacier, which has been through centuries of snow accumulation, is a process of transformation. The physicality of glacier is also in constant transformation, which results from the changes of temperature and collision. Columbia glacier is one of the most rapidly changing glaciers on this planet; It retreats over 12 miles since the 80s. Figure 1 and 2 show the aerial view of the drastic difference of Columbia Glacier over time. Composed area map
Undulation of the water surface
Section of the Site
Tangent vector of the water surface
Water body topography
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Model of Columbia Glacier
Map of Columbia Glacier
Site model detail
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Site model detail
Model making is beyond pure representation in this project; it stands by itself as a piece of creation, and a way of subjective representation.
Site is modeled as an assemblage of small fragments to show the mechanics of the movement of water and glacier. Site model detail
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Both the water body and the glacier body are fundamentally the same thing—H2O. In molecule level, they are different configuration of H2O. In another word, both the glacier and the water are the signifiers of the H2O. The site model is an abstraction; water is represented by a field of paper seesaws, and ice is represented with clear plastic tubes. By using similar lanaguge in constructing the water body and the glacier, the site model synchronizes the solid and the liquid forms of water into the same form of being - the massing of modules.
This is a non-full, non-simple, non-complete and non-hierarchy space. This is a space that loses its identity in its translation of the context; however, an endless chain of different identities in the process gets revealed. This is a space sited in the process of emerging and dissolving; it is also a metaphor of the process of sound transforming into language. Language emerges out of sound; it displaces and differentiates itself from the others.
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Ice emerges out of water; it displaces and differentiates itself via the change of density. Form emerges out of the landscape; water levitates it, wind displaces it, ice breaks it and gravity expands it. Program emerges from the moving body; we walk and transitional space appears; we gather and private space arrives; we dance, run and jump so the space also gets excited and intoxicated. This is a space that ultimately connects our body with the nature.
Axonometric exploded diagram (left) Perspective drawing (middle) Perspective drawing (right)
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Inspired by Paper-Cutting Art, this model is designed in grasshopper in order to achieve the complex cutting pattern generated by the water surface analysis of the site.
Plan diagram
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Framing Climate Change In partial collaboration with Evelyn Zeng Advanced Studio, RISD, 2015 Professor Anne Tate, Professor Nadine Gerdts
“Moving climate to the center of culture, ethics, and public life� is the core mission of the Climate Museum Launch Project, The challenge of our studio is to unpack the complex set of issues surrounding climate change, develop architectural projects that will demonstrate resiliency, innovation, urgency and common purpose in understanding the role climate plays in our lives. My project, collaborating with Evelyn Zeng, is about creating a series of moments that can frame the relationships among different factors lead to Climage Change. We want to create a space that can imply the complexity of the issue meanwhile communicating with the audience through its spatial experience. The circulation paths acted as docents for visitors and revealed the complexity of climate change. In this case, my museum proposal became a manifesto of my critique to the present oversimplified approach to the issue of climate change; different exhibit rooms are arranged in juxtaposition to each other around a central circulation core, breaking through the traditional linear and hierarchical spatial arrangement Via the the strategy of view framing, moments of the concurrence and divergence of different exhibit spaces are captured.
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Model Studies
Concept
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Geometry
FRAMES
Exhibit Stratedy Large Frames Frame Relations Small Frames Frame Events
Framing NETWORK OF RELATIONSHIPS
Water Energy Infrastructure Agriculture
One main gallery for each topic. Radiating out smaller galleries and penetrate into spaces of other topics.
Network of relationships SPACES
19 Large Spaces Experience of scenes (landscape scale) Small Spaces Experience of interaction (body scale)
Interlocking
Spatial translation
Located within the flood zone, stormwater management is a big concern of the site. Landscape plays a vital role for its ability of absorbing overflow water and of balancing the exhibit space and the public space. The ground level landscape functions as a public space for play and rest; restoring the original wetland eco-system strengthen the resiliency of the site.
Axon drawings of the elevated gallery space and the landscape 2
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Flood Zone Analysis
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1. urban forest
2. diverse wetland
3. salt marshes
existing
4. greenscape
5. canal street
6. varick street
redesign
Redesign Proposal
Axon drawings of landscape plan
Study of Urban wetland I
Study of Urban wetland III
Small landscape groups are placed in relation to each exhibit space, creating moments of indoor-outdoor ambiguity.
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Study of Urban wetland II
Study of Urban wetland IV
Mezzanine is the core for the interlocked frames, the concurrence of frames
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Rendering of the entrance hall
Rendering of the exhibit space
Different exhibit rooms are arranged in juxtaposition to each other around a central circulation core, breaking through the traditional linear and hierarchical spatial arrangement.
Study model Top view illustrating the framing of the site context. (left) Drawing of the proposed exhibition of extreme water environment such asflooding and steam. (bottom right) Drawing on the proposed exhibition of rain water collection. (bottom left)
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Culture on Display Advanced Studio, RISD, 2014 Professor Hansy Better
Culture on display has two parts: a traveling exhibit of mayan astronomy, and a museum of mayan culture. In studying the ancient mayan astronomy, especially its creative use of body dimension to document the large cosmic events, I developed concept of using body as a scale for making dfferent types of spatial experience. Basic elements such as the column and the slab play a versatile role in creating dynamic and flexible exhibit space. 27
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This drawing demonstrates Mayan’s use of the Tzol’kin (260 day) and Haab’ (365 day) calendars.
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The Tzol’kin calendar combines the numbers 13 and 20, which celebrate the 13 joints and 20 digits of the human body to count individual days (separate from the concept of days and months). The Haab’ calendar is based on the solar year and is composed of 18 months of 20 days, and one month called the Wayeb’ of 5 unlucky days. The combination of these two calendars forms a 52 year cycle (in opposed to the Western notion of century). These two measures of recording time celebrate the human body, and celestial events, linking Mayan’s conceptions of earth, sky and the cyclical nature of life.
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This traveling gallery can be assembled in different size according to the site.
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This drawing illustrates the celebration of the Sun and it’s path in Mayan culture. The Maya built architectural structures based on their recordings of the sun, moon, and other constellations and planets. E-groups form one typology of these structures and were built to record the solstices, indicating the coming of the dry and wet seasons.
TZOL’KIN CALENDAR 365 DAYS - PLAN 13TH MONTH END OF 1 HA’AB CYCLE
FALL EQUINOX
SOLAR CYCLE/SKY 18 MONTHS OF 20 DAYS 19TH MONTH OF 5 UNLUCKY DAYS
WINTER SOLSTICE END OF DRY SEASON
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19 MONTHS
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SPRING EQUINOX 2
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SUMMER SOLSTICE END OF WET SEASON 3
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ASSEMBLY
METAL FRAME, WOOD COLUMNS, 1/2” FROSTED PANELS, LOCAL SOIL/PLANTINGS 4
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WA’YEB/5 UNLUCKY DAYS END OF SOLAR YEAR
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DRY SEASON
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HA’AB CALENDAR 260 DAYS - SECTION
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WET SEASON
WET SEASON
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DRY SEASON
20 DIGITS
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EARTH/BODY 20 DIGITS 13 JOINTS
Plan and sections of the traveling exhibit
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1-1 scale model of a vertical, photos showing how to use body to count
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The ground floor plan of the museum is omnidirectional. The open floor plan, organized by columns of 1 inch diameter, allows visitors create their own path through the musuem, through which the distinction between inside and outside is ambiguous.
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16’
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The new musuem of mayan culture is built upon the research of mayan astronomy, taking the idea that the cosmic and human are connected through the counting system of mayan calendar. Utilizing column as a basic element for constructing such cosmic-human relationship.
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Bone & Flesh Advanced Studio, RISD, 2015 Professor Friedrich St. Florian
Responding to the need of Providence as a medium size college town, the studio proposes to relocate the local minor league baseball park to the downtown Providence adjacent to the colleges and businesses. There are two main challenges in this project, one is how to appropriate the specific baseball park program in a site that is limited in size and geometry; second is how to connect the baseball park with the urban context, redefining it as a public-friendly space while maintaining its identity as a baseball stadium. In this project, I tested how to determine form with content, integrating the programmatic functionality with the stadium structure. A modular with two supporting “wall�, height and geometry shaped to maximize the view of the court, and two levels of concourses, for services and seatings, becomes the main design component. The structural elements and the program spaces support each other just as how the bones and the fleshes rely on each other in a human body.
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Content is based on the local context, and shapes the form of the building.
Core concept sketch model
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Four diagrams explaining the function of the modular unit
Visionary illustrations of how the modular will be occupied
Urban stratedy: rhythm voids
Landscape concept_green loop
Pedestrain path
Map of all possible paths in open space in the city center
Map of the visibility of the open space
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Public traffic
Site Plan (left) Street view looking at the Main Entrance (top right) Street view looking at the fountain (middle right) Section drawing (bottom right)
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Form & Content Architecture Analysis, RISD, 2013 Professor Carl Lostritto
Kenzo Tange’s St. Mary’s Cathedral contains a fundamental discrepancy between its three-dimensional form and its plan layout. The analysis focuses on addressing this particular discrepancy. By reconstructing the church in digital space and introducing variables such as floor area, the degree of corner roundness, and dimension of each program space, I am able to control the form of the church. The final study is presented as a short animated film, showing the morphing of the building envelope. 1
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A seemingly parametric envelope is created from the misalignment between the symbolic form of a cross and the traditional church rectangular layout. The short animation accentuates this ambiguous relationship
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Reflection Selected collages created in response to topics in contemporary architecture theory.
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International style is a new form of imperialism Although we need to recognize the diversity of the world culture, whether the universal civilization could be a common language for architecture dialogue is questionable. Does it really exist a common language? Can we use shared notion such as tectonic, formal expression to make cross-cultural communication?
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From the example of Le Corbusier’s Algiers master plan to the techno-utopia, it appears that Architecture has always been an ideological state apparatus connected deeply with power and the sovereign ideology. Corbu’s proposal might also be a kind of epistemic violence that carries strong French imperialism.
Water Is a Gateway To an Alter Reality Film Photography
Water is an essential medium in a dark room; it provides the fundamental basis for the chemical reaction of photo development. The project Water Is a Gateway To Alter Reality is born from a personal experience working in a darkroom where the presence of water becomes so strong that it symbolizes the photo developing process. In fact, water in nature also plays a similar role as photography; the reflective water surface captures the reality in an ephemeral fashion. 57
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The first part of the project is rooted in an urban context, focusing on exploring the reflectivity of water surface, and how it captures a fragmented reality that is intangible and beyond reality.
Mundane things become serene when framed by the water surface.
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The second part of the project takes a close look at the fictionality of water through the double exposure technique, overlaying the aquarium over everyday environment. The discrepancy in scale, content and time creates a fictional world that only water and photography can make.
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