Portfolio of Xiuyuan Ruan

Xiuyuan Ruan

Bachelor of Arts

Michael Graves College at Wenzhou-Kean University

PORTFOLIO OF XIUYUAN RUAN

Apply for Master of Architecture Program College of Environmental Design University of California, Berkeley

EDUCATION

Wenzhou-Kean University Wenzhou, China Sep. 2018-Jun. 2022

(English as the medium of instruction, cooperatively run by Wenzhou University, China and Kean University, USA)

College: Michael Graves College Expected degree: B. A. in Architectural Studies

University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, California Sep. 2022-Jun. 2025

College: UCLA Architecture and Urban Design. Expected degree: MArch Professional Degree

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Hangzhou Tianhua Architectural Design Co., Ltd. Jul.-Aug. 2019

Intern, Architecture Design Department

Carried out comprehensive regional value analysis which included factors like natural resources, traffic information, local policies, visitors flow, etc., and completed a regional value map. Drew up the section of the building through AutoCAD and made graphs and charts by Photoshop and PowerPoint for preparing bidding documents. Presented the design proposal to the clients.

The Design Institute of Landscape and Architecture China Academy of Art Co., Ltd. Jul.-Aug. 2020

Intern, Architecture Design Department

· Participated in two main projects: Hangzhou Zhongtai Kindergarten construction program, and Linshu County Zhu village reconstruction, including the modification and improvement of engineering drawings and dimension drawings.

Responsible for plan and façade drawing, bidding document preparation, etc. by using AutoCAD, Sketchup, Photoshop.

COMPETITION

Let’s Charrette Cross-Professional Competition-Second Prize May. 2019

Supervisor: Ralph Spencer Steenblik (Assistant Director of the WK-Labs, Urban Design Think Tank)

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

Student Assistant Michael Graves College at WKU Oct. 2018-Aug. 2020

· Assisted the professors with school events management. Involved in organizing over 20 architectural lectures, including audience registration, materials preparation, poster designing, minutes taking, etc.

Coordinator Architecture Workshop at WKU Feb. 2019-Aug. 2020

Responsible for the preparation and maintenance of 3D printers, laser cutting machines, and other facilities in the workshop at WKU. Wrote workshop instruction manual and guided students to use the facilities correctly.

SKILLS

Software: AutoCAD, Rhinoceros, Adobe Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign), Sketchup, Blender, Revit, Vray

Skills: Graphic design, illustration, CG animation production, 2D frame animation production, 3D modeling, physical modeling

OTHERS

Languages: English (fluent), Mandarin (native)

Hobbies: Travel, Painting, Movies

Monitoring Station

WKU 2019 Fall Studio-LANDSCAPE

Site: Wenzhou, China

Individual Work

School distribution in the main urban area of Wenzhou(Black Part)

In this project, I will focus on hydrological environment and ecology. Wenzhou is adjacent to the East China Sea, with more than 150 large and small rivers and abundant water resources. According to the estimation of the municipal water resources department, the total amount of water resources in the city is 14.113 billion cubic meters, and the per capita possession is about 2,240 cubic meters. Among water resources, surface water resources are 11.185 billion cubic meters and groundwater resources are 2.928 billion cubic meters. Due to the influence of geology and geomorphology and other factors, the distribution of water

resources in the region is not balanced. Among them, the mountain and hills are about 7.504 billion cubic meters, accounting for 67% of the city's total surface water; the eastern plain area is about 3.668 billion cubic meters, accounting for the city's total surface water. The amount is 32.8%; and the island only accounts for 0.2%. As a city with abundant water resources, Wenzhou has issued a large number of hydrological monitoring stations. But lacking a water quality monitoring station for education, Sanyang Wetland is an excellent location.

Most of educational facility in Wenzhou city are located in the centrel area(marked with rectangle)

Water system Village

Sanyang Wetland is located in Sanyang Street, Ouhai District, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. It is adjacent to Wenzhou Development Zone and Longwan District in the east, Chashan Street and Nanbaixiang Street in the south, and Wutian Street and the city center in the northwest. The total planned area is 13 square meters. kilometer.

Each functional block uses an open design, with a glass facade to provide better lighting.

The water level of the river will rise with the change of seasons.

The project is divided into 3 functional zones, which are office areas, public areas and research laboratories close to the water source.

The office area and the public area overlap each other, and the first floor area is a space where the river can be directly observed.

Express Transfer Station

Site: Shanghai, China

Individual Work

With the rise of Internet giants, the rise of online shopping in China has shown an exponential increase. However, the problem of user privacy leakage has become more and more serious. The leakage of customer information is mostly in the three links of e-commerce websites, express delivery, and customers themselves. Courier can obtain more than the information on the face-to-face. As long as the fraud gang is willing to pay, the courier who is greedy for illegal gains can open the package from the bottom of the carton, take a photo of the delivery list, and then reseal it. Especially for carton parcels, just repack them with tape, without wasting a new express plastic bag.

Since 2017, a new type of express receipt called "privacy face slip" has begun to appear. Compared with traditional face

slips, privacy face slips hide the key privacy information of users and are replaced by QR codes or barcodes. However, in the three years since its implementation, the privacy sheet has not yet been widely used in the entire industry. Some analysts believe that privacy face-to-face orders reduce the delivery efficiency of express outlets to a certain extent, which in turn leads to a low level of acceptance of private face-to-face orders by couriers. Compared with traditional faceto-face bills, private face-to-face bills require the courier to scan the code before viewing user information, which objectively increases the workload of the courier, and the investment in new equipment by the express company is also an expense.

Village

Industrial area

Today, with the increasing development of online shopping and ogistics networks, people are beginning to find that although the delivery time of express mail is getting shorter and shorter, it depends on large-scale and complicated logistics processes. In this process, the personal information printed on the package will be watched by each process. Is there a way to simplify the traditional logistics model so as to avoid privacy leakage? There is a need for a facility for generalized and efficient handling of express sorting work.

Residential area

Pier

The site happens to be located around the Huangpu River Wharf and its warehouses, where a large amount of freight and a large amount of small commodities will be carried every day. Originally, these goods will be distributed to various freight transfer stations, and then delivered to the receiver by the courier. A large and efficient express transfer station will solve the process of cargo distribution, and the transfer of goods will be automated.

The essence of this project is a simplification of the traditional express delivery process. When most of the intermediate processes are replaced by automation, the chance of privacy leakage is greatly reduced.

In the lower floors, the entrance to the entire building is placed. People enter the facility through the ramp on the right. After entering the second floor, pedestrians will enter a platform, and the transportation pipeline will be displayed in front of the pedestrians to provide a visual experience. The platform is connected to the pedestrian passage under the overpass, and the flow of pedestrians will not be blocked by the existence of the building. The exterior of the pipeline will be made of tempered glass, and the flow of internal express delivery will be clearly visible.

Every time a unit drops, a node is connected, and a three-dimensional pipeline is finally established.

Each pipeline node is matched with a functional block, and the goods will be transferred from the pipeline to the block for sorting.

Top view of pipeline node

Users can send out express orders through a customized mobile app. In the process of using the app, the privacy of the user will be protected, and the transportation status of the express delivery can be checked through the monitoring in the facility.

The functional blocks will be fixed by vertical pipes and an external steel structure mesh surface, and the topmost sorting and delivery center will adopt a glass facade. The sorted goods are transported through vertical pipelines. Land freight will be transported through pipelines to the lower-level shipping center.

Although the pipeline will undergo multiple bends, its diameter will not change to prevent the accumulation of cargo. The section away from the street will go through a section of vertical pipeline, where it will experience a lot of replenishment and unloading of goods, thus forming a loop.

Carry out the next round of cargo transfer.

Art Brut Institution

WKU 2021 Fall StudioURBAN DESIGN, PLANNING, HOUSING

Site: St. Josephs’ Asylum for the Poor, Shanghai, China

Retrofit Design

Individual Work

A s an art form, Artbrut is defined as an art work that is not accepted by the mainstream art world or whose creator has not received systematic art training. In the first few weeks of the Studio course, I did a detailed research on Artbrut and made a booklet. In the process of research, I found that nearly 80% of Artbrut's works were created by patients with mental illness. I began to look for the connection between the two.

People with mental illness are a group that cannot be ignored in China. In terms of subject matter, they basically have their own delusions and subconscious content as themes. These subconscious minds are generally related to

mental trauma. For example, patients who were abused in childhood will often have delusions of being abused, while patients who have suffered emotional trauma will have delusions related to love. Artistic creation in the medical field is regarded as a major means of curing mental illness. The treatment mode is to observe the patient's subconsciousness through works of art, and then conduct targeted psychological counseling. This project aims to provide a suitable space for patients with mental illness, allowing them to make artistic creations without restriction. Their works will be displayed and used as a basis for treatment.

Different patients with mental illnesses require different space for creation. For example, Alose, a famous Art Brut artist, is good at creating large-scale paintings. Sometimes she needs a canvas as high as 2m. At the same time, because her works focus on showing love and the opposite sex, she also likes to paint in relatively colorful scenes. . For other painters, such as Zhou Huiming, he prefers to create in a closed, small space, because it will make him focus and not be disturbed. I designed a variety of units to meet the needs of different artists.

In order to provide suitable creative space for patients with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses, I have conducted research on the causes and treatment of mental illness. However, this building is located in the center of Shanghai, surrounded by hospitals, schools, shopping malls and subway stations. During peak periods, there will be a very high flow of people. At the same time, the surrounding buildings are significantly higher than the original buildings. This will have a negative impact on patients with schizophrenia, and the vertical height of the creative space inside the building is too short, which will limit the creation of some artists. In order to solve these problems, increasing indoor height and increasing open space will be the focus of renovation.

UNIT4 and Yard Music therapy room

UNIT6 and gallary

UNIT1 and Landscape

The structure of the original building is a typical wooden structure, which is divided into two types of support, one part is the external column and facade supporting the roof, and the other part is the column net supporting the two-story floor. If the second floor slab and column net are removed, the stability of the building can still be guaranteed.

The formation of the outdoor space is due to the enclosing style of the three buildings. The enclosed space will be regarded as the courtyard of the project, which contains a landscape design and extended structure as the entrance to the courtyard.

The Unit can be moved out of the courtyard through the original external facade that can be opened.

The units can be moved into the room, and the room is also placed as a treatment and creative space.

Even in a high-density urban environment, patients can still create art in the space formed by the two buildings. As the column net and the second floor slab have been emptied, the indoor space has also been expanded.

The c-shaped corridor composed of 3 buildings was opened up into a large space, but rooms on the first floor were reserved as staff rooms. The structure of the original building is a typical wooden structure, which is divided into two types of support, one part is the external column and facade supporting the roof, and the other part is the column net supporting the two-story floor. If the second floor slab and column net are removed, the stability of the building can still be guaranteed.

Solar LADWP

UCLA 2023-2024 Fall Studio-Building with Landscape

Site: LADWP Water Complex, Los Angeles California Individual Design

The program of the quarter proposes an adjacent addition to the two existing Headworks reservoir containers to interface directly with a Water Complex open to public visitors. The Water Complex facility will be comprised of dual programmatic demands, an LADWP Operation Center slated towards private, internal use by the Department for managing the Headworks Reservoir and a public outreach and educational program as part of the Water Complex, which will

bring visitors to the site. The entirety of the site will be operated as a public park, which our designated pie shaped territory will be a key component of. Considerations for how the proposed demonstration containers and the Water Complex plug into and reinforce the park must also be made. The park will be the public interface of the project connecting the site to Forest Lawn Drive and providing throughway access to the LA River beyond.

I conducted a sunlight analysis of the site and determined the best angle for the solar panels. All solar panels that won’t being shaded will be placed at a 30-degree angle facing south. I also analyzed the shadows between buildings. The placement of solar panels in shaded areas will change to face east-west, and the shorter the daylight time in the area, the more vertical the angle of the solar panels will be to ensure the maximization of energy use. Visually, this creates a sense of higher texture density closer to the edge of the boundary line.

The main building includes some enclosed facilities and water towers, the tops of which are also covered with solar panels. Connecting the main buildings are pergola supported by pillars, which are themselves polygonal shapes covered with solar panels, forming semi-outdoor spaces between the main buildings.

Visitors arriving at the site will enter the visitor center through the parking lot on the west side, and they can move east through all the indoor facilities and pergola areas, eventually reaching the headwork facilities next to the reservoir.

House to Housing

UCLA 2023 Winter Studio

Site: Los Angeles, California Individual Design

Los A ngeles has served as a storied context for the single-family home as both a site of architectural invention and cultural desire and as an instrument of wealth creation. These dual narratives persist today despite economic realities that make both stories far less suitable to their intended audiences.

The impact of these L A histories mirrors those of the US housing market more broadly. In turn, these social, political, economic and environmental effects have severely limited housing supply, affordability and sustainability, and have shifted the site of the architectural problem from house to housing. It is this shift

that the studio will engage as a set of spatial, organizational and social potentials for design to interrogate.

This pr oject takes inspiration from the Mar Vista project and aims to provide 11 residential units by placing the Tract housing type on a fixed site. These units respectively serve households with 2-3 family members. I also incorporated Dingbat elements into the design so that the project can be a community with a shared courtyard while providing enough parking spaces.

This diagram reveals the process on site for a single unit. In order to provide enough units, the project started from two levels of blocks. The northern part is narrowed on the first floor to provide independent parking spaces, and the wall is beveled to facilitate the entry of vehicles. The southern part follows a similar concept, but is structurally connected across households on the second floor, providing a semi-enclosed space for parking spaces below.

E ach unit has a living room, kitchen and each family member has their own bedroom and bathroom. Residents enter the community from the east road and enter their units by walking through the shared courtyard.

The exterior walls of the units are covered with transverse textures.

All residents share a courtyard, and the road between the two rows of houses is eliminated, allowing residents to have space to communicate without facing the danger of vehicles.

This diagram reveals the process on site for a single unit. In order to provide enough units, the project started from two levels of blocks. The northern part is narrowed on the first floor to provide independent parking spaces, and the wall is beveled to facilitate the entry of vehicles. The southern part follows a similar concept, but is structurally connected across households on the second floor, providing a semi-enclosed space for parking spaces below.

E ach unit has a living room, kitchen and each family member has their own bedroom and bathroom. Residents enter the community from the east road and enter their units by walking through the shared courtyard.

Although the second floor is structurally connected, it is still an independent space of the unit. This suspended part will serve as the living room, with floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides providing ample lighting.

Falling Station(VR&Animation)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzbZ3RQao6E

Model Making&3D Printing

mental illness. I began to look for the connection eople with mental illness are a group that cannot be ignored in China. In terms of subject matter, they basically have their own delusions and subconscious content as themes. These subconscious minds are generally related to

art, and then conduct targeted psychological

Scene modeling that can be browsed through vr