Portfolio 2024_Yaxin Cao

PORTFOLIO

“SAY CHEESE”

Yaxin Cao

Master of Landscape Architecture / Candidate ‘20

Certificate in Integrated Product Design

University of Pennsylvania

PLAYCORD

READER

Fall 2019_IPD 529

Designing Connected Objects and Experiences

Instructor: Taylor Caputo & Nicholas McGill Tools Used: Rhino, Vray, 3D-Printing Prototype

PLAYCORD READER

THEME NOSTALGIC FUTURE

Bringing back the magic of old record players into a new era sets the base for the nostalgic and futuristic “Playcord Reader”. Rather than playing old vinyl records, try placing different objects on the turning plate. Once you put the arm trigger on the plate, it will start to spin, and at the same time, an old or new song related to the object will play depending on the arm trigger’s angle and position.

Find the project at: https://vimeo.com/392641141

LID

Acrylic+Colored wrapping paper

OBJECT (BALLERINA)

3D-printing

CENTER SHAFT

3D-printing

FUTURISTIC TURNTABLE

3D-printing

NOSTALGIC TURNTABLE

3D-printing

ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS

TONEARM

3D-printing

READER BASE

The tonearm is outside the turntable Turn the tonearm to the outside plate Turn the tonearm to the inside plate

Fall 2019_IPD 529 Designing Connected Objects and Experiences

Instructor: Taylor Caputo & Nicholas McGill Tools Used: Rhino, 3D-Printing Prototype, C++

Find out how to interact with the Jigglypuff at: https://vimeo.com/394583042

Feature1: Touch Ears - Waving Hands / Stop Waving Hands

Feature2: Send Email - Eyes Shining Jigglypuff is connected to your phone’s email via IFTTT. When you receive a new message, the LED lights up, making its eyes shine.

- Wave Hands

- Rotate Face

Final Achievement

Fall 2019_IPD 529

Designing Connected Objects and Experiences

Instructor: Taylor Caputo & Nicholas McGill

Tools Used: Rhino, Vray, 3D-Printing Prototype

INSPIRATION BOARD

DESIGN CONCEPT

WEARABLE DESIGN

Material Used: 3D Printing (PLA), XTC-3D, Copper-colored Nail Polish, Iridescent Rich Copper Pigment, Iridescent Bronze Pigment

During our visit to the Wagner Free Institute of Science, we sought inspiration from the specimens to create a wearable idea. My concept is inspired by the form of a mollusca shell. I aim to blend its fluid curves with its bold, folding lines to evoke a sense of softness coexisting with tension and strength.

PHYSICAL MODEL

Mollusca Shell

THE CROSSING

Spring 2019_PennDesign_602 Studio

Location: New York, NY

Instructor: Megan Born

Group Work with Yifei Zhai

Published in Landscapes in Process 2018-2019

The site is located on Queens Boulevard, New York. Today, especially for pedestrians, it is called “the Boulevard of Death”.

The existing programs here are all related to auto repair, with very few people stopping by. The other obvious issue is the disruption and disconnection caused by the transportation infrastructures, which are the Queens Boulevard on the ground, Long Island Rail Road in the middle, and the Tri-boro Line above all. The neighborhood has been separated into four parts and is turning into isolated urban islands.

Our proposal is to take advantage of the existing infrastructures by building a station system as a transit hub including train station, bus terminal, and a pedestrian passage centered around to connect the separated neighborhoods, bringing in vibrant activities that attract people. The development follows later with the requirement of more spaces will lead to the QB being narrowed. Finally, the new crossing linear space will turn into the front space instead of QB, and QB will become backside with the maximization of service functions.

The Queens Blvd got the name of “the Boulevard of Death” because of the awkward truth that the green light to cross the Queens Blvd only lasts for 42 seconds, but an adult needs 43 seconds to get across and even 126 seconds for a senior or a child, which reveals its characteristics of unsafety.

There is very little public space with scarcely any attractions around Queens Boulevard. The name of the neighborhood: Elmhurst-Maspeth came from two adjacent neighborhoods, lacks its own identity. We propose a framework which separates the site into three parts: the Manufactural District - Central Station - Residential District, and add a corridor which holds more open spaces to both sides of Queens Boulevard to enable more activities for pedestrians and retail stores for people work there.

MANUFACTURAL

The Core Area is a Station Complex, also functions as the transportation center, a transit hub, is holding plenty of mixed-use programs such as train station, bus terminal, offices, hotels, restaurants, small retail, public library, shopping mall, urban plaza, and a big urban forest. It is connected with the manufacturing and residential districts, which works as a transit hub. There are mainly four gates to enter the core area, which are from four directions: the station entrance, the public library, the urban forest, and the bus terminal.

BUSTERMINAL STATIONENTRANCE

The isolated communities will be tied together by this Station Complex and become accessible from the four main gates. As a result, Queens Boulevard will be squeezed and narrowed to only meet with the traffic flow and its service functions, and holds the programs of auto-repair and transportation, while the open space on both sides of the Queens Boulevard will be widened to meet the increasing pedestrians’ needs.

There are more open spaces in this transit center, including soft and hard scapes, such as the station square, waiting platform, the rooftop garden, outdoor cafe, children’s playscapes, parking lots, balconies, and outdoor sports fields, etc. The goal is to create a new mixed-use civic space and bring more vibrancy to the site, as well as Queens.

A GARDEN FOR GUCCI

Fall 2019_PennDesign_701 Studio

Location: Florence, Italy

Instructor: Valerio Morabito, Richard Weller

Individual Work

The studio site is located in one of the most iconic places in Florence. It’s right next to and connected with the Boboli Garden and Palazzo Pitti, sitting on the south-east side. The area is circular, surrounded and closed by walls. The morphology of the area is characterized by a central depression (valley) while the boundary follows a constant elevation change. It’s a private area characterized by productive olive trees agriculture without any presence of buildings. This goal of this studio is to explore and investigate the concept to create “The New Medici’s Garden”, a contemporary innovative version of a park for the city of Florence.

The “Medici” is a metaphor for contemporary Italian clients, primarily in the field of modern and contemporary fashion. My client is Gucci, this project is to design a garden for its creative director, Alessandro Michelle, manifests his own characteristics of surreal, eccentric, and ironic, also echoes the brand’s recent style. There are also designing studios, exhibition rooms, headquarters for designers and visitors. The project focuses on creating different spaces of surrealism, utilizing the existing morphology of the site by incorporating renaissance landscape elements, like the geometries, labryinths, axes, sculptures.

PALAZZOPITTI

Gucci Ark Gucci Gothic + + Context Morphology

Site Valley

Concept Model Catwalk (Gucci 2020) Combination

Conceptual Model

The Valley

Gucci SS 2020 Runway

1. BUILDING & TOPO

2. PLANTS & TOPO

Edge Type1: Pergola

Edge Type 3: Landscape Wall

Edge Type 2: Tree-lined Alley Edge

Building Roof

Edge Type1: Pergola

Edge Type2: Cypress Alley

Edge Type3: Landscape Wall

Edge Type2: Cypress Alley

Edge Type4: Building Roof

REPEAT

SURROUND

[UNIT1] Labyrinth of Columns and Small Plazas Connected by Pergolas

[UNIT2] Circular Courtyards Connected by Tree-Lined Alleys

CONCEAL FRAME

[UNIT3] Exhibition Rooms Connected by Landscape Walls

[UNIT4] Out-of-Scale Spaces Connected by Surreal Sculptures

MARSH HABITATION

Fall 2018_PennDesign_601 Studio

Location: Atlantic City, NJ

Instructor: Sean Burkholder Individual Work

Salt marshes are a fundamental component of New Jersey’s Atlantic coast, however they are in a continuous flux defined by coastal processes, urbanization and water regimes. How could we make this amphibious landscape – this ever-shifting mixing zones between the human and non-human, fresh and salt, wet and dry – more longlived and vibrant? The goal of my project is to build a new type of “marsh urbanism”.

Salt marshes and urban communities are closely tied to one another. To achieve this, we must leverage the potential of salt marshes as an urbanism-defining system, shaping and transforming open spaces as sea levels continue to rise. The envisioned future is one where the continual creation and deterioration of salt marshes informs a new way living in Atlantic City’s dynamic back bay, and enhances the ecology.

REGIONAL ANALYSIS

MARSH MAPPING & SITE RESEARCH

Salt marshes can greatly contribute to New Jersey’s coastal resilience. They are essential features living along the New Jersey shore. They account for most of the waste treatment systems, weigh heavily on disturbance regulation, nursery habitat, and wildlife conservation.

They also play a role in cultural traits as well as aesthetic and recreational values. Except for the high values in ecosystem services, salt marshes can help slow the tidal currents, moderate streamflow, reduce damage caused by flooding, and protect shorelines from erosion. Marsh vegetation and microorganisms will consume excess nutrients and purify the water in their self-regenerating system.

TIMELINE

HISTORIC DITCHING EFFECTS ON SALT MARSH STRUCTURE IN NJ

IMBEDDED ACTIVITIES AND STRATEGIES

MARSH LAND MORPHOLOGY

STUDY MODEL

The communities sitting on islands at low-lying elevations in the back bay of Atlantic City are at a very high risk of inundation by sea-level rise and storm events, They are vulnerable sites that need to be protected. The strategy is to use the salt marsh as an organizational tool, remove the houses gradually according to the tidal pattern, build higher-density apartments on higher grounds for the neighborhoods, and introduce salt marsh into the spare room to develop a habitation that coexits with the salt marsh.

FLOOD MAP

The communities sitting on islands at low-lying elevations in the back bay of Atlantic City are at a very high risk of inundation by sea-level rise and storm events, They are vulnerable which need to be protected. The strategy is to use the salt marsh as an organizational tool, remove the houses gradually according to the tidal pattern, build higher-density apartments on higher grounds for the neighborhoods, and introduce salt marsh into the spare room and develop a new type of habitation that surrounded by the salt marsh.

BIO-RETENTION

INTERLOCKING “A NATURAL LABORATORY”

Spring 2018_PennDesign_502 Studio

Location: Philadelphia, PA

Instructor: Keith VanDerSys Individual Work

The project, "Interlocking" is located at the waterfront of the Delaware River in Northern Philadelphia, a site belongs to the Fishtown, between Penn Treaty Park and Beach Street. The site is a 30 acres' post-industrial field, which is comprised of historical elements, PECO building. After site visits, several facts attract my attention that the site is very isolated and with very low accessibility. There are two gaps existing on the site: (1) The two organizations DRCC & DRWC are in Northern and Southern Delaware River, but none of them connects with the site.

(2) All the environmental education centers are located on the west of Philadelphia, but none links with the waterfront. Actually, the awareness of the environmental protection of people in Fishtown is quite high, which can be seen in the usage of household rain barrels or rain check systems. My proposal is to use "interlocking" as a way to connect the people with the waterfront, at the same time, create a natural laboratory that encourages people to get involved with the site and get different interesting experiences in this unique environment.

OF EDUCATION CENTER

[Intricate Infrastructures]

[Waterfront and Industry]

[Penn Treaty Park and Historical Site] GAPS

The Giant Oak Forest creates an intimate place where private activities can take place, like reading, chatting. The lawn under the giant oak trees provides a relatively quiet place for people to take a rest or have small events like open-air theater, concert, live performance, and creative markets.

Different Planting Basins are experimental labs, also function as an outdoor classroom, with plants from different

zones, providing kids with views of different landscapes from places around the

and helping them identify plants' characteristics and suitable habitats.

The model is to highlight the topographic manipulation on the site, and to show the concept of “interlocking”, from the aspects of circulation, landform and programs in the formation of new assemblages of public space, the programs in natural laboratories, and the new relationships between the site and the larger context.

hardiness

world

SOIL EXHIBITION CENTER

GIANT OAK FOREST

Giant Oak Forest Amphitheater

Seasonal Tree Walkway Ginkgo Array Wetland

Observation Deck Wood land

Ecological Pier

Bird-viewing Lookout Birch Thicket Rain Garden

Giant Oak Forest

A POST-DIGITAL FOOD HUB

Spring 2020_PennDesign_702 Studio

Location: San Jose, CA

Instructor: Marcel Wilson, Ryan Buckley, Katy Martin

Individual Work

Today, San Jose is well-known as the technology incubator and home to the innovation market. Before the arrival of computers and information technology, San Jose had a 200-year history of prosperous agricultural output. Much of the land today has been transferred to urban footprint, though it is the most productive and high-quality land for food production. The production chain was a vital node to Silicon Valley’s agricultural past. Although the bay area has an integrated system of food supply, the food availability disparity and health problems are still a big issue in Silicon Valley.

Under the big background of the postCovid-19 virus, the major shifts in working and living patterns heightened the value of public health and wellness, also revealed the importance of tech-driven industries. Now, there is a foreseeable lack of services and facilities to accommodate those new-driven workforces and residents. The goal of the project is to build a food and urban agriculture system, which focuses on the local scale, to solve the problems of food inequity, labor shortages, loss of farmland, and enhance public health, community engagement and the digital farming.

MASTER PLAN

MAKET

EDIBLE GARDEN

URBAN FARM

AMPHITHEATER

FLOWER PERGOLA

PIVOT IRRIGATION

THE PRISM

June 2020_Urban Confluence Competition

Silicon Valley Light Tower Regeneration

Location: San Jose, CA

Group Work with Yutong Zhan, Mingchen Cui

Silicon Valley is a well-known place where the pioneers of technology change our daily life. As an overwhelming tech center, San Jose inevitably faces the issues of inequity, which has seeped into every aspect of people’s life. The gap exists among different groups and is sharpening in 2020 under the big Covid-19 and racism that has yet to be solved. The Prism Light Tower Project tries to address these issues by proposing a brand-new type of structure that differentiates from the traditional impression of a

vertical light tower. Operating as a bridge from past to present to future, the Prism Light Tower offers multiple layers of views along the visiting route, and is easy to access from the ground layer of the public landscape. The design is inspired by the theory of light waves through the prism. It serves as a confluence hub for people, regardless of age, discipline, and professional status. People act as a ray of white light that travels through the Prism at an angle and comes out as a spectrum.

The Prism Light Tower Project tries to address the inequity issues by proposing a brand-new type of structure that differentiates from the traditional impression of a vertical light tower. Considering the context and the height limit, the entire structure expands above the river and gives access to both sides. The rising part in the middle holds various programs, like the classrooms, indoor galleries, and the viewing deck, providing both intimate and activated spaces. The platforms inside the structure without partitions allow people from different backgrounds to communicate and interact with each other.

The site is beneath the flight paths of the San José International Airport and has limitations related to height and noise. Embracing the theme of innovation in San Jose, the Prism Project also looks into the role of technology, considering the energy-saving and environmentally friendly materials, like the solar panel paving, living green wall, and the kinetic sources of light, to complete with a net-zero energy approach.

SOLAR PAVING ENERGY COLLECTING TRELLIS

ENTRANCE PLAZA

GALLERY WITH RIVERSIDE OUTDOOR SPACE

The design is inspired by the theory of light waves through the prism. The light flows from the ground and then led by the circulation of the structure, acting like the refraction of white light, then transforms into a rainbow in the middle part of the Prism. The landscape is also integrated with the structure through topographic change, cut and fill, plantings, and ground materials. The overall design is to create an enduring landmark in the center of San Jose that brings more opportunities to the site, and at the same time manifests the ever-changing culture of innovation in Silicon Valley.

THE PRISM SKYDECK

VIEW FROM GUADALUPE FREEWAY

ARENA GREEN EAST SUNKEN ENTRANCE

Construction Festival & Landscape Design Competetion

Site: NEFU Campus

Teammates: Songyang Li, Ying Yu, Miaomiao Liu

Time: June 2016

[First Prize]

{Grading Practice & Landform Design} — PennDesign: LARP 512 Workshop OTHER WORKS

{Parametric Studies} — PennDesign: Media II & IV

{Typology Study & View Renderings} — Internship: !melk

{AI Research} — Fellowship: SWA Group

{Landscape Design Practice} — Work from SWA Group & PLAT Studio

GRADING PRACTICE

PennDesign: 512 Workshop II

Instructor: Cora L. Olgyay

Teammates: Yushan Li, Yue Hu, Yitong Li Spring 2018

PLAYSCAPE DESIGN

[Individual Work]

PennDesign: Media II

Instructor: Keith VanDerSys Spring 2018

[Individual Work]

PennDesign: Media IV

Instructor: Michael Luegering Spring 2019

PUBLIC SPACE TYPOLOGY STUDY

Intern: !melk Instructor: Savina Romanos Summer 2019

* This page contains confidential information, for internal use only.

AI IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

[SWA Patrick T. Curran Fellowship]

Tools: Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, GrasshopperPython

* This page contains confidential information, for internal use only.

LANDSCAPE DESIGN PRACTICE

Firm: SWA Group

* This page contains confidential information, for internal use only.

Timeline: June - November 2023

MIDJOURNEY

[Sketch to Rendering]

STABLE DIFFUSION

[Raw Model to Bird-eye View]

GRASSHOPPER PYTHON + CHATGPT + MIDJOURNEY

[Lorenz Model to Installation]

Title: Landscape Designer April 2021 - Now

MIDDLE-EAST PROJECT [NEOM_The Mirage]

Plaza Pavement Evolution

PAVING STUDY

[Montage Resort]

[NEOM_Raffle Resort]

LANDSCAPE DESIGN PRACTICE

Firm:PLAT Studio, SWA Group

Title:Landscape Designer August 2020 - Now

CHINESE PROJECT

*This page contains confidential information, for internal use only.

LANDSCAPE DESIGN PRACTICE

Firm:SWA Group

Title:Landscape Designer April 2021 - Now

JAPAN PROJECT

*This page contains confidential information, for internal use only.

[Miyakojima Tokyu Resort]

[Osaka Expo Park Arena]

[Parkhill Greens]

[Taipei Music Hall & Library]

[Shanghai Zhaofeng Mixed-Use]

Portfolio of Yaxin Cao

yaxincao@alumni.upenn.edu

+1 267 670 3945