YA LU N
LI
Work 2015 2017
c o nt e nt
01 What is an individual?
house of ten
02 What is a family?
S M O OT H F E I L D
03 What defines a social class?
v e rt i c a l st r e tc h
04 What defines a territory?
OT H E R i s l a n d
109 Hughes Pl N., 13210 Syracuse, NY 1(315)436-3620 yli108@syr.edu
Calvino in the end of the Invisible Cities said, “[The inferno of the living] is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.” Like many philosophers, I sets my goal to examine my life and what I have been so used to see in the hope of uncovering “truth.” And luckily, as an architecture student, I was able to witness the materialization of many social conventions and also discover many social transformation yet to be reflected in the physical world. As I learned more and more in the field, I became fascinated by how architecture can transform seemingly intangible philosophies into everyday experiences about forms, spaces, materials, and structures. It also sets the question for me: how architecture can intervene on urban issues especially ones that are less physical?
Heidegger in Poetry, Language, Thoughts said, “The way in which you are and I am, the manner in which we humans are on the earth, is Buan, dwelling. To be a human being means to be on the earth as a mortal, It means to dwell”. In other words, dwelling is not merely sleeping, and eating, it is the ultimate expression of our being. Architecture, then, is both the physical reflection of our existence as a social collective and manifestations of people’s understanding and hope of the world. Thus, our complex urban fabrics and buildings, both built and unbuilt, are social mechanisms, consciously or not. My architecture projects can be formed into a series of inquires about social relationships at different scale, from an individual to a city. Those questions allows me to better explore core concepts of personal freedom, privacy, social structures, economics and politics within architecture. Tracing the string of simple questions, I try to use architecture as a tool to document my observation of social changes, a way to test social innovations, and a mean to express my critique about society, and politics. I focused on the interplay between buildings and its urban contexts and tried to discover opportunities within problems. I am sure many would question the power of architecture in terms of social and urban transformation and often times, I feel that architecture could not change our society. But I would strive to refrain from taking the easy way to become part of the “inferno,” I will always believe that design can help us reveal the hidden truth and make space for the good.
06 How to live within a city?
C O L I V I N G C O U R T YA R D
05 What is a city?
f lo at i n g b e i j i n g
01 house
of t en
What is an individual? “The way in which you are and I am, the manner in which we humans are on the earth, is Buan, dwelling. To be a human being means to be on the earth as a mortal, It means to dwell.�
London, UK Professor Davide Sacconi, Paterner Pengyu Chen Fall 2016
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cave natural enclosure
shed wall
series of rooms door
dw e l l i ng What does it mean to dwell? Disregard all conventional ideologies about home as a private space for a small group of blood related kins, the project means to pose the questions: - What defines an individual? - What is one’s private space? - What does it mean to live freely and poetically?
To challenge the traditional idea of homes and residences, the project, a landscape house for ten people aims to enhance communication and interaction between people by undermining the concept of privacy in this house. Tracing back in history, it seems that our currently domestic typology of corridors and clearly defined functional spaces are not always the case. Thus, the project, opposing to the traditional division of walls, the project uses topography as a device to generate an ambiguous condition between public and private.
House corridor + floor
Landscape topography
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p ri vacy
In a subtle topography, we created steeper slopes to house more private programs, such as bedroom and bathroom. The steep slope put those private programs in a less exposed area, remaining accessible physically and visually. Unlike, in traditional homes, a room is an enclosed space surrounded by walls on all four sides.
f u nct io n
The topography is transformed into a landscape with different floor materials at different spaces. Soft foam and fabric are used for sitting and lying down, wooden floor is used for tables, shelves, workspaces and stairs, grass is for gardens or fields. The rest is paved with rubber. Those flooring materials indicate programs but differ from conventional furnitures, they offer more possible ways to use them.
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02 S mooth fie ld
What is a family? “The young nuclear family had to be flexible and mobile as it searched for opportunity and property. Forced to rely on their own ingenuity, its members also needed to plan for the future and develop bourgeois habits of work and saving.� - Brigitte Berger
London, UK Professor Davide Sacconi, Paterner Pengyu Chen Fall 2016
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Lo n d o n ' s
d o m e st ic 10
(million) 1800
2020
population
4.0 3.5
London’s housing shortage has already been discussed extensively, but most focusing on the growing population of this historical metropolis and its dense urban fabric. As a renter of a studio in the city, I noticed the shift of residents in the central area. Regardless of the increase in total population, the average household size has decreased to 2.5 persons. Among those who rent in the city, many live along, or with friends, or girlfriend. There are also single parents, or gay couples. The conventional social definition of family and domestic space designed for the nuclear family has vanished, however, our built structures and new designs still cling to the old sociology.
outer London
3.0 2.5
household size
2.0 1.5
inner London
1.0 0.5
1930
2010
household (hundred thousand) and household size
Our research in the housing focused on the shift of its inhabitants and the domestic space. Nuclear family is not the only component of our society. There are more types of inhabitants’ groups, such as, single parent family, groups of friends, and single persons. We propose a housing model which is not based on the nuclear family as productive and reproductive unit of society. We want to create a housing framework that accommodates a diverse range of living conditions for all groups of people.
S M I T H F I E L D M A R K E T In the 11th century, Smithfield market was known as smooth field, a large open public space with many social activities: cloth fair and meat fair once a week, sports and domestic events. During the Victorian Era, because of the concerns of hygienic and political chaos structure of the meat market was built as a mean of regulation.
change in typical domestic plan
What does it mean to live together? Marx criticized, “the bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation.” Set aside his attack on Capitalism, it offers a new look on the nuclear family as a social construct that should be challenged. Looking closely on London’s demographic, we question: - Who lives together? and what is their relationships? - What do they share? - How to live economically?
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t h e
n e w
n uc l ea rs
The freedom of the old Smithfield market inspired us to imagine new relationships among people. The regularity of the structure is not considered as excess of rules but as an open field with possibilities of openness and diversity.
1 person unit
group of 4 units
6 persons unit
group of 2 units
30-60 persons unit
group of 8 units
Based on the existing column grid, circular divices are designed to house people who requires minimum privacy, lives alone and shares regularly. The middle axis is for larger communal ammendities that opens to the public during the day.
The existing structure of large rectangular columns are extended into dividers. Each unit houses 6 persons who shares close relationship. Within the group, they requires minimum privacy, lives together and shares regularly. Between groups, the degree of privacy is of their own choice. The large central space is for very large communal gathering that opens to the public.
The existing structure offers spacious space for groups of 30 people who shares a relationship. Within the group, they requires certain privacy, lives together and shares. Between groups, they only shares communal ammendities.
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a n
ov e rv i e w
The proposal intents to reduce the concept of housing to its essential and explore the possibility of sharing and how it promotes relationships between people. Private spaces are minimized to test the extend of sharing between people. Sharing is essential in the scheme because it promotes different forms of social aggregation. The new form of housing is not a solution to the unaffordable housing crisis, but an alternative way of living and socializing. The first building with generic 9mx9m structural grid is turned into a space for single persons. They have a private “bed� which is 2 meter in diameter surrounded by curtains hanged from a device attached to the column. The columns also have toilets, showers attached. The space between their beds are flexible for them to share things, clothes, books, tables, chairs which reflects the relationships of the inhabitants. The middle space is for fixed sharing programs, such as kitchen and laundry and also a gym for the whole complex to share.
The second structure is a large vault supported by big columns. The residential units occupied the space between columns which is 12x6 meters for group of six people (friends, families or couples). The “bed� 3x8 meters and can be subdivided by curtains. The divisions between each units are shelve, closet and three bathrooms, and is aligned with the structure itself. The large column free central space is a large sharing space for the whole complex and sometimes public. Markets, fairs and other short time installations can be set up in the space. The third structure is a thick wall wrapping a 3x3 steel structure. The central 8 squares are turned into living space for large group of students, employees, around 30-60 persons. Beds are separated by shelve surrounding the central double height space is sharing between them. The central most square with the dome is sharing space for the inhabitants. The outer area (the wall) is transformed into spaces for inhabitants to work, such as classrooms, offices. The zone between the living and the working is a public pedestrian walk way with trees.
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1 . si ng l e s
Fixed facilities for sharing, such as kitchen counters, dinning tables, book shelves, laundry mat, and gardens are placed in the central bay.
The thin translucent curtains mark the blurred boundary between private and shared spaces.
2 . si x e s
The large column free central space is a large sharing space. Markets, fairs and other short time installations can be set up in the space. The residential units occupied the space between columns which is 12x6 meters for group of six people. The “bed� 3x8 meters and can be subdivided by curtains. The divisions between each units are shelve, closet and bathrooms.
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3 . t h i rt i e s
The central 8 squares are turned into living space for large group of students, employees, around 30-60 persons. Beds are separated by shelve surrounding the central double height space is sharing between them.
The central most square with the dome is sharing space for the inhabitants.
The outer area (the wall) is transformed into spaces for inhabitants to work, such as classrooms, offices. The zone between the living and the working is a public pedestrian walk way with trees.
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03 v e rt ic a l st r etc h What defines a social class? “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.� -Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities
Shenzhen, CN Professor Fei Wang, Paterner Nicolas Carmona Spring 2017
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i n sta nt
ci t y
The economic liberation of Shenzhen’s Special Economic Zone did not only foster extreme GDP growth of the city and the entire contury, but also the unprecedented population and urban growth from a village of 30,000 to a city of over 325 times that.
u r b a n
v i l l ag e She n zh e n Developed area Land area
788km2 1953km2
Urban village Developed area
8 km2 788km2
Urban village footprint/ Urban village
63%
population density/ City population
5,000 person/km2 200,000 person/km2
N a nto u Total population Area Plots M2 per person Building height Street width Lane width Alley width
~20,000 ~70,000m2 ~840 ~3.5m2 3-8 STORIES 5-7m 3-4m 1-2m
What defines the urban villagers? Examine the criticism towards urban villages from the government, the mainstreem media and the urban bourgeoisies, we try to explore:
What isolates them from the middle class?
More importantly, we ask: What do they need?
u r b a n
v i l l ag e
fa b ric
Situated in the Nantou old town, one of the urban villages of Shenzhen, the project explore the needs of urban village and the possible future development of the urban village. Being the most rapidly developed city in the world, Shenzhen during the recent thirty years has developed a unique urban typology, the urban village, which was considered by the government and major press as an extremely negative aspect of the city. However, during the recent years, more positive views started to emerge. Urban village is a self-sustained complex with extremely dense urban fabric. The site, although situated on an urban village, is an industrial complex which has a much larger footprints than the surrounding urban village. During the site analysis, we immediately found that Nantou old town is extremely dense where the average buildings are around 5 stories and some most narrow lanes are only 1 meter wide. The whole town although is surrounded by parks and green spaces, had only one open field of a concrete basketball court in the center where many people gather, chat and play. The dense urban fabric needs more void spaces. Furthermore survey showed that although urban villages have many restaurants, beauty shops and services programs, they lack of community space and sports facilities.
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s po rts so ci a l
a n d i so l at io n
The whole town although is surrounded by parks and green spaces, had only one open field of a concrete basketball court in the center where many people gather, chat and play.
m a k i ng
voi d
Taking advantage of the largest building in the complex to create a void within the dense fabric, the two teams working on this building developed a strategy to demolish the center part of the building and insert a completely new building that grow within the existing building.
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The inner part function as a sports center with an open field that connects to the urban fabric with an underground passage from the complex entrance.
Programs of sports that are often horizontally distributed are stacked vertically. The building has a very small footprint and grows bigger on top.
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a n
ov e rv i e w
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h o r i zo nta l c o n n e ct io n The project is deeply imbedded in the urban fabric, connecting the new “void� to the existing one on the ground. Different from the belt of stores and small restaurants along the main axises, the connection of the two voids is intend to be a communal device. The urban village has a density and diversity that new real estate developments lack, but as gated communities emerge in the city, sports amenities became privatized and isolated. The project does not only aim to connect within the village, but also try to relink urban villages into the urban fabric that being gentrified.
v e rt ic a l st r etc h The horizontal surface of the courtyard vertically stretches into a climbing wall that links all sport programs within the building: children’s play area, gym, boxing court, dance and yoga studio, and a theatre. Based on the degree of visual connection, and lighting condition, the programs penetrate the climbing wall at different instances.
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04 ot he r IS L AN D
What defines a territory? “世外桃源” The Peach Blossom Land:
a fable by Tao Yuanming in 421 about a chance discovery of an ethereal utopia where the people lead an ideal existence in harmony with nature, unaware of the outside world for centuries.
Roosevelt Island, NY Professor Jonathan Louie Spring 2015
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R o o s e v e lt
i s l a n d
The project is situated on the east side of the Roosevelt Island with an existing park on site, the newly planned and constructed Cornell Campus to its North and the Roosevelt Memorial to its south. Although initiated as a design of a Ferry Terminal, the project’s ambition also include to explore the bigger urban relationship between Manhattan, Queens and Roosevelt Island through the syntactical study of the concepts of the “Grid” that was developed by many great architects, such as Delirious New York, Architecture and Disjunction and No-Stop city. A bigger theme is the relationship between the “artificial” and the “natural.”
grid analysis of New York City
application of grid on Roosevelt island
What sets the boundary of a territory? Physical isolation creates a clear territorial line. In this case, the water separates the island and its land counterparts. However, social, contextual boundary is less clean-cut but worth exploring. My project tries to test: - What connection can be created? - What can evoke the otherness? - What defines natural and artificial?
relationship between natural and artificial elements
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C o nc e pt Through the study of the formal arrangement, Manhattan is more a spread out grid where different activities fit within this overarching repetitive system. On the other hand, Queens is more fragmented organized where the grid is apparent in some part with a lot of overlapping and adjustments. The project then traced the history of Roosevelt Island and how although is part of New York City, is always regarded as distinct from the “typical” image of New York. Thus, the project seeks a formal connection with its contexts both urban and historical but also wants to keep the quality of “otherness.” Taking different conditions from both Manhattan and Queens and pastes on the site is the first move. Different conditions involve the directionality of the grid and its relationship to “the edge” and “natural objects.” Then the “natural objects” on site interacts with the imposed grid and starts to cut, erode or obey the grid.
t h e
e a st
si d e
The east edge is proposed to be the ferry terminal of the island with ferry lobby, ticket booth, offices, and cafe space. The rest of the site remains its original function as a park but was designed differently. The southern part is planed to be a landscape park that contains different types of artificial landscapes that are within a cage like conditions. This part explores the various intersections of artifical “grid“ and natural elements.
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t h e
w e st
si d e
The west side is proposed to be an amusement park which is more gridded and represents the concept of “Delirious New York” where different activities, such as, swimming pools, sculpture gardens, picnic spaces, and children play areas, are placed within the overarching grid. Amusement park as a program magnified the “otherness” of Roosevelt Island. Being away from serious business and stressful work in Manhattan, the amusement park is a place to relax, rest and have fun.
The section of the project explore the relationship between the “artificial,” the roof, and the “natural,” the ground. The sectional condition within the project is a flip of the normal sectional condition of many buildings where the ground is a datum line and the roof fluctuate. However, in this project, the roof acts like an artificial ground in contrast with the natural topographical ground. The roof is proposed to cover the whole Island where existing buildings and greenery penetrate and peak out of the roof.
The project also theoretically can be expended throughout the whole island covering up the memorial to its south and the new Cornell campus to its north. The endlessness of the project also adds a layer to the discussion of artificial and natural which this project is interested in.
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t e r ri tori a l l i n e s
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05 R E SE ARCH BEIJ IN G
What defines a city? A constant struggle between two forces: the political and the economical. Οiκονομικά (Economy): from οiκος (house) +νέμω (distribute, allocate) Πολιτικά (Politics): from πολίτης (polites)“citizen” /πόλις (polis)“city”
Beijing, CN Professor Francisco Sanin, Partner Pengyu Chen Fall 2017
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a
b ri e f
h i sto ry
In The Chinese Dream, Mars commented on China’s desperate needs to develop cities in order to keep its economic growth. The economic legend achieved by export cheap Chinese production has come to a halt. To keep up the promise of economic growth, China has to seek within its territory for the power to consume its production. “Cities will be the epicenters of this consumerist boom, Their efficacy as economic machines (generating higher incomes from which to consume), and deterministic mechanisms (people need to consume more simply to subsist in urban environments) are the ingredients needed to make it happen, City-living engenders the money and desire for consumerization-supercharging the economic treadmill: “to each over and above his needs.” “China’s economic future rests on transforming cities form industrial bases into exactly the sites of bourgeois consumption that Mao decried. This is the consumurbation of China”. (p442) The development of cities, along with policy relaxation, have created staggering numbers of migrant workers, perhaps more than 120 million people, working long hours and at desperately low wages. These migrants are often uncounted in official statics, and the system is not formalized.
Those migrant workers became a “surplus” of human beings to the city- “a glut of labor which keeps wages low, international prices competitive, and thus permits the extraordinary rates of growth on which the country now depends.” On the other hand, they have also added a social plane below the rest of the city, a large populations who “simply cannot partake in consumerization, confined by economic poverty and social stratification”. In the past 30 years, Beijing represents such rapid urban transformation in China from industrial production clusters to a massive consumption center in order to realize economic goals. High rise towers in the CBD and newly developed gated communities abut urban villages, underground housing, floating villages built by the migrant workers. Reflected in the chaotic urban expansion and spatial segregation between different classes, social stratification between migrants workers (“underclass”) and urban consumers (“bourgeoisie”) was pushed to an extreme in urban settings. Since 2010, government have been enforcing regulations that tightened conditions for migrant workers and soon accelerated in 2016. The ruthless methods towards migrant workers including eviction, and towards the city fabric (massive destruction) did the opposite of “aleviation of social tension” which they claimed.
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m u n da n e
s e g r e g at io n
“How can migrants be transformed from a Dickensian underclass into urban consumers? Encouraging more permanent - rather than temporary- migration might discourage dormitories and encourage consumerization if migrants are prompted to invest themselves in urban environments, but it would also risk emptying the countryside of valuable remittances as well as manpower. Some people would say these issues will be rendered obsolete if China achieves the economic transition it desires from manufacturing towards services, and the physical mod of its productiondriven urbanization is morphed in the direction of call-centers and office buildings, thus serving the rest of the world in design and high-technology engineering just as it now does in manufacturing.�
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c o n s u m pt io n
&
p ro d uct io n
“your labor which gives form to desire takes from desire its form, and you believe you are enjoying Anastasia wholly when you are only its slave.” The city of Anastasia in “the Invisible Cities,” has never seemed so familiar to the metropolises where we currently inhabit in, a machine that creates constant desire to secure economic progress. In 1927, Paul Mazur, a leading Wall Street banker said,“We must shift America from a needs-to a desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. [...] Man’s desires must overshadow his needs.” Consumerism has become the motto of the century, and the creation of the “all-consuming self” is the greatest invention of our era. Although the majority were constantly sacrificed to ensured the benefits of a small population during all financial crisis, our constructed desires of consumption has always able to restore the vital cycle of the metropolis, the loop of production and consumption.
“China’s economy is simultaneously dependent on, and hindered by, its corollaries… Urban growth from migration… helps the local economy to produce but not to consume. millions of low-wage migrants are needed to facilitate it[consumerization] for others but can engage only in a very thin version of it themselves” All metropolises have become an autoreproduction machine that deeply entrenched itself in our everyday life, what Foucault would call bio-politics, the strategic management of life by the state for the new machine age of production. As the capital of the rapid growing nation of the 21th century, Beijing is currently undergoing an intensive process of commodification that prevails all physical spaces. Although we are given greatest intensity and diversity in informations, images and products, we never seem to realize the diminishing “freedom,” and the growing homogeneity of our everyday life cycle, our desires and of the image of metropolis.
t h e
5 t h
wa l l
“Ring� roads are increasing with the expansion of Beijing. The new residential towers redefines Beijing inside of the 5th ring and create a more harmony atmosphere for middle class and migrant workers.
t h e
C B D
m at r e s s
The social boundary are created at the fence of the community, the door of the skyscrapers, the extremely wide express way. Community gardens, rooftop gardens sports facilities and other infrastructure are excluded for the middle class residence. In this project, we want to use a layer of residential building to create public facilities for migrant worker and reduce the boundary between middle class and lower class.
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06 C o L IVING C o u rt ya r d
What is Existenzminimum? To reconsider what we need the most, pack them in the smallest box and place it in the urban fabric.
Beijing, China Intern work at Standard Architecture/ZAO Summer 2016
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This project further explores a sustainable renewal strategy for the urban fabric in the Baitasi historical area in an extremely subtle way. It aims to transform a 150 sqm courtyard in a shared space for two households with the insertion of a prefabricated service core in the 80 sqm main apartment and an 8 sqm “Mini House� underneath the pitched roof. The boundary of the courtyard is clearly defined by its dated brick walls. By reinforcing them with a 9 cm thick casting concrete mixed with Chinese ink, and extending the roof structure to create integral roof scenery, we intended to give the courtyard enclosure and unity, refurbishing it instead of rebuilding it.
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S e rv ic e C o r e
The 3.5 sqm service core, with the bathroom in the center, facilitated with kitchen, laundry, storage, and media on its four sides and sleeping on top. Once propagating throughout the old city, the cores and the “Mini Houses” may solve urgent infrastructure problems and dramatically improve the quality of life among hutong residents, against both the “tabula rasa” approach and the possible gentrification phenomenon that is common in the old city renewal practices.
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I n s e rt e d mi n i u n i t
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