YANGYANG XU Architecture & Urban Design Portfolio 2013-2017
Yangyang Xu
yangyang.xu93@gmail.com +86 13886057608 Hongxing Street, Hongshan District Wuhan, China 430070
2016 - 2017 | MA Housing & Urbanism
EDUCATION
strative & Architectural Foundation for PostFamilia Living
ked in teams for the Exhibition "Multiscalatiy"
2016 - 2017 | MA Housing & Urbanism
Architectural Association - Thesis: Housing Beyond the Family—Administrative & Architectural Foundation for PostFamilia Living - Worked in teams for the Exhibition "Multiscalatiy"
- 2016 | Bachelor of Architectural Design
2011 - 2016 | Bachelor of Architectural Design
an Science & Technology University
Wuhan Science & Technology University
- UIA-HYP Cup 2015 Competition 11.2017 - present | ASRI
- UIA-HYP Cup 2015 Competition 11.2017 - present | ASRI
PROFESSIONAL ble for organizing summer EXPEROENCE
Teaching Assistant
visualization. Build Arduino based wearable
teaching. Aid in the demonstration of data visualization. Build Arduino based wearable
sensors.
ovide instructor with architectural techniques
drawing, computer graphics, and research. 11.2017 - 02.2018 | ASRI Architectural Assistant sets. Took part in presentation and discuss progress with clients.
- Responsible for organizing summer workshops. Produce coursewares and aid in sensors. - Aid students in coursework completion. Provide instructor with architectural techniques including hand drawing, computer graphics, and research. 11.2017 - 02.2018 | ASRI
Architectural Assistant - Worked in teams to draft and finish bid sets. Took part in the presentation and discuss progress with clients.
ment and production of marketing materials
- Assisted in the development and production of marketing materials.
2017 - 09.2014 | PT Architecture Design
07.2014 - 09.2014 | PT Architecture Design
Internship
wings, model making for residential projects - Managed graphic layouts for projects 08.2016
GENERAL EXPERIENCE
es and painted walls of community buildings 10.2015
Internship - Assisted in the construction of CAD drawings, model making for residential projects. - Managed graphic layouts for projects. 08.2016
Construction and Renovation Volunteer Abroad Projects - Built fences and painted walls of community buildings. 10.2015
AA Visiting School
AA Visiting School
Work: Urban Commune
Work: Urban Commune
Advanced Knowledge
Advanced Knowledge
SOFTWARE SKILLS
AutoCAD / Rhinoceros / Adobe Suite (ai, ps, id) / SketchUp / Depthmap / V-Ray /
obe Suite (ai, ps, id)
Office Basic Knowledge Grasshopper / Arduino / Processing / Revit
LANGUAGE
Microsoft Office Basic Knowledge Grasshopper / Arduino / Processing / Revit Mandarin | English
CONTENTS
01
Uptown Living
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00 Chapter 1: Associative Neighbourhood
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00 Chapter 2: Compact City
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02
Urban Commune
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03
A Story of Tanhualin
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04
Natural Emulation, Natural Sashay
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05
Interlocked Cubes
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Associative Neighbourhood
Uptown Living
Central cities are witnessing a population explosion and under pressure of delivering a vast amount of housing, infrastructures and social networks. Meanwhile, current sociodemographic changes have resulted in an increasing amount of non-conventional households (Hirayama, Ronald, 2007). Facing demands for alternative lifestyles, we are in search of a new mechanism to take care of the population and create various qualities for different social groups. In parallel to the demands, there’s the revolution of service industry where the amount and the form of service products are boosting (fig.01-02). In areas like health, education and welfare system, institutions like school and leisure center have the potential to promote new sociability and provide the diverse living environment. The project thus explores the possibility of the changing roles of those institutions especially concerning how they situate themselves in the community to improve lives of city dwellers.
Land Area: 4.0 ha Elderly Housing: 130 units Multi-residential Housing: 810 units School: 12,400 sqm Well-being Center: 11,600 sqm Sports Center: 3000 sqm 2016, London Instructor Lawrence Barth Anna Shapiro Dominic Papa Original Project Team Work Re-edit & Script Individual Work With Selin Tosun, Palak Nachrani
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ASSOCIATIVE NEIGHBOURHOOD
fig.01 A cafÊ in Brick Lane, London is associating with a coffee learning school and a workshop. It’s a production chain where the public can acquire skills and knowledge about coffee. fig.02 (made by Diva Calista Brahmana) Same in Brick Lane, a workshop highly linked to the living space.
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The project is aiming to discuss elements attributing to the desirable living environment in Camden, London. Adjacent to the central city, Camden is a place with the adequate amount of infrastructures but lack of an efficient way to deliver them. It enjoys the location of being close to one of the major rail routes, Kings Cross and Regent’s Park. However, although having a significant number of landholdings, it struggles to define its ambition and value especially in offering quality experiences of working and living. Instead, the current cultural venues, 4
ASSOCIATIVE NEIGHBOURHOOD
small-scale retails, and production industries that make Camden a destination for fashion industries, youngsters, and tourists have so far failed to provide integration of the area. Exploring future uptown, we aim to find a system embedded with the possibility to provide compact living experience to generate synergy within the community. How can we address the current housing crisis and social-economical changes? How can we build the social network between different groups?
fig.03 Using services as an interface, the proposed plan is seeking for ways to look at city planning in whether individual projects or planning mechanism to generate long-term value that the conventional model may not. Through morphological and typological configurations, a more hierarchical structured Camden can transfer to a place with greater diversity and opportunity.
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Fractured landscape
fig.04 Fractured landscape
The canal is acting as a barrier to the central city development concerning there are differences between the north and south of the canal while spaces along it are fractured (fig.04). A new way of looking at the canal as an urban element is to not read it as three strips parallel to each other having no cross-over (fig.05), but to create extension and continuity by taking advantages of the fractured landscape, providing zones of service to integrate across the canal. To generate integration, one doesn’t have to create a physical connection. Since the railway and canal are already restricted and create this territory of isolation, it’s possible to make use of the fractured landscape, retaining the environment under current block/ street systems.
High street as a “spine” The main street in Camden serves as the center for residential, business, and commercial uses (fig.06). Facing the upcoming city expansion, Camden is facing development pressure primarily on the over-emphasized high street. It needs block and street system to deliver diversity and efficiency.
Current urban structure leaves the rest of Camden undifferentiated. The result is clear segregation between the residential area and other uses, which ended up with long-distance service delivering.
(Photoes taken by Umair Ibrahim) 6
ASSOCIATIVE NEIGHBOURHOOD
fig.05 Canal now being read as a divider between the north and south London.
The site here, for example, is out of the reach of current high street servicing.
fig.06 (made by Ana Vila & Selin Tosun) Over emphasis on high street 7
Section: Elderly Housing, providing shared medical care on the ground floor. The atrium served as a communal space.
Section: Sports center. Facilities here are shared by the school and the community, offering sports field and auditorium.
Section: Bleachers create a second ground that overlooks the center of the neighborhood.
Section: Outdoor sp
fig.08 There are different ways to interpret conditions around the canal: One as the parallel element that has no crossover (right), and the other as segments with various qualities (left). Following the second model, the project is offering a linkage not only between adjacent parcels but Camden as a whole. The services provided become a platform to trigger sociability and a sense of belonging in the area.
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ASSOCIATIVE NEIGHBOURHOOD
ports field
Serviced integration
Elevation: Leisure center on the street front. Transparent façade is facing the central park and projecting the activities inside.
Plan: The central park that’s away from the road where various activities can circulate within.
The project stands on the interests of city dwellers and stakeholders to explore a few questions. What’re the lifestyles under diversified urban progress? Where lies potential values of the land with complex conditions? The project provides a systematic solution targeted not only this particular site but also towards similar urban conditions. It’s not necessary to see canal as a divider but rather as an element integrate things across it. Therefore we can break the understanding of canal as a continuous entity having a parallel relationship with its surroundings. Based on the assumption, the section (fig.07) is an architecture move to implant a comprehensive service institution in the residential area and operate on different dimensions. The school and leisure center inserted in the community expand in size compared to the conventional community center. The comprehensive programmes allow them to function similarly with a community center, collaborating various public activities.
Rethinking services Section: Residential buildings that overlook the central park and school entrance.
Plan: The school. The atrium of the school is facing the outdoor activities.
fig.07 A school and a health and well-being center located right in the middle of the middle of a neighborhood. The combination of large and small scale projects is achieved by extracting shared facilities out like auditorium and sports field, pulling them in the middle to be shared by school and leisure center.
Rapid thriving service industry gives rise to the architectural move, where private as well as public sections are becoming “urban places” and provide immediate services environment. Here a school and a well-being center located right in the middle of the middle of a neighborhood. As the service industry grows fast regarding both type of products and covered area, people are changing their ways of living, turning to expertise. For example, a single parent can be occupied by other things since it’s safe to take his or her children to the nursery that can be seen from the balcony. Likewise, if someone worries about his or her health, there is a health and well-being center right in the center of the neighborhood that promised to help him, or she keeps fit with the help of the professionals. By providing services like a nursery, health care program, and study groups, people are expanding the idea of a neighborhood, having diver lifestyles.
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Golden Lane Leisure Centre/ T-Site. To achieve the continuity, it is important to look for the setting of the combination such that the individual quality of each is not compromised yet maintaining the overall autonomy of the integrated diagram.
Through arrangements of placing spaces for activities along the circumstances, the boundaries between indoor and outdoor spaces become blurry on the serviced ground.
Elderly Housing
The dimension of the site is large enough to build its contained environments instead of responding to the surrounding street system. Here streets inside the neighborhood are now tools of social engagement and places for daily activities taking place.
Leisure Center
Sports Center
School
Housing
fig.13 (made by Palak Nachrani / Yangyang Xu) Axonometric of site
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ASSOCIATIVE NEIGHBOURHOOD
The faรงades of are not trying to build the physical relationship with the surroundings. Instead, they achieve a sense of collaboration through visual connections on different hierarchies.
Ground control
fig.14 Street hierarchy
The streets set the basic rules for management issues like dimensions, circulations, and orientations. Instead of reaching out to the surroundings, the project starts to take advantage of the isolated location and develop the street hierarchy. Streets inside the neighborhood are mainly perpendicular to the road, dividing the land into parcels and manage the relationship between them. fig.15 Interstice & transition
The interstices become particularly interesting as they are transitions between environments with different qualities. There’re rhythms as we move among parcels with different tonal values.
Precedents like Golden Lane and T-Site are particularly interesting here. While sharing these facilitates generates a value that in isolation they might not, the challenge is to manage the ground to organize the facilities and to locate the highly comprehensive institution in a neighborhood. How to combine two programs with different requirements of without hindering the performance of either or as a whole? Challenges range from delivering varied activities at different times of the day or the development of complementary functions such as housing around where each potentially serves the other. By extracting shared facilities like auditoriums and sports courts out and relocate them in the middle, the shared spaces can be controlled and managed. Therefore synergy within the neighbourhood driven by the value of healthy lifestyles for all age group is established by this typological experiment. Here the ground becomes an essential tool to separate the parcels while allowing for transitions supporting the communal life and sense of belongingness. The arrangements of shared parts help to clarify rules of the spatial organization. The shared facilities can belong to either part, as long as the rest parts own the membership of using them. The arrangements can become very convenient for adjacent elderlies to use the facilities without hinder the ways students move around the space.
Edges Sequences and tones within and between buildings are managed so that the value of the busy road can be transferred into the neighbourhood, pulling people off the road so that they can gain entrances to the open yard inside. Therefore, the primary orientation is not the street, but remains collective, creating a new, safer environment. Edges between buildings circulate to create an environment where the residential buildings coexist with complimentary facilities, enabling us to rethink the location to place a school regarding its relationship with the road. 11
Planar arrangements
Leisure Center
Sports Center School Housing
Taking advantage of the discontinuity caused by railways, the depth of the site allows us to push the school behind at the bottom of the neighbourhood (fig.16). The arrangement of putting leisure centre on the street front and the school behind lets the former to buffer the neighbourhood behinds it from the busy road. The value of the road is transferred into the neighbourhood, pulling people off the road so that they can gain entrances to the open yards inside. Therefore, the primary orientation is not the road but the central communal space that enjoys easy accessibility to the facilities and safer environment.
fig.16 Ground floor plan
fig.17 Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre
fig.18 St Mary Magdalene Academy
Rethinking school and well-being centre Learning spaces here are more of elements that add onto and benefits from the value of a comprehensive environment rather than an individual institution. However, universal educations like primary school and middle school are more often perceived as elements that should be isolated and keep its environment. That way the school is usually located on the street front as an individual element. However, if we reconsider the general configuration of school as a typology that offers services, we
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ASSOCIATIVE NEIGHBOURHOOD
can start to notice that there are typological similarities between the school and health and well-being center. We can start the research as we rethink the role of infrastructure and facilities like schools and health and well-being centers as service providers. By taking examples of the school and the well-being center, which are St Mary Magdalene Academy and Swiss Cottage Leisure Center in London (fig.17-18). Both of them are projecting big volumes (tennis court, swimming pool, etc.) out and creating visual connections throughout the space by the use of transparency. Thus, it’s possible to open up the parcels that can take advantage of the common typology, pooling the resources to generate a compact environment that collaborate learning and healthy living.
fig.19 Archbishop Blanch School / Sheppard
The school itself poses the arguments of changing ways of learning and managing of student safety through design. Shared spaces can enable collaborative learning (fig.19) are designed as a continuation of the circulatory system (fig.20). Moreover, the staff room is positioned to overlook them at all times. By gathering various activities, Swiss Cottage Leisure creates a dialogue with its surrounding with transparency in places like swimming pool and climbing wall to offer a scenic experience for the observer as well as for the users inside the building.
(made by Selin Tosun) Axo
fig.20 St Mary Magdalene Academy, Islington / Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
fig.21 Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre / Terry Farrell And Partners 13
fig.22 View to the central park
Lifestyle The project envisions a new way of family life enabling stronger bonds (fig.22). We can imagine a seamless continuation between school and a well-being centre for children after school hours, where mothers and grandparents spend time chatting and sipping on healthy juices in
communal gardens as they wait for their children or involve themselves in yoga or other gym activities in the well-being centre. An inclusive livelihood of stronger family bonds and social neighbourhood interactions triggered by the service provider creating a lifestyle that takes advantage of health and medical benefits (fig.23-24).
Manage through time
fig.23 (made by Palak Nachrani) School
fig.24 (made by Palak Nachrani) Leisure centre 14
ASSOCIATIVE NEIGHBOURHOOD
Children use the space in the first half of the day when most people are busy at work. During weekends and in the evening when the school is closed such spaces are open for public use optimizing the use of services in daily life which also strengthen social ties through productive activities. Here the environment is built up by multiple service
fig.25 (made by Selin Tosun) Section through sports centre - daytime & night time
providers. Each of them has certain qualities or lifestyles to offers. The environment built up by the overlaying of one service with another, which can offer more than the sum by building the service network where one can influence and benefit another. So it’s possible imagining an integrated living environment accommodating
a network of services, where there’s not only one type of quality and target, but it allows for a compact environment accommodating different groupings at the same time, offering services 24/7.
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Compact City
Uptown Living
The problem of densification is always in the center of the conversation. Cities nowadays are under immense development pressure to accommodate growing population. The previous discussions put forward the hypothesis that the immediate service delivery is the key factor to nowadays urban transformation. The services being talked about here have already possessed with some specific identities to do with the domestic living environment and being more related to the foundation of everyday life (fig.27). Thus to accomplish urban transformation, it’s important to build a broader understanding of service distribution as well as densification. The housing issue, according to Rossi, is “intimately bound up with the problem of the city, its way of life, its physical form, and image----that is, with its structure” (Rossi, 2014). The performance of housing is essentially related to the constitution of the urban areas. The first chapter raises one possibility of future housing development that a range of welfare services become the joints that provide necessary assistance to the community. This chapter, however, largely starts with the problem of symbolizing that community.
2017, Bogota Instructor Lawrence Barth Anna Shapiro Original Project Team Work Re-edit & Script Individual Work With Bogota Workshop
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COMPACT CITY
fig.26 Iroko Housing Co-op, London. By organizing the orientation and organization, the shared parts are creating a safety, inward-looking environment where you can picture the children taken care by the nursery or playing on the playground under the protection of the neighbors and the community.
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Camden blocks, London
Small dimensions and few variations
Larger dimensions and big variations
Fitzrovia blocks, London
fig.27 Differences in terms of planar plot subdivision and building types in two areas
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COMPACT CITY
The compactness in the central city environment where the distance between activities----the immediate serviced delivery and aggregation effect of the service network is valued. The complexity it results is more than a simple understanding of the density, but to create integrated living environment including 24/7 neighbourhood or integrated living that serves different interest or age group. Instead of identical Camden blocks with little variation in morphology, Fitzrovia blocks are closer to the image of central city living (fig.27). The large block dimensions result in greater variations in terms of building typology. The differentiation of building configurations characterizes the “enclosure� interfaces of Fitzrovia block, which result in street hierarchies.
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Central city qualities The richness of Fitzrovia block is in consequence of diversity of building type and activities coming together as a whole (fig.28). The environment allows for a nice and quiet maison-block coexisting with a busy street, the Charlotte Street. The block thus has many different characteristics according to the surfaces you are looking. The surfaces that characterized the block include a passage passing through defined by the facades of the maison, where the ground adjacent to the street is occupied by commercial activities while the ground within the block is consist of living rooms and the entrance of the dwellings personalized by the residence, and a park.
fig.29 Fitzrovia, London
workshop & apartment
Barber & cafe
fig.28 Fitzrovia Block 20
COMPACT CITY
Plan and section for Unilever building (Hamburge)
Plan and section for Yellow building fig.29 A set of investigation on qualities of workplace where dimensions shape the characters of the buildings 21
Proposed axo
Barrios Unidos
Current axo
Parque El Virrey
Current axo
Rosario
fig.30 Axonometric and planar analysis / AA Bogota workshop 2017
Density Vs Diversity Back to the problem of density, we continue to research on morphology in areas related to the site (fig.30). By comparing two locations in Bogota, it’s surprising to spot that two places with very different conditions have almost equal density.
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COMPACT CITY
Despite having mainly bungalows and low-rise buildings, the informal settlements in Barrios Unidos is capable of accommodating the surprisingly large population. However, the current built environment in Barrios Unidos is neither proving quality living experience nor generating working
and productive spaces. Lacking infrastructure and completed industry have limited the long-term value of the area, especially when compared to Parque El Virrey and Rosario. Barrios Unidos today needs to be transformed to not only increase density but also create opportunities and values for future development. Concerning block as built form, while we often focus on numbers of habitants per hector, it’s about not only the number but also urban areas structured by the mobility patterns. At the moment, the urban planning department proposed to build an avenue 30km’s long to integrate lands across it (fig.31). The spinal structure of the urban form might feed the very adjacent areas, but it’s hard to reach to the rest of the city. In consequence, the developers struggled on land assemblage to build a large-scale project. The repetition along the avenue is not capable of serving as thresholds for buildings with very different uses (fig.32). It’s clear that transformations need to be made via establishing a collective vision to encourage conversation among stakeholders. fig.31 The 30km avenue / AA Bogota workshop 2017
fig.32 Proposal of the avenue by the planning department. The streetfront view might not be beneficial to the rest of the city. 23
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COMPACT CITY
fig.33 Proposition. The task of the purposed plan is set up the long-term vision for the area through densification and requalification. Instead of applying a master plan, it seeks for alternative approach by using local intervention and prioritizing areas for densification. The problem of the master plan is that it often provides formalism approach that sometimes isolates from existing assets. Meanwhile, the hierarchy established on the master plan often disconnects from that urban process and the development of service industry. Thus the master plan often falls to densify with values or simple be achieved. The purposed plan questions whether there is a solution for all the parcels. It orients towards development model to realize a shared vision project by project where every set of the project is set to achieve specific values. The plan values balance within the mobility system and synergy between districts. There’re differentiations as well as repetition and overall capacity of extending to a broader scale. To requalify infrastructure, it largely depends on the market to provide efficiency and the variety of the services as products. Nonetheless, especially in terms of areas that relate to health, education, and welfare (Hirst, 1997), neither the state nor the market seems to be the form to offer efficiency as well as social justice. The central matter derived from this issue is to find a manageable system to provide these services since neither the state nor the market as current dominant management structure is capable of undertaking the vision.
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fig.35 （(up and down) HafenCity，, KCAP/ASTOC
fig.34 Axo
HafenCity Model HafenCity project in Hamburg, for that reason, is an important example of using collaborative practice and allowing for active market participation in service providing and decision-making to constitute a well-functioned urban area.
fig.36 Buildings types
fig.38 (left) Project analysis, KCAP/ ASTOC fig.39 (up) Plot subdivision
Collaborative Practices How can we maximize long-term collaborative value for the state, the market, and the individual? HafenCity plan offers a higher involvement of the city to take control of the urban areas as the project serves as morphology guidance for the investors. It builds a basic model of morphology rather than regulates the usage of the area. It’s easy to interpret the mor26
COMPACT CITY
fig.40 （Plan，, KCAP/ASTOC
phology of the buildings into economic figures like density or height. The usage of structures is determined by the market while the government still regulate and control the overall synergy. Here it offers clears ways for the city to get involved without having “exclusive control over all the aspects of activity” (Hirst, 1997) while the market enjoys the flexibility under administrative structure of negotiation and collaborative.
Morphological Control The project opens up the possibility of establishing characters in an urban area with clear rules and configurations through morphological control. In consideration of rhythm and speed, scale, density, openness, it quickly outlined an urban city center quality in the early stages of development. Two simple morphological rules are applied, which are: 1. Consistent morphology of the buildings with certain variation (fig.38); 2. The clear subdivision of the plot through the placement of the street (fig.39). The image and character of the area are set up not through the following aspects (fig.36): 1. Basic forms with dimensions around 50 meters by 50 meters at 6-8 floors are established at the starting point, which is allowing for “the diverse needs of various user groups,” (Bruns-Berentelg, 2010) 2. Urban images are set up through the consistency of building morphologies that form the street front; the tension of the distinctive elements (Elbphilharmonie, Unilever building, etc.) and the elements with continuity and variation that creates hierarchy and direction in a zone; the balance of mobility system with multiple speed.
Rethinking HafenCity Taking advantage of the restriction of the port, the rules of the land subdivision in HafenCity project are easy to apply since the site is already largely shaped into simple shapes by the water. The morphological control that HafenCity possesses offers different aspects to look at to make an urban transformation. However, to apply the model to complex urban areas, there need to be more variations in terms of mobility structure and building types. Here in the Bogota project (fig.41), two sets of rules are established to condition the real estate framework and the inhabitants in a strategic location.
fig.41 Proposal for Barrios Unidos, Bogota 27
The small-scale service deeply rooted in the community is suitable for serving immediate inhabitants within the area. The single-use service provider here generates connections inside of the neighbourhood and creates a landscape of serviced domestic environment.
fig.42 Axo for Golden Lane Leisure Centre , London fig.43 (left) Golden Lane Leisure Centre fig.44 (right) Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre
Immediate service environment Two ways of distributing infrastructures are explored through cases here. Challenged by the urgent need of requalification in infrastructure and In comparison, Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre is an individual element that offers a comprehensive environment for city dwellers. The quality of the place is built up by multiple kinds of environment conditioned by different service providers.
fig.46 Golden Lane Leisure Centre / Cartwright Pickard 28
COMPACT CITY
fig.45 Axo for Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre, London
fig.47 Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre / Terry Farrell And Partners
fig.49 Swiss Cottage Central Library / John Mcaslan and Partners
fig.48 Nursery at the entrance of Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre mobility system, the second model can be established first to set up the base of transformation in general. Distances between activities decrease so that the logic bonding up and managing activities physically and systematically need to renovate along with the change: 1. The management of building plots as a two-dimensional element capable of being modified through their width and depth [5] can be equipped with additional parameters to operate on through the morphology of single or a series of buildings. 2. The understanding of the roads can be differentiated in two ways: the streets that have a dialectical relationship with a compact environment with multiple layers attached pieces by pieces; the mobility system that connects different patches of street.
fig.50 Rossopomodoro in Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre / ADMerlin Design Studio
fig.51 Proposal for Barrios Unidos, Bogota 29
fig.52 Proposal for Barrios Unidos, Bogota
fig.53 Proposal for Barrios Unidos, Bogota
New Housing Dimensions In HafenCity model, dimensions were established to operate within the legal and real estate framework. The plan (fig.52) offers clear dimen-
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COMPACT CITY
sions to manage density figures and condition the performances of the building. The requalification of the infrastructure doesn’t necessarily happen outside of the housing. By extending the
dimensions of the housing, floors connected to the ground can be utilized and subdivided as spaces that are large enough to be a part of the urban environment (fig.53). For example, it’s possible to have an atrium to circulate multiple functions connected to it and hold public events; or an auditorium to accommodate lectures and performances (fig.54-55). This proposal can be further elaborated to explore the performance of non-conventional households, for example, the various configuration of a 40-by-40 housing project (fig.56). The living environment is thus compact enough to allow for functions like cultural venues, commercial activities, learning facilities or productive spaces serving the immediate residence and at the same time creating the ecology within the community.
fig 54 Angel Building, London / AHMM
fig.55 The Commons / Department of Architecture
Housing
Atrium Thickened ground
Auditorium
fig.56 Hybrid living environment 31
fig.57 Catalogue of diverse activities / AA Bogota workshop 2017
Catalogue The exploration can build a catalogue of diverse activities (fig.57) that can be accommodated within the dimension and showing possible cross-overs between different genres. Layered service chain within a hybrid living environment creates sets of qualities beyond the original functions, which leads to multiple layers of civic life by offering integration and collaboration within the neighbourhood. A series of the single building with morphological consistency and variation in the size around 40 by 40 that can be used as the element to define the street front (fig.58). The dimensions of the buildings 32
COMPACT CITY
fig.58 Development models: Serve original urban areas / Set up new development / Define street front here are capable of accommodating a wide range of genres including retails, offices, and learning institutions. The planning method is based on the HafenCity model which is suitable to quickly define and set the image for new developments. 33
fig.59 Proposal for Barrios Unidos, Bogota
Another approach starts to build a series of associative courtyards by correlated buildings to define plots of a larger size (fig.59). The configuration here allows for greater flexibility for floor plates and the manageable ground. It allows for even greater possibilities and variation to break 34
COMPACT CITY
away from the heavy understanding of the street. In doing so, we can provide an alternative linkage between the living environment and the city by value the qualities retained within the context.
Approach generating repetition and variation through similar dimensions.
Approach generating the hierarchy of existing dominant elements through integrated mega-blocks.
Together two approaches work together (and can work in phases) to build the consistency through future extension. The projects allow for multi-speed/access and increase the capacity for business/resistance. fig.60 Proposal for Barrios Unidos, Bogota / AA Bogota workshop
Development in stages The impact of the shift generates the system of urban tissue capable of supporting compact living environment that either “isolated from the neighbouring parts of the territory by streets,” retaining its environment or “in a dialectical relationship with the road network” (Panerai et al., 2004). The plots while still “provides the construction processes with a fixed legal and real estate framework,” (Panerai et al., 2004) condition the types of use by the inhabitants along
with morphology of the buildings. Proposing the two approaches above is not about having alternatives but establishing two sets of spatial practices to deal with morphologies with different sizes and with different morphological characters. These two approaches can work in parallel as complements to each other for the re-qualification of infrastructure and mobility systems as well as an initial stage for new developments (fig.60).
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Urban Commune 02
The family, as a form of social engagement and administrative structure, is always in the middle of discourse about establishing individual subjectivity or social order, such that it’s constantly under the conflict of change and rebellion. Challenges are always imposed against existing familial orders. People’s Commune in Beijing, China, built in 1959, is one of a utopian realization that attempted to shift the order of the family as a social end from its origin, the parenthood, and replace it with alternative order.
Building Area: 2,600 sqm X 2015, Beijing X Instructor Cyan Cheng Han Li X Original Project Team Work Re-edit & Design Individual Work
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URBAN COMMUNE
37
38
URBAN COMMUNE
39
During the construction of the community building, government controls the collectivity mainly by drawing out the kitchen in residential unit. As a substitute, a big dining room locates at one end. Therefore, the main focuses of the study are two types of spaces—one is the living unit and the other is the shared space at both ends.
The political appeal resulted in People’s Commune, which has several specific typological acts toward single-family units where the kitchen is pulled out from every family unit, and instead, a shared canteen becomes the place for dining together as daily social events. Likewise, the nursery and kindergarten are located in the building in an attempt to help the parents. The Z-shaped building consists of a homogeneous living unit, while the large spaces such as the canteen, nursery, and kindergarten along with the retail shops are located on the first two floors in the wings. The emergence of People’s Communes as a form largely began with the production unit during the 40
URBAN COMMUNE
Great Leap Forward, when the main goal was to achieve a standardized daily work routine. A timetable was followed including the time for dining together in the commune’s canteen, and members were marked according to the agricultural labour that contributed to their income. By doing so, the commune tried to transfer sovereign power to individuals and shape what N. Rose refers to as subjectivity.
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URBAN COMMUNE
43
Combination 1
Combination 2
Combination 3
Combination 4
Combination 5 Structure
Node
Public Space
Semi-public Space
Baitasi (The White Pagoda Temple) is a cultural and historical preservation zone located just across Beijing’s Financial Street District on the west second ring. A settlement founded during the Yuan Dynasty, it has preserved itself through the Ming and Qing periods to this day. With its profound historical heritage and rich cultural connotations, the area is home to some of the city’s most ancient attractions.Having lived through historical periods rooted in the establishment of the ancient capital, Baitasi is considered one of Xicheng district’s cultural hearts. Baitasi is an old neighbourhood of mostly residential housings and one of the capital’s last treasured low-rise districts where an alternative approach to urban upgrading and community regeneration is underway. The left and the following graphs show the spatial order of street interface in this district. 44
URBAN COMMUNE
To discuss the change of order rather than form, the original order of the commune is consisted of two parts: uniformly organized dormitories in the middle and large-scale mass public space on the side. The building becomes distinct with its collectivity, where there are strict order behind the spatial structure.
Morphology
Structure
Node
Spine
Node Body-1
Spinal Subdivision-1
Subdivision-2
Node Body-2
Possibility of Body Unit
Unit Modular Node
Function Joint
Path Joint
The existing space can be understood as repetition on the base of a skeleton or body. As skeletons subdivide, basic units can be extract from the model for future transformation. The basic forms, combinations varies so that there are possibility for new orders created.
The urban commune is a unique outcome of a particular time. It represents the political idolatry of the power & authority of the time. However, the building along with the collective way of living has long been forgotten ---- the building used to house 300 households is now accommodating less than 30 households.
The privilege of retaining the view and height against urban transformation / The forgotten order 45
Order----Residence 1 - residential prototype 2 - stagger connection
13 - decrease body subdivision 14 - stagger connection
3 - stagger connection
15 - stagger connection
16 - connected function conversion 5 - connected function 17 - connected function conversion conversion 6 - change the property of 18 - mix function the node 7 - change the property of 19 - mix function the node 8 - increase shared unit 20 - connected function conversion 9 - increase shared unit 21 - connected function conversion 10 - change the property 22 - decrease body subdiof the node vision 11 - mix function 23 - mix function
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4 - transfer the function
12 - mix function
24 - connected function conversion
Order----Office 1 - working prototype 2 - increase body subdivision 3 - intersect 4 - decrease body subdivision 5 - merge functions 6 - intersect
13 - decrease body subdivision 14 - transfer the function 15 - increase body subdivi sion,decrease structure 16 - merge functions 17 - merge functions
8 - transfer the function
18 - decrease body subdivision， 19 - decrease body subdivision， 20 - transfer the function
9 - transfer the function
21 - ，split the function
7 - decrease the unit
10 - increase the path， transfer the function 11 - increase the unit
22 - transfer the function， merge functions 23 - split the function
12 - transfer the function
24 - split the fuvtion，
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The original scheme established two ambitions: first, to take authoritarian power away from local patriarchal clans, and second, to rearrange the family structure according to the labour force and regroup the family members. People’s Commune became an empty building
20 years after its establishment. The autonomous individuals conflicted with the collective lifestyle imposed by the highly hierarchical power of the state. For that reason, the proposal explores the new collective in a time where sharing places the alternative order of sociability. 49
A Story of Tanhualin 03
Wuchang is located on the east of Yangtze River. Tanhualin District, at the northeast corner of the ancient city, is known for its historical and cultural blocks. This design attempts to use history as the clue of district renovation and to realize dialogues between people and historical heritage through space. In the process of establishing the space-based narrative of traditional architectures, any place which might involve narration becomes an object that this design focuses.
Size: 170,000 sqm 2015, Wuhan Instructor Weiyi Liu Individual Work
50
A STORY OF TANHUALIN
51
The drawing below documents the first derive route commencing from the Tan Hualin. Crab Cape, Phoenix Hill and Garden Hill, each hill is in one corner. As a military, cultural and business developed area since ancient times, the outlook and cultural charm of Tanhualin have always been maintained. Except for the Swedish parish which is not well preserved, most existing heritage architectures within 200m range of the main street are in good condition, but other architectures distributed in remote areas are at considerable risk. At the same time, we interviewed people in the area. Through questionnaire survey and research of the field, we marked and assessed the historical heritages in this district deeming them as the key research objects.
packman
elementary school student
priest
local residents
tourist
The Memorial Archway; The Italy Parish; built in 1888
Canossian Daugh-
built in 1890
Parish;
ters of Charity
The Desheng
Church;
Bridge;
built in 1895
The Swedish built in 1890
named in 1400 The Swedish Parish; 100 mins
120 mins
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A STORY OF TANHUALIN
80 mins
50 mins
built in 1861
0 mins
public space
inner courtyard
doorway
semi-private space
Tourist Attractions 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
opened yard
alleys
intersection
park
semi-public space
Building Protection
Development Influence
Renovation Expectation
Conclusion
100 others
80
cultural area mixed-use area settlement others
60 alleys
40 historical building
folk houses
art
o h fo d sto eritag lk H elica thers re e ous cy e
residence
20 0
his
tor
y&
livi oth ng ers ctio stand cu ard n ltu re
co
art
commerce
ns
tru
(Up) A series of research targeted on the area was done to set the basic value of the proposal.
Valuable Location(history)
Historical Sites
Buildings in good condition
Figures on the right show the layers of historical heritage's location & current state.Each
Historical Buildings
status is classified according to their importance with the gray level.By overlaying the current status of the region,we could
Background
know the valuable location in historical layer at present.
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Factors related to behaviors are studied in the chart below — public spaces and paths are listed here.
preserved public spaces and paths
integration public space
historic buildings in the district the possibility of historic building group mark the negative shape of the group for the road network
public space adjacent to the historic building
integration path within the group path adjacent to the historic building integration path
dense and uniform grid mode
requisite path for resi-
residence art public space
dent
residence
art
commerce
commerce school
Cultural and art functions as a buffer between the residential area and commercial area to ensure a good living environment.
impactful path adjacent to the historic building
Layers of information including road system, public spaces, and land use form the structure of the master plan,
54
A STORY OF TANHUALIN
path adjacent to the
which is the conclusion of the analysis. Buildings can fit
historic building
to the planar arrangement accordingly.
Through observation
behaviour
of the phenomenon
work cycling
of the site, the typical
attend church
behavior of the 15 re-
behaviour have a meal（tourist） work shopping cycling photograph have tour a meal（tourist）
gions is summarized. Human behaviors,
attend have a church meal（resident） shopping pick up
trails, and places are
photograph go to school tour pass by
studied below based
have a meal（resident） promenade pick up deliver
on 15 kinds of behav-
go to school chat pass by exercise
iors.
promenade buy groceries deliver
5
chat
6
7
exercise cycling buy groceries have a meal（tourist） tour
9
time
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Behavior schedule 5
shopping cycling photograph
8
6tourist 7 8
9
time
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 catering
have a meal（tourist） attend church tour pass by shopping deliver photograph pick upchurch attend
shop
tourist
promenade
sight spot catering church museum workshop
outside flow
go to school pass by have a meal（resident） deliver
promenade pick up chat go to school exercise have a meal（resident） buy groceries
museum
outside flow
shop gallery sight spot public grreenbelt public field church
inside flow
market workshop
resident inside flow
chat
behavior happens is listed in the diagram. To further study these
gallery
behaviors, they are
public grreenbelt public field
classified by different
market
resident
The time when each
exercise
populations, and the corresponding building
buy groceries
types are listed herein.
Behavior schedule
By superimposing all the paths, we can get the service condition of the roads within the scope of behavior where research involves. The path of the deepest color represents the inte-
Integrate Path
gration path. Serial numbers of legends
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02
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10
behaviors listed in the
11
12
13
14
15
right figure.
are consistent with the
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Utilization of Public Space
pick up pass by deliver tour shopping exercise have a meal (resident ) attend church have a meal (tourist ) photograph chat
By the first, the second and the third paths, the corresponding public space of each behavior covers a particular area indicating its utilization. The left bar chart shows the relative level of the utilization; in the public space related to non-residence industry, the utilization of shopping and tourist spaces are the highest, so the two public spaces are integrated public space.
catering store market the celebrities 'former resimuseum church parish gallery workshop historical residence bungalow
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A STORY OF TANHUALIN
Building type Distribution
Public Space
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public space
semi-public space
The figures above lists places for 15 kinds of behaviors to take place.
The figure above shows a large number of historic buildings blended in residential buildings, and most historic buildings which haven’t been activattouring living history religion art average residence
ed with color features have been abandoned without any connection with people. Public space serves as a media of dialogues between historical architectures and people. Therefore, it is necessary to build a path to promote the dialogues between people and the historical heritage. 57
Natural Emulation, Natural Sashay 04
“Anyone who was born before me and learned the doctrine before me is my teacher. Anyone who was born after me and learned the doctrine before me is also my teacher. Since what I desire to learn is the doctrine, why should I care whether he was born before or after me？Therefore, it does not matter whether a person is high or low in position, young or old. Where there is the doctrine, there is my teacher.” -------- Yu Han (768 年 - 824)
Building Area: 9,200 sqm 2014, Wuhan Instructor Weiyi Liu Group Work With Qianyi Chen, Xiao Zheng, Zhe Sheng
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NATURAL EMULATION, NATURAL SASHAY
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A smart system against the surroundings that evolves via genetic algorithm.
The narrow and long railway is in the west
make demands respond
of the site and makes a loud noise.
evaluate & grade optimum cover needs
Problems around
prognosis
Xunsi River remains to be solved.
learn from the building evolve
The surrounding environment outside the campus has a negative impact, on the other hand, the interior space of the building is too closed and lacks a space to interact with nature. The project thus explores to create an introverted environment.
Traditional campus building is desired where the environment is highly self-contained & introverted.
The project requires learning spaces with quality and density. The surrounding environment outside the campus has a negative impact. On the other hand, the current density doesn’t allow for places interact with the nature.
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NATURAL EMULATION, NATURAL SASHAY
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The robotic arms help to carry building materials and construct the interiors. They can move freely on rail system based on the beams. The campus is a system that is “alive” and can always evolution without relying on the surroundings.
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NATURAL EMULATION, NATURAL SASHAY
Interior elements can be read as compositions of different components. The components can spin and assemble at any angle.
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Under the background of highly polluted surroundings, the project desires the traditional ways of learning where the campus should be isolated from the central city while still engage with nature. Although surrounded by the river, the project can grow along the axis to allow for future expansion. Here the buildings following similar logic will have variations and sufficient distance with each other. The paths within the campus lead to voids that become places for events.
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NATURAL EMULATION, NATURAL SASHAY
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INTERLOCKED CUBES
Interlocked Cubes 05
This scheme is for a newly built university library which combines several building types needed at present, so the selection of working method mainly gives consideration to how to make each type complete and fluent.
Building Area: 324 sqm 2013, Wuhan Instructor Xuran Yang Individual Work
67
01--
02--
03--
04--
Library Unit
Book Bar Unit
Meeting Unit
Exhibition Unit
Function Streamline Negative Space The original library doesn’t provide enough function for the students and the public. New uses are to be included in the new library. Those functions are catalogued into four different groups. Reorganizing the scattered functions as four independent groups, we treat them as four independent units, each of which has several basic functions. Each of the four units is independent and has a complete functional organization as well as entrance and exit, streamline, boundary shape and negative space of its own.
01
01
01
01
01
Each unit has own entrance, exit, and streamline. After integration, through interface treatment, the four independent streamlines integrate with each other where every two units intersect; new connection is generated between the four functional groups. During this process, transition and integration result in new functions where negative space of each unit is utilized. The left figure shows the final shape of the integrated units. After integration. 69
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ASSOCIATIVE NEIGHBOURHOOD
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