Mumu Portfolio

Y C

Selected Works

Yanmu Chen Architecture Portfolio (Academic)

New Urban Outlook

Shabei District Urban Design in Jingzhou City

Critic: Yi Yang, HUST

Team Members: Yanmu Chen, Mengyao He

Spring 2017, 8-week Project

In this design, I want to establish a new city center in Shabei new district in order to revitalize the development of Jingzhou city. The city center have 3 parts: administration & culture area, commercial area and civic sports area. This design embodies my idea of urban design in the future. I hope to add a variety of interactive elements in the urban design. So, citizens will communicate with each other in this center and it will energize the whole city.

Design Principle Ⅰ : Reconstruction of Water System

Transforming the original water system in the site to make it permeate each part of the whole site. The landscape is arranged along the river route to make the whole site ecological and sco-friendly.

There is a meandering river running through the whole site.

I transformed the river to make it permeate into each part of the site as much as possible.

The theme squares are arranged along the two sides of the river, which are memorial, leisure and activity squares separately.

Plants arranged along the riverside to emphasize the river axis, and it is also ecological.

The Original Shape of River The River Transformed Theme Sqaures Along The Riverside Landscape Emphasizing The River Axis Buildings Beside The River

The laying out of the buildings follws the river flow.

Design Principle Ⅱ : Setting Up The Central Axis

When designing the site, first identify the control axis and establish the axis of the site along the river. In the commercial part, two sub-axis are set up parallelling the control axis. The sports part has a sub axis vertical to the control axis.

The main axis of the commercial section is dominated by the river direction. And the landscape axis is vertically arranged along the main axis and penetrates into the building space.

The axis of the administrative part is formed by landscape, and strengthens the visual image of the central axis.

Design Principle Ⅲ : Setting Up A Three-dimensional Traffic System

The Civic Sports Center

Apart from the three major stadiums, the main stadium, swimming pool and staff stadium are set up in the sports center. Many outdoor sports venues, such as badminton courts, tennis courts, basketball courts and so on, have been laid out. The sports center will be a national fitness center.

The Prosperous Central Business District

The Open Administration & Culture Center

The administrative center is different from other rigid centralization of the layout of the venue. The use of relatively lively layout techniques, is designed to attract more people in the administrative square to stay and play, to activate the atmosphere of the city.

Subway Entrance

Riverside Park

Cultural Square

Multifunctional Central Square & Underground Commercial Street

There are different kinds of retail stores and wonderful landscape on the sqaure, and people can sit on the lawn and chat in the sun. The underground entrance on the square can be connected to the commercial street and the art gallery.

The Corridor Linking Various Buildings

People can enter the buildings directly through the air corridor, and the corridor contains the traffic and leisure space. On the ground, bicycles and sidewalks are set separately, and large lawns and leisure spaces are arranged for people to have fun.

Production + Future Automatic Car Factory

Members:

Fall 2018

This is an automatic car factory located in Newtown Creek, New York. In our vision of the future of manufacturing, proficiency is the key. So, we designed several vertical systems for each production step which connects with each other to form a whole production line. What’s more, we added a big fitness center, viewing platform and exhibition space in the factory, in order to provide a place of leisure for the surrounding residents.

Critic: Lise Anne Couture, Columbia GSAPP

Team

Yanmu Chen, Peng Wen

New Production Line & Vertical Factory

Tesla Fremon factory takes up more than 291 thousand square meters due to its long production line. If we stack each part up and divide them into many small units, the whole production line will occupy much smaller space and be more efficient. So, our factory takes up only around 15 thousand square meters, and it can produce 2 times more cars than Tesla factory theoretically.

Tesla Fremont Factory (291000 ㎡）

Gear Shape Layout

Gear is an important part of the mechanical industry, it also represents the highest efficiency of transmission. The layout of our factory is like gears and conveyor belts. The stamped panels are delivered from the high tower to the power train to carry the battery and engine, then to the body marriage center for assembly and painting, finally to the parking tower for drying and shipping.

Production+ Factory (15000 ㎡）

Floating Factory

The Production+ factory is located in New Town Creek, New York. And according to the FEMA flood map, we know that in future years water level will rise and we have to face flood once a while. So we put our factory in a high place, lift all volumes in the air, and put less important functions like storage at the bottom. So, there are plenty of spaces on the ground level for gardens, lawns, squares and sports ground on where workers and citizens can enjoy their leisure time.

"Plus" Part: Sport Center

The sports center is the "+" part of our factory. We want to break the isolation of the existing factory with surrounding areas and turn it into an industrial park and product exhibition center integrating industrial production, sports, and recreation. Attracting workers and nearby residents to come here for enjoying their leisure time, and it can also promote the products.

Master Plan

These towers are connected by a common platform by which people can reach each tower directly. Raw material goes up through the core of each tower that is also the supporting structure.

03 Lever Hotel Rethinking Bim

Critic: Jared B Friedman, Columbia GSAPP

Team Memers: Yanmu Chen, Ruxiao Liu

Fall 2018

Concept

We plan to transform the lever house into a hotel. Creating a free market on its first and second floors to attract citizens and visitors to visit the building. Then open part of the original building’s 5-6, 9-12, and 15-17 floors to build cafe bars, viewing platforms, meeting rooms, reading rooms and the fitness center.

Standard Floor Plan

Twisted Lake House Techniques of Ultrareal

Critic: Joseph Brennan, GSAPP

Team Members: Yanmu Chen, Xiaoxuan Su

Fall 2018

This project is not only a villa design but also a rendering training for 3DMAX. We tried to think about design through rendering. When choosing materials to design interior spaces, we would think about whether the diffuse, reflection and refraction characters of materials match the whole design. What’s more, the environment design also played an important role in the project. In order to create a tranquil atmosphere of a villa by the lake, we designed a calm turquoise lake, grass banks dotted with small stones and a pine forest with a small footpath in the middle.

The twisted lake house embraces perfect natural envieonment, facing a lake and backing a forest. It acts as an interactive container which connects lake and forest landscape, breathing fresh air as well as charming views into the house.

Section Perspective Drawing

Cosmic Dust

Civita Visitor Center Design

Critic: Steven Holl, Columbia GSAPP

Team Members: Yanmu Chen, Xiaoxuan Su

Spring 2019

The theme of the studio is to find a kind of phenomenon from the universe, and then use the essence of this phenomenon to design a visitor center for Civita, a small town near Rome. Our concept originated from the wormhole, a shortcut merely connect two areas of space with a tunnel-like shortcut, which can also make time travel possible. In our visitor center, there are two distorted spaces which are reverse to each other, where people would have totally different feedback to the two spaces. When people are traveling through these spaces from the top to the bottom, their perception of time will keep changing. In our concept, the moment of the present is on the ground level, which is the start point of time and perception, and the underground space is a gallery where people can feel the history of Civita.

The Wormhole Theory

In the universe, objects with a great gravitational field would create a depression in the fabric of spacetime. When an object reaches a certain mass, it can distort space into a tunnel that is the wormhole. It connects two areas of space with a tunnel-like shortcut, which makes time travel possible. So in this space people can feel the time which is the basic elements of 4-dimensional space.

The Wormhole that Connects Civita to Outside World

People will first arrive a platform on where they can enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Civita. But then we need to go back a little bit and go down through a path to get the main road connected with the bridge to Civita. So, we want to create a short-cut between the original platform and the main road below. It is based on our concept mentioned before and is just like a partly underground wormhole connected two levels.

SUN NEUTRON STAR

BLACK HOLE BLACK HOLE BLACK HOLE

WORMHOLE Path Main Road

WORMHOLE Viewing Platform Visitor Center

WHITE HOLE Ticket Office

HOLE Civita PRESENT PAST

FUTURE A3 A B

B1

B2

B3 A2 A1

Reverse Spaces

PAST

Interiors Spaces

In the central courtyard, a skylight could be posted deep into space. About the material, we choose felt like the major material for the curved space. When the light is strong enough, the translucent characteristic of this material starts to be more obvious, people could sense the quality and density of the fabric.

Ground Floor Plan

As we mentioned before, we want to add a time dimension, so we organize the functions according to “time axis”. There are three levels. The first level, where the GPS telescope area is located, stands for “future”, the second level, café, bookstore and souvenir shop, and the platform(outdoor cafe), which is connected directly to the viewing deck. The third level, the underground part, is a gallery for the history of Civita and its projection theater, which stands for “the past”.

GPS Telescope Area

Cafe & Bookstore

History Gallery

The Forest of Light

The Community Library in Hong Gang Block

Critic: Jian Gong, HUST

Solo Work

Winter 2015, 6-week Project

The Hong Gang Block is a historic block where residents are mainly the elder and kids. They need more caring, so I want to provide a warm reading space full of sunlight for them. The exterior square and inner courtyard are open to the community. Residents can not only read but also communicate here. To create the warm atmosphere, I use walnut as the main decorative material, and I adopt the large window, the rolling ceiling and the tree-like bookshelf to achieve the intention of the light forest.

The site is in a historic block, so I shape the library into a cube in order to make it to blend with the surroundings.

Various Reading Spaces

Design all kinds of reading spaces to meet different demands of different people, choosing wood as a kind of basic decorative materials to create a warm and comfortable atmosphere.

The

The inner-garden and the structure of the library can be clearly seen in this section model, and it shows an enchanting light and shadow effect.

The Dancing Block

The High-rise Hotel Design in Wuhan City

Critic: Xiaohu Liu, HUST

Solo Work

Fall 2016, 8-week Project

The shape of the high-rise depends on surrounding sceneries. In order to let visitors to enjoy beautiful sceneries in the building, I open some viewing platforms toward the 1911 Revolutionary Memorial Museum, Yangtze River, Yellow Crane tower and Ziyang lake. Then I use the red brick elements in the original site’s buildings to design the commercial district which links the high-rise directly. The volumes of the high-rise fluctuate with rhythm, so I call it The Dancing Block.

Dynamic Commercial Street

There are all kinds of shops in the commercial street, meeting the demand of people of all ages in the neighborhood, and the leisure square can also convience residents' daily life, which makes it become the vital center of this historical block.

1st Floor Analysis

It is the subway exit, and residents of other districts can visit here.

There are all kinds of shops, such as cafes, clothing stores, book bars.

Shop Decration Image

Master Plan: The Vital Center of The Historical Block

2nd Floor Analysis

It is a piece of greenspace provided for the cooling towers.

The corridor connects different shops on the second floor of the commercial street.

People in the neighborhood can exercise or rest in the leisure square.

This corridor can be connected to the upper layer of the podium building.

The Roadside Restaurant

The Popular Karaoke Hall

Light Luxury Jewelry Shop

The Women's Clothing Store

The Meditation Book Store

The Hong Kong Style Cafe

Clearly Functional Division

Using the concept of "the vertical city", various public functions are stacked vertically in the high-rise hotel. 1-6 layers are used for public space, they are divided into the reception space, the office space, conference space, the dining space including a large banquet hall, Chinese restaurants, and cafes, and also the entertainment space including the fitness center, outdoor swimming pool.

Frame Tube Structure System

This high-rise building mainly adopts the Frame tube structure system. This structure system serves the design because it doesn't need load bearing wall, so I can open up several parts of outer walls and set up some viewing platforms and the 3D-garden that are the core of the high-rise. What's more, the frame structure is good for realizing the dancing block.

Elevators in the hotel are divided into the hotel staff elevator, the elevator to the standard room and the elevator to the superior room. And there is a special elevator to the 3D hanging garden in the middle of the high-rise for citizens to enjoy the scenery.

West Section

The high-rise basement is used for underground parking and some necessary equipment rooms, such as the fire cistern, the boiler room, the switching room and so on. There are 130 parking spaces.

South Section

1-6 layers are used for the hotel's public spaces. In the middle of the high-rise, according to the landscape view analys,I design a 3D hanging garden to allow peoplw enjoy the scenery in the historical block and relax themseleves.

Immortal

The Meditation Space in Qianyi Farm

Critic: Ken Lei, HUST

Team Members：Yanmu Chen, Mingyue Kang, Zirui Pang, Xiyan Ni

Summer 2016, 8-week Project

I am mainly responsible for design conception, rendering making, model making, and analysis drawing. "Design with nature" is the hope I want to express in my design, I hope to make the best use of the original features in the site by introducing the scenery around, using the method of "framing landscape" etc to allow people to experience different venues when they are walking around and feel the charm of nature in different perspectives.

The Origin of Building A Meditation Space in Qianyi Farm

The client of this project is the owner of Qianyi farm. He once was a manager in an internet company, but his health had been seriously damaged by hard work. So he decided to resign and to be a buddist in the Wuzu temple which is one of the biggest temple in China. Then he found that the scenery here is beautiful, so he builded the Qianyi farm beiside the Wuzu temple in order to enjoy the nature and study meditation culture. In spring 2016, he delegated us to design a meditation space in his farm to attract more people to study meditaion.

Building Layout is Based on The Around Terrain & Sceneries

The site is a mountain slop that has many layers, so we decided to build buildings on sevral layers to match the terrain. What's more, there are some beautiful sceneries around the site so we setted up several axises to integrate these seneries into our design.

"I am not in good

Why We Use Rammed Earth & Bamboo as Building Materials

The original site is away from the city, it is a place of pure land, with natural surrounding bamboo forest around. Light farmhouse, forest birds, cicadas around the ear, the remote terraces layer cascade fields become the most beautiful scenery in the site. We want to use natural materials to keep natural atmosphere.

The site is filled with landscape elements, and is surrounded by terraced fields, a lovely brook, and so many trees including portuguese oaks, stone pines, bamboos and so on. The whole site is full of vitality.

Old house with traditional rammed earth structure,

Thick rammed earth wall with tiled roof has become a symbol of the buildings there.

Experimental Studies on Rammed Earth & Bamboo Structure

In this design, all of walls are made by rammed earth. For meeting the needs of different rooms, we have four types of rammed earth that have some additional structure. We also did many preparatory experiments to find the best proportion of rammed earth material and the most convenient way to build the rammed earth wall. And here are the rammed earth analysis.

Structural Explosion Diagram

I use bamboo and rammed earth as suppport structure and use wood as decorate material to make a natural atmosphere. I try to use bamboo in different ways such as column, tile and beam. In order to realize this structure system, I design some bamboo structure nodes. I also use stones of original buildings in the site as material to build load-bearing wall.

Feature Wall Structure House Structure

Feature wall is an important part in our design, because we want to integrate surrounding landscape into our design. So we design a compsite structure to realize long-span feature wall.

We replace steel with bamboo to build houses and add waterproof materials on the rammed earth in order to make sure the house doesn't leak water. Then we use wood as interior support structure.

Original Buildings in The Site

Each Axis Has Different Spatial Characteristics

Different Types of Houses

Ancient House & New House

Tea House & Feature Wall

The Entrances Space

Main Meditation Space

Tree Houses Hidden in The Bamboo Forest

Tree houses are one kind of meditation space.They hide in bamboo forest and are made by woods and bamboo, so tree houses can melte into the forest without being disturbed.

The Model of The Design

Each framework is made by thick wood, and we use bamboo as exterial structure to fix the whole framework. At the same time, these structures are also the decorative materials.

Tree houses face to certain beautiful sceneries, so people can enjoy beautiful sceneries during meditating. What's more, they can breathe fresh air in the forest to forget their annoyance.

One of tree houses is a tea house, thus people can drink tea and talk with each other in the tree house. And there are corridors between each tree house, so people can walk through the forest to different tree houses.

The whole design is divided into three parts: meditation space, accommodation space and tree house. People walk into the site from the entrance and go upstairs, then they will feel that each step has a different landscape. Meditating in the central meditation space and seeing the mountains and sky in the distance, people will get inner peace and their mind can be sublimated. The meditation space and accommodation area are separated by a piece of ruin wall from the original site. Two sides of the wall just like two world. People can enjoy the beauty of the time through this ruin wall.

The bamboo houses are set up off the ground, giving people the feeling of isolation.

The accommodation unit is set with good landscape view.

Outdoor space for meditation, where farm guests can chat during the outdoor activities.

The RoadAlongThe Brook

Air Shelter House

The Research of Light Structure

Mentor: Zhen Wang, HUST

Solo Work

Fall 2016, 3-week Project

This design is about the light structure research. My inspiration comes from Chinese traditional mortise and tenon joint structure, and the form of ancient building. I invented a way the bamboo structure is connected on the basis of inheriting traditional timberwork node. This design can be made up of wood or bamboo material, assembling small-size parts into different modular frameworks to produce different size of spaces. More importantly, the overall design is light, stable, beautiful and convenient.

Sectional Perspective

This is the bamboo structure edition. I use bamboo tubes as the main structure, the waterproof fabric as the surface, 2mm bolts as fixed links and three-ply boards as the floor. These materials are light and firm, and their total weight are less than 10kg, in this way, it can be brought to different places easily.

Waterproof Fabric

Main Material: ePTFE

Thickness: 3mm

Weight: 1kg

Three-ply Board

Main Material: Ashtree Wood

Thickness: 27mm

Weight: 2kg

This Tent Can Be Made Up of Wood or Bamboo

At the beginning, I used wood as the main material to make an experimental model. Then I found that this structure is heavy and wasteful. So I simplify this structure and develop it into 2 editions that are made up of wood or bamboo.

Original Model 1:15

Bamboo Structure

Building Process

The building materials are short and light, so people can complete the building process easily and quickly.

Wood Structure

Three-ply Board

2mm Bolt

Fixed Bamboo

Bamboo Tube

Assemble Each Frame

Assemble Wood Board

Connect Each Frame Fix Waterproof Fabric

Rural Utopia

The Expectation of Future Village

Mentor: Xiaohu Liu, HUST

Team Members: Yanmu Chen, Mengyao He

Winter 2016, 8-week Project

The design concept of Rural Utopia is to create an ideal villige which has Chinese traditional elements and rural sceneries. Using vertical farming system and some other new technologies to give the village a recycling production characteristic. The whole village can be self-sufficient and can save energy. Another feature of the village is "unity”. I adopt the circle form which shows united spirit in traditional Chinese culture to creat a united and harmonious rural life.

Improvement Strategies of Traditional Agriculture and Village

This village is an ideal model for vertical agriculture and Chinese traditional habitation, ensuring supply and sustainability on site. Using vertical farming systems, I can decrease land use by almost 95%. and free up space for biodiversity and energy cycle. I use different new agricultural science technologies such as aquaponics and hydroponics to facilitate more efficient and 100% organic food production.

STRATEGIES PROBLEMS

Oderly Agricultural Production Environment in Utopia

Many rural houses are in disrepair.

The houses newly-built are different in form.

Using traditional Chinese elements.

Create rural houses with Chinese characteristics.

There are no toilet, kitchen in the plan of rural houses.

They build huts in the yard and go out to the toilet.

New houses meets the needs of modern life.

The interior of the house is modernized.

Traditional village layout lacks large square space.

Most houses are arranged in a linear layout.

The inner is foractivities; the outer is for residence.

The inner is arranged for villagers to entertain.

Each Family has its' own samll planting box that people can plant some vegetables in their yard, and there are some livestock box for several families to use together. Rural Utopia aims to change the messy and disorderly countryside.

Villagers dry their crops in the open area of the village.

Dry them in the yard, occupying activity space.

Drys crops vertically increase activity space.

Villagers can plant flowers in their garden

New Farming System Mode in Utopia

42% of Earth’s land surface area is used for farmland.

70% of global water is used for farming.

Using aquaponic farming decreases land use by 98%.

At the same time decreasing water consumption by 90%.

Farming accounts for 30% of greenhouse gas emissions.

Fertilizers have doubled the nitrogen and phosphorous

Aquaponics facilitates 100% organic food production.

Aquaponics is able to increase yield tenfold.

66% of environmental imapct is related to home activies.

33% of income is spent for household consumption.

A model for local communitybased farming and habitation.

Producing an abundance of clean energy

This village is an ideal model for vertical agriculture and Chinese traditional habitation, ensuring supply and sustainability on the site. Using vertical farming systems, we can decrease land use by almost 95%. and free up space for biodiversity and energy cycle.

The Master Plan : Circle Represents United Spirit in Traditional Chinese Culture

According to the 3 x3 module control, the site is divided into pieces regularly, then monomer elements are put in, according to the arrangement of the existing terrain.It is in accordance with the residential and public activities, surrounded by service facilities outside. Another feature of the villige is gathering that can be expressed from the inside to the outside, which shows a vision of us to creat a gathering, communicative and harmonious rural life.

Grid Layout & Grid Management

The Perfect Service Facility System

The village servicefacility system contains crop planting space, livestock breeding space, entertainment space, gathering square space and equipment houses.

Residential space and service facility space are organized in boxes of the unit for 3 x3, and the service facility space follows the layout of the residential space.

Ground House 1 : each part of the family in the village can adapt mountainous terrain peacefully, volume is small, suitable for single people and family of three.

Modularized Basic Units

Ground House 2 : this model in the first part of the village, the ground position, as the main door. Gate square and circular divide into two kinds, round door for residential side for framing, the rest of the gate of the square.

According to The Terrain and Different People to Create Four Kinds of Houses

PARENTS AND KIDS

2 & (6x6x6)

Livng & Traffic & Planting

TWO GENERATIONS

Investigation for the family to determine the space they can live comfortably, so we can determine the size of houses.

Mountain House 1 : a layer of half part of this family overhead, up the stairs around, mainly located in the slope gradient is steep and location. Family compared to other courtyard is small, suitable for family of three.

1 & (6³+2X3.6³+2x3x6)

Livng & Traffic & Planting

THREE GENERATIONS

Investigation for the family to determine the space they can live comfortably, so we can determine the size of houses.

5 & 6x6x6

Livng & Traffic & Planting

THREE GENERATIONS

Investigation for the family to determine the space they can live comfortably, so we can determine the size of houses.

5 & (6x6x6)

Livng & Traffic & Planting

Investigation for the family to determine the space they can live comfortably, so we can determine the size of houses.

Mountain House 2 : the family is located in the hillside residential group of entry is relatively flat and slope position.A layer of half to adapt to the gentle slope built on stilts, door model is suitable for large family to live in.

plate girder

To support the vertical sundrying tower cantilever structure, the overall steel frame structure, the steel beam and steel column.

Walnut Walnut Alloy beam Steel

Color Container

The New Gallery of MoMA

Critic: Mark Rakatansky, Columbia GSAPP

Solo Work

Summer 2018

I chose Piet Mondrian as the main artist of the new gallery. Through the analysis of his paintings in different periods, I found that each period has a different feature. I personally divide them into 4 periods. And I used these 4 features as the basic concept to design the new gallery. In the painting of period 1, we can hardly say what kind of color it is. They are mixed colors, and some frames are not completely closed. And in period 2, more frames are not closed, colors spill out from frames to combine and interact with each other. So, I call it spread color. Period 3 is clear color, each color is clear and most of them are in the frame. But there are several color blocks don’t have containers. The period 3.5, it’s little different with period 3, in this period, the color itself is the container so, color contains color.

Concept

I chose two artifacts in my collections to try to transform one into another in order to find some concept to design the new gallery. From the transformation, I found that the new gallery could hang above the existing building like this holder and lamp, and part of it could insert into the MoMA.

The New Gallery

The existing MoMA has 6 floors. Based on this, I designed the 7th and 8th floor. In addition, I add a new part in the sculpture garden to combine with the existing circulation to form a complete visiting streamline.