Yao Xiao Portfolio 2024

BUILDING NARRATIVE THROUGH ARCHITECTURE

Yao Xiao

ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO

While Ira Berne’s development of Westbury Square was successful in bringing the communities together by providing a series of courtyards for small businesses to grow, the opening of the Galleria in 1970 led to a decline in popularity. This shift left the community with a void in its central area and a loss of identity, leaving questions of what the center of the neighborhood wants to be. The Food Culture Incubator aims to revitalize the site, acting as a civic center and addressing a lack of food variety and availability in the area.

GARDEN SPACE IMAGINATION

MARKETPLACE IMAGINATION

CAFE IMAGINATION

EXTERIOR IMAGINATION

SITE DIAGRAMS

Addressing the corner of the site, two long concrete bars of communal and production activities enclose an outdoor area for gardening and food market. The metal volume for educational programming rests atop the two concrete volumes as a gateway to enter this public outdoor space. The conditioned volumes of the project serve as a muted backdrop, framing various outdoor elements of the site, and providing the community with a food production space that simultaneously serves as a public park facility.

SITE PLAN

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

SECOND FLOOR PLAN

The ground floor facde is made up of 24’ wide modules that can fit a variety of functions from an opaque storage space to a completely porous dining space with an operable facade. Because of the strong language in horizontality, verticality is introduced on the facade in order to counter balance. Using corrugation as a method to strengthen the material, a combination of vertical lines of different wavelength is added carefully without increasing the sense of presence of the building on its surrounding environment.

WALL SECTION MODEL

SITE

STRUCTURAL AXON

Concrete is selected as the structure for the ground level as an extension of the foundation. While the education bar atop needs to span, a steel truss structure is utilized. This duality of light and heavy is also reflected on the facade as the second floor is cladded with galvanized steel panel, and the ground floor is cladded with pre-cast concrete panels. Treating the roof of the ground floor and the bottom of the second floor as the “fifth-facade”, they are designed to reflect the ground condition.

The outbreak of COVID-19 caused an abrupt increase in mental health cases. As mental health becomes a more normalized phenomenon, it is important to consider how to destigmatize the situation and integrate mental health related programs into community spaces. This project is sited in Kips Bay for its reputation of having one of the largest healthcare centers in the country. Building upon the premise that public spaces and parks have a positive impact on individuals’ holistic health. The Community Wellness Tower rethinks mental health wellness to be a holistic process that includes physical, mental, and communal aspects.

ARIAL SHOT IMAGINATION

SITE

There are five main programs of this vertical community center: Fitness, Food, Art, Therapy, and Workspaces for non-profit organizations. These programs corresponds to important aspects of one’s mental health such as exercising, eating healthy, meditating, and having a sense of community. Moving from bottom to top in elevation, the programs are organized in a way that goes from loud to quiet, from physical to mental, from body to mind, and from collective to individual. Variations of voids were then added in between the volumes for a public access of elevated outdoor spaces. These spaces will demonstrate properties from known successful public spaces such as the Paley Park, the Edge, and the Spanish Steps.

PROGRAM GRADIENT DIAGRAM

4 DIAGRAMS

PROGRAMMATIC SECTIONS

NONPROFIT HEADQUARTERS IMAGINATION

ROOFTOP IMAGINATION

ART STUDIO IMAGINATION

FITNESS AREA IMAGINATION

FITNESS

FOOD SPACE EXPLODED - THE STEPS

THERAPY SPACE EXPLODED - THE ISOLATED STACKS

OUT OF THE GROUND

Buildner Iceland Beer Spa Interntational Design Competition

2024 |Design Competition | Partner: Nate Ehrlich, Alex Pina| Buildner Student Award

The “ground“ is a varied and intricate condition on which the Iceland Beer Spa for the Sel Hotel is situated on. Pragmatically, the “ground“ condition of the site stems from the understanding of Icelandic Turf Houses that utilize stone foundations as a method to isolate the moisture from exterior to interior. Metaphorically, the “ground“ condition of the craters in the area becomes an important characteristic where the beer spa acts as an extension of the topography, rising up while reflecting the area’s natural landscapes. Architecturally, these two conditions co-exist while creating a clear datum that separates the two: an extension of the foundation that serves as a solid foundation while the undulating roof echos the landscape and highlights moments of collective activities with skylights. Eager to engage with the street on the first level, inverse geometries of the roof are carved into the facade of the beer spa, which creates moments of entry as well as provides breathtaking views of the surrounding Skútustaðagígar craters. “Out of the Ground“ as an architectural intervention establishes a series of therapeutic spaces that directly draw connections to the existing condition of the site and the Myvatn Lake area.

Mass Foundation Terrace Passage

CAFE ENTRACE IMAGINTION

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

TERRACE

The dining area is illuminated by daylight washing through the skylight and windows. Positioned toward the street, it provides both table and booth seating for hotel guest and those looking for a sojourn from their travels.

The beer spa module is a therapeutic and private space tucked away from the street and parking. The beer bath soaking tubs provide options to bathe individually or in small groups.

BATH

The articulation of the geometry of the roof is a result of the skylights below. The curves mimic and reflect the surrounding landscape of the adjacent craters while acting as frames for outward views.

CAFE

This project aims to create an art space that is extroverted which is unlike a traditional closed off art gallery for people to join and engage. As I was exploring Charlottesville, the lack of spaces for people to have interactions with each other came to my notice. While the downtown mall is the most crowded space of gathering, it is filled with retail instead of public space and the space does not encourage people to meet each other, so I chose the site just one street block north of the mall where confederate general Stonewall Jackson’s statue was recently just taken down as a public gathering space for healing and community bonding.

MAPPING OF COMMERCIAL CENTERS AND PEDESTRIAN PATHS SHOWS MAJOR GATHERING SPACES

AREAS OF INTERESTS - CITY HALL, COURTHOUSE

AREAS OF INTERESTS - DOWNTOWN MALL

AXONOMETRIC OF FORM TRANSFORMATION

INITIAL CONCEPT MODEL

INITIAL CONCEPT MODEL

The exploration of pixelation art pushed for the generation of floor plan as well as the roof structures. Detailed analyzation through linework was created immediately after the initial concept model made with leaves. The directionality of main stems were turned into folding lines that generated the three dimentional iteraction on the right.

PIXELATED

FORM TRANSFORMATION MODEL

AXONOMETRIC - PROGRAM VARIATIONS

PROGRAM ORGANIZATION

CLOSED FOR STUDIO SPACE - RENDER AND ZOOMED IN PLAN

OPEN FOR EXHIBITION - RENDER AND ZOOMED IN PLAN

OPEN FOR ACTIVITIES - RENDER AND ZOOMED IN PLAN

The Lambeth area is organized in three main sections of spaces: the field, the housing, and the parking lot. Acknowledging the fact that the rest of the university were built to separate the local Charlottesville community from the student community. This project utilizes the height difference between the parking lot and Lambeth Housing, creating three programs that puncture through the canopy creating two levels for each: the lower level that shares with local community and the higher level strictly for students. I collaborated with my partner on the concept of the project, but I was in charge of production and coordinated the final model.

SITE

A canopy structure is introduced in order to separate the circulation of student and public, as well as creating a public hangout area below. The directionality of the canopy creates several new corridors connecting central ground and north ground.

CANOPY RENDER

UNDER CAOPY MODEL PHOTOGRAPH

STRUCTURAL STUDY - MODEL PHOTOGRAPH

SCALE OF INTIMACY

Rethinking the Social Dynamic of Urban Living

This project houses the visiting faculties for University of Richmond. Considering the temporary nature of the inhabitants, the place must adapt to an everchanging community and encourage interactions. The scale of the spaces becomes important in bringing people to gether. The project takes the scale of popular streets in downtown Rome and Venice, creating “alleyways” that are 9ft wide with curves that open up the streets at different intervals to allow opportunities for more activities.

2021 Spring | Advisor: Robin Dripps | Individual Work| Academic | ARCH 2020

Moving up to the living spaces, the same idealogy remains. With curves hugging living spaces at an intimate scale, giving the place a sense of home for visiting faculties.

PERSPECTIVE OF COMMON AREA

3

In order to create more spaces for people to meet and hang out, the “alleyways” occasionally widen to create three types of spaces: sunken courtyard for sitting and talking, sunken theater for guest lectures that also allows for access to basement level, and lawn areas for people to picnic on. Outdoor social spaces are also provided upstairs near the apartment units at each end of the connecting bridges to break up the long and uniform feeling of a regular residential hallway.