PORTFOLIO
a Visual Contour for the Proposal
Weiyin Ma Atelier Pop-up © 2015
A Street Cat’s Journey in the Neighborhood, Illustration Series, Ladder Street Hong Kong, 2009
Works / Activities / Projects
Portfolio: Works + Activities + Projects a Visual Contour for the Proposal1
In this portfolio are some selected works / activities / projects of myself and my studio Atelier Popup mainly from year 2004 to present. For each of these works / activities / projects, there is a small paragraph of text that explains why it is selected to include in this portfolio. The main reason for all these samples of works /activities / projects are to provide a visual contour for the proposal, although some drawings / architectural communications / visual presentations are more related to the proposal than the others.
1 Proposal, Pop-up Home: Home for a World Citizen
Works
Works: Photography + Architecture + Filmmaking + Design + Research
An architect’s mind is generally trained in his professionalisms but sometimes he might also need a natural mind state that’s more connected to an authenticity of all creative industries. This might mean, a beginner’s mind which is more grounded / open to the true needs of a human being’s even in his creative endeavors, be it photography, architecture, filmmaking, design, or perhaps even research. In this sense of learning to be an architect, I find myself lucky to have experienced some explorations in the different fields of these creative endeavors.
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Works Photography
A creativity work can be very personal, sometimes as personal as a private letter. The writer might have constructed part of it, but the reader departs from there into his own art.
A Letter Box, Photographic Series on Slide Film, 2009
Works Photography
We move from place to place and we create journeys. What sometimes makes us aware of the journey is, something we carry along, for example, a bag, an umbrella, or a set of parachute. The places we’ve been are collected into the journey and each makes a unique part of it. These places collected can be enormous sometimes, especially when what you carry along is all your heart.
A Bag before Its Night-out, Photographic Series on Slide Film, 2005
Works Architecture
The thesis Pop-up Home (2009) is the most related works that provides both a conceptual and visual contour for the Proposal. In the selected imageries then and some mapping quotes now here, there is a shared metaphor of living like a street cat in the neighborhood of Ladder Street, Central Hong Kong. The main diagram on the side here is a visual explanation of this metaphor.
Thesis: Pop-up Home, 2009 Diagrammatic Illustration of Pop-up Home (1)
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Works Architecture
“To begin, there is a common distinction in the literature between ‘spaces’ and ‘places’. Spaces are generic and nonspecific; places are ‘immediate, known and lived in. We move through spaces, we stop in and are directly involved with places. Places have significance and meaning to us; our memories are wrapped up with them. Places are those spaces and environments (built or natural) imbued with personal and cultural meanings. Environmental psychologists Setha Low and Irwin Altman define places in this way: Place... refers to space that has been given meaning through personal, group, or cultural processes...places may vary in several ways - scale or size and scope, tangible versus symbolic, known and experienced versus unknown or not experienced. Thus, familiarity and knowledge of space and environment transform it into place. As the philosopher Yi Fu Tuan says, ‘what begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to know it better and endow it with value’;‘when Space feels thoroughly familiar to us, it has become place’.” p. 25-26, Places Basics: Concepts, Research, Literature, Timothy Beatley, Native to Nowhere : Sustaining Home and Community in a Global Age, 2004
A Street Cat’s Journey in the Neighborhood, Photographic Series, Ladder Street Hong Kong, 2009
Works Architecture
“We can begin our investigation by posing the most fundamental question: What is a home? What does the term ‘home’ mean? On hearing the word, a range of places may spring to mind such as a house, a neighborhood or perhaps a region or country where a person lives. However, beyond these global descriptions, what do we really know about the meaning of the word ‘home’? The concept of a ‘home’ must be distinguished from the more simplistic idea of a dwelling place. The importance of a dwelling place is to secure fundamental human needs linked to our survival and personal safety. A home, however, is more than just a dwelling place. It is a location in which significant daily activities take place that are associated with a higher level social needs.”
p.5, The Significance of the Home, Barrie Gunter, Psychology of the Home, 2000
A Street Cat’s Journey in the Neighborhood, Illustration Series, Ladder Street Hong Kong, 2009
Works Architecture
“Personalizing a dwelling place is a key aspect of turning it from a simple ‘place of residence’ to a ‘home’. Obviously our first concern is usually going to centre on making our home physically comfortable. Beyond that, however, we need to feel ‘psychologically’ comfortable with it, and confident enough in it that we are prepared to use it as a central feature of our social lives. this means exposing it to the gaze and inspection of other people, particularly people whose opinions we value. We need therefore to be sure that our home will create the right impression, both inside and out. ”
p.59, Fitting the Home to the Person, Barrie Gunter, Psychology of the Home, 2000
Portrait of 7-11, Photographic Series, 2009
Works Architecture
“Urban environments and communities that provide rich and stimulating experiences are important. Enjoyable, desirable places that stimulate our senses, that promote what Tony Hiss calls ‘simultaneous perception,’ and that allow us to, at once, appreciate and draw in many different sensations and stimuli. For Hiss, this kind of perception ‘seems calmer, more like a clear, deep, reflective lake’. And the places that encourage simultaneous perception, like Grand Central Station in New York City, can ‘amplify our perceptive real, allowing us to notice aspects of our mental activity that are normally veiled’, and can as a result ‘give us a mental lift’1.”
p. 41-42, Place Basics: Concepts, Research, Literature, Timothy Beatley, Native to Nowhere : Sustaining Home and Community in a Global Age, 2004
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Night Photographer’s Work, Reference Imagery, Time and Author Unknown
Works Architecture
“Baudrillard then describes the postmodern as, ‘The characteristic of a universe where there are no more definitions possible. It is a game of definitions which matters. It is also the possibility of resuscitating images at the second level, ironically of course. It all revolves around an impossible definition. One is no longer in a history of art or a history of forms. They have been deconstructed, destroyed. In reality, there is no more reference to forms. It has all been done. The extreme limit of these possibilities has been reached. It has destroyed itself. It has deconstructed its entire universe. So all that are left are pieces. All that remains to be done is to play with the pieces. Playing with the pieces - that is postmodern.’”
p. 116-117, The Postmodern Carnival, Douglas Kellner, Jean Baudrillard, From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond
Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942
Works Architecture
Alfred has just been back from the sea, having a few months’ holiday, and he is writing a postcard to notify his girlfriend from far away. He is now working in the cafÊ as a part time waiter. Once his girlfriend replies they will live together somewhere around the 7-ELEVEn.
Alfred’s Paraphrase in the Studies of 7-11, 2009
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Works Architecture
Further, CG Illustration Basis of Alfred’s Pop-up Home
Alfred’s Paraphrase in the Studies of 7-11, 2009
Alfred (Voice Over): Dear love, I miss you for all the good old memories we shared in our time together - those little moments when you made our bed, and prepared our suppers. I remember them so well and it is not in the same way I remember our first kiss. I miss those memories, and I can’t wait to share my everyday life with you again soon.
And, Physical Illustration of Alfred’s Pop-up Home
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Works Architecture
Jones is on his detective job and he wants to buy something to protect himself as a weapon. At night time he is not able to find any shops open except 7-ELEVEn where he buys an umbrella. Then he walks all the way working till he meets his enemy. He fights over them using his weapon wisely and is back to his route safely. Eventually he arrives in the cafĂŠ to take a break. He hides his weapon down the table.
Jones’ Paraphrase in the Studies of 7-11, 2009
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Works Architecture
Further, CG Illustration Basis of Jones’ Pop-up Home
Jones’ Paraphrase in the Studies of 7-11, 2009
Jones (Vigorously): Come closer to me, or you will never know who is going to win over the other in this battle. Never fight with your sword as long as you know it is going to kill fatally your own ego! Come closer to me! Let us teach each other this lesson! Haven’t you seen it still, neither you or me, actually own this immortal love!
And, Physical Illustration of Jones’ Pop-up Home
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Works Architecture
Leeloo is on her way to meet her secret customer. She drops by a 7-ELEVEn, gets a lipstick, and continues. She is hesitated about her night out. when she is passing by a closed boutique she finally decide to quite. She climbs into the window and jumps down the cliff inside. Yet when she is awake she is still alive. She is in the cafĂŠ. but tonight, she decides to meet someone else.
Leeloo’s Paraphrase in the Studies of 7-11, 2009
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Works Architecture
Further, CG Illustration Basis of Leeloo’s Pop-up Home
Leeloo’s Paraphrase in the Studies of 7-11, 2009
Leelo (Plausibly on the Phone): No, I am not coming tonight. I have had enough, well, not really, I have had what I thought I needed. I did not enjoy what I was told to do - I don’t want it anymore! I dropped it! I dropped what I should have dropped even before I met you!
And, Physical Illustration of Leeloo’s Pop-up Home
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Works Architecture
Sam is the lonely divorced who has a tape recorder to receive radio, and he often listens to the white noises that it gives out. But today he hears a stranger’s voice and finds himself connected. He decides to buy some more batteries from 7-ELEVEn and then starts to get on air again to greet his stranger friend.
Sam’s Paraphrase in the Studies of 7-11, 2009
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Works Architecture
Further, CG Illustration Basis of Sam’s Pop-up Home
Sam’s Paraphrase in the Studies of 7-11, 2009
Sam (Whispering to himself): I never expected it to be this simple. I am free, finally. Ever since I lost her, I have been only living all my own imagined loneliness! Nothing else! And I am finally free of it now! I am not lonely anymore! I am just like the other listener to the radio in her sleepless night - we are just alone, but not lonely anymore!
And, Physical Illustration of Sam’s Pop-up Home
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Works Architecture
Diagrammatic Illustration of Pop-up Home (2)
Diagrammatic Illustration of Pop-up Home (3)
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Works Architecture
“Some psychologists have argued that the degree of typicality or atypicality of a physical environment, whether we are considering a neighborhood, a room within a house or specific items of furniture contained in that room, is a vital factor that influences the way we react to that environment. An illustration of this observation came from a study in which people were asked to look at pictures of items of furniture and then evaluate each item in turn in terms of its familiarity to them, how much they thought it was a good example of its type and how much they liked it. Results showed that liking was correlated with both familiarity and typicality. � p. 237, Furniture Arrangements, Barrie Gunter, Psychology of the Home, 2000
Diagrammatic Illustration of Pop-up Home (4)
Works Filmmaking
“We are attempting to trace in thought the nature of dwelling. The next step on this path would be the question: what is the state of dwelling in our precarious age? On all sides we hear talk about the housing shortage, and with good reason. Nor is there just talk; there is action too. We try to fill the need by providing houses, by promoting the building of houses, planning the whole architectural enterprise. However hard and bitter, however hampering and threatening the lack of houses remains, the real plight of dwelling does not lie merely in a lack of houses. The real plight of dwelling is indeed older than the world wars with their destruction, older also than the increase of the earth’s population and the condition of the industrial workers. The real dwelling plight lies in this, that mortals ever search anew for the nature of dwelling, that they must ever learn to dwell. What if man’s homelessness consisted in this, that man still does not even think of the real plight of dwelling as the plight? Yet as soon as man gives thought to his homelessness, it is a misery no longer. Rightly considered and kept well in mind, it is the sole summons that calls mortals into their dwelling.” Martin Heidegger, Building Dwelling Thinking
Official Trailer, Pop-up Home (2012)
Short Film: Pop-up Home, 2012
Works Filmmaking
“Lefebvre, Baudrillard and others claimed that the contemporary stage of capitalism is distinguished from earlier socioeconomic formations precisely by the increased importance of commodity culture within both production and social reproduction - the ways in which society reproduces itself in individual thought and behavior. On this view, one cannot properly understand history, politics, economics or any social phenomenon without grasping the role of culture and commodification within the social logic of contemporary capitalist societies.� p. 8, Commodities, Needs and Consumption, Douglas Kellner, Jean Baudrillard, From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond
Pre-production Footage Series, Ladder Street (1) (2008)
Film Still, Short Film Pop-up Home (2012) (1)
Works Filmmaking
“The theory we need, which fails to come together because the necessary critical moment does not occur, and which therefore falls back into the state of mere bits and pieces of knowledge, might well be called, by analogy, a ‘unitary theory’: the aim is to discover or construct a theoretical unity between ‘fields’ which are apprehended separately, just as molecular, electromagnetic and gravitational forces are in physics. The fields we are concerned with are, first, the physical - nature, the Cosmos; secondly, the mental, including logical and formal abstractions; and thirdly, the social. In other words, we are concerned with logico-epis-temological space, the space of social practice, the space occupied by sensory phenomena, including products of the imagination such as projects and projections, symbols and utopias.”
p 11-12, Plan of the Present Work, Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space
Pre-production Footage Series, Ladder Street (2) (2008)
Film Still, Short Film Pop-up Home (2012) (2)
Works Design
This design project is very much one of my favorite and it involves my study in virtual reality which is to be another aspect how spatial arrangement relate to users as in their perception. Musical notation/composition is added to this study in the project’s brief, making the project even more interesting. Although it is a school work and it is never built, it has greatly inspired my further works in architecture and filmmaking in the longer run - because of its broadened dimensions in the exploration of architecture as both a theory and practice. It was a foundation of the thesis Pop-up Home (2009) in the following year, in a practical term, as well.
Virtual Reality and a Spatial Notation for Abattoir as a Dance Theatre, 2008
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Works / Activities / Projects Design
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Virtual Reality and a Spatial Notation for Abattoir as a Dance Theatre, 2008
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Works Design
This has been the first design project that I requested to work for during the first job I got after master graduation. I have mainly involved in most stages including mainly feasibility studies and schematic design, focusing on the detached houses with a lake view in its plan/spatial/elevation designs. I have also involved in the study/presentation model making in these design processes, including both physical and computer models. As one of the kind commonly popular commercial residential projects for the real estate markets in Hong Kong and China, this project has allowed a relatively more valued balance between nature and the built environment.
Residential Project in Guangdong China, 2009
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Works Design
This shopping mall renovation project has been one of the major work experiences that I gained from an architectural design practice in Hong Kong who are famous for their skills in local commercial building design. Being the only designer in the team from schematic design stage until the later pre-tender preparation stage, with one associated director and the boss together, I have involved in most of the communications with the client SHK (a commercially well-known developer in Hong Kong). I have spent most of the time, however, adjusting very detailed spatial arrangements in order to meet a certain efficiency requirement which was the client’s major concern. Many of the initial ideas that has presented a greatly innovative shopping spatial design has to gradually somehow give way to this concern of efficiency, especially given the situation that they had a limited budget for this specific project.
Park Central Commercial Mall Renovation, 2013
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Works Design
If given a chance, zipping-in nature into built environment/structures can possibly be one of the motifs in architectural design that I would value even now. A dynamic form wasn’t my intention but in this particular project it worked well. It is a group project with my two architectural school fellows and one landscape architect. We had fun during the design process and I had greatly contributed - despite the debate regarding the design diagram and its importance - and it turned out helpful in the development and actualization of the design concept and idea into a self-explanatory outcome. This project has won the Open Group 3rd Prize at New Links New Kwun Tong Design Idea Competition held by the Development Bureau, Urban Renewal Authority, and Civil Engineering and Development Department in Hong Kong.
Zip It UP - New Links New Kwun Tong Design Idea Competition, 2010
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Works Design
These two selected design projects are my favorite in the earlier years of my architectural study. They both might also demonstrate some of my design abilities in conceptualization and, the visualization of it, particularly in a sense that the design outcome that addresses the brief can be so achieved with a simple but sensible approach.
Early Years: Equestrian Centre and Hymenoptera Research Centre, 2004-2005
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Works Design
Also, the long lasting love of nature and animals has perhaps shown its early root here - hand drawing also - this has been one of the very important parts as in my preferred design tools throughout the years.
Early Years: Equestrian Centre and Hymenoptera Research Centre, 2004-2005
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Works Research
The research topic was about one of the seashore residential phenomenons that is unique for Hong Kong’s geography - the coastlines. In the research, I majorly involved in the production of image/ video recordings on sea level rises/falls, and the circumstantial analysis of them. I also contributed to the original footages of a video presentation of the research outcomes, and the creative thinkings in regards.
Research Assistant for Adaptive Dwellings on the PRD Coastlines in the Wake of Sea Level Rise 2012
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Works Research
Throughout these processes, I developed a presentation tool to combine images and drawings, as well as an analysis tool to combine artistic footages and factual statistics. This research opportunity has put in me some basic skills for other/further research particularly on topics of dwellings.
Research Assistant for Adaptive Dwellings on the PRD Coastlines in the Wake of Sea Level Rise 2012
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Activities
Activities Described with the term activities, here is another spectrum of the visual contour for the proposal. It is also an idea collection of how these related activities might help to build up the design basis for the projects in the proposal to be carried out, especially in views of a user’s appropriations to a place, the quality of spontaneity and chance in a local community, and the possibilities of shared infrastructures etc.
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Activities
In September 2009 and September 2010, friends and I have organized the Parking Day event twice in Hong Kong following a program under the same name initiated by the Rebar Group USA. Hundreds of participants have found this event meaningful and more importantly, entertaining, in regard to the private use of public space in a developed city with its high density characteristics and congested urban conditions. I majorly involved in the design and production of all the publication materials, as well as the design of the parking meter where we actually had the picnic on the day: as much as the fun out of it, it turned out to be a very inspiring experience for my on-going explorations then in the theme of Pop-up Home.
Parking Day, 2009 and 2010
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Activities
In Spring 2013, Atelier Pop-up had a small event organized in the city of Hong Kong that randomly picks outdoor spots for strangers to dance together. There have been some “shy cats ” joining us at first who eventually turned, “lynxes”. They were dancing a Pop-up Dance only themselves know the best move.
Pop-up Dance, 2013
Activities
Pop-up Car is an anytime event Atelier Pop-up wants to promote. It is an event inspired by the ideas of Hong Kong Hitchhikers and Couchsurfing. If a private car can be shared, everyone should be able to enjoy some riding even they are traveling in a foreign country. Some gasoline or beers can be shared along, too, ideally.
Pop-up Car, 2013
Projects
Projects By the term projects, it means the following collection of installation / public display / exhibition works that construct this last part of the visual contour for the proposal, mainly to reflect a prospective of the simulation research methodology and its expected outcomes as in the form / configuration of Pop-up Home. These installation / public display / exhibition works, somehow share a theme that is related to the idea of participation and interaction from/with the audience/user who are performer/designer at the same time.
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Projects
The idea of marrying architecture with music in this musical installation was a new experiment to me. As a group project, we wrote a music piece, made the musical instruments with natural materials such as bamboo and stones, and we played the music in a stage that we chose the location in the Chateau for, where we also did some stage design and its set-up. Throughout the design, making and the performance processes, this installation has been fun. It has also inspired my study in the 4-dimensional medias and storytelling later. The installation has been awarded the Best Performance Prize for Music and Architecture Installation.
Musical Installation at Fontainebleau Schools of Music and Fine Arts, 2008
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Projects
This project is a public installation that I participated as a co-designer and has been functional as the event space for public participations to the forums held during the MaD Asia 2012 in Hong Kong. The major materials for this temporary public furniture consist of timber pallet decks together with sheets of replant-able grass. The installation turned out to have caught some fans and the way each of them, actually use or take photos of it, varies but it naturally reflects all its initiation to yield more freedom and openness for its users by both its implied functions and projected meanings.
Ripple Forum, 2012
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Projects
Pop-up Cinema was a movable cinema made by Atelier Pop-up in collaboration with friends in May 2013. It was originally ported to exhibition Beyond Architecture for the premiere of short film Pop-up Home (2012) yet then, retiring from there to settle under a flyover Downtown - a specifically named abandoned urban space where a community of homeless people in the neighborhood hangout as a communal social spot - and eventually developed into a bedroom by some of the occupiers in the community.
“In a general sense, simulation research is useful both in developing theory and in testing theory. This is a point made by William Crano and Marilynn Brewer. They note that simulation research is often useful at an ‘intermediate’ point of knowledge acquisition. That is, when a logical explanatory system has been framed, simulation research can help test, or at least enact, that conceptual system in an empirical venue. This is a particularly true for theory-driven proposals for how physical environments can enhance (or otherwise alter or benefit) some aspect of life. For instance, full-size residential simulations provide data for affirming or disproving theoretical preconceptions; they can also provide material for new theory-making.” Linda N. Groat, David Wang, 2002, Architectural Research Methods, John Wiley & Sons
Snapshot of Pop-up Cinema, for the Premiere of Short Film Pop-up Home (2012) at Beyond Architecture Exhibition, 2013