Architectural portfolio for UCL MArch Architectural Design

PORTFOLIO YIWEN ZHANG

Application number：23110697

A migratory system of Afar nomads

LIVE INTO VOIDS

Creating a vertical urban life while preserving rural habits

DECISION

A virtual game world in Metaverse

FEATHER

Dynamic installations in ancient paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty

Introduction

This project discusses how to build a promising migration system for the nomadic Afar people in the extreme arid regions of Ethiopia. Based on the harsh environment of the Danakil Desert and the free time lost by the women and children of the people to fetch water, we offer several solutions: counting similar climatic structures along the route, analysing the way the desert water towers collect water and using a game platform to simulate the estimated migration routes, resulting in the construction of a new Afar 2.0 community.

[REASON TO MIGRATION]

The creation of new interactive platforms and the widespread use of the Internet have made it easy for people from different regions to communicate with each other,providing a strong reason for migration.

In 2021, the average temperature of land and ocean surfaces is 0.84 degrees Celsius warmer than the 20th century average. Melting glaciers are raising sea levels; increasing the frequency of extreme weather, such as droughts, floods and temperature extremes, affecting life and agricultural production; and accelerating ecosystem change.

Due to the seasonal variations of the dry season in eastern Ethiopia, the local Afar people often migrate because of water. Over time, they developed a moveable communal way of life.

They tie bundles of twine together to form simple, moveable dwellings.

They have lived here for hundreds of years without outside support.

Camels, donkeys, horses, cattle and sheep were their common livestock. These animals not only provide them with economic resources and food, but also an ample supply of labour.

In the deserts of the Afar region, the Aboriginal people lived mainly by grazing and hunting and fishing. However, these living conditions were barely subsistence.

So, to help them cope with the worsening greenhouse effect and the scarcity of water, we have created a path of life for a people who have long been searching for water.

Here we will guide them through forests and lakes and into the mountains to a fertile land where they can not only continue their old way of life, but also integrate new modes of production that will improve their quality of life.

In their new location, an ambitious blueprint is unfolding for their communities to prosper with the help of modern tools and trade in commodities. A new challenge and way of life will accompany this life journey.

Installation of on-farm water supply systems

Delivery of construction material

Laying of water channels

Transporting water

Reclamation

Finding water sources

Mile

Tendaho

Mile Serdo Wildlife Reserve

Awash River

Gemen Lake

Eil Wiha

Wernaso

Asayita

Reru

B11

B11

B11

A1

Afar

[COMPARISON OF TWO TARGET POINTS]

The inhabitants of the two target sites differ considerably in many aspects such as lifestyle and building use

[WAYPOINT ANALYSIS]

Music is needed for the rituals,the system is built using bamboo poles and other things can be hung

Afar Desert Oasis in the Way Kombolcha Oasis

[INTERIOR LAYOUT&VOXEL]

[ACTIVITIES&CONSTRUCTIONS]

Male Children

Elderly

Female

Camle Donkeys

Horses Sheep Cattle

Grazing Water collection

Cultivation

Planting

Drying

Transport

[FOUNDATION BUILDING UNITS]

School

Heat-proof ventilation windows（Arabic）

Drying & Storage

Water storage tank （local）

Multi-storey residential

Community ventilation shafts

ventilation windows（Arabic）

Clay rammed earth wall（local）

Handicraft workshop

Drying platform

Storage room

[WATER FLOW AND COLLECTION DEVICES]

Mist collection device (for residential use)

Connecting stables (for livestock)

Out-of-community mist collector (for livestock and humans)

Fog and dew collection towers

Awning （Indonesian）

storage towers (for the circulation within the community)

Area 2

Handicraft workshops

The handicraft workshops create semi-open spaces with controlled air flow and the ability to collect water.

[THE MIGRATION PATH TO THE OASIS]

The long migration of herders from the desert to a climate suitable for survival has led to a stable and erratic life, with buildings and installations being erected to improve life and to enrich the daily activities of the people.

Area 3

Group schools

The venue provides a space where pastoralist children can learn their knowledge and avoid the previous situation of learning outdoors.

MIGRATIONROUTES

Area 1

Residential Area

The residential area is the largest area around which all other areas are built. The pastoralists can guarantee the use of water in it.

Area 4

Horse Stables

The stables provide space for feeding and watering the animals kept by the herdsmen.

People are beginning to settle on the site and use the best of vernacular architecture from around the world to optimise the buildings in which they live, and people's lives are moving in a good direction.

[Outdoor spaces]

The AFAR 2.0 community is interspersed with a large number of outdoor spaces, which are important to the pastoralists as their original mode of living was to build their dwellings in the open spaces of the desert, and these open spaces provide space for their daily gatherings.most relaxing experience for the residents

[Semi-open space]

In all the buildings there are a large number of semi-open spaces, which have been designed to take into account the environmental factors surrounding the site and to allow for better air circulation throughout the space, making the living environment more livable.

agent simulation

We labeled the destination and moveable space of the site, then used agent simulation to calculate and map out the movement of the characters within the site

Services & Mobile Space Residency space

Simplification based on the results of agent simulation and selection of the best route and placement of buildings.

LIVE INTO VOIDS

LOCATION：Hangzhou CHINA

BUILDING DATE：2022.9th

Introduction

In the context of urban sprawl and building highdensity complexes for urban development, rural life was disrupted. We wanted to create a new form of building space, merging of rural and city life. and explore the possibilities of creating a healthy life together while preserving the habits of rural life. For this reason, we will try to discuss in this design: how to create a vertical urban life while preserving rural habits?

Dilemma: In today's society, reality is full and desires are expanding, so people are trying to devour the seemingly uncontrolled gaps as much as they can. People may have already forgotten the quiet goodness in the gaps and let the excrement of life trample on the only dignity left in common.

In the wake of government regulations, reality is full and desires are inflated. With no room for manoeuvre, people try their best to devour the seemingly uncontrolled gaps, possibly having forgotten their serene beauty and allowing the excrement of life to trample on what dignity remains in our common space.

Early New China (1950s)

In the town of Xinjie, Changshan District, there are more straw huts along the farmland streets.

The 1970s and 1980s (1970s)

In the late 1980s, the government promoted the construction of multi-storey townhouses in the countryside.

Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (16c-17c)

The picture shows Xuan Ye and his party having departed from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, via Xiaoshan County.

We find that the conclusions we draw are often vague and indicative, that it is difficult to obtain certain criteria for making places moving —— deliberately created negative shapes often become car parks. And touching scene often happens in places where people can use their imagination to build their homes in public areas.

[NEGATIVE SHAPED SPACES TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE]

[TENANT RESEARCH]

There are exceptions to the seemingly hierarchical system, where two rural groups with very different living spaces live together, surrounded by each other in a labyrinth.

Interviewee: lorry driver tenant

Our site

1. break inside and create somewhere accessible for all &

2. grow along the road to respect the historical character

Step 1

Placement of voids

Step 2

Separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, placement of driveways ，cleaning of the main street， form a void on the other side

Step 3

Point of memory, maximum level negative shape - triangular plaza, responding to future high density communities.

The fragmented regeneration strategy is inefficient due to land tenure constraints. It is intended to create an open courtyard and to revitalise the single linear space of the original main street by creating a dotted monolith in dislocation with the original buildings.

In Neusheng, a large number of workers live in rented accommodation and some factories and warehouses have been established in the area. As a result, vehicle traffic and commuting peaks inevitably collide with pedestrians walking along the main street. We have therefore created a one-way lane leading to the entrance of the village on the field to the west to divert traffic.

The point renewal does not yet meet the need for density and public space, and the community needs a larger scale infrastructure. We created a twelve storey collection of houses based on a point mimic, with the lower three floors largely owned by the community. A triangular street was created at ground level and the main street was activated.

[CHANGES IN HOUSING AND LAND'OF XINSHENG VILLAGE]

Factory

House with courtyard

One-storey shop house

Front and rear courtyard townhouse

Former Residence Type 1

Semi-rental and semiowner occupied

One-storey shop house

[TYPOLOGY EVOLUTION]

Tile house

Qing Dynasty Residence

Ming Dynasty Residence

Former Residence Type 2

[TYPOLOGY IMITATION]

Point renewal is not yet sufficient to meet the demand for density and public space, and the community needs a larger scale of negative shaped space to accommodate the infrastructure.

Increase the density and place the pellets.

Step 1

Step 3

Step 2

Step 4

Separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, placed in the road.

Negative shaped space with vertical staircase.

Typology

DECISION

LOCATION：META WORLD BUILDING DATE：2022.10th

Introduction

This project discusses how to create a Virtual game world in Metaverse, where single and online players can coexist and bring about a reflection on nature. I provide two game mode options for players. The limitation of modern mankind's loss of awareness of protecting the environment. Mankind is involved in economic and industrial expansion with no time to linger and reflect. I sought to create a relationship between seeing and being seen through the different options of the game world, allowing the player to follow the crowd into the infinitely expanding paradise or explore the hellish world swallowed by nature alone.

[GAME RULES FORMATION]

As with playing regular handheld games, different game modes have different audiences, and audiences with different needs consist of determining factors such as personality, history, upbringing, etc. Player characteristics should be respected and single and online modes should be offered for different groups of people.

[GAME SETTING] [GAME CONCEPT]

There is no place on earth that is not affected by human beings, and to cover up our collective sins we forget the scars and enter into carefully constructed illusions.

The problem is that humans are losing respect for the land on which they depend. The way selfish people see themselves prevents them from realising that they are losing the land they need.

The nerve untouches of the brain are connected to a computer which transmits information to the brain in order to keep him in the illusion that everything is perfectly normal.

A control line dangles from the city above, and countless eyes are watching the inhabitants within the utopia as the suspended islands interact, merge, bridge, break away from the ground and close in on themselves.

Those who choose to face reality become an island, wandering among the ruins swallowed up by nature. They cross each other but do not intersect, keeping company with nature, freeing their controlled brains.

I delineate the two blocks of utopia and anti-utopia, where the relationship of the crowd determines whether they choose to face it head on or run away.

Nature follows its own course of development, sweeping away all traces of man.

The building was swallowed up by nature and the original appearance of the earth grew above the ruins.

People were involved in economic and industrial expansion, which meant a rapid movement of events and inventions, with no time to linger and reflect.

People are conspicuously and hopelessly indifferent.

What you see is what you think?

The player's access to information is all processed through the brain.

The computer controlling the brain then has the ability to simulate their full daily experience.

Parallel, encircling, but not intertwining tracks.

Nature needs and must regain its physical presence on our planet.

Human beings absentmindedly find themselves in realistic scenarios because the passive ones are realistic enough. In these scenarios, the symbols of modern civilisation are invaded, swallowed up and conquered by nature. This process is inevitable. Nature's role in this situation is through the spontaneous development of vegetation.

[SPACE SETTINGS]

[MELT

BALL TEST]

[CROWDS & ACTIVITIES]

[BASIC TYPE ANALYSIS]

[BASIC TYPE ANALYSIS]

[Collision space between online and standalone]

Standing on the surface and looking up, one can see the single player's traffic core barrel through the online space without intermingling, and the players work through this and roam.

[Stand-alone space]

The single player game has people manoeuvring separate rooms, landing on the surface and finding the sphere gradually surrounded by nature and swallowed up. The bubble of enveloping trees extends out of the hard legacy building window, and standalone players can climb out from the inside and enjoy the relaxing cloud space.

FEATHER

LOCATION：SONG DYNASTY CHINA BUILDING DATE：2021.9th

intruduction

In the ancient paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty, the author lays out before us the city life in a corner of Bianjing in the form of a long scroll, in which the broken system of the marketplace near the painted eye Hongqiao brings the commodity economy and tea ceremony of the Northern Song Dynasty to a climax. This project focuses on how to create a flexible and convenient place for those who promote and trade tea culture, further breaking down class distinctions by sorting out the logic of ancient bridge construction, discussing unit types and characteristic functions, and allowing them to immerse themselves equally in the tea ceremony in a dynamic installation.

Song Outer City

During the Northern Song Dynasty, the Bianhe was the main artery connecting the Central Plains and the South of the Yangtze River, ensuring the supply of materials to Bianjing City. Therefore, Bianhe was an important transportation hub and lifeline for the country

Song Inner City

In the inner city of the Northern Song Dynasty, the river and bridge markets flourished, especially in the tea culture, with shops lining the water's edge. Due to the high flow of people, no fixed stalls were allowed on the Hongqiao Bridge

The modern city of Kaifeng also benefits from its water resources and has developed into a tourist city. But the commercial planning around bridges and water is too fast-paced

To sum up，Modern and ancient Kaifeng's co-ordination of water resources, bridges and commerce provide insufficient space for pedestrians to stay and a lack of diversity in the tea culture experience

Kaifeng City

BRIDGE IS A PAINTED EYE]

Hongqiao Corridor bridge

Columnar bridge

Many people passing on the bridge

are on the bridge

Workers supervising the boats under the bridge

The teahouse sits on the shore

GENERATION]

Gathering of

[SITE ANALYSIS] [STREAMLINE ANALYSIS]

Noise

Greening

Transportation

Site Analysis

Tea Room with a view

Rooftop Walk

Access to the river

BAMBOO RIDGE

BUILDING DATE：2021.11th

Introduction

The properties of bamboo are used to split and heat bend it to create a prototype that transforms what would otherwise be a single linear rod into a spatial structure. The prototype is extended and replicated in space to create the structural span that will eventually form our table, the "Bamboo Ridge"

[BAMBOO PROPERTIES]

Points

[DESIGN ITERATIONS]

study of table legs

Left:Keep the prototype applied vertically, with the aim of having it stressed in a straight line.

Right:Overlap two prototypes in the prototype so that it expands in all four directions at the ends.

Initial attempts at a table stand Combination of two units turned up and down to form a combined unit with a T-section for one span.

A simple hinge with screws secures the intersection section.

Prototype

A single linear dimension is transformed into a spatial three-dimensional dimension using a staggered cleavage method.

[NODE CLOSE-UP]

The knotted rib structure of the bamboo node.

Wire Integral hollow rod shape.

Face Parallel straight lines on the epidermis.

Installation of the inserted gabion cross brace to link the two units. Inserting the gabions in the unit, fixing the unit hold-up dimensions. Connects two prototypes to form a unit.

[SPACE TRUSS]

On the basis of the existing prototype, we started to discuss the possibility of its continuation as an interface.