PORTFOLIO
Mixed-used Kitchen Theater for Migrant Works
BACKSTAGE PLAY Today, we are witnessing an increase in strictly controlled and carefully themed environments, such as parks, malls and resort complexes, where production and maintenance are kept at the back of the house for the purposes of trouble-free consumption and paid leisure. Michael Sorkin discussed in his book that: an apparently benign environment in which all is structured to achieve maximum control and in which the idea of authentic interaction among citizens has been thoroughly purged. This proliferation of urban control is manifested in the ubiquitous elimination of play, which are mobility in structure, interdependencies among players and surprises. This thesis aims to use play as a subversive strategy to deconstruct themed environments, re-humanizing the production space and revitalizing the agency of actors (users).
These carefully controlled environments contain a complex world of invisible infrastructure, including the f ly space above stage, the kitchen within a restaurant, and the backstage of the theater -- all spaces that can also f low into the front of the house as deliveries come in, waiters serve, and cleaners clean, and disappeared when they are unwanted.
To play is to own up a space, to register, to repurpose, to confront and invent alternative interpretation. As chefs, workers, musicians, waiters, performers, and audience rethink their position, they are moving from a playful and ambiguous ground to another fiction, which probably is even close to the truth.
Photo Credit: Hao Che, YiLong Zhao, TianZhou Yang
Work Experience at Trace Archtiecture Office SWAN LAKE BRIDGE HOUSE AND OBSERVATION TOWER Produced drawings during internship at TAO (Trace Architecture Off ice). Principle architect Hua, Li leads the design and construction. Photo credit to Hao Che, YiLong Zhao, TianZhou Yang. Project Brief (from off icial website): Swan Lake Wetland Park is a natural wetland adjacent to the China yellow sea, located in Rongcheng, Shandong province. Every year in October, groups of swans will migrate there from Siberia, which attracts a large number of tourists. In response, the local government decided to build a public facility to provide dining and sightseeing services. The design introduces a horizontal bridge house and a vertical viewing tower, which are closely connected to the site. The bridge house f loats above the site, as if a long bridge over the ground, while the vertical tower functions as a lighthouse by water, overlooking the entire wetland.
Photo Credit: Hao Che, YiLong Zhao, TianZhou Yang
Work Experience at Atelier Alter CHINESE ENTRERENEUR PAVILION IN DUBAI Drafting plans and generating diagrams under the supervision of principal architect and project architect. Software: AutoCAD and Rhino. Led by principle architect: Jiyuan Zhang, XiaoJun Bu.
Regional Planning & Research Design Complex
JOURNEY THROUGH BORDER Crossing border happens everyday between El Paso and Cd. Juarez. I am seeing the “crossing� as a journey, which is comprised of departure, arrival and return. The cross-border area can be the destination of this journey instead of a transition zone. Throughout research and design, I am embracing this attitude of following the passage of crossing and build the design from a journey and user perspective.
World War II
United Nations
Cold War
President of U.S. Triump Of Cuban Revolution
President of Mexico
1941
1962
1945
El Paso Mayor Ciudad Juarez Mayor
1911 20,000 U.S. Troops Sent to Mexican Border
Business Owner
Refuse to invest in maintainance for the lack of clarity in ownerhsip; Install undesired city programs/industrial facilities
Oral History Maria Eugenia Trillo
LandLord
industrial facilities: a meat-packing plant, a Levi’s factory, a soda plant, a lumber yard, and a railroad station. 1900s
extract the most rent from the most vulnerable with the least government oversight
- Land Ownership - Compensation
1930s
My father, born in the United States, was “repatriated” to Mexico along with many other U.S. citizens of Mexican descent.
1954 Operation Wetback
1942 Bacero Program Mexican Farm Labor Agreement with Mexico
1940s
The memories are raw: noise, stink, stones you had to carry with you to the outhouse at night to throw at the rats that bit your toes, the beautiful mother and daughter a few doors down who took strange men into their house.
Our family returned in the hopes of enlisting in the American military during the Second World War.
5000 people in Chamizal
Move without resistance
Resident
Incomparable in Value Devalued house to fair market
1960s
1950s
My parents soon saved up enough money for my father, a master carpenter, to build us a more spacious home in Rio Linda, a new, leafier subdivision nearby.
Resistance to move Last group to move
“We were onlookers” My family was the last to leave her section of Rio Linda. The moving vans and pickup loads, packed by helpful neighbors, had gone, and all that remained were emptied houses, boarded windows, echoing streets. “‘Don’t look back. You are forbidden from looking back,’” my father saying. Nobody looked back. Except I did.
1970s
People scattered throughout El Paso, finding themselves in strange and sometimes unwelcoming neighborhoods. According to one woman, where Chamizal residents moved in,
Bowie High School
Rio Linda
Segundo Barrio Trolley System The El Paso Streetcar is a streetcar system in El Paso, Texas, that opened for service on November 9, 2018, and uses a fleet of restored PCC streetcars[4] that had served the city's previous system until its closure in 1974.[5] The system covers 4.8 miles (7.7 km)[1][6] (round trip) in two loops from Downtown El Paso to University of Texas at El Paso.
Surveillance Tower Toweers are typically set back ten feet from the border fence. They house cameras, radar, wireless data access points, and a tower security system. In addition to the surveillance gathered from the toweer, mobile data can be sent to Border Patrol vehicles.
First Defence Adapted from a design used in many detention centers, this fence’s curved surface and small gauge mesh hampers climbing by deforming under the climber’s weight and becoming more difficult to scale.
Sandia Fence This angled, two section fence is intended to prevent climbing by forcing would-be climbers to hang from the fence.
U.S.
Mexico
U.S.
I am a Meican bracero, I came to work For our sister Nation Which has issued the call. They ask for workers from my Country To substitute for Those who fight Without fear of death. ------Lyrics
U.S. is also facturing two foundation myths: the melting pot, and Manifest Destiny
Mexico
I am proposing a research-design center in the area, that integrates the resource from educational institute, manufacture and trade in the region. The transborder area will become a testing ground to move the manufacture in Jurez towards research and design phase. At the same time, cross-programming between education facilities, manufacture and housing can provide more opportunities for all the participants (workers, students, researchers, etc.) to learn and move forward in career path.
Structure & HVAC System Design
Quonset Cavity Office Cavity Wall, Prefabricated Concrete Frame. Core Circulation. Client: Quonset Point Development Company Location: 2574 Davisville RD, Providence, RI, 02903 Designer: Ruby Chen, Jingru Tong, Yixuan Cai, Natnaree Ruethaivanich
PRODUCTION DESIGN Producer Director Screenwriter Cinematographer Production Designer
Yixuan Cai Yixuan Cai, Xiaorui Yu. Yixuan Cai Xiaorui Yu Jiaye Zhao
POETIC GAZE The Film tells a story about an emerging “anti-surveillance” performance artist, whose work has been depoliticized in a commercial event, while he also discovers the signiFicance of his work throughout the process.
PRODUCTION DESIGN OCCULT There are two major challenges to the criminal police in the first line of anti-drugs in Xishan. First, the infiltration of drug trafficking groups into the police station has created an atmosphere of mutual suspicion within the police station. Second, the involvement of relatives in the drug trafficking activities, and the kinship has created resistance to law enforcement. The story is happening in this context. Xing Kuan, as a vicious police officer, sacrificed his drug-addictive son as a tainted witness to achieve victory in action. Producer Director Screenwriter Cinematographer Production Designer
Yu Wang Yixuan Cai, Xiaorui Yu. Yixuan Cai Xiaorui Yu Yixuan Cai, Beibei Hu
Post production in process. Only still photos available.
ANIMATION
THE WATCHED
The animation depicts the anxiety and confusion in a w
world where houses are surveillance cameras.