P O R T F O L IO
YUAN MU
YUAN MU https://www.yuan-mu-design.com/
ymu@gsd.harvard.edu 1691 Cambridge st., Cambridge, Ma 520-878-8839
RESUME EXPERIENCE
Har vard Graduate S ch ool of D esi g n Teaching Assistant
Cambridge, MA 08/2017 --- Present
+ Andrew Witt’s course Digital Media II : Giving desk critics about assignments providing technical help for grasshopper and basic C# + Volkan Alkanoglu’s courses Hybrid Formation & Near Drawing: Giving tutorial for vray, provide technique help for maya and projection animation related software
Squared Desig n L a b Visual Artist _ Freelancer
Los Angeles, CA 05/2017--- 08/2017
+ Pre-render model Technical processing. + Shading, Lighting Camera setup + Virtual Reality file setup
Undsiclosable I n c. Architectural Designer
Los Angeles, CA 01/2016--- 08/2016
+ Construction documentation + Production quality rendering + Digital modeling and concept development
Sout hern C aliforn i a I n st i t u te of Arch i tect u re Photographer
Los Angeles, CA 09/2012 --- 09/2015
+ Photo Reportage of SCI-Arc events, talks and lectures + Photography selection and post-processing.
Peter Tolk in Arch i tect u re Architectural Intern
Los Angeles, CA 05/2014 --- 08/2014
+ Digital Modeling and rendering + Conceptual drawing and diagram + +Site analysis and material selection
Roto Architect u re Architectural Intern + Digital Modeling and rendering + Conceptual drawing and diagram + +Site analysis and material selection
Los Angeles, CA 05/2013--- 08/2013
E D U C AT I O N
Har vard Graduate S ch ool of D esi g n Master of Design Studies Concentration : Technology
Sout hern C alifo rn i a I n st i t u te of Arch i tect u re Master of Architecture I
Cambridge, MA 08/2016 --- Present
Los Angeles, CA 09/2012 --- 09/2015
Admission Scholarship Contintuous Sholarship
Universit y of Ari zon a Bachelor of Art Major: Art History Minor : Architecture History and Theory Graduation with Academic Distinction : Cum Laude
Proficient in:
A u t o d e s k M a y a / C A D / 3 d s M a x , R h i n o c e r o s , G r a s s h o p p e r, V r a y f o r R h i n o / M a y a Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop/Indesign/After Effects 3D print, Arduino, CNC Milling, Laser Cut, Hand Drawing
Familiar with:
Z - B r u s h , U n r e a l E n g i n e , U n i t y 3 D , P y t h o n / C # i n g r a s s h o p p e r,
Fluent :
Chinese/English
Referral:
Alejandra Lillo/Bryan Flaig - Founding Partners at Undisclosable Inc. - alejandra@undisclosable.us / bryan@undisclosable.us - Phone : (213) 278-0270 Michael Rotondi - Principal at Roto Architects - michael.rotondi49@gmail.com - Phone: (323) 226-1112
Tucson, AZ 08/2009--- 05/2012
ART & MEDIATION
Model Wire Model Photo Frame Photo Model Photo Collage Model Photo: Powder Print
INVISABLEFRAME V I S U A L S T U D Y Maya Model 3D Print
This project started with treating basic form as a single cell under the constrains of certain frame, applied geometric operation through imitated different stages of a creature’s evolution. Registered the evidences of skeleton formation, cell subdivision, and skin aggregation, the frame guided performance of transformation towards the next complex level and eventually was blended into the motion of growth. The final design is represent by a white 3d printed model and its photo collage.
DIGITALTAPESTRY V I S U A L S T U D Y Processing/Photo
The art of tapestry relies on the techniques of incorporating intricate chromatic gradients and fine material textures with the aim to achieve the perception of an overall picture. Many 20th-century architects and artists, including Picasso, Matisse and Braque, liked having their designs translated into woven tapestries. Tapestry can be understood as a digital medium, composed point by point, thread by thread, accordingly to various degree of resolution. Nowadays this work continues to fascinate, because of its mix of visual intricacy, its relationship to scale and the wide possibilities to translate such drawings into digitally fabricated surfaces (either digitally printed or robotically knitted). The visual field of a tapestry is grainy; every stitch can be considered like a pixel. This seminar is a silent protest against the current clichÊ in our discipline that interior is a field secondary to architecture or even excluded by architecture. Interior is able to follow and lead architectural logics, with the flexibility to move on the razor blade of personal and public, imagination and reality, inside and outside. More than architecture, interiors impact our perception and stage our way of living. Theatricality, illusionism, cunning deception, ephemerality are the ingredients that attract viewers’ attention, allowing the environment to really perform in architectural terms, crafting the response of an audience that architecture so loudly strives to achieve.
3 Code Types Rendering
Details Rendering Exploded Axon
CODINGFORMOST V I S U A L S T U D Y Grasshopper/Python
code A Process: Spike
Massing: Progress
code B Process: Broccoli
Massing: Exploded
code C Process: Frost
Massing: Point Cloud
Physcial Model: 4 Axis Robot Arm with 3d print skin attached Controled by Arduino
MECHANICALTWINS V I S U A L S T U D Y Robot/Animation 2016 Fall Instructor : Ivan Bernal in collaboration with : Diego Wu-Law Bosen Li Animation s e q u e n c e Model Photo Animation ScreenShot
This project examines the potential of advanced modeling, animation, and robotic techniques to produce and represent complex geometries. Taking advantage of a single platform, students would be introduced to the techniques to help them postulate, analyze, develop and present their design ideas. The Final output would not only rely on the visualization of the behavior achieved , but would also introduced dynamic skeletons to recreate and investigate such behavior in physical models. With a link between Arduino and Maya, allowing them to compare and overly the digital and the physical. This juxtaposition would generate a tension between digital and the physical results, catalog them and insert them back to their digital models to inform and reiterate the process.
AMBIENTOBJECT A P P L Y S T U D Y Casting/3DCoate
3 sides images Image Construction Diagram
Wireframe of Digital Model
The project questions the status of the image in relation to an object. It reflects on the idea that the capacity to describe an object through images may be such that the description of the object begins, in some instances, to coincide with the object itself. The process of documentation of sites, objects, and spaces becomes misconstrued to engender multiple authenticities. Translations between drawings and objects produce a fusion between architectural form and forms that appear to be constructed natures.
AMBIENTOBJECT A P P L Y S T U D Y Casting/3DCoate
model photos casted resin vs. color 3d print
Rendering of Digital Model
Acts of translation deal with the shift from one mode of description to another, creating gaps in perception that challenge what can be construed, or misconstrued, to be either real or fictive. Differentiating itself from literal translation [digital model] or parallel translation [casting], the project instead produces translations that attempt to render things with varying degrees of latitude and to bring that rendition together with its source.
ROBOTICS & FABRICATION
WOT
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Informal
A
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BOT
Robotics
2017 Sprint Instructor: Chuck Hoberman in collaboration with : Sahej Bhatia Niccolò Dambrosio
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”- Leonardo da Vinci The inception of ‘WOT - A -BOT’ started with a simple brief to construct an amphibious robot employing clever yet innately simple paper folding techniques. It took cues from various Bio-inspirations throughout design development with the motion of a Manta-ray as the most prominent influence. The project revolved around developing a single paper fold hinge mechanism contributing to both a crawling motion as well as a swimming motion. The primary goal was to keep the geometry of the mechanical hinge as humble as possible yet at the same time extracting a sophisticated fluid output motion. The inception of ‘Project title’ started with a simple brief to construct an amphibious robot employing clever yet innately simple paper folding techniques. The project revolved around developing a single paper fold hinge mechanism contributing to both a crawling motion as well as a swimming motion.
Progress Diagram photo of robot Motion Diagram
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traction point
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traction point f i xe
ve dri
minimum distance 155 mm
parallel linkage
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WOT
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Informal
photo of robot
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Robotics
exploded axon
The making of wot-a-bot involved both design dexterity as well as technological skillsets and CAD modelling to map out the mechanical motions of the 6 Bar, Single degree of freedom hinge design. After the fold pattern was finalised, the design was constructed using the double tack lamination technique and worked as well as we anticipated if not perhaps slightly better. The double tack lamination provided the hinge with the rigidity it required yet at the same time without compromising the output motions integrity. The second step however was to actuate the mechanism using a motor. After careful visual analysis, we decided to ground one side of the hinge and actuate the other using a continuous servo motor. (refer to photo). However, on the first run this process didn’t seem to work accurately which ultimately made us re-calculate the length of the bar connecting the motor to the hinge. After a few unsuccessful attempts, we finally managed to make the hinge work but were still not satisfied with its output motion. The main conclusion from this exercise was to accurately determine the connection point of the motor to the hinge and how to keep this connecting bar inplane so that it does not interrupt with the resulting motion of the hinge.
vacuum form protection
arduino micro board
bluetooth module hc-05
major linkage
smoothing device
linkage in plane
continuous microservices
HYBRIDFORMATION VISUALSTUDIES Metal/Fabricatio 2016 Fall Instructor : Volkan Alkanoglu in collaboration with : Niccolò Dambrosio Detail Analysis
Detail Reference
Rendering
Exhibition photos Autodesk Build Space
Prototypes are generally devoid of any programmatic function, yet it can belong to a similar lineage of hybridized technological systems and performance based design. The narrative for these prototype concepts will be driven by performative structures, material properties and aesthetic qualities in order to further explore the capacities of architectural typologies. How can you design something to be paper-thin and super-light while maintaining its structural integrity and creating big volumes? Similar to the fabrication of an airplane we will apply techniques of the aviation and automobile industry to the fabrication of these prototypes. Manufactured out of extremely lightweight, aluminum panels, the installations will consist of unique and custom CNC cut components. These individual components will be assembled like a large 3-dimensional puzzle, forming an elegant, soft and dynamic volume. The assemblage of these components will form a complex and futuristic design. It will be conceived of as a aggregation of volumes speculating on architectural ‘raum’ while; to answer Bucky Fuller ’s question, we will be very much aware of how much our building (prototype) weighs.
Exploded Axon
Exhibition photos in Autodesk Build Space
HYBRIDFORMATION VISUALSTUDIES Metal/Fabricatio
Concept Diagram Physical Model Fabrication Diagram
DIGITALPILING APPLYSTUDIES Ceramics/3dPrint 2016 Fall Instructor : Leire Asensio Villoria in collaboration with : Eliza Pertigkiozoglou Johae Song Math Whittaker
When the profile of a gothic column shares character with the foundation of its vault, it produces a coherent geometric transformation through the structural skeleton. Base on this observation, the research proposes a re-interpretation of ceramic construction by using 3d printing technique. This project concentrates on exploring the role of additive manufacturing and the possibility of clay as individual component in catenary system. Base on the brick construction principle, the installation provides a high level ornamental attribute both on geometry variation and printing resolution, through treating the constraint of fabrication as a feedback of digital design. The structure was created in order to make full use of the that 3d printing technique, which allows us for a free non-standard geometry. the idea was to map lofted profiles on the overall structure. This is respective to the nerves of the gothic columns, and although non-structural, it tries to capture information of the structure on the texture and the form of the elements. We created two variations, one going from two to four and one transforming from four to eight circles. Our base shape is an octagon, in which each corner becomes the center of the circle. The circles are associated with each other through the egde of the octagon: when the radius of one increases, the radius of the other decreases so that the total sum of the two radiuses is always the edge of the octagon. Associating the curves(circles) based on the octagon
Layer 1._ part A * 4
Layer 2. _ part A * 2*112mins part B * 2*124mins
Layer3. _ part A *4*138mins
Layer 4. _ part A * 2* 112mins part B * 2* 105mins
Layer 5. _ part A *2*110mins part B * 2*102mins
Layer 6. _ part A * 2*94 mins part B * 2*88 mins
Layer 7. _ part A * 2 part B * 2
Associating the curves(circles) based on the octagon
Join the circles in one shape
Move shapes vertically to create the overall geometry
Printer Detail Photo Progress Photo: one Brick in Printing
Progress Diagram Printer Detail Photo
DIGITALPILING APPLYSTUDIES Ceramics/3dPrint
Hand extruding experience VS. robotic extruding illustrate the relationship between the size of nozzle and the extruding speed or the principle of the extruding method and the material, clay. The technology is meant to be quick, repeatable and precise. Produce geometry with higher resolution or mulitple resolution by control the speed and flow of extruding. No need for mode or extra material, direct into the process with machine and material. The shell of geometry coordinates with the infill layer by different setting, rethinking the fundmental setup in 3d printing technique.
Final Layer Print Photo Final Product Photo Test Print Photo
DIGITALPILING APPLYSTUDIES Ceramics/3dPrint
Subdivision and joint of stucture elemens has being a classical problem, in this case it reflected the difficulties on both design and fabrication. Ceramic, as a historical material for contemporary construction, representing new possiblity of flexible profile, also bring up more technological problems. The customized delta printer, provides high resolution output and less demands for setting and environment, controversially creating the problems by the size limitation and the decay of equipment. The design process and physical piece both illustrate that 3D printing in conjunction with generative design are able to produce challenging and innovative ceramic architectural pieces.
DISCONTINOUS P E R C E P T I O N DESIGNSTUDIO Tornto-Dominion Center
“There is no such thing as neutral space. Architecture does not exist without something that happens in it. Our perception of architecture depends on the activities that take place inside. The space is transformed by events. It’s not quite the same as before.” --- Bernard Tschumi
Robot House 2014 Fall Instructor : Peter Testa in collaboration with : Mary Franck Sierra Havey Nina Soltani
This project formally illustrates perceptual experience, developing new notions of image and representation. The human visual experience is layered with has a strange and beautiful range of cognitive focus. Unlike a machine human site is always changing; mixed into a soup of various focal ranges. Sometimes we see far, sometimes close. Sometimes we blink and missed visual information, sometimes we are seeing with peripheral vision and sometimes we are fixated in studying details. Unlike photographs or film, human perception is extremely variable. We propose that images provide but one representation of visual experience. Through the premise that sight is an interpretive tool, this project uses it to describe a relationship between the visual transformation that a human creates in the lens of his or her experience in space, into the formal transformation of the site itself. Rethinking the representation of a viewer’s experience moving through space, the given visual language of movement through space is something like panoramic scene in a film. Where the experiences of space is created through a sequence of consistently captured still images of uniform resolution, delivered at a fixed framerate. In this process, we translated the site, the Toronto Dominion, to the Robot House. This gave a platform to conduct exact experiments in the nature of the moving image. The Camera attached to Robots is treated as a model of a person/viewer, that can move through a model site, (also re-created in the Robot house). Camera paths parallel the digital simulations, providing two platforms of representation of a person moving through the Toronto Dominion. We used the footage that we took in the lab to examine the gap between digital and physical, between human and camera. Creating parallel versions of discontinuity using both virtual and physical camera images.
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DISCONTINOUS P E R C E P T I O N DESIGNSTUDIO Tornto-Dominion Center Robot House
A photograph or a film has a fixed sample size, the pixel resolution of the camera. Whereas, human attention is not fixed but can be narrowly focused or very broad. If one takes normal film and sample from it at different sizes over time a discontinuous slitscan image is produced. As this project samples in 3D, the field of view is the sampler and must have dimension. Thus, the sample size is the width of our sampler, and can be varied over time. An aspect of perception is duration. Humans see faster than film, but also miss information, such as when they blink. This can be thought of as Sample Rate. In film, the sample rate is usually fixed to 24 frames per second. In this project, sample rate is how frequently the site is sampled as the viewer moves through it. Low resolution in this case is infrequent sampling, which produces aliasing. High resolution is frequent sampling, producing continuity. Variable resolution is when the frequency changes over time.
Low Resolution
TOWER A
High Resolution
TOWER B
Varying Resolution
TOWER C
TOWER D
DISCONTINOUS P E R C E P T I O N DESIGNSTUDIO Tornto-Dominion Center Robot House
This geometrical and formal approach to perception results in a deformation of the site, reflecting the discontinuous and variable nature of perception. It is a project not dependent of contexts but rather uses the nature of experience, to reform place. The human field of view is not uniform. In addition to focal distortion the periphery of vision captures less information. In order for the sampler to reflect the difference between the central and peripheral vision, we added another dimension of resolution by creating a variable sampler with finer detail towards its center. To represent focal distortion, a displacement gradient is we applied across the sampler.
0 frame
30 frame
90 frame
150 frame
200 frame
250 frame
Corner Behavior Processing Photo Spiral Behavior
A U T O M A T I N G INTELLIGENCE A P P L Y S T U D Y Processing script 3D Scanning 2014 Fall Instructor : Casey Rehm in collaboration with : Kirill Ryadchenko Thomas Legleu
The conventional notion of the agent and the environment in computer science is undermied by Manuel DeLanda proposing the multiagent system which cant be approximated by the flexible surface of the enfironment but should be understood as controled agents acting on it. In this project the experiments were conduced in robot lab onthe wax block treated bu heatgun guided by different scripts. The scripts are already represent and agency as they read the wax block via Kinect and take action based on the reading. In the given experiment the wax was treated by two differnt scripts each of which exhibit a certain automation and decission making by its agency. As the result the product of the tree agents is the sum of material agency of the wax, two deterministic scripts and the certain agency of the process. The project aimed at designing an autonomous robotic agent that interacts with the medium (block of was). The behavior logic is loaded into a robot that reads the medium/ environment 3D scanning it with Microsoft Kinect and takes a decission on how to interact with it. The robot is equipped with a heat-gun that it applyes depending on the reading it takes from the wax conditions. And then applies one of the three programmed behaviours. So that the outcome is a resultant of a robotic agency and the material behavior. Material agency is the undetermined componenent that adds complexity of the real world to the digital design.
CORNER BEHAVIOR the corner funcion is deployed when the objec turnes to the robot with the corner so that the robot melts its middle part applyCorner(){ ... if (angle > delta ){ col = i; delta = angle; } // Find the corner column
... float y = sin(m); float x = 110*cos((i-(vert cal*1.5))*0.01); ...
// Parabola via sin X augmentation
SPIRAL BEHAVIOR the massing agent deployed the spiral funcion as long as the object exposed the flat surcace to the robot
applySwitch() { measure_curvature_around the_Point sum(normals)/4=curvature if (mesh is flat){ applySpiral() } else(mesh is curved) { applyCorner() }
applySpiral() { ... ... Vec3D spiral = cos(r) * d, 0, sin(r) * d );
...
A U T O M A T I N G INTELLIGENCE A P P L Y S T U D Y Processing script 3D Scanning
ROBOT SIGHT the sight of the robotic agent was procied by the Kinect compiling the pointcloud of the object
ARCHITECTURE & FORM
HETEROGENEOUS M A T T E R S DESIGNSTUDIO US Embassy Rio de Janeiro 2013 Fall Instructor : Herwig Baumgartner in collaboration with : Eiko Tsuchiya
The idea of this project is inspired by the philosophy tendency: Object-oriented ontology. The module object starts from a subdivided cube, by rotating and scaling two diagonal corner to different directions, the formal language becomes very pronounced. Since the object has strong characters, by simply flipping it or changing the orientation, they create different interesting combinations. The final formal of the combination has one big object which is the same as the original one, connected with two other objects born from the original one. Because the similar features they share, the joint from one to another creates very coherent relation between each other. The programe of this project is a hybrid of 70% embassy office + 20% theater and 10% gallery. The Embassy as type is historically strict and focused on defensibility but it is also heavyily laden with symbolism. An embassy quite literally is a piece of one country superimposed into another conuntry. There is always the anxiety of what architectural best represents a particular country. But more importantly, it is an uneasy agreement to allow what is essentially a city-state to exist within the borders of a sovereign state. As much, as we have seen in the last 10 years, Embassies are increaseingly the target of political action and terrorism. The design is thus a political act as much as an architectural act. In case, we propose a new model for Embassy, one that exceeds, the feudal castle model. We propose that as a site of political unrest, an Embassy should engage rather than exclude the public.
Site Plan 1/64” = 1’- 0”
Plan_Public Space Machine Drawing Plan_Office Space
EGRESS ADA
LIBRARY
EMBASSY
OFFICE
THEATER EMBASSY
RECREATIONAL AREA
UNDERGROUND GARAGE
RESTAURANT
HETEROGENEOUS M A T T E R S DESIGNSTUDIO US Embassy Rio de Janeiro
Aperture Details Dynamic Cut
Theatre Details Aperture Structure
HETEROGENEOUS M A T T E R S DESIGNSTUDIO US Embassy
PRIMARY STRUCTURE FOR APERTURE
SECONDARY STRUCTURE FOR APERTURE
Rio de Janeiro
DOUBLE-GLAZED WINDOW SECONDARY BEAM
PRE-CAST CONCRETE
W.P.M
METAL DECK
EDGE BEAM
2’ X 2’ STEEL TUBE PRIMARY STRUCTURE
W18 X 119 STEEL I-BEAM
18” X 18” STEEL COLUMN ACOUSTIC WALL
6” X 12” STEEL TUBE
CLIP
2’ X 2’ STEEL TUBE PRIMARY STRUCTURE 6” X 6” STEEL TUBE JOINT FOR PRIMARY STRUCTURE
HETEROGENEOUS M A T T E R S DESIGNSTUDIO US Embassy Rio de Janeiro Interior Rendering
Color 3d Print Physical Model
E C C E N T R I C T P Y E S DESIGNSTUDIO Cerda Block Barcelona 2014 Spring Instructor : Erick Carcamo in collaboration with : Eileen Wong
GFA: 363,680 sf FAR: 2.79 Volume: 5,308,614 sf3 Height Domain: {48 ft, 93ft} Facade Offset Domain: {0, 15ft} zzzClosed to Open Surface Ratio: 0.55
The project is about designing apartment block in city of Barcelona, based on the understanding of current condition and trying to develop new task for the urban landscape.Circulation is a curial point for the city, so instead of keeping the conventional courtyard and pushing the building to the edge of the block, the project uses the strategy of folding to aggregate, accumulzate and repeat. The extension of one gathering units starts growing to a small complex, two small complex starts squishing the space and building to create inner recreational area. After having the massing of the block, by tracing the grid of the current site block the interior wall and room are divided and established. Furniture and aperture are arranged also by alining the grid, which fastens and rationalize the curvature of the massing. After testifying the existing space could be designed as a living environment, the logic of folding also contributed to the overall block. Pathway runs through the block in different dimension and the folded dripping shape which attaches to almost each units become the balcony, unifying the whole spatial language.
Interior Rendering Plan_ Ground Floor Section A
E C C E N T R I C T P Y E S DESIGNSTUDIO Cerda Block Barcelona
Spatial Diagram Atrium Rendering Physcial Model 3D Powder Print
E C C E N T R I C T P Y E S DESIGNSTUDIO Cerda Block Barcelona
Spatial Diagram: Balcony
Spatial Diagram: Conceptual Form
Spatial Diagram: Public Area