Portfolio|Yuan Zhuang
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Shadow Color
Interior Design, Sólheimar, Iceland, 2012
I captured these photos when I was decorating for a community event. To regenerate values for the “wasted”, I collected the used jars, wine bottles from local families and dried grasses, falling branches from the wilderness. During the process of arranging, I suddenly noticed that when light traveled through the colored bottles, it not only magnified, transformed and recreated forms, but also projected colors that were subtly fused into the shadows. Sometimes design does not emerge from imagination but from observation.
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Growing Structure Garden project, Granville, Ohio 2012-2013
One of the primary forces that drives me to design is the dream house I imagined when I was five years old, a house that is alive and grows like a plant, nurturing and nurtured by people who live in it. This imagination was coincidentally connected to my permaculture experience when I had a plot in the college community garden for two years. It was an applied common sense for me to build garden structures with falling branches to support growing plants. After a few months, my plot started to thrive and looked like a small village. Suddenly, the image of my childhood dream house flashed back. I wondered, “instead of having structures to support plants growing, is it possible to have growing plants supporting buildings?” Intrigued by this thought, I sketched the concept of growing structure.
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Space Play Sculpture, 34”X10’’X 25’’, Cardboard, 2014
In phase one, the sculpture was inspired by my class studio space. I wanted to exaggerate the postmodern feeling of the space by rearranging the spatial elements so that the sculpture would speak to its presenting space. In phase two, I enhanced the sculpture by integrating my body and mind as parts of the presentation. The lotus path, with its religious connotation, signifies transformation and relationship. 005
Rebuilding Pallet Interior Design Model, 1.5’’X6.5’’X4”, Wood, 2014
In the U.S., over four hundred million solid wood pallets are manufactured every year yet half of them are lost, destroyed or sent to landfill. This project is to rebuild a wasted pallet into a furniture that is elegant and useful. The picture presented on the left is the model of the plant shelf I designed by dissembling a pallet.
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Shrine Pillar Sculpture, 10’’ 10’’ 60”, Wood, 2014 X
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This project was made from a 2’’X4’’X’120” board without throwing away any piece of the original material. Every part has a new place in the whole while the form is recreated.
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Cube Reformation Date: September 10-15 Scale 1’’=2’
This sculpture explored the reconstruction of space by deforming and reforming a cube. With six facades respectively representing walls, a celling and a floor, cube is one of the most efficient structures for housing design and constructions. However, by deconstructing the cube and replicating its basic structure, there are infinite possibilities for space to be reconstructed. Through this project, I wanted to create space that is more dynamic and interactive than cubic space, which in a way challenges the “big-box architecture” that is permeated in the modern culture. In addition to making the model for the sculpture, I also explored the potential of this reformed structure to be a garden or a house.
The original cube 10’’X10’’X10’’, 2014 Reformed sculpture model, 20’’X15’’X9’’, Foam board
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Sculpture Redesign Date: September 15 - 20, 2014
After building the model for the sculpture, I pondered about its environmental and social impacts and realized that the sculpture might have aesthetic values but it is an alien object to nature as well as society. Therefore, I wanted to develop it into a garden as a natural site for pollinators and a recreational area for people. I was interested in peoples’ spatial experiences when they walk in the sculpture and see organisms growing over the geometrical structures. The garden would be a fun place for children to learn about native plants and hanging out with their families. It is potentially a space for creating memories.
Cube Reformation Sculpture Model, 20’’X15’’X9’’, Foam board
For sculpture landscaping, I first drew the floor plan of the structure. Then I divided the structure into three levels: floor level, shoulder level and overhead level. The idea was to cover different levels with plants so that ground plants grow up and top plants drip down as I intended to create an immersive garden experience for people.
Sculpture Bird Eye View, Scale 3/8
Color Coded Sculpture Level Plans, Scale 3/8, Color Pencil
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Sculpture Landscaping Scale: 3/8’’=1’ Location: Prescott, Arizona Plant list
Herbaceous layer: • Lavender • Yarrow • Prickly Pear • Thyme • Agave Ground cover: • Vetches Shrub layer: • Siberian peashrub Vines: • Algerian Ivy • Yellow Orchid Vine • Canyon Grape • Wisteria
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Cube Reformation House
South section drawing, Scale 3/8, Color pencil, 2014
Exploring more possibilities of the sculpture, I also identified the space that could be transformed into a house. Based on the height of the structure, I redesigned the floor plan and marked the zoning for the house that included a living room, a bedroom, a green house and a loft studio. To keep the style consistent, I designed the stairs to connect the first floor and the loft.
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Living Space includes dining space and a kitchen. It can accommodate up to five people. Bed Room is a private space that includes a bathroom and a closet. Green house is facing south and functions as a heater during the winter time. It also captures grey water from the bathroom. The second loft studio is facing north with glazing to maximize the light and the view. It could be accessed through the glazing stairs.
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Container House Location: Bear Mountain, Sedona, Arizona Date: October 10 - 15, 2014
Shipping containers are durable and portable structures. About 25 million of these multicolored boxes move through U.S. container ports a year. But so much travel takes its toll, and after about eight years, the containers wear out and are retired. Unused cargo containers lying idle around U.S. ports and shipping yards and estimates have ranged from 700,000 to 2 million. An ecological solution to these used containers is to transform them into housing. In this small dwelling project, my client wanted a design to make a single container fit to house an intern taking care of the food plantings on the site and acting as care taker for the property. The major challenge in this project was the huge temperature difference in Sedona between winter and summer time. Therefore, insulation, shade structure and size of the windows are the keys to keep the space comfortable all year round while solely using solar energy.
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Design Concept In this project, I designed a usable home in a 20’ by 8’ container. Even in a shelter as small as this container house, I had to think through many aspects such as the impact of the sun, the prevailing wind, precipitation, rainwater catchment, the change of the temperature, and potential guest stay in this limited space. In response to all these impulses, the design of the house only included two small windows, allowing enough light coming through while in the same time minimizing the summer sun exposure, which would overheat the space. In order to stack functions, I designed a small kitchen with a counter for both cooking and dining. Kitchen, bathing and rest room are next to each other so that grey water could be concentrated to gravity feed the food planting on the site. Photovoltaic panels were incorporated on the south side of the rest room. Additionally, I put a sliding shōji door next to the bed to keep the sleeping space warm at night with body heat radiation. This door also creates a private sleeping space for the dweller while a potential guest could stay over night on the folding sofa in the living space. Container House Interior, Perspective Drawing, Scale 1/4, Pen
East, North and South Container House Sections, Scale 1/4
Container House Floor Plan, Scale 1/4 013
Dogstar Ranch
Retreat and Conference Center Team Members: Audrey Hamann, Deb Pastor, Eve Higgins, Kelli Pearson, Yuan Zhuang, Zola Sturtz Date: October 20 – December 18, 2014
Our design team was asked to provide a master plan and phase one implementation plan for a 320 acre ranch in north east Arizona. The intent of the development was to provide a conference and retreat center for artists, musicians, writers and others. It was also intended to house up to 300 people for performances and 200 for conferences. The goal of this project was to help guide the owners of the ranch in best design practices to allow this development to maintain the existing fabric of the land. In this case, our design team also came up with site-specific research on land preservation to support our plan proposal.
Canis Major Constellation
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High Impact Area Erosion Map
Grassland Map
Erosion Map
Impact Map
Design for a Dream After experiencing and researching the site, our team reflected upon why we were caring about this project. Answers to the question merged into our collective vision, which became the central principle guiding our design. Vision Statement: At DogStar Ranch, the land is the teacher. And our vision is nothing less than a positive transformation of global culture that reconnects people to themselves and to the natural world. Mission Statement: DogStar Ranch is a place for healing, celebration, learning, reflection, sharing and silence. We facilitate a visceral experience for a diversity of creative, passionate people that results in a deep sense of connection with each other, with self, and with the rhythms of nature. Through the thoughtful design of our structures, our landscapes and our programs, we aim to demonstrate how to live in harmony with nature in a way that nourishes our body, mind, and spirit. People leave refreshed, inspired and filled with new commitment, skills and the positive energy needed to transform our culture. DogStar is filled with a sense of love, wonder, and care that is so contagious it will naturally spill out into the rest of the world. 015
Dogstar Ranch Master Plan Location: Contro, Arizona Size: 320 Acres
Synthesizing the group research and discussions, I drew up this plan. Land is our primary client in this project. Therefore, this plan mainly considered the systems and relations of different factors that would impact the land. To restore the grassland, this plan was developed based on our erosion research that identified the high, medium and low impact areas. This was to concentrate construction and human activities on the existing disturbed region instead of further impacting the land.
GLAMPING
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Amphi-Center Design In this project, I designed this “amphicenter”. The main idea in this design was to stack functions and minimize the land use by combining the conference center with the amphitheater. Rooms in the structure are designated for multifunction so that they could facilitate regular smallgroup visiting and 300-people events. Scale: 2/32’’= 1’ Approximate Size in square footage • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Solarium: 700-800 Lobby/Lounge: 700 Retail: 240 Dining: 1000 Main bathroom: 200 Laundry: 200 Commercial kitchen: 500-600 Amphitheater: 3500 Stage: 300 Backstage: 520 Meeting rooms: 1432 Back bathroom: 100 Studio: 500 Registration: 50 Office & storage: 180
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Senior Research (Excerpt)
Monochrome Waterlilies, 8’’X24’’, Collage, 2014 Followed is an excerpt from my senior thesis “The meaning of home: exploring the dialectics of dwelling in domestic space with a tour through Claude Monet’s house at Giverny”. I take this project as a theoretical practice to investigate the meanings of space from philosophical, historical, anthropological and art perspectives.
With an analytical tour through Claude Monet house at Giverny, my senior thesis explores the dialectics of dwelling in domestic space and its indication on the meanings of home in relation to house. Monet exemplified a way of living that substantiates what Heidegger (1971) revealed as the ontology of dwelling, which is “a basic character of being in keeping with which mortals exist” (p.158). Pointed out by Heidegger, to dwell is to keep safe, to take care, to look after the fourfold – sky, earth, divinity and mortals - in its “presencing” in things, which essentially produce sites and define space. Put it into simple words,
to dwell is to find out what we are by connecting with where we are, so that we are always able to find a way home even though the whirligig of life throws the unknown and the unsettled at us. In Monet’s case, the distinction between home and house never appears. He is such a fervent admirer of life who was constantly dedicated to nursing the domestic settings with his connoisseurship of art and artifacts, organic taste for food and botany love. The associated rituals and refinement in things are reciprocal to nurture his being by connecting his consciousness with the constructive space. Additionally, the creation of the garden in the open air calls the rigid form of a house into question and illustrates the possibility of the qua house - empty space of either inside or outside - to shelter Dasein. With the profusion of flowers that were crowded and compacted a cluster by a cluster in his garden,
Monet reiterates his concentrated dwelling, inviting as well as constructing a unique worldhood via his most intimate space. The primary way to dissolve the dualism of house and home is through dwelling. Just as Heidegger (1971) noted: “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” (p.159). Reference Heidegger, M. (1971). Poetry, language, thought. (Hofstadter, A. Trans.). New York: Harper & Row.
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Self Portrait
Drawing, 10’’ X 15’’, Pencil, 2014 019