Work in and after Grad School

ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO

ZHAOXING YANG

Culture Crossover

Location: Aurora, Colorado // Type: Multi-function Community Center

MSD-AAD Architected Structure Design Research Studio 2022 Spring

Light Filter

Location: Atlanta, Georgia // Type: Graduate School of New and Emerging Media

Personal Exploration 2022 Summer

MSD-AAD Design Studio 2021 Fall 03

Real Virtuality

Location: New York City // Type: Expansion of New York Stock Exchange, NFT Museum

Deep Skin

Type: Facade Design

MSD-AAD Digital Fabrication Studio 2022 Summer

Construction waste has always been a vital problem for our environment and world, and it is hard to reuse construction waste as direct construction material in mid-rise or high-rise architecture. On the one hand, the weight of solid infill will be consequentially heavier when the construction goes higher. On the other hand, the infilled fragments are not fixed within the steel mesh. It then can not take any tension to span.

At this point, some precedent studies enlightened our research. In ancient Rome, Opus Craticium was described as using a wooden frame to reinforce masonry inside. Using a wooden frame not only ensured the infilled element was in place but also became the potential element to span as a part of the structure.

In this construction-based design studio, we attempted to infill a wooden truss frame with construction waste to solve this problem because the reinforcement of the wooden frame creates opportunities to span and hold lateral force while the construction waste is taking the compression force. A rotation is added to the stacking language. It not only creates potential circulation but also creates a connection between different clusters to increase stability.

As a result, we generate a mid-rise community center for the integration of race between the Aurora and Denver area, including the program of the local market, library, auditorium, gallery, and cafeteria.

Culture Crossover

A Multi-function Community Center Developed from an Innovative Construction Method

Project Type: Multi-funtion Community Center Site: 2501 Dallas St, Aurora, Colorado

Project Area: 120000 Square Feet

Outdoor Market

Circulation+Gallery

Auditorium

Gallery

Library

Cafeteria

Office

Outdoor Leisure

These wooden frames rotate around the center mass and support each other. They are composed of construction waste and support each other

Structure combines with other programs such as library

The wooden structures spiral up, expand and become foor plates

There are abundant visual connections between different space

The boundary between structure and space starts to dissolve

Student: Zhaoxing Yang & Yifan Zhao// Reduced-Waste Assembly

Rooftop hand rail

4“ CLT frame Curtain Wall

1/4”

CLT

1/4”

12” Aluminum Frame

3” Wooden Frame Finishing

HVAC and Mechanic System

Construction

Floor Panel with Truss

Metal Fastener

Double Glass with 1” Air Gap

Waste Constrained by Steel Mesh and Wooden Frames

Double Glass with 1” Air Gap

Facade reveals the logic behind the innner trusses The scale of the structure decreases as height increases

1:50 physical chunk model reveals real material and construction logic This detailed model image shows the combination of circulation and structure

Parts of the facade lift up to indicate the entrance and the open public space underneath

The carrier of media has always been constantly evolving. However, no matter how it changes its form, the fundamental spirit of media is to convey information and truth. The rise of new media accelerates this delivery process but reduces the authority and reliability of the information. It may sound like going backward, but new media makes information more tolerant and diverse for individuals. So, Students who will be future field leaders need to have their judgments and perspectives about information based on their knowledge. The truth of information could be one and only, but people are unique and diverse. This idea enlightens the project. Information is as neutral and influential as daylight. They both can become overwhelming without control. In architecture, the exact light source can create a completely different ambiance if the receivers differ. The different volumes and misaligned floor plates reform the skylight into various conditions to suit different functions.

Moreover, the transparency of the ground floor creates an exciting contrast between heaviness and lightness. There is an illusion of the concrete mass floating above nothing. From carved slates to printed books, the media carrier has always had a sense of heaviness in its blood—however, the evolution of new media free media from its physical weight. The contrast of the façade also represents this contrast between conventional media and new media.

Light Filter

A Graduate School of New and Emerging Media Reshapes Skylight for Different Spaces and Functions

Project Type: Graduate School of New and Emerging Media Site: 150 Walton St NW, Atlanta, GA 30303

Project Area: 62000 Square Feet

Circulation mainly distributed around atrium spaces The contrast between concrete and glass creates a sense of floating heaviness

The birds eye view shows that the different types of apertures get daylight into varies floors from above

Smaller programs stacks on larger public programs

Pedestrians walked by have direct visual connection to the underground gallery

Perspective section drawing shows the relationship between skylights and different spaces

Diverse spaces share a same light source but can recieve that same light into different ways, and it is similar to the relationship between people and media information

One point perspective view of the media auditorium nearby the outdoor green space

Third Floor Plan

Linear patterns on the curve concrete wall subtly reflect gentle daylight into the underground gallery

The geometrical language is smooth and strong at the same time

Real Virtuality

A Future NFT (Non-fungible Tokens) Museum Expands the possibility of New York Stock Exchange

Project Type: Expansion of New York Stock Exchange, NFT Museum Site: 11 Wall St, New York, NY 10005 (above the New York Stock Exchange)

This project takes the advantages of our precedents studies: Wexner Center and Long Museum. We select the circles and the girds from Wexner Center and the radians from Long Museum to develop our design. Our main design technique is to use cylinders to change the radians of the grids with two directions and create a sharp contrast between heavy mass and light grid. We think that the New York Stock Exchange in the future will be mainly used to place servers, so we focused on designing machine space with is mainly composed of the grids. First, we designed a machine system, divided into seven layers. The first layer is the grid system. The second layer is the reinforced structure. The third layer is server stacks. The fourth layer is the ventilation system that passes through the entire building from top to bottom. The fifth layer is a cooling system composed of pipes. The sixth layer is dust nets. The seventh layer is used for insulation. Second, we let human space and nonhuman space interact. People can look at servers from a distance such as what happens in the auditorium, or walk closely and stand beside them, or walk in a machine-like space to see the servers on the top through the grids. As for the facade, we use layers to form a rich facade as well as a grid forest on the roof by superimposing different mullions. As for the floor plan, we use walls with similar profiles to connect the two buildings on the left and right with our design.

This detail drawing shows how these cylindrical unit store NFT servers

The plan drawing follows the aesthetics of the facade and the section

This axon view highlights that the facade of this project is consist of various visual layers

Perspective section drawing represents the relationship between cylindrical servers units and surrounding spaces

1:50 scale 3D printed physical model shows a chunk of the auditorium space

This physical model also shows the detail of the multi-layer facade system

Detailed images of the physical model

Deep Skin

An Interactive Facade System Celebrates the Beauty of Fabrication

Project Type: Facade Design

Site: NA(Digital Experiment)

Project Area: It's a Part of a Facade Covering Two Floors and Two Bays

Corian, as an integrated material of plastic and mineral substance, can bend and reform while keeping its stiffness. This project is an exploration of its possibility in architectural discourse. Through the process of different fabrication methods, including laser cutting, CNC milling, thermoforming, and robotic arm flocking, our group tries to design a dynamic façade system that reveals the beauty of material and fabrication. The final design is a double façade system that covers two floors and two bays. Different depth of each layer creates visual richness with engraved surfaces and painting style. Orange camouflagestyle paintings create various perceptions of the façade based on the different observation distances. The aggressive form of the inner side of the façade creates legible space and functions, such as planting space, for users to interact with the façade system. These activities endow this two-dimensional façade with a threedimensional meaning. The final model is a one-to-one scale façade chunk to celebrate the excellent cooperation between the formal language, the material's smoothness, and the fabrication's complexity.

Generating different compositional studies based on the physical collision simulation in Maya and translate them into potential facade system

Refining surfaces in Blender and create vusual complexity by adding various patterns

Vacuum form PVC prototypes to test out different combination of patterns and forms

differnt

Using robotic arm to apply flock fiber with

color on the thermorformed acrylic panels and assembling them together as a 10” by 15” small scale prototype model

The design developes into a double facade system covering two floors and two bays and most of panels facing up are transparant to provide abundant natural daylight

Visual connection between different space make people perceive the complexity of the design

The facade system interacts with the floor plate

Disassembled rendering shows the idea of creating differnt layers to create visual complexity

The curving form has dramatic change to keep the whole combination dynamic

Detail shots of the model

Here is the final physical model of the 1:2 scale 2’ by 5’ prototype made with 6” Corian and 3” transparant acrylic

Each piece of the Corian panel is carved by CNC machine and manually thermoformed with framework underneath