Yiran Zhao Portfolio

YIRAN ZHAO PORTFOLIO

SELECTED WORK 2020-2022

Master of Architecture

Univserity of Pennsylavnia

Yiran Zhao

09.11.1997 | Philadelphia, US

(+1) 4847076544 | US

(+86) 13501558383 | CN yirzhao@design.upenn.edu zhaoyrcecilia@gmail.com

EDUCATION

SKILLS

+ Rhino | Revit | AutoCAD | SketchUp | ZBrush | Grasshopper | Houdini

+ Vray | Keyshot Enscape Unreal Engine

+ Adobe Photoshop | Illustrator | InDesign | Lightroom | Premiere Pro

+ Laser Cut | 3D Print | Robotic Arm

+ Madarin (native) | English (advanced)

LEED Green Associates

University of Pennsylvania | Weitzman School of Design Master of Architecture

Integrated Product Design (IPD) Cerificate

Contents

06.2020 - 05.2023

Bachelor of Arts with Magna Cum Laude Honor

EXPERIENCE

Bryn Mawr College

Major: History of Arts | Fine Arts at Haverford College

Minor: Growth & Structure of Cities

Summer Internship RSHP(Shenzhen Office)

- Produced schematic plans, sections

- Wrote meeting minutes of meetings with clients

- 3D modeled site conditions

- Prepared design proposal presentation for project modification

- Shadowed in construction meetings and recorded progression

+ Projects worked on: Shenzhen HongKong Plaza (Shenzhen) Young Entrepreneurship Zone (Shenzhen)

Draftsperson

Voith and Mactavish Architects

- 3D-modeled the entire project with site, and produced rendered model video for the client

- Produced physical models using laser cutting and 3D printing techniques

- Delivered exterior and interior renderings

- Produced detailed elevation and section drawings for projects both in shematic phase and design development phase

- Participated in the interior design including choosing color scheme and furniture.

+ Projects worked on: Saint Joseph University (Philadelphia, PA) Milllbrook School (Millbrook, NY)

Urbanus Summer Internship

- Researched the history and culture of Nantou Old Town

- Produced spatial organization and site anaylsis diagrams

- Participated in the preparation of Chicago Architecture Biennial Exhibition: Produced ideas of story-telling in viewers manual

Designed the exhibition board and photographed the site for exhibition use

+ Projects worked on: Nantou Old Town Preservtaion and Regeneration

Teaching Assistant

AWARDS

University of Pennsylvania

Weitzman School of Design

University of Pennsylvania | Weitzman School of Design

+ Taught 602 Design Studio with Gisela Baurmann

Prepared weekly tutorials (Midjourney and Vray)

• Provide design and representation suggestions for students

Walter Leach Fellowship

The E. Lewis Dales Traveling Fellowships

06. 2022 - 08. 2022

Shenzhen, CN

Warm World Residence On UPS Building - 21 Fall

GeoBeing

Data Center - 22 Spring

08. 2019 - 06. 2020

Philadelphia, US

Roof Common

Market and Residence Extension - 21 Spring

07. 2017 - 08. 2017

Shenzhen, CN

Buried In the Sky

Extension of Penn Museum - 20 Fall

09. 2021 - 12. 2021

Philadelphia, US

Eco Battery Plant

Battery Plant with Urban Utality - 22 Fall

+ Awarded to students who are selected through an anonymous portfolio competition judged by a committee comprised of standing and core studio faculty

Warren Powers Laird Award

+ Awarded to the student with the highest standing in all courses in the first year of the professional degree program in architecture

Pressing Matters

+ First-year works published in school magazine Pressing Matters

Nominee

Metropolis Future 100

Work Sample

WARM WORLD

RESIDENCE ON UPS BUILDING

at 522 Greenwich Street, New York, NY

Critic: Gisela Baurmann

Fall 2021 Arch 601 Design Studio III

The studio “discusses the notion of comfort in the context of human and non-human habitats, and proposes built environments for various living organisms to flourish in.”

This project starts from studies of grnulata, an orange fungus and its related mushroom. The connection between linear and circular space in micro-scale mushrooms was the inspiration of spatial organization. The profiles of the cells became the first step for generating the units.

Drawings of Micro-scope Mushroom Details (below) Street View Showing the Western Facade (right)

The three user profiles reflects different people that may live in the residence, and the non-human user is mushroom. Their different needs for space generates distinct unit sizes and the co-habitat space.

1b1b

2b2b

3b3b

Co-habitat Space

1b1b

2b2b

3b3b

Corridor

Axonometric showing the Whole Building

The public common space in on the lower level that connects the housing and the UPS building, which is designed mainly for the peace-making program for The Center for Court Innovation. People could access the common space from the street and get to the rooftop of the UPS building, which contains a rooftop garden and also the lobby of the residence. The public common space therefore connects the neighborhood.

Interior View of a 2b2b

With the interest on how to perserve the organic and unique shapes of the mushroom in the design, the project focus on the combination of comfort and aesthetic There is a continuity of space in the interior space that from the ceiling to the walls and stairs, it is a whole. The exterior facade uses the curvature of the mushroom details, which follows the profile of the units and meanwhile provide semi-exteior space for the units.

Physical Model Showing Elevation (up left)

North-South Partial Section (down left)

Chunk Showing The Facade and Common Space

Since mushroom prefers dark, humid and warm space, and in contrast, most of people prefers bright, wellventilated space for comfort. Thus, the spatial organization of the housing is human spaces are arranged around the periphery of the massing, and the mushroom spaces are placed in the inner side. thus, human gets more daylight while mushroom occupies the darker interior

Section Showing Relationship Between Units and Co-habitat Space (up left)

Physical Model Chunck Showing Human and Non-Human Spaces (right)

GEOBEING

DATA CENTER

at Anable Basin, Queens, NY

Critic: Danielle Willems

Spring 2023 Arch 602 Design Studio II

Collaborated with Li Yang

GeoBeing is a data center embracing the function of a memorial hall, in which the information of the group of people in their afterlife is stored and presented through the space experiment.

Three key elements form the essence of this project: the sun, the water, and the earth With these elements, this project aims to construct an interaction between the information sources, the data center, and the receivers who need access to the data.

This interaction happens based on the experience of the transition of ‘Time’, and it could be demonstrated and presented in three stages: the center as an interface between life and death, the transition in experiencing the natural elements, and the transition between the materials.

Building Cast Shaow In Different Seasons

Close Up View On the Facade

The third strategy is about the earth This project has two things representing the earth- the data rock and the rammed earth facade.

The data rock is the supercomputer center in this building. After a person passes away, their footprint will lose along with death. This data center tries to store all this gradually vanishing information, including the memory, the personal information and the digital footprint. The rock is a womb to give a person a chance to be memorized.

North-South Section (up) Elevation (left)

Exploded Axon of Rammed Earth Facade (downleft) Top View Render (right)

1. Copper Cover

2. Precast Colored Rammed Earth Modules

3. Metal Support

4. Temperature Sensor

5. Concrete Rebars

6. Heating and Cooling Pipes

7. Metal Parapet

The structural system of this building is the concrete skeleton with rammed earth as the vital cladding. The copper frame holds the continuous precast rammed earth modules and hangs back to the concrete wall.

The rammed earth floats along the concrete monolith with the copper frame and becomes another representation of the time transition. When the time goes by, the rusted and the water stains will climb up to the materials’ surface, illustrating the loss of time and becoming the mark of the building’s memory.

Rammed Earth Facade Detail Drawing (left) Inside The Rock (mid) 1/8” Plan (right)

Time is documented and memorized in GeoBeing, with GeoBeing, and presented by the existence of GeoBeing. The past, the present and the afterlife happen timelessly in this ‘time-presenting’ monolith.

ROOF COMMONS MARKET AND RESIDENCE EXTENSION

at 52nd St Station, Philadelphia, PA

Critic: Eduardo Rega

Spring 2020 Arch 502 Design Studio II

Half-corporated with Li Yang

The project started with group of two researching a grassroot organiztion in Philadelphia and developed an urban scale plan of public common space inlcuding a central marketplace for the west philadelphia community.

This project is an urban-scale design with flexible roof system builds up on the existing roofs, allowing easy assembly and providing servant spaces for mechanics and deliveries of resources. It could become a second ground on top of the existing roof or activate the ground under it..

Component Diagram of A Unit (below) Axon Cut of the Whole Site (right)

The proto document shows the roof spatial organizing strategy that could be located in different conditions of the site. It could connect the existing roofs and the station, and be inserted into the vacant space to create a network of resources.

Roof Commons could be categorized into four spatial conditions the Center Agora Condition which is built on top of the station, the second codition is on vacant space, the third condition is the common areas on top of the existing roofs and the connections between roof levels, and the last condition is developed on the façades of the buildings.

Interior Zoom Ins Showing Market and Offices Programs (up left)

Exploded Axon Showing Center Agora Componenets (down left) The Second Floor of The Agora View (right)

The system covers the station and generates a center agora for community assembly. Moveable plywood walls are added to provide flexible space and free plans for different occupancies The second roof offers a shared rooftop garden for the community.

On The Facade Condition (up left)

Vavant Space Condition (down left)

Roof Top Condition (right)

The truss system spreads out from the center and becomes bridges that connect different rooftop levels reform the existing rooftops to various programs The trusses that become the second ground also activate the levels under it. The platforms could suspend outside of the existing facade and extend the neighborhood levels, then, they become children’s playgrounds, or small markets, and elevated green spaces. These cablehung platforms vertically connect the roof and the ground and expand horizontally to activate the vacant space.

BURIED IN THE SKY

EXTENSION OF PENN MUSEUM

at 3260 South St, Philadelphia, PA

Critic: Nate Hume Fall 2020 Arch 501 Design Studio I

What would a buried relic feel if it has life? Maybe it would feel suspended somewhere in the universe while time and space remain still, or it would feel a fluidity of time and space. This project is intended to explore this fluidity of time and space with the contradiction and consistency It challenges and questions people’s perception of objects through space, color, and material.

The pink and mint color on the façade are contrasting but remains consistency with the red old brick and the green landscape. The continuity of patterns on the materials maintains the fluidity throughout the façade and minimizes the gap throughout time while the use of tiles and concrete panels indicate the difference of time.

Material Studey (up left)

Form Diagram (down left)

Choisy - The Connection of Time Through Space (right)

Exterior View - Framing Views (left) Floor Plan - Segment and Continuity (right)

Curved and tilted walls frame and limit the views, but the space extends and keeping the fluidity because of the irregular shape and leaning composition.

ection - Curved Walls Creating Different Experience (left)

Section Perspective - Leaning Parts Creating Interacting Space (right)

The building seems to be composed by separated parts but remains continuity in the interior, which corresponded to the contradiction between the isolation underground and the liberty in the sky.

Half-suspended on the ground, this new addition of Penn museum intends to lead people peak through the apertures and view the existing museum as an item on display. The façade of the existing museum is framed by the structures, which indicates people’s perception of the exhibited objects may be segmentary. Meanwhile, the apertures create a continuity of space and connect the visitors from contemporary life to the history. Also, the dripping figures in the form contrasts to the suspended structure: while the upper part remains to stay in the air, the lower part intends to drop into the ground.

Elevation - Contracdiction and Cotinuity in Material and Color (up)

Unrolled Elevation - Slipping Into Ground (left)

Eco Battery Plant

Battery Plant with Urban Utality at

Hackney Wick, London, UK

Critic: Barry Wark

Fall 2022 Arch 701

Collaborated with Echo Ma

Exploring Software Houdini and Unreal Engine 5

As a result of post-industrial development, nature and human artifacts are commonly regarded as distinct parts.

The project intends to challenge this common recognition by introducing ambiguity that blurs the boundary between the built and the natural environment Adopting a holistic perspective, our project integrates machines, energy, environment, and all bio-spherical matters by creating an architectural space that mimics the dynamic of the global ecology.

Early Study Model made by Houdini

Interior View by Unreal Engine

The building as a public utility serves as a battery storage plant Large-scale batteries are encased in modules that protect them from weather and avoid potential chemical dangers to human beings. These modules are

Aerial View Showing Massing (left) Interior Render by UE5(right)

stacked and can be inserted into the steel structure across the project.

In contrast to the base structure and envelope, the modules can be moved and transferred by the cranes from the ships on the canal frequently when there is a demand, so they are relatively fresh and shiny metal compared to the ruined and rusted material around them. The battery modules spatially indicate a continuity that may navigate people throughout their experience within the building.

Chunk Showing Main Spaces and Battery Modules(right)

The building, however, exposes some of the battery modules to the weather through the openings and gaps. Visitors can take a peak at the machines from the outside without actually engaging with the building physically through the penetarations on the facade of the building. Through these visual exposures, the urban dwellers witness and reflect on what they perceive on a daily basis, which experience enhances their awareness of power and energy in the ecology

Elevation - An Observing Public Utality

Buried In The Sky Extension of Penn Museum

RSHP - Internship

Summer 2022 - Shenzhen RSHP Office

Project: Shenzhen Hongkong Plaza (DD)

Produced the section and plans for the clients through organizing existing site conditions and the design of team.

Draftsperson - Voith & Mactavish Architect

2019-2020 - Philadelphia, US

Project: Saint Joseph’s University

Produce the 3D models of the entire campus and site conditions for the team the create renderings in the schematic design phase

RITTENHOUSE PROJECT

Spirng 2022 Construction Course REVIT Project

Designed a commerical building and using Revit to create an entire construction documents including plans, sections, construction details.

South Facade (up left)

Typical Floor Plan - Level 5 (down left) Building Section - North/South (down right)

Wall Sections (up) Section Details (down)