WORK SAMPLES ZHIWEI LIAO 2017
Apple Flagship Store Kunming, China
Recently opened in January 2017, the Apple Flagship Store in Kunming is crowned by a spectacular illuminated glass lantern, which provides the jewel-like centerpiece of the shopping center’s entrance plaza and acts as a light well, drawing daylight deep into the subterranean retail level. The lantern is a deceptively simple, yet technically advanced composition of motorized pivot doors and fixed glass panes, each 18 feet in height, held together without visible joints, and covered by a lightweight sheet of opaque carbon fiber canopy with an acrylic skylight 12 feet in diameters to allow natural light casting through. To embrace the warm local weather and allow natural ventilation, the motorized pivot glass doors remain open during the business hours. The sleek canopy reduces the visual information from the material edge, and is supported by the fixed glass panes beneath to appear floating. The result of close collaboration between architect and client, the store is both an expression of Apple’s brand and a beacon for the development, with the architecture complementing the purity of form, innovation and ease of use of the products on display.
Architect Year Program Size Role Involvement
2
Integrated Design Associates 2015 Retail, Back of House 13,270 sf Project Architect Schematic Design, Design Development
3
2Q
4 9'-2 1/4" 2800
9'-2 1/4" 2800
9'-2 1/4" 2800
9'-2 1/4" 2800
7'-10 1/2" 2400
109'-6 1/2" 33388
9'-2 1/4" 2800
14'-4 1/2" 4381
9'-2 1/4" 2800
74'-3 5/8" 22648 9'-2 1/4" 2800
9'-2 1/4" 2800
27'-6 11/16" 8400
10 7/16" 265
9'-2 1/4" 2800
9'-2 1/4" 2800
2R
5'-0" 4'-7 1/8" 1524 1400
27'-6 11/16" 8400
5'-2 1/4" 1581
9'-2 1/4" 2800
9'-2 1/4" 2800
2'-11 11/16" 906
7'-4 1/8" 2238
9'-7 1/8" 2924
4'-7 1/8" 5'-0" 1400 1524
27'-6 11/16" 8400
2S
32'-3 3/16" 9834
27'-6 11/16" 8400
B8 27'-6 11/16" 8400 B9 27'-6 11/16" 8400 B10
2'-3" 687 5'-0" 1524
81'-3" 24765
27'-6 11/16" 8400 B11
150'-0 9/16" 45735
27'-6 11/16" 8400 B12 27'-6 11/16" 8400
10'-0" 3048
2P
2N 68'-9 9/16" 20970
B13
MG5 240 255
225
270
210
285
195
300
180
315
165
MGA 330
150 MGA
345
135
0
120
15
105
30
90
45
75 60 MG5
5
Edie and Lew Wasserman Building University of California, Los Angeles
This six-story, 100,000 SF building is a highly crafted campus-infill project to enhance the image of one of the country’s leading eye care centers. The position, proportion, orientation and scale of the project create an outdoor room with terraced landscapes, which orientates visitors to the new entrances of the building complex. The south elevation of this new facility reflects the scale and structural cadence of the existing building facade directly across the arrival garden. The transparency of the south elevation makes the elevator lobby and clinic waiting areas visible from the approach garden and passenger drop-off plaza. Once inside, patients benefit from day-lit seating areas with unobstructed views of the surrounding landscape. As essential to the project’s palette as the terracotta, stone, carpet and, mill-work, and furniture, harnessed natural light shapes each public interior space and contributes to the project’s rich and inviting architectural experience. The building’s exterior terracotta and concrete surfaces integrate the new architectural elements with the site’s original structures and develop important color and textural continuity with the campus context.
Architect Year Program Size Involvement
6
Richard Meier & Partners 2009 - 2012 Eye Institute and Medical Center 100,000 sf Conceptual Design to Construction Documents
7
SEMEL INSTITUTE / NPI
EDIE & LEW WASSERMAN BUILIDING
WESTWOOD PLAZA
JULES STEIN EYE INSTITUTE
A Edie & Lew Wasserman Building Plan
8
DORIS STEIN EYE RESEARCH CENTER
9
10
11
12
13
Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills, California
This adaptive reuse of retail space is situated in the commercial center of Beverly Hills and expands on the Gagosian Gallery’s existing galleries and offices designed by Richard Meier & Partners in 1995. The addition embodies the qualities of space and light that distinguish the Gagosian Gallery, yet departs with its expressive reuse of an existing wood barrel vault roof. The natural wood ceiling, trusses and steel beam offer a distinctive counterpoint to the airfoil wing that scoops daylight into the existing Gagosian Gallery. The new gallery space utilizes skylights to balance daylight from the north and south sky to support a diversity of installations. The expansive day-lit gallery walls can accommodate even larger works in gallery space with a quality of light that is consistent with the original Gagosian Gallery. The glazed public street facade blends seamlessly with the existing Gallery facade and provides pedestrians a glimpse into the gallery. A single 225sf glass and aluminum sliding door at the street allows oversized artwork to be unloaded directly into the gallery and allows exhibit space to open to the active Beverly Hills street. New second level offices and a private sky-lit viewing gallery address the growing gallery’s administrative and exhibit needs. At the roof, a sculpture terrace provides a unique outdoor setting for installations and offers views of the city and the surrounding Hollywood Hills.
Architect Year Program Size Involvement
14
Richard Meier & Partners 2010 Galleries, Offices, Roof Deck, Library. 5,000 sf Construction Documents
15
16
17
9900 Wilshire Beverly Hills, California
9900 Wilshire is home to a collection of more than two hundred luxury condominium residences comprising thirteen- and fifteenstory residential buildings, public and private gardens, water features, and a retail component. The architecture is designed to be site-specific with a timeless presence that is compatible with the neighboring Hilton hotel and sensitive to the adjacent Los Angeles Country Club. The two residential building are positioned at the west property line and raised above the ground to maximize access to natural light. The buildings are curvilinear and horizontal to reflect the natural forms and geometry of the country club`s landscape as well as the classic horizontal massing of the neighboring Hilton Hotel. Many of the residences are designed with double-height spaces and are “through units� with views to the country club and to Beverly Hills. The best residences in southern California take advantage of the Mediterranean climate by extending interior space to the outside through the use of courtyards, terraces, balconies, and large areas of properly shaded glass, and here opportunities were sought to minimize the distinction between indoor and outdoor space.
Architect Year Program Size Involvement
18
Richard Meier & Partners 2006-2009 Residential, Retail 1,000,000 sf Schematic Design, Design Development
19
20
21
22
23
Kasa Karma Beverly Hills, California
This extraordinary residential property is accessed by a 1,000 foot driveway that climbs along a ridge to an elevated pad with views to the entire Los Angeles basin. The architecture and building footprint are designed to celebrate the views and mediate between the topographic geometry of the hillside and the structured garden and landscape of the flat building pad. The interior planning is designed in a linear organization to allow each living space expansive views to the city, balanced with framed views to scaled private gardens.
Architect Year Program Size Involvement
24
Richard Meier & Partners 2006 Single Family House 5,000 sf Schematic Design
25
Concrete Casting SUNY Buffalo
This thesis is located at the intersection between digital design and physical fabrication in order to understand the potential and limitations of each of these modes of making, which are central to architectural production. The vehicle for exploration is the elegant proposition of the knot – a three-dimensional entity without beginning or end – which is explored at three 1:1 scales: fabric, the scale of a hand-held object, and the scale of a room. The knot is digitally drawn and manipulated using Rhino software. To control the experiment, it is determined that all physical fabrications should be cast rather than constructed. Materiality is not consistent but rather is calibrated to scale. The hand-held knot straddles the digital and physical realms with a mold made by the 3-D digital printer used for casting hydrocal. The size of the printer governs the size of the mold, requiring the knot to be fabricated using six repetitive segments. This investigation introduces the problem of the joint, which in this mode and scale of fabrication, becomes a weak point both conceptually and literally. The room-sized knot moves firmly into the physical realm. The digitally generated patterns are now used, not to govern a digital fabrication tool, but to make plywood formwork for reinforced concrete. With this scale and material, the joint is eliminated and the knot can be cast as a single entity. Here resistance is found in the type and thickness of plywood. To achieve the required double curvature, instinct would choose a thin formwork material for flexibility, but instead, empirical evidence from three iterations of formwork lead to the construction of the final form from 3/4 inch plywood - scored along digitally determined lines to achieve the required double curvature. The knot must be digitally modified to bring the curvatures within the physical limitations of the plywood.
Project Year Techniques Material
26
Concrete Knot 2005 Computation, Concrete Casting. Concrete, Plywood.
27
[1-9] Fabric
The digital model of the knot as an exquisite virtual entity offers no resistance, while fabricating the knot using physical material reveals numerous forms of resistance. To bring this digital form into the physical realm, and still maintain its intrinsic character - a threedimensional entity without beginning or end - challenges the fabrication methods. While 3D printer translates the digital data into a physical entity, the 3D Printer limited the size of the physical object to be realized, the components are printed separately for a bigger assembly.
3D-Print | A Knot & The Component
? 1
2
3
5
6
? 4
28
x60
As the 3D printed prototype could be transformed precisely from computational data to physical entity, the fabric project is to further present the topological concept, in other words, the knots are "untangled" and "woven" completely in digital space. The 8 inches by 8 inches 3D printed fabric is consisted of 60 unitized interlocking knots, which are unlikely achievable in the physical realm. The pure 3D-print has more to do with the knot concept but is less relevant to material reality because it is not associated with the real world.
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1
2
3
5
6
8
9
? 4
x60 7
29
[10-18] Hand-held Knot
? 2
1
?
Since the fabric project is limited in scale in material reality, the material of the hand-held knot experiment is determined to be plaster. As the physical knot has only three points touching a supporting flat surface, most parts are supported by the arch-like shape. Hence, the plaster elements 4 should be designed to address those structural concerns. The scale determines the thickness of the knot which should be lightweight yet strong enough to span and retain its shape. The symmetrical form divides the knot into 6 typical parts which are reproduced by a 3D printed mold. They are connected by six stainless steel fasteners made by wire EDM (Electrical discharge machine), providing the required precision.
5
x60
30
3
As precision reduces during the casting process, the 3D printed mold is designed digitally in order to maintain certain tolerance. For the purpose of assembling and striping, the mold is composed of two parts with flanges with 19 holes for bolts. Considering the liquidity of the plaster, openings 6 have to be horizontal. A recess accommodates the metal connector which clamps two parts together. While this assembled knot has more to do with the material reality of plaster, the idea of the knot is compromised.
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8
9
10
11
12
The room-sized knot is made of concrete. The digitally generated patterns are now used to make plywood form-work. With this scale and material, the joint is eliminated and the knot can be cast as a single entity.
With Joints
13
14
16
15
Formwork
How? 17
Peter Zumthor, “no Joints�
Concrete
18
31
[19-24] Concrete Knot
The form-work parts are fabricated precisely to conjoin. The patterns for the sides and bottom of the form-work are extracted digitally from the rationalized knot geometry. The manufactured plywood material is cut, bent and clamped in order to With conform to the required shape. Joints The specific modification to the plywood shifts its characteristic and enhances its pliability. Beyond its physical limits, common plywood resists deformation and will bend or tear. Hence, the intentional introduction of discontinuity: the kerfs, into the 14 13 smoothly continuous ¾ inch plywoods surface alleviated the material’s resistance to the required curvatures. The kerfs used to assist in shaping the Formwork plywood are translated from computer-generated subdivisional lines based on the required curved surface. As a result, the notched plywood becomes flexible, yet remains strong enough to support the considerable weight and fluid pressure of the concrete mixture.
How?
15
Concrete
16
17
18
19
20
21
Formwork
22
32
Peter Zumthor, “no Joints”
Concrete Casting
23
24
33
Robotics Cutting Harvard GSD
The intention of the project is to explore the possibilities of formfinding through an innovative fabrication technique, which is the combination of the robotic arm and the potter’s wheel. The hand manipulated processes of the potter’s wheel were abstracted into simpler movements, which could then be translated into the robotic manufacturing process. The robotic technology combined with digital scripting tools would then be used to expand the formgeneration capabilities of the pottery-making process. This merging of techniques of the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ would not only introduce novelty in terms of forms but also lend towards a more mass-manufactured approach to the construction of ceramic forms.
Project Year Techniques Material
34
Robotic Ceramic 2015 Computation, Robotics Cutting. Ceramic.
35
Understanding the tools
+ Wire Cutter
36
= Robotics
Robotics Cutting
15°
30°
45°
37
Solving the problems
Axis Problem
Solution
There is a huge friction between the wire and the clay. The wooden rod, inserted into the plywood base, is not stiff enough and thus gets bent. As a result, the center of the clay body is not align with the turning axis of pottery’s wheel. The clay is consequently cut improperly. Therefore, the rod has to be made strong enough to resist the force and stand upright precisely.
Custom make a precise aluminum disk to connect the vertical rod to the wheel table.
38
Extrusion | Splitting Problem
Solution
While the clay extruder 1 is easier to handle, its blade die holder is too close to the threshold to have the rejoin the split clay which resulted in splitting problem when drying and firing the clay.
The clay extruder 2 had three-legged inner geometry placer which gave the clay inside the clay container to reconvene after being split by the three legs before being pushed out of the threshold of customized dye. It helped the clays to stick back together and withstand splitting while drying and firing.
39
Fabrication work flow
1. Extrusion
2. Rotation
3. Cutting
Extrusion takes clay into a container where the clay gets pulled through a customized die.
The hollow extrusion, fixed onto a rod which is tightly connected to the potter’s wheel, turns at a certain speed.
Robot arm with a carving tool attached at its tip, carves the clay with design trajectory of list of target points
40
4. Dry
5. Fire
6. Assembly
The drying process takes 7 days before firing.
The work was put into the large gas kiln and fired at low temperature for 4 days and then slowly to 01 (2079 F) for 3 days.
The fired units stack to be assembled by using metal conduit “vertically cantilevered� out from the podium.
41
Ceramic Printing Harvard GSD
The design for the 2017 Cevisama installation is based on the research we are conducting this year – 3d printing of ceramics. The installation is meant to showcase the design opportunities inherent in this process by creating the largest ceramic 3D printed object to date. The shape and design are geared towards optimizing the combination of thermal mass and a buoyancy driven cooling effect. The overall pavilion is discretized into elements that are smooth on the outside and have a contoured, 3d textured surface on the inside. The inside ‘bumpy’ surface optimizes the ratio of surface to thermal mass to maximize the potential for cooling through natural ventilation and buoyancy effects. We have created mathematical models that predict the behavior of the system. The compelling form of the installation is not only driven by the needs of testing and the interest in sustainability, it also creates a unique interior/ exterior experience that will be eye-catching at the trade fair show. We plan to have a poster or monitor to explain the scientific principles behind the design, along with videos of the printing process. The construction consists of a load-bearing steel structure (pipes and steel flats) that are welded into a rigid frame, and placed on a steel frame base. The ceramic printed elements are hooked onto the frame with specially designed steel rails, similar to the systems used for ceramic rain screen facades. Gaps between pieces allow for tolerances in the production.
Course Year Techniques Material
42
The Thermal Allometry of Massive, Breathing Buildings 2016 Computation, 3d printing ceramic. Ceramic.
43
rio
te
Ex
25
r
30
Day
Night
Day
Night
Int er ior
20
Temperature °C
15
44
Day
Night
45
Layer I: Insulation
Layer II: Thermal Mass Heat Exchange Surface
46
47
48
49
Collective Visual System: Learning from Social Media Harvard GSD
Architecture is visually consumed unprecedentedly in social media. It is critical to understand the relationship and bidirectional influence between the design to shape space and the photos of the space with respect to social media. Addressing the importance of weighted points of view in architectural space as opposed to isovist, the collective visual system is defined to have three components: Objects with Design Intent, Collective Visual Field and Preferable Vantage Points. The thesis suggested that the integrated design, from urban design, Landscape to Architecture, the Collective Visual System can be used to control the flow of visual information and enhance visual outcome. A set of points in space are generated by photogrammetric modeling in which the photos from social media are processed including features matching, filtering, clustering and 3d reconstructing. The 3d information of the selected buildings are generated based on Structure From Motion (SFM) technique, a photogrammetric range imaging technique that can reconstruct 3d model from a set of 2d overlapping images.
Project Year Concentration
50
Master of Design Studies Thesis 2017 Computation, Architectural Research on Visual Perception
51
52
DATA BASE
GRASSHOPPER
MAP
3
X, Y, Z coodinates
Json
6
4
COMPUTER VISION FILTER
DATA VISULIZATION
3D RECONSTRUCT. Js
Images
IMAGE PROCESSING
+
X, Y, Z coodinates
HTML
+
7
CSS
2
5
SOCIAL MEDIA
9
ANALYSIS
ARCHITECTURE
INTERPRETATION
8
1 Images
KNOWLEDGE
10 INTERVENE THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
53
ZHIWEI LIAO 617 909 8205 zwliao@gmail.com