PORTFOLIO | Selected works | 2011-2017 ZHIXUN ZHOU
The beauty of Architecture is that everything is about Architecture.
CONTENT 01 - City
02 - Education
03 - Moment
04 - Relationship
05 - Diversity
06 - Culture
07 - Space
Skyscraper at 320 East North Water, Chicago Academic group work Graduate Level 1 (Year 5)
Jin Guang Road Primary School, Shanghai Internship Project Graduate Level 1 (Year 5) Hotel Konigshot, Munich Academic individual work Graduate Level 1 (Year 5) Chaining Rings, Champagin Academic Group work Graduate Level 2 (Year 6)
Housing Diversity, Shanghai Academic individual work Undergraduate Level 3 (Year 4) The New Alley (Mass Housing), Shanghai Academic individual work Undergraduate Level 2 (Year 3)
Background Chicago, the third-largest city in the United States, is home to 1,264 completed high-rises, 44 of which stand taller than 600 feet (183 m). Being the inventor of the skyscraper, Chicago went through a very early high-rise construction boom that lasted from the early 1920s to the late 1930s. Since the century, diverse conspicuous skyscrapers, such as Trump Tower and Aqua Tower, are builded, contributing to the skyline of the loop.
Skyscra at 320
apper East North Water
01 skyscraper at 320 east north water, CHICAGO - Academic Group Project| Redesigned by the writer - Highrise Type - University of Illinois at Urbana and Champaign - Instrcutor: Paul Armstrong - Role: All Drawings - SEP 2015
Location Plan
Concept Skyscraper at 320 East Water North ST would record the transition from the old box style high rises to the modern glazing style, which helps the project to root in Chicago skyline, and become the new landmark and social space for the citizens.
STEP1 Raise the quadrangle to have 7 blocks for multi function
STEP 2 Spin the one edge of the quadrangle to manifest the dynamics
STEP 3 Taper the volume for better performance of lateral force
STEP 4 Modify the shape for more floor area ratio and emphasize the podium
Front Plaza Office Lobby Res Lobby Retail
Retail
Retail Galler
Riverside Plaza
Ground Floor Plan
y
Core Configuration
Condominium
Office III
Office II
Office I
Lobby
Vertical Transportation
The main principle of vertical transportation is tha for a certain block. Elevators for the parking lots skylobby level.
Penthouse (104-119 levels)
Co o l i n g Tower
Condominium (97-102 levels)
AHU ACU
AHU
Condominium (80-95 levels)
AHU
Office (58-78 levels)
AHU
Office (36-56 levels)
Office (14-34 levels)
AHU
Parking Lot (6-13 levels)
AHU Condensing Water
CW HW Chicago River
at the express elevators would carry occupants to the specific block. Then several elevators would serve s would only access to the parking level and lobby for privacy. Staircase would be transferred on the
River Walk Chicago code has the regulation that more floor area ratio could be compensated for more contribution to the urban space. The new riverside plaza would activated former lifeless areas to be a energetic collective space in the city in terms of accessibility, activties and sightseeing.
Typical Residential Floor (Forth Block)
Typical Officel Floor (First Block)
Typical Parking Floor (Seventh Level)
Communal Space for offices at the corner
Courtyard Section
Verical Community Due to the extreme height, occupants are hard to access the social space on the ground in working time. The skyscrapper would supply multi height atrium in every five story to give the space for communications and social activities for the occupants in different firms, which would build a vertical community.
Communal Space The communal space consiss of five-story height atrium and one storey height lounge space. The green structures renders the space, while the self-service kitchen and sofa supply the collective rest areas other than staying in the offices.
Background The site is located in the South Bridge new city in Shanghai, which would be promoted by government in next decades. It will become the next political econmy and culture center for Fengxian District. The project is a primary school for community use, which would serving for 5 grades, approximately 1500 students and teacher in all.
02 Jin Guang Road Primary School , shanghai - Internship Project -Education Type - Playze Architect Shanghai - Instrcutor: Mengjia He - Role: All renderings| Partial diagrams| partial model making - MAY 2016 First Prize of the Competition
Concept School, a place where teachers proselytize, instruct and dispel doubt. The prerequisition is experience and discovery. We hope to create diverse inside and outside space to guide kids walking out to experience nature. Renovation of architecture could not bring the education resolution but it could cultivate the soil for further improvement. Kids could run all over the campus, learning in the play. Not only a comfortable learning environment but also an energetic childhood could be given to all kids.
Preliminary Master Plan Preliminary master plan is the rational layout of all required programs which satisfy all the code requirements. It is the foundation of further architectural concept development.
Common Classroom Specialized Classroom Collective Classroom Office Infrastructure
Step 1 Playgrounds as the filter of east road noise
Step 2 Gymnasium, canteen and concert hall as the filter of north road noise
Step 3 Buildings set back for entrance and plaza
Step 4 21.144m left to modify the distance of buildings while satisfying the code
Design Test Based on preliminary master plan, we test different concept to see the opportunities. Finally we picked up the overlapping courtyard concept, where we could image diverse activites happenning.
Ground Floor Axis important exhibtion space of kids' works and achievement
Lower Grade Courtyard Include first grade to third grade students, whose habits and activities are different from higher grade students
Traditional Culture Courtyard Include art classrooms, calligraphy classroom and library, which aim to cultivate the interest for traditional culture
Innovation Courtyard Include scientific classroom and laboratory, which aims to practice the handling ability. It requires to be separated from other space because of the possible noise
Higher Grade Courtyard Include forth grade and fifth grade students. Similar age students are more possible to play together
Art | Sports Courtyard Include dancing rooms, rehearsal rooms and gymnasium, in which students could appreciate the beautiful view of the courtyard
Office Courtyard Include administration office and reading rooms for teachers. The courtyard would emphasize the privacy.
Second Floor Axis
Axonometric Drawing Overlap all the courtyards and some blocks such as canteen and gymnasium
Circulation Strategy To avoid lost in courtyards, one main axis is established to connect all of the courtyards, which has clear structure and hierarchy for circulation. While axis becomes important exhibition space of kids works.
Courtyard View In the Art Sport Courtyard Service
Swimming Pool
Kitchen Canteen Dancing Rehearsal Room Drawing Calligraphy
Broadcast
Craft Lab
Library
Parking
Ground Floor Gymnasium Hall Canteen First Grade Classroom
Computer Lab Computer Lab Office
Storage
Reading Room Exhibition
Meeting Room Office
Second Floor
Consideration in terms of daily use Which being different from the academic projects is that small details such as the difference pattern of picking kids and dropping off kids would be considered. All kinds of circulations, cars, trucks, fire trunks and pedestrians, require to be separate and well circulated.
Entrance Plaza
take kids to school
pick up kids
Background: Hotel and resort design projects especially in two world markets Europe and Asia-pacific are at present that segment of architectural practice with the greatest growth rate. The need to stay competitive is also driving hotel-to-hotel renovations, including same-brand upgrades as well as transformations to entirely different brand flags.
03 HOTEL KONIGSHOT, munich - Academic Individual Project - Hotel Type - University of Illinois at Urbana and Champaign - Instrcutor: Ralph E. Hammann - MAR 2015
Vertical Perspective
Horizontal Perspective
Making connection to the historica street
Concept: The new hotel would archive and continue impressive city experience through overlapping two perspective, and through forming speicial organic space to create a moment, which is different from other hotels for luxury experience.
Lobby
Open Organic Public Ground Floor The main problem is the conflict of organic shape and economic requirement of rational layout for hotel type project. Therefore, the ground floor tried to capture the sense of open, organic and public to serve all potential occupants. The organic spatial experience mainly consists of handrail, lights, atrium edge and all other architectural elements. East Elevation
View Analysis The yellow areas indicate the surfaces which the visitors could see on the architectural staircase. They are covered by the timber, which could be emphasized by the comparision with concrete.
Architectural Staircase Architecture staircase is a important elements for people to experience sculpture space. Door mans could keep their luggages. So that they could walk upstair through architectrural staircase the feel the kind of canyon spatial experience, (the checkin is arranged in the second floor to avoid noise from the outside streets)which is fine but delicate, with subtle change of each floor atrium edges. In the seventh floor, which is the most dramatic change of the atrium shape, the amenty floor is arranged which include SPA, restaurant and swimming pool.
Inside Out
Design Development
Double Facade
STEP 1 Organic shape atrium - Lobby
STEP 3 Set back the ground floor to connect with neighbors
STEP 2 Basic form according to property line with organic atrium
STEP 4 Facade follows atrium shape
Groud Floor
Rational Guest Floor Layout The upper floor, especially for the typical guest floor, the layout is quite rational compared with ground floor. The corridor view and guestroom design help to generate unqiue luxury experience for brand market. Double facade would be used for sound insulation.
Typical Guest Floor
Seventh Floor (Amenities)
Suites (Corner Rooms) In the guest rooms, subtle organic elements would respond to the theme of the hotel, which integrates the wall and ceiling to eliminate edges. The small curculuar cabinet was created to specialize the room. The carpet and lights hidden in the ceiling would also contribute to the unique luxury sense in the project.
Customed Furnitures Room Section
Background The main concern on the corridor is lack of connection. Right now the buildings in the corridor just stay in their position, without the connection to its neighbors. It means that the corridor could not supply the environment which encourages the students in different disciplines to have social activities. Most of commercial and social activities happen in the Green Street and north campus. It enables us to support Alternative 3 to build both north and south campus, which could exploit the potentiality of art corridor as another social space.
04 CHAINING rINGS, champaign - Academic Group Project - Urban Landscape | Architecture Design - University of Illinois at Urbana and Champaign - Instrcutor: Sara Bartumeus Ferre - Role: All Drawings Besides Sections - FEB 2017
Concept CHAIN RINGS is the project which tries to chain all the buildings along the corridor to encourage students walking out from the teaching buildings to the corridor. Landscape would be folded to satisfy the conditions required for diverse activities, while the delicate pocket space in the military axis is kept.
Collective Space Analysis
Storage
Locked
Restroom
Core
Meeting
Office
Classroom
Lecture
Lab
Hall
Museum
Library
Cafe
Activity Analysis
Folding Landscape | Sunken Plaza The new landscape would give an identity to the corridor. In the axis, there would be a big sunken plaza filled with collective space such as gallery, library and cafe, to attract more students participating in the corridor. While this underground horizontal ring would connect architecture building and TBH. The new extension, as the vertical ring, would connect the TBH by the air bridge on the 2M level. The indoor circulation could protect architecture students from transporting their models and boards in bad weather. The big slope integrated with landscape, staircase and terrace tries to blur the boundary of the horizontal and vertical ring. The new architecture extension would cantilever 20 meter, covering half of the slope to supply the transition space from collective space to teaching building. It could be potentially sightseeing attraction for the students in the north campus and local communities.
Design Process
Step1 Grouping the nearby buildings
Step2 Main axis guides staff to collective space
Step3 Different pocket s
space was emphasized
Site Plan
Step4 Secondary paths branching out
Step5 Chains were cut to have benches for visitors
Floor Plan
Underground Floor
Ground Floor
Second Floor
Third Floor
Right now, buildings on the corriodr are all for collective use. The sunken central ring shows the humble attitude to the axis and bell tower.
Section AA'
Entrance on the second Floor The staircase continues the experience of walking into the building
Section BB' The horrizontal ring consists of exhibtion space, cafe, library and sunken plaza. It respondes to the typology of the Axis, where all the programmes serve for the collective use.
Section CC'
Baclground Housing Diversity is a microcosm of Shanghai: migrants from all over China come to the tower, spending their life, in which being from strangers to acquaintance; some occupants may even look for business opportunities by running a small market in the building. The sense of community lost in the indifferent big city could be formed in the performance of diverse life.
05 HOUSING DIVERSITY, SHANGHAI Academic Individual Project Residential Type Xi'An JiaoTong Liverpool University Instrcutor: Jinzghi He MAR 2015
Concept Housing Diversity, has the potential to be an experiment about integration of diverse residents living in Shanghai in future. Their problems generated in the process of adapting to urban life have been overlooked, until one day they would outburst. The breakthrough starts from reforming the residence we live.
Diversity of Transient Citizens
The floating poputation has been developing rapidly since 2000, and would keep rapidly increasing in future. A large amount of historic typology and accessable spots in downtown area of Shanghai are being demolished to serve for top grade commericial purpose.
Issues Faced By Transient Citizens Lack of Competitiveness For the low-education migrants, it is hard to find jobs, without professional knowledge and skills
Psychology and Social Gap Migrants often face difficulties in adapting to urban life, which is more interactive and involves socializing with strangers.
Poor Living Conditions overcrowding
limited space
poor sanitation
Due to the Hukou system and limited education resource, children have to be left in the hometown.
Facade Observing the demolition of old Lilong houses in Shanghai, I was touched by the way their structures and inside layouts are clearly visible during the demolition process. I decided to design a building that could express inside functions and layout on the building facade to manifest the diversity housed within.
Original typology: Shikumen
Design Process
Step1 House diverse units
Step2 Rise to have 4 blocks
Step4 Adapt fpr structures and aesthetics
Step5 Respond to context and expressing interior functions
Step3 Rotate blocks for sunlight
Diverse Living Units Elevation
more windows in the recession parts for sunlight
traiditional Linong style windows: traditional appartments
plate space: sharing appartments
multiple-storey high void: social spaces
Non-sharing Appartment (2-4 inhabitants) Size: 74 m2 Programe: 2 bedrooms 2 living rooms 1 kitchen 2 bathrooms 1 storage room Potential Inhabitants: Middle Class
Size: 110 m2 Programe: 2 bedrooms 2 living rooms 1 kitchen 2 bathrooms 1 storage room 1 spare room Potential Inhabitants: Citizens who have sufficient funds
Size: 92 m2 Programe: 2 bedrooms 2 living rooms 1 kitchen 2 bathrooms 1 storage room 1 spare room Potential Inhabitants: Citizens who have sufficient funds
Size: 40 m2 Programe: 1 bedrooms 1 living room 1 kitchen 1 bathrooms Potential Inhabitants: The Single Or Couple Without Kids
Sharing Appartment (1-4 inhabitants) Size: 54 m2 (each appartment) Programe: 2 bedrooms 1 bathroom 1 storage room sharing kitchen sharing livingroom Potential Inhabitants: Family Without Sufficient Funds
Sometimes staircase connect the sharing appartments in two storey for communal life.
Size: approximate 18 m2 (each appartment) Programe: 1 bedroom sharing bathrooms sharing kitchen sharing livingroom Potential Inhabitants: The Young Without Suifficient Funds
Techniqual Drawings
Units: 11 Size: 1300 sqm Public space: 200 sqm
Typical Lower Floor Plan sharing apartment non-sharing apartment small commercial space public space
Units: 12 Size: 1200 sqm Public space: 120 sqm
Typical Higher Floor Plan
Section BB'
Social Space
Flexible Space: maybe some small business run by occupants
South Elevation
Sharing Space
Section AA'
East Elevation
Background The site, Xiao Nanmen, is located in centre of Shanghai, which is the oldest residential area in Shanghai. Due to the Great Culture Revolution in 1968-1978, extreme number of migrants were relocated into this area, which resulted in the poor living conditions .
06 THE NEW ALLEY, SHANGHAI Academic Individual Project Residential Type Xi'An JiaoTong Liverpool University Instrcutor: Glen Wash MAR 2013
Site Context
Concept Due to the fact that they shared some facilities, the sense of community is established. Local residents are more sensitive to the social activities. It is not suitable to relocate them into the modern community, where the steel door cut their social mind. There was only one market in the site, which made residents walk in the same route. Distribution of the markets in the site could create more routes for the residents, which would increase the happening of the social activities. Location choice: design touch different areas as possible to try to improve the performance of the original buildings, rather than modify one whole area.
The New Alley
Concept: The New Alley
The main architecture idea is to protect the typology of the site resulting in the good neighbourhood, even developing the happening of the communicative lives.
Distribution of the markets
Commercial Area: There is only one centre, namely the market, in the site, which results in the fact that the residents usually walk in the same routine, decreasing the happening of communicative activities.
The Three Prototypes
unit for the single: 4.0m x 3.5m x 4.0m
unit for the (old) couple: 4.0m x 5.0m x 3.0m
unit for the family: 8.0m x 5.0m x 4.0m
A. The single the smallest, ladders to connect two floors
B. The (old) couple no staircase inside , avoiding the waste of vertical space
C. the couple (with children) the units itself has different horrizontal spacce for different activities, some low windows for the kids
Logic of Composition
A
A'
Basic Block
Irregular combination of units could create different in-between space. The cubes overlaps each other, just like the original spontaneous space in the site.
Ground Floor
Social Space Marks the Alley The green volume is the green space, by which l want to activate the neglected living area to the whole site. The red volume is the commercial area, which is located in the intersect point of the original main roads and the new alley. The grey volume is the plaza for the group activtities, such as group dancing and residents performance. It will shine in the evening. The orange volumes means the small public space for entertainment such as chess and card rooms and tea houses.
Section AA'
East Elevation
South Elevation
Combination In one block, diverse occupants share one courtyard, which could promote the communicative life of the residents. They are like in a family, which everyone takes different roles. On the other side, the two units whose balconies face with each other have same kind of occupants. This is another different strategy to mix units, which could promote communication due to the similar age.
Plaza
Air Bridge
Markets
Gate
07 sketches University of Illinois at Urbana and Champaign 2015 Scholarship for Class 1960 2016
Plaza for Dancing
Residential Communal Space
Bridges Plaza View
Historic Site
Riverside Walk
Office Lobby
Residential Communal Space
Office Communal Space
Hotel Lobby
Swimming Pool