USC Architecture Xpo
I researched Olla and Chinampa. I was amazed by the high-efficiency of ancient low-tech irrigation systems. Although they have different scale, they have the same purpose of increasing water content, reducing evaporation, and increasing soil fertility. Maqsam is also a low-tech water dividing device for water justice. I am interested in whether Maqsam can restore habitat and divert water to communities for irrigation and storm water recovery, in order to restore the ecology of city watershed.
I researched a vessel system, Chultun (900BCE – 900 CE, Meso-America), and a field system, Mamanteo (600 CE – now). I was interested in systems that look very hidden and subtle but deliver multi-purposes and multi-benefits, which are the quality these two systems share. However, because of its subtlety, these systems are being forgotten and endangered. This made me wonder how such a system can also act as a land art exhibiting its importance and bringing people’s appreciation.
I researched Aflaj (Oman, 500 CE) and Tianjing (China, 1500 CE). I was struck by Aflaj as a singular linear system that contained so many different landscapes and architectural stations, but ultimately I was fascinated by the building typology of Tianjing. Also, I am interested in them both as parts that worked as a network. I chose to test if modernized Tianjing could systematically proliferate in the metropolis for water capture, and storage purposes.
An application running on a mobile device, Soundar, was developed for simple acoustic simulations for small size rooms and for ordinary users. It simulates the reverberation time and sound pressure level based on an existing room, virtual sound source, and the location of the user. Users can change the material of the room surfaces and then test the difference in sound. The application provides both visual and auditory feedback that will let the users not only read the data but also hear the result of the simulation.
The current BIM-based PV system design process largely depends on transferring the architectural model to the PV special simulation software. However, some critical geometric information is lost during this process, and it is a one-way process with no information flow back. Furthermore, the current process takes time and effort on remodeling and transforming data between two platforms, which is not very suitable for early design phase which is characterized by quick and iterative processes. An automatic PV system design and management tool was developed, which fully integrates the existing and future information of PV systems in a building information modeling (BIM) platform. The proposed tool, PV for Early Design Phase (PV Link) first analyzes the solar radiation on a selected building façade. Then, it automatically selects the PV panel based on the solar analysis and user options with variables like PV size, roof geometry, and rooftop equipment. Finally, the solar radiation on each panel and the electricity produced is calculated and results shown in a building information model (BIM).
Archivum is a material practice, specializing in the development of a constituent material index in architectural production and ceramics. The spirit of our practice is founded by the possible intersections between the trans medial and trans disciplinary qualities of ceramics and architecture. How can architecture borrow from and also challenge contemporary ceramic surface treatment and form making techniques?
Coffeeworks is a franchise and a new coffee-shop typology, where coffee is a Trojan horse for social interaction. Our guests prepare their own cups of coffee, in detail and in an unfamiliar way, and, facilitated by our baristas, get to know each other through the questions that emerge from this social ritual. We reject our current time’s automation of processes, which result in less pause and less human connection, by proposing a hands-on model which promotes collaboration, as well as nuanced and profound conversations between friends, couples and strangers.
Get Away is a kit created as a direct response against homogenous, prescriptive experiences ubiquitous around us in big box corporate stores and restaurants. Originally conceived as a product to introduce an element of user’s choice into these environments in unexpected and unforeseen ways, Get Away has been re-concieved as a kit to hack social quarantine and bring variety and physical and mental escape into the monotony of one’s confined surroundings. Get Away consists of panels that can be assembled together to create a space, a memory, an environment that one can immerse into — the panels can be arranged in multiple ways providing a myriad of choices for the user and endless variety, entertainment, and fodder for a potentially dulled imagination. Individual panels are slotted to spaces, but really come alive as they become personalized with the addition of one’s personal items collected from the home.
My design derives from my definition of “the real” which I consider as that which is true, authentic and sincere.
When considering the influence of an architect and how architecture encourages and guides the experience and thoughtfulness of the inhabitant, I began to investigate how the architect and the audience can influence and change both each other and ultimately the design.
I chose to design a network of dance studios because dance is another form of structural artistry that provides an outlet for both internal and external expression and impact. Additionally, the environment can heavily shape the dancer’s tools — their body, mindset and movement. My design facilitates and enables an exchange of different movement principles and styles of dance within a shared space and varying proximities to embrace the conflict of a traditional ownership hierarchy and value system.
At the scale of the community, the openness of the design and the aggregation of the endless network enables both dancing both in and around the building (through the interstitial spaces) to generate an accessible exchange of truths.
Using my background as a dancer I further defined the three programs of dance which I consider to be training, socializing and performing to investigate what fundamental and foundational architectural components are necessary for each of these three spaces and programs. How can these elements be transformed to specify how the dancer interacts with the space and moves the body?
My film aims to show the experience and influence that my architectural designs and details have by establishing a narrative that indicates who the users are and what their lives are like. The filming techniques such as the framing, transitions and audio aim to merge dance and architecture through language, composition and rhythm.
Within the framework of total human movement, migration can be viewed through different scales. Migration of people between continents, cities, and even rooms.
The documentation of everyday activities creates nodes and lines that begin to articulate patterns. How we view the procession of activity then becomes central in the formulation of new architecture.