Tag: Class of 2021

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ARCH 502A: Architectural Design V Gallery: Proving Ground: UNESCO's Laboratories

A Network of Medical Service Architecture for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Special Economic Zones (SEZs), which proliferate in Southeast Asia, are populated by a type of architecture that has no place, origin, local customs or culture. This is a project for Vietnam, a socialist country which has instituted two large SEZs it calls “Key Economic Zones.” The project studied the distribution, siting, materials and construction methods of small factory complexes (called “industrial parks” in English) in the southern Vietnamese SEZ, and imagines a new addition to what has become a repetitive building formula. The project envisions a type of small clinic, bearing the branding and architectural aesthetic of the leasing corporation (typically American or European), that would be both attractive to international corporate investors while improving the working conditions of the people working in the factories. By wedding this new building type to the industrial park formula, these new clinics/branded buildings could proliferate across SEZ construction sites.

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ARCH 502A: Architectural Design V Gallery: Life/Work Practice

Patient Zero

Much of the lineage found in architectural history books document the various theories
and cultural shifts up to the end of the twentieth century leaving architecture’s future still unwritten; continually drawing heavily from its past. The success of the discipline relies on its ability to balance its own established identity while being receptive towards new methodologies of design. Here at Patient Zero, we believe that the discipline of architecture should lean towards enmeshing elements of psychology and therapy to regain pertinence in a contemporary setting. This interchange between two distinct protocols shapes a new type of practice.
The link between architecture and psychology traces back to Vitruvius’ triad describing qualities of an ideal building which include “firmness, commodity, and delight”. In contemporary design, the “delight” can be attributed to the “design of pleasures” according to Sylvia Lavin which ties the two disciplines.

By conjoining the commonalities between therapy and architecture, we seek to help explore the design problems of our clients based on their needs and lifestyle. Our unorthodox design approach draws inspiration from therapeutic response treatments in which we simulate a “setting” for clients to respond to a particular built environment. These would come in the form of mock-ups in our office that are built to life-scale with the intention of revealing a client’s unconscious thoughts, motives, and desires.
Our process allows us to progress closer towards a design that exudes pure “delight” in the eyes of Vitruvius. A successful design for our practice is one that may not necessarily bring foreseeable, measurable results. Rather, we firmly believe that success coincides with client satisfaction which tends to be overlooked.

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ARCH 793B: Architecture Directed Design Research Gallery: Directed Design Research

Shining Triangles and Ramps

Based on case study about Olgiati’s Swiss International Center, I found some interesting items especially the confilct between simple rectangle shapes and diagonal walls. In order to balance the simple outfit, Olgiati makes a lot of intersting ideas for the interior design. For my perspective, it is a bold attempt to use briliant inner space to balance very simple shapes or volumes outside. Therefore, Yaohua brings me the assignment to use triangles and stairs (or ramps) to establish my building. Since Olgiati has already brought me nice inspiration, I also decide to make a public cultural building: Exhibition Hall in Hefei Economic Zone. By using the looping ramps inside the space, I divided the the polygon into many slices of triangles, so the basic elements (ramps and triangles) are perfectly combined.

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ARCH 793B: Architecture Directed Design Research Gallery: Critical Drawings, No Pens

Sketchposition

This thesis attempts to develop a generative approach, through the dual lens of music and architecture similar to Libeskind’s Chamberworks series, from two to three dimensions through the increasingly accessible technology of live-sketch virtual reality: a medium where the author and/or viewer can quickly manipulate the scale and ‘occupy space’ in the sketch, a medium where the gesture of the human hand is brought back into sketching in a way not seen since architecture was worked out primarily on paper, and a medium where the technique of generating concepts does not have to be done through points and lines of the pencil or mouse, but instead by gestural volumes of the arm and body.

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ARCH 793B: Architecture Directed Design Research Gallery: Utopic and Crisis Forms

Geometry Old Care

Based on research about Reversible destiny, I try to create a building for the elder to extend their life and improve their health.

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ARCH 793B: Architecture Directed Design Research Gallery: Utopic and Crisis Forms

Journey

The theme of the project is journey, which means that the experience of life is like a journey full of unknown and curiosity, constantly exploring its own path, rather than operating under a huge system and organization like a machine . As a container of human social activities, architectural space provides an opportunity to pay attention to one’s heart and realize one’s own identity. The different visual scenes formed through the space allow people to “see” themselves and others.

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ARCH 698B: MLA Advanced Design Research Gallery: Home Territory: Studies for the Democratization of Civic Space

HomeFood

This is a research about unhoused people and their accessibility to food, conducted during the pandemic. Yau Tsim Mong District has the highest amount of unhoused population in Hong Kong. As covid-19 restrictions published in April 2020, the absence of 24-hour-fast-food restaurants, 24-hr public parks, and public buildings have caused the unhoused population to flee to the underpass of Exit L6 and the open spaces of Cultural Museum. After interviewing elder unhoused members, I found their hardships and misinformation in learning about the existing food donation system.
This project aims reduce their hardships in accessing food by enhancing the existing food donation systems, this project focuses on sharing all the available information of food access options (including the recent food vouchers donation activity by chained stores and NGO’s) for the unhoused population, to bring dignity to eating, and to increase opportunities for people in need to achieve self-sufficiency.

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ARCH 502A: Architectural Design V Gallery: Proving Ground: UNESCO's Laboratories

An Archive for Endangered UNESCO Sites, Paris

This project proposes to transform a portion of the existing UNESCO Paris headquarters building into a comprehensive archive. Many World Heritage sites, particularly “natural” sites live in our culture both as images (in film, advertisements, and other media) and as preserved sites. In an era of climate change and expanding human populations, original films documenting UNESCO sites need careful preservation, while the ecosystems and natural features of those sites are also inherently valuable and fragile. In Phase I, the project proposes to insert a film archive into the headquarters building, while “exporting” two parts of the building. The “exported” portions will be each installed on two endangered natural sites, New Zealand’s Te Wahipounamu and the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra, as seed and specimen-collecting laboratories. During Phase II, when the collections are complete, the “exported” parts will be reinstalled in the headquarters building as cold storage vaults preserving the flora and fauna collections.

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ARCH 502A: Architectural Design V Gallery: Proving Ground: UNESCO's Laboratories

A Preservation Landscape for Hunter’s Point Radiological Laboratory, San Francisco

Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, a decommissioned complex located on the eastern portion of the San Francisco peninsula, was long used as a support facility for the US Navy’s nuclear testing program. After decades of handling and testing radioactive materials, much of this collection of buildings and grounds was rendered unusable. This project envisions that portions of the site will be reoccupied by using uncontaminated buildings and leaving the rest to fall to ruin. The site would continue to harbor an artist community that has long occupied the site, along with industrial shop space, art studios and a car crash testing facility. Once refurbished, safe areas would take on programs as contaminated areas would remain untouched, set aside as decaying traces of their earlier use. A system of concrete walls and moats would make contaminated areas inaccessible, using “safety offset distances” that are typical to hazardous material handling.

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ARCH 502A: Architectural Design V Gallery: Life/Work Practice

New Normal Archtiecture

New Normal Architecture introduces a new form of live+work in architectural practice. The space is designed for collectives of designers, tech developers, and influencers. Each parts of the space and the overall emphasize the idea of “village within a village”. Spacious common areas and circulation spaces that frames each parts create a collaborative and highly communicative community.