Peng Chen Portfolio Application

P O RT F O L I O O F P E N G C H E N Bachelor of Architecture Department of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Nottingham chenuuupeng@gmail.com

CONTENTS

01

Nottingham Cultural Centre Reuse of the abandoned cityspace and exploration of the public relationship Station St., Nottingham, United Kingdom Year 2 Individual Work, 1,500 sqm Instructor: Farida Makki

02

Pasta Community Centre Sustainable Urban Greenhouse and Food-Orientated Building Programs

The architecture is more than the creation of built forms; it induces the dialogue between people, space and time. I believe architecture is a medium that bridges the tangible physical realities of materiality and structure and intangible qualities of culture, memory and experience.

The role of architect is to balance the need for sustainability and resolving social issues with the timeless pursuit of beauty and innovation. My works in the portfolio seek to explore this balance and create connection between people and local communities.

Vandries St., Ten Street District, Liverpool, United Kingdom Year 3 Individual Work, 3,000 sqm Instructor: Farida Makki

03

Ireland Mine Retreat Transformation of Irish industrial archeology masterpieces into a meditation destination Allihies, County Cork, Ireland Individual Work, 1,000 sqm Instructor: Finn Lam

04

Milan Social Housing A Manifesto on Minorities' Social Integration Milan, Italy Individual Work , 1,000 sqm Instructor: Arnold Yu

05

Huairen Pet Market A Flexible and Adpative Modular System of Pet Market Huairen city, Shanxi Province, China Group Work , 500 sqm Instructor: Finn Lam Duty: Diagram Production. Plan Production, Construction

06

Timber Plant Stand An extendable plant stand using traditional timber interlocking techniques / Year 3 Integrated Design Project Instructor: Margaret Mulcahy

01

Nottingham Cultural Centre Reuse of the abandoned cityspace and exploration of the public relationship Station St., Nottingham, United Kingdom Year 2 Individual Work, 1,500 sqm Instructor: Farida Makki

Nottingham is a city with rich cultural background, historical buildings (i.e.

Wollaton Hall, City of Cave, ) and folk icons (i.e. Robin Hood) becomes tourist attractions and shapes the Nottingham's cultural identities. The architectures scattered around the cities are manifestations or storytellers of Nottingham history and create a spontaneous journey between the city centre region and the Trent District, where the Nottingham Train Station as well as our site are located. The Nottingham cultural centre, as either a starting point or an end point of the journey, gathering visitors and celebrating the diverse culture of Nottingham.

The project draws attention to the classical building facade and spatial typology inspired by some of the important buildings among Nottingham city. These buildings not only make reminiscent of the classical architectural elements of 'Portico', 'Square', 'Arch', 'Gallery' and 'Courtyard', but also raise the awareness of the public relationship between the building and the cityscape.

The project is located beside an elevated tramline, under which there are multiple abandoned archways. The presence of arches endow the site with strong public nature, that spontaneously associates the site with the public-private duality and transitional relationship. So the exploration of this public-private relationship based on classical elements would become the main design approach to capture the essence of the exsiting site conditions.

1.

2.

3.

4.

4.

ARCH GATE

SQUARE

PORTICO

GALLERY

COURTYARD

Palazzo Comunale, Piacenza, 1281

Piazza San Marco, Venice, 9th century

Piazza del Popolo, Faenza, 1394-1875

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, II, Milan, 1865-1877

Rotonda Foschini, Ferrara, 1773-1797

The arch gate, with strong public nature, serves as a transitional entrance from the street to a public square or a building.

A public square like Piazza San Marco is flanked by two rows of building, used for gathering and holding various events.

Th e p o rtic o is a s e mipublic transitional space between the public exterior space and the interior of a building.

A gallery space is a long covered walkway flanked by two rows of building, it connects one place to another.

A courtyard space is more introverted and separated from the exterior street, having certain degree of intimacy.

Site Location & Building Typology & Jourey

Old Market Square

Royal Theatre

Nottingham Contemporary

St.Peter Church

Nottingham City Council

Nottingham Exchange

Trent Street Tramline Arches (Site)

National Justice Museum

City of Cave

Robin Hood Statue

Classical Architectural Elements of Buildings in Nottingham

The Old Market Square to the North of the site, being the central node of Nottingham, is surrounded by various public, civic, cultural and commercial buildings. In comparison, Trent District located at the edge of the city centre, is a crucial and busy transportation node of Nottingham being surrounded by public civic buildings. This region can be considered more ethnically diverse, with 40% foreign population including immigrants and tourists.

This relative position creates a spontaneous journey that includes most of the tourists attractions and historical buildings. The Nottingham cultural centre established at this location would become the starting/end point of the journey.

The tramline spanning from South to North intersects with the Nottingham Canal. The key challenge, but at the same time can be an oppotunity, is the reuse of the archway underneath the tramline that are abandoned and prohibited for accessing. These arch would be turned into main entrance of the cultural centre to claim the public nature of the building and the site. At the same time, it re-establish the public relationship between the cultural centre and the city.

PUBLIC / EXTROVERTED

PRIVATE / INTROVERTED

Classical Architectural Elements of Buildings in Nottingham

Altitude

Noise

Publicity

Access

The site conditions have gradual change in terms of altitude, publicity, noise level and accessibility, these factors strongly shape the grid and programming of the design. The building grid is rigoriously designed and consists of two orientations to accommodate various spaces of different functions. The rich spatial experience is achieved by altitude change and alternating compressive/open spactial sequence.

1

1

10

14 Publicity

WORKSHOP LIBRARY

WORKSHOP

SEMINAR

WORKSHOP

LOUNGE

WORKSHOP

LOBBY

OFFICE

CORRIDOR

LOCKER ROOM

DINNING SPACE

12

13

1

9

PLAZZA

KITCHEN

ENTRANCE DISPLAY ROOM

VIEWING ROOM

Program

PORTICO

2

13 11

8 1 7 5

6

N Ground Floor

1 3 4

Grid System

1. Entrance 2. Plazza 3. Lobby 4. Reception 5. Office 6. Toilet 7. Locker room 8. Storage room 9. Corridor 10. Display room 11. Lounge 12. Courtyard 13. Classroom 14. Library

North Elevation

East Elevation

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

West Elevation

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

East Section

External Wall & Roof

Ground floor

1. 100 mm concrete slab with

1. 25 mm tile

200 x 300 mm structural beam

2. 35 mm C25 bedding course

2. 240 mm red brick masonry

3. 100 mm concrete screed

3. 100 mm polyurethane insulation

4. DPM (Damp proof membrane)

4. 120 mm red brick masonry

5. 250 mm rockwool insulation

5. polyurethane foam fill

6. Separating layer

6. ceiling joist

7. 100 mm concrete screed

7. 12 mm plasterboard

8. Backfill

8. 25 mm red brick

South Section

ARCH GATE

The arch gate of the building serves as the main entrance and a statement of the public nature of the cultural centre by itself, from which the architecture is connected wth the cityscape of Nottingham

SQUARE The public square is coverd with concrete roof that tapers as it extends from the arch gate to portico of the building. The light beams illuminate the sunken stepped square where visitors gather and enjoy activities.

PORTICO The portico is a transitional space with a series of arch openings and columns that links the exterior square and the main entrance of the architecture

GALLERY The gallery typology inspires a semi-public longitudinal space including the reception, thedinning space, as well as a corridor that connects the main street to the walkway at the back of the site.

COURTYARD The courtyard is designed as an intoverted space enclosed by the lounge space, classrooms and the library space that requires certain level of intimacy quietness.

02

Pasta Community Centre Sustainable Urban Greenhouse and Food-Orientated Building Programs Vandries St., Ten Street District, Liverpool, United Kingdom Year 3 Individual Work, 3,000 sqm Instructor: Farida Makki

This project mainly addresses the severe situation of food insecurity in Liverpool city caused by COVID-19 and BREXIT. The Ten Street Area with limited number of stable food source would become a test ground of urban food research and production. The potential of the food-orientated architecture would be explored to solve food insecurity issue and reconnect architecture, food and community.

The pasta has been chosen as the protagonist in this food-oientated building for its important role in daily source of nutrition. The legume-baed pasta becomes the substitute for conventional wheat-based pasta due to its advantages in health and sustainability aspects, which help establishing a greener food production system.

The building itself is a narrative of a closed- loop of food(pasta) lifecycle and the multiple programme are designed based on the pasta production from legume cultivation, to processing, cooking/dinning/marketing and finally, the biogas production to achieve a sustainable pasta production process.

The public nature of the building would be reinforced by the community-based activities happened inside the building, which can be a catalyst to rejunvanate Ten Street Area into a diverse and lively district.

This project addresses the negative impacts of COVID-19 and BREXIT on food insecurity problem in United Kingdom and Liverpool city.

Feeding the Community

Both Covid-19 and BREXIT have caused disruption in resources transcation and higher production cost in the food and agriculture sectors. The shortage of food supply and food price inflation in UK caused spreading phenomena of panic buying and increasing delivery of food parcels from food banks.

3rd

32%

most food-deprived city in UK with less than two supermarkets in deprived districts

of people experience food and nutritional insecurity in Liverpool city

140,000 tonnes

368,000 tonnes

of annual food loss and waste in the city of Liverpool

of annual carbon dioxide emission in the city of Liverpool

02

03

PASTA PROCESSING

COOKING / DINNING

Heating through biogas boiler / Soil bedding

The Liverpool city has bad performance in its food sector in terms of food supply, food waste, food inequality and carbon emission. These issues become much more severe in the peripheral areas such as Ten Street Area which is a character zone located to the North of the city centre.

The Ten Street Area has low Health Food Access Score comparing to city centre, indicating the unconvenience of local residents to access healthy food. Although there are several small restaurants/ cafe on the Ten Street, most of them are small and old, providing insufficient nutrition for the daily food intake. For this reason, a stable and accessible source of food to feed the community in this area is really urgent, and this give a rationale and suitable context from which my project can arise.

01 LEGUME CULTIVATION

Chickpea elbows

Edamame spaghetti

Greenhouse vegetation residual organic matter

Processing residual material

Electricity through biogas generator

Collected food waste

BIOGAS PRODUCTION

Red lentil spaghetti

04 In face of the current food insecurity issue in Liverpool city and the lack of stable food source in Ten Street area, the project proposes to produce legume-based pasta as the carbonhydrate substitute for wheat-based pasta. This type of pasta has multiple benefits in both sustainability and health aspects, it has increasing demand over pasta years in UK which indicates opportunity in replacing conventional pasta as staple food

Closed loop of food life-cycle 01

40 35

3.2 times

0.7 kg

more fibre than wheatbased pasta, which reducing risks of diabetes

less of carbon emission per 1kg of legume-based pasta

30

1.5 times

50%

25 20

more protein than wheatbased pasta, beneficial after exercise

less freshwater eutrophication of legume-based pasta

FOOD ORIENTATION

SUSTAINABILITY

15

LEGUME CULTIVATION

- Chickpea - Black bean - Red lentils - Mung bean - Edamame - Garden pea - Black-eyed pea ....

10 SENSE OF COMMUNITY

There are various legume plants grown in the building. The primary gardening method of vertical farming as well as container and in-ground would be used. This cultivation process needs to consider environmental factors such as temperature, daylight, water, etc...

Chickpea

Black bean

Peas

Edamame

Lentil

Soybean

1.

SEEDING

2.

CULTIVATION

3.

HARVESTING

02 PROCESSING

1.

RINSING

2.

PEELING

3.

BOILING

4.

MILLING

MIXING

1.

PASTA PRODUCTION

PRE-PROCESSING

The legume harvested from the greenhouse program would be transported to the processing program, which can be divided into pre-processing of legume plants and pasta production,

The mixing of legume flour with water and other ingredients such as egg

3.

4.

2.

EXTRUSION

The extrusion process produce pasta of different shapes

DRYING

Drying of pasta on the racks by natural ventilation

PACKAGE

The pasta would be packaged for selling

5.

STORAGE

The excess pasta can be stored in silo for future use

03 COOKING / DINNING / MARKET There are various ways of use of pasta produced in the building

The Ten Street District is featured by its grid of ten parallel streets that runs east to west and the building typology distribution is characterized by heavy industrial services and warehouses with limited number of food shop and public space for gathering. In order to rejuvenate and transform the Ten Street into a more vibrant district, my design approach aims at creating a community-based public space full of various activities and food resources.

My site is located on the Vandries Street and there are two main reasons why this location has been chosen.

1

Two faces of blank red brick facade of the adjacent building are facing to my site. It certainly provides oppotunity for vertical farming of legume plants instead of leaving it as blank wall

Solve Food Insecurity Issues

Create Sustainable Food System

Introduce Public Realm

COOKING / DINNING

MARKET

FOOD BANK

The pasta can be cook with different ingredients in public kitchen or classroom

The packaged pasta would be sold in the market space of the building

The pasta as food parcel delivered to people suffering food insecurity on Ten St.

04 BIOGAS PRODUCTION The biogas production being the key stage to achieve sustainable food production system

The project would be a foodorientated building aims at producing enough pasta for the Ten Street neighborhood while the pasta production and cooking experience would be celebrated

Comparing to current UK food production system, my project would be environmental friendly and sustainable in its programs associated with pasta production.

The project seeks to make connection with the MMA Academy that people can come to the building for nutritional intake. This strong bond creates a sense of community

1.

2.

3.

WASTE COLLECTION

ANAEROBIC DIGESTOR

DIGESTATE TANK

Organic matter being collected and mixed in the tank

Organic matter transferred to digestor for biogas production

The residual digestate from digistion can be use for soil beding

4.

The biogas can be used in three ways for different spaces

2

My project produces legume-based pasta with high carbonhydrate and protein, it is suitable to locate the project near the MMA Academy so it can become a canteen in which people can take highly nutritional food after exercise.

BIOGAS BOILER

PIPELINE

BIOGAS GENERATOR

Direct kitchen fuel through pipeline

2nd / 3rd floor

Food-Orientated Architecture

1st floor

2

2

2

5 7 3 to exhibit 4 nature The building is designed based on four main programs associated with7 pasta of food-orientated architecture. The spatial arrangement attempts at creating a fluent legume-based pasta pasta production process.The architectural design concepts shown on the right of the panel are conceived to6reinforce the idea of 'food-orientation' 6 and can be demonstrated from the section diagram 5 5

7

3

1

2

4

5

3

2

1

4

2

5

5

2

5

2

2

2

2 2

1

2

2

2

2 2

2

2

2

6 2

Ground floor

5

2

2 2

5

Transitional atrium space

Legume Cultivation

Processing

1. Vertical farming tower 2. Housing unit

3. Pre-processing space 4. Pasta production room 5. Drying space

3

3

2

Cooking / Dinning / Market

6. Public kitchen / dinning /market 7. Biogas production 3

2

1 4

Biogas Production

2

1 4

The transitional space between the project and the MMA provide new public entrance and visual scene for the visitors

1 4

Open-plan layout An open plan ground floor can encourages interaction between different activities

Growing entanglement The growth of legume is integrated with residential space to reinforce the connection between living of people and growth of plants

Roof garden The roof garden space in which people can grow plants, have a rest and wander around brings greenery to the streetscape and cityscape.

01

02

03

04

Legume Cultivation

Pasta Processing

Cooking / Dinning / Market

Biogas Production

2

Greenhouse on top of tower housing

1 04

02

Roof water collecting system

Green roof system

03 Solar panel system

The vertical farming tower is inspired by the traditional architecture typology of brick wall lean-to greenhouse, which utilize the large area of brick wall as thermal mass. The red brick absorbs excessive heat from the sun during the day, and release it to the vegetations during the night time to minimize the temperature fluctuation.

01 Bioclimatic facade / Thermal mediator

3

Greenhouse on the side

4

South-facing greenhouse

05 Natural ventilation with openable windows

The vertical farming tower would be a bioheated greenhouse achieved by transporting residual vegetation material to the biogas production space, the biogas produced can be used for heating.

Vertical farming tower

Brick wall lean-to greenhouse

Bioheated greenhouse

01 Vertical Farming Tower The third floor of the tower is equiped tackle and pulley system to transport vegetations

The project conceives of a 'greenery neighbourhood/community' on the top platform in which housing units and farming space are located. These units are entangled closely with gardening activities and plants to reinforce the relationship between architecture, people and vegetations. The housing units at different levels create a vibrant scene at the top platform and it definitely can become a statement for 'greenery living'. Dwellers enjoy daily life associated with gardeing and farming activities.

02

4

Vertical Farming Tower

4 9

The second floor largely use the method of vertical farming and has alternative entrance to the platform level

7

2 5

1

4

03 The legume plants can easily reach this level for pre-processing by the lifting system

N

3

Pre-Processing

8

Second Floor 4

4

5

5

1. Vertical farming tower 10 4

2. Transporting lift 3. Roof garden platform 4. Housing unit

4

04 Biogas Production

5. Rooftop skylight

4

6. Bioclimatic facade 6

7. Elevator 8. Drying platform 9. Circulation and staircase

The organic matter from either the greenhouse or processing program can be digested to produce biogas

10. Transitional atrium

01

02

03

04

Legume Cultivation

Pasta Processing

Cooking / Dinning / Market

Biogas Production

The processing program located on the first floor of the architecture is the key space for the project in which legumebased pasta is produced as final product. The processing program of the building consists of pre-processing of legume plants transported from either the lift in the vertical farming tower or the transitional atrium; and the pasta production program that can be divided in several stages.

The design of legume-based pasta production on the first floor follows the actual production process that starts from pouring legume flour into the tank. The flour then would be added to the mixing machine at regular speed through belt. The mixing process would produce dough that can be extruded for various shapes of pasta.

LEGUME FLOUR

POURING

MIXING

EXTRUSION

7

5

1

2

3

Pasta production space plan 6

N

First Floor 1. Transporting lift 2. Preprocessing space 3. Pasta production room 4. Drying corridor 5. Elevator 6. Drying platform 7. Circulation and staircase

4

DRYING

PACKAGE

01

02

03

04

01

02

03

04

Legume Cultivation

Pasta Processing

Cooking / Dinning / Market

Biogas Production

Legume Cultivation

Pasta Processing

Cooking / Dinning / Market

Biogas Production

WASTE COLLECTION / MIXING TANK Organic matter being collected and mixed in the tank

This public realm is characterized by its doubled heighted space supported by magnificant timber columns and trusses. The ground floor of the building has an open-plan space that accommodates public kitchen, market, dinning space in which diverse activities mixed together.

The aim of this layout is to create a social and public gathering space for Ten Street community.

The biogas production process is the key program of the project to achieve a sustainable food production process in contrast to the current UK food sector as well as climate agenda. It is located on the back of the ground floor so the food waste can be easily transported into this space.

ANAEROBIC DIGESTOR

The anaerobic digestion process is based on masonry in-ground digestor in which organic matter such as food waste, vegetation residues, processing residues from the greenhouse, pasta processing and kitchen can be digestated to produce biogas for building operation

The organic matter transferred to the in-ground digestor through pipe and being digested to produce biogas

OVERFLOW / DIGESTATE TANK The anaerobic digestion produces biogas with residual digestate that can be used for soil beding

BIOGAS BOILER

PIPELINE

GENERATOR

GREENHOUSE HEATING

KITCHEN FUEL

MACHINE ELECTRICITY

Masonry in-ground digestor

N Ground Floor

01

1. Public kitchen

Block and tackle pulley system

05

05

Biogas pipeline

Biogas boiler

05

2. Market and dinning space 3. Street restaurant

Biogas generator

4. Culinary classroom

02

5. Storage room 6. Elevator

Waste collection point / Mixing tank

7. Transitional atrium 8. Biogas production space 5

9. Toilet 10. Entrance to MMA Academy

10

4 6

8

9

1

7

10

3

2

04 Overflow tank / Digestate tank

03 Masonry in-ground anaerobic digestor

06 Biogas storage tank

The bioclimatic facade is made of two layers of timber structs that form space for climbing vines and planting pots. This envronmental strategy not only give the statement of being sustainable to the public, but also can become a weather mediator for the architecture.

The interior temperature and humidity can be mediate by the vegetations on the facade, which is a passive strategy to reach thermal confort.

Tectonic section External wall 1. 30 mm plywood board 2. Ventilated cavity between 50 x 40 mm horizontal softwood battens 3. Moisture diffusing membrane 4. Rockwool insulation between 60 x 200 mm studwork framing 5. Separating layer 6. 30 mm plywood interior board 7. Elevator 8. Greenhouse

Ground floor 1. 30 mm ceramic tile 2. 100 mm concrete screed 3. DPM (Damp proof membrane) 3. Second floor (Platform)

4. 200 mm rockwool insulation 5. Separating layer 6. 200 mm raft slab of concrete thickening to 500 mm at perimeter

Second floor (Platform) 1. 10 mm oak parquet 2. 20 mm plywood board as base 3. Separating layer 4. 200 mm rockwool insulation

1. External wall

5. Separating layer 6. 20 x 100 mm softwood batten 7. 12.5 mm plasterboard 2. Ground floor

03

Ireland Mine Retreat Transformation of Irish industrial archeology masterpieces into a retreat and meditation destination Allihies, County Cork, Ireland Individual Work, 1,000 sqm Instructor: Finn Lam

Allihies is a village associated with mine history and situated among the hills where the ruins of ancient copper mines stand. The architectures towering over Allihies mines have became a symbolic guardian of the town and the vast natural landscape.

The natural scenaries can be considered as more valuable resources than copper metal of this land. The project proposes an architectural solution to transform the ruins into a retreat and meditation destination for hikers and visitors who desire to escape from the urban environment. The design aims at creating immersive and solitary experiences with the beauty of this timeless natural paradise in Ireland.

The design approach is developed based on the original plan and orientation of the ruined building, so the project is more like an extension of the ruin towards the Altlantic Sea. The retreat consists of multiple public functions including viewing platform, meeting space, bathhouse, etc... and private dwelling units with respective meditation cabin. These programme are located along the slope of the Allihies to capture the panoramic view of the natural landscape.

Site Location The site is located at the top of the Allihies, with an iconic stone ruin towering over the hill. This leftover building has a unique plan and section incorporated with the slope of the hill.

The grid system of the ruin is taken as reference to develop the plan of the retreat. So the project can be seen as an extension of the original ruin of copper mine with a series of block arranged along the hill.

The terrain line of the Allihies also helps sculpting the massing of the retreat, orientating the block at 45 degree angle.

The copper material is vastly used for fenestration, handrail, roofing in the project to remind visitors the long mining history of this land

Tower Elevation & Section

Program

Massing

Orientation

Detailing

Transformation Diagram

Circulation

Landscaping

160

170

The design approach of the retreat follows the terrain of the site and it provides panorama view of the vast landscape consisting of the greenery, the Altlantic Sea and the sky. A series of staircase lead visitors or guests from the top of Allhies, where the ruin is located, to the public programme including meeting room, viewing platform, bathhouse as well as living units for temporary stay in the retreat.

150

140

View of the outdoor platform

140

130

N

View of the terrace

The ruin of the site

Multiple public programme

Living unit

Meditation cabin

Building Program

Outdoor & Indoor circulation

Bathhouse & Lounge

Covered & uncovered pergola

View upon the outdoor stairacse

Ground Floor (0)

Second Floor (+2)

Basement Level Two (-2)

Basement Level Five (-5)

1. Entrance 2. Reception 3. Corridor 4. Toilet 5. Outdoor platform 6. Meeting room

9. Meditation space

13. Individual living unit 14. Personal meditation space

13. Individual living unit 14. Personal meditation space

13 1 13

2

13 9

3 14 4

14 5

6

Third Floor (+3) Basement Level Three (-3)

10. Meditation space

Basement Level Six (-6)

13. Individual living unit 14. Personal meditation space

13. Individual living unit 14. Personal meditation space

13

First Floor (+1)

10

13

7. Outdoor platform 8. Observation terrace

14

Basement Level One (-1) 11. Public meditation space 12. Outdoor platform 14. Personal meditation space

Basement Level Four (-4)

Basement Level Seven (-7)

13. Individual living unit 14. Personal meditation space

15. Lounge space 16. Outdoor platform 17. Bath space 18. Changing room 19. Equipment room

7 11

12

15 19

19

13 18

17 16

8 18

14 17 14

N

N

N

Building Plan

N

Section 1

Distant view of the retreat

Section 2

Section 3 View of the bathhouse

1

2

1

3

4

2

5

6

3

Indoor private corridor for guests

4

5

Meditation cabin for each living guest

6

Axonometruc View of Retreat Unit

Interior of living units

Spiral Circulation/Pathway

Centralized Meditation Cabins

Orientation of Cabins

04

Milan Social Housing A Manifesto on Minorities' Social Integration Milan, Italy Individual Work , 1,000 sqm Instructor: Arnold Yu

Milan is the economic capital of Italy with high proportion of immigrants of its total population. This project draws attention to social minorities of refugee and low-income immigrants who suffered from lack of basic physilogical needs including shelter and food.

Traditional social housing in Milan only focus on minimum physical requirement, providing low-standard apartment to immigrants and refugee. However, this project not only put attention on solve the basic survival needs of immigrants lived in Milan, but also attempts to their self-identity and sense of belongings to the community.

According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the needs of immigrants can be summarized into three categores -- 'Identity', 'Quality' and 'Community'. These three requirements become the design driver of ths soial housing project in Milan. A personlised modular living units, together with public functional units, create a comprehensive and friendly housing cluster with sense of community in the periphery of Milan.

Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs Immigrants and Social Housing Estate Milan is home to a large number of immigrants - approximately 20% of the population. There are 129,000 refugees and low-income group of people among these immigrants, who experience issues of survival and social segregation.

They find themselves difficult to blend with local residents and struggle to have shelter, food and jobs. This project targets to find a new solution of social housing that not only solve the essential physiological needs of this group of population minorities, but also help them find social identity and belongings.

The project uses Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to identify current issues faced by the low-income immigrants and refugees lived in Milan. The conventional social housing projects located in this area put more attentions to solve the basic physiological needs. However, this project attempts to satisfy immigrant's higher level of needs including dignity and sense of belongings.

Today housing estates are more heterogeneous in terms of the social and ethnic groups who live there. The estates is distant from city centre, thus have limited access to any sort of centrality, symbolic values, public and cultural services, resulting in ethnice segregation. Apart from that, the majority of the apartment/ buildings also shows signs of physical deterioration, affecting the quality of life.

morality, creativity, spontaneity, acceptance, experience purpose, meaning and inner potential

SELFACTUALIZATION

confidence, achievement, respect of others, the need to be a unique individual

SELF-ESTEEM

friendship, family, intimacy, sense of connection

LOVE AND BELONGING

The site is located at Lambro Meridionale, which is a region with a vast area of old social housing estate. This large estates of social housing in Milan occurred in the period of intensive industrialisation and associated urbanisation from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s. Like other social housing estate, this scheme occurred in the periphery of the city (i.e. to the southern part of Milan), which cause social geography change.

The conventional social housing buildings are results of mass-production, which produce apartment look like prison without sense of identity. The project seeks to find personalised solution that reflect identity of individuals.

SAFETY AND SECURITY

health, employment, property, family and social ability

PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS

breathing, food, water, shelter, clothing, sleep

The lack of shelters, jobs, food of lowincome immigrants and refugee negatively affect the quality of their lifes. The project should seek improvement in life quality of all different apects

As minorities of the population, some immigrants experience ethnic segregation and can not assimilate with local community.

The project would acommodate various public spaces to create sense of community

Quality

Community

Identity Grattosoglio, tower apartments designed by BBPR.

Hobby

Each individual can have different interests and hobbies

Location of large social housing estate in Milan since 1990s

Habit

Family

Income

Different family People have different members determine the life style and habit, which affect the housing room types and number as well as configuration configuration

Health

Information

The housing project is The project is equipped Information centre that equipped with skills with small medical centre provide information related to immigrant and market to ensure traning centre to help immigrants find a job access to healthy life style policy and regulations

Sharing

Interaction

Gathering

The public sharing kitchen and dinning space helps build closer relationship

The project is designed with activity room to encourage residents interaction

Meeting space for residents to gather and sharing ideas

Sharing Kitchen & Dinning Space

Activity Room

Meeting Room

Old social housing estate since 1990s Personalised room types and configuration

Training Centre

Medical Centre

Information Centre

Supermarket

Grattosoglio, tower apartments designed by BBPR.

Old social housing estate since 1990s

Site location adjacent to large area of neighbouring social housing estate

Refugee seeking for jobs

Temporary shelter for refugee

Immigrants live in tents as shelters

Protesting of immigrants

Ground Floor

Grid

Massing

N

Shifting and Variation

First Floor

Staircase core

Corridor

N

Planting

1. Bedroom

2x2

1. Bedroom

2x3

3. Living room

2x2

3. Living room

2x3

2. Bathroom

1x2

The personalised rooms have different size and configuration based on a 1 x 1 modular grid. Each room type are varied according to this modular grid. There are four prototypes -- bedroom,bathroom, living room and public spaces. Different prototypes are combined to form a dwelling with 'Identity' for immigrants.

3. Living room

2x4

3. Living room

3x3

3. Living room

3x4

The residents uses the sharing kitchen and dinning space for their daily meals

4. Information service

2x2

5. Meeting space

2x3

6. Sharing kitchen

7. Supermarket

3x3

8. Medical centre

4x4

8. Activity space

2x4

4x4

Presentations and other activities for immigrants happen in the activity space of the project

SECTION A

SECTION B

Detail Ground Floor Plan

The residents enjoy the friendly nad calming atomsphere created by the combination of various materiality and natural landscape

Section A Residents walking the dog

Section B

The balcony/corridor space that connecting the first floor of residential units

Residents have chats at public realm

05

Huairen Pet Market A Flexible and Adpative Modular System of Pet Market Huairen city, Shanxi Province, China Group Work , 500 sqm Instructor: Finn Lam Duty: Diagram production, Plan production, Construction

This project aims at creating an adaptive and versatile pet market in the form of a light-weight steel modular structure, which is designed based on cybernetic theory that prioritizes spatial dyamics, user behaviors and adaptability, to revitalize the abandoned space underneath the bridge.

According to cyernetics and site condition, the design starts with taking the spatial elements of columns and boundaries of the bridge as the controlling point, based on which a grid system is developed.

This grid system gives clues on how to demarcating the space into different modules according to various people's behaviors and activities. The programme primarily consists of sales and leisure as well as circulation.

These three-dimensional modules have feasibilities in installation and allocation, thus during different time such as weekday, holiday or weekend can have different modes of functions. During weekday and holiday, the structures become playground for residents and children while during weenkend it is transformed into pet marketing space.

The light-weight steel structure is designed based on cyberetic theory that addresses spatial adaptability and flexitibility. From survey and interviews of local residents, the behaviors and activities become the design generators and factors to determine the evolution and development of the design. The site starts with a grid system to determine the primary horizontal and logitudinal pathways.

TheSite: steel modules or lattices for sales function are allocated to demarcate the spatial arrangement of the space. The sale of the pet consists of four forms: 'column', 'lattice', 'tricycle', 'on ground'.

Huairen City, Shanxi Province Concept Generation Based on Cedric Price Design Theory

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Networked Diagram

Origial Grid

Longitudinal Pathway

Column

China Site Axo

Shanxi Province Site Location

Huairen Site Image

Huairen Pet Market The site is located under an elevated bridge in Huairen City, Shanxi Province, adjacent to the Dog Market Square. It is mainly engaged in pet business and has a market during weekends. The current condition of the market is quite chaotic and unfriendly to the visitors and consumers. The goal of the project is to transform the original pet market into a place in which a better and more diverse shopping and leisure experiences are provided.

Site Section

Horizontal Pathway

Combined Pathway

Lattice

Column

Lattice

­

Tricycle

Tricycle

On Ground

On Ground

N

Combination 01 - Weekday

N

Combination 02 - Holiday

N

Combination 03 - Weekend

Project Process Diagram Design Process & Onsite Construction Process Concept generating Research Site research

Detail design

Modular preliminary design

02 Spotting and locating

01 Preparation of mateials

04 Structure installation

03 Ground design

05 Facade installation

INITIATION

COMPLETION 7.1

7.15

01+02 Preparation and locating

03

Ground design

8.2

9.2

9.30

10.3

10.4

10.5

10.6

10.7

The materials were transported to the site and the localisation of each steel foundation was carried out through alignment of strings.

The edge of the ground pattern was designated with the tape and the pattern was painted on the ground, waiting for dry after painting process.

The polycarbonate facade is printed with pet information and graphics

04

Structure installation

The joints of the foundation, lateral and longitudinal steel bars are assembled together to form the frame structures.

Playground

05

Facade installation

The central walkway with timber floor tile

Overview of the project underneath the bridge

The facade consists of canvas, polycarbonate boards and meshes, before installation, screen printing techniques are used to print different texts and patterns on them.

Playgroud for children during weekday

The facade of polycarbonate and canvas under sunlight

06

Timber Plant Stand An extendable plant stand using traditional timber interlocking techniques / Year 3 Integrated Design Project Instructor: Margaret Mulcahy

This project originated from one of the module called Integrated Design of Architecture, is associated with the final year project and aims at making an 'artefact' to improve certain aspect of the building.

Since my final year project put much attention in gardening activities, so the first idea came up to my mind is a sustainable timber plant stand that is easily installed and demounted.

From research, the traditional Japanese joinery of Cidori employed in Kengo Kuma's architectures have inspired to focus on timber interlocking techniques. This makes me reminiscent of Chinese timber techniques of Sunmou Joint and Kong Ming Lock.

In this project, the structural logic of Sunmou Joint and Kong Ming Lock would be analysed and evaluated to determine which joint is more suitable to be used for the modular plant stand unit.

A final 1:1 artefact would be produced as the final outcome of the project.

Traditional Timber Interlocking Techniques

Final Design of the Plant Stand

Sunmou Joint & Kong Ming Lock The interlocking joints are special techniques used in timber furnitures or building elements to form stable structures without any means of bolting or glueing. This projects would explore the potential of traditional Chinese Sunmou joints and kong ming lock to form modular unit of plant stand. Two joints have to be applied to the wooden members in order to form the plant stand structure. Various types of Sunmou Joint and Kong Ming Lock would be test for the feasibility of each type of joint.

1.

1. Intersection joint

2.

Single Joint

Dowel Joint

Two timber members are joined with a mortise and a tenon

Two timber members are joined with a large block of mortise and fixed with a dowel for stability

3.

4.

2.

1.

Six Links

Nine Links

Six wood sticks with concave and convex parts form interal interlocking joints

Nine wood sticks with concave and convex parts form interal interlocking joints

3.

4.

The six links has been chosen as the intersection joint method as it has moderate complexity that can withstand loads of plant pot. The six members of the initial lock have been extended to fulfill the function of plant stand. Each axis of the plant stand has two timber sticks, which increases the stiffness.

Fourteen Links

Twenty-four Links

Fourteen wood sticks with concave and convex parts form interal interlocking

Tenty-four wood sticks with concave and convex parts form interal interlocking joints

6.

5.

2. End joint Double Joint

Bolt Joint

Two timber members are joined with two mortises and tenons

Each linear member has a mortise being inserted into one another and being interlocked by a central dowel

5.

6.

Shoulder Joint

Shoulder Joint with Dowel

A projected part of a timber member is flanked by two planes of another member

This joint is a shoulder joint with additional dowel to increase stability

Triple Locks

Dowel Locks

Three rectangular blocks have voids in its centre to accommodate each other

The sticks have mortises and are connected by multiple dowels

7.

8.

The bolt joint of Sunmou techniques is applied to each end of the timber members.

The bolt joint has more suitable geometrical shapes and robustness comparing to other Sunmou joints.

Hiding Locks

The Cage

There are three L-shaped blocks that enclose the linear ones to join together

Eighteen-sticks with small projected cylinders to hold each member in place Process of making components

Bolt joint

Six links

This joint has two linear members and each of them has a mortise being slooted into one another. There is an additional fixing method of dowel in the central part.

The six links have total 6 wooden members with 2 of each lie on the x,y,z axis respectively. The sixth stick is not carved and being the final member to lock the joint. The joint has moderate stability to withstand loads.

1. Initial block

2. Carved members

Pros The complexity in the interlocking method makes it really stable than other joints.

3. Interlocking joint 1. First member

2. Adding 2nd member 3. Adding 3rd member

4. Adding 4th member

5. Adding 5th member

6. Completion

Cons It might be really difficult to make and requires high accuracy Final completed artefact

Pros It has moderate complexity and does not take much times and materials to make and assemble

Cons The robustness is not as good as nine link. However, its stability is enough for a plant stand.