9.1 Yunzi (Zoe) Wang, Y3 ‘Personalising Death – Decomposing Coffin’. Funerary rites in China typically follow strict conventions driven by unquestioned tradition and commercialisation, and lack a contemporary response to current ecological concerns. This proposal is a highly personal approach to burial. The coffin and death suit, made from processed crab shell, consumed in life in abundance in Shanghai, is entirely biodegradable. Embedded with air pockets and mushroom spores, the suit intensifies decomposition in parts of the body that are slower to break down, such as joints. Given the country’s vast population, returning the body to the ground in this more natural way has the potential to make a significant positive environmental impact on burial in China. 9.2–9.3 Nandinzul Munkhbayar, Y3 ‘Seeping Through Time’. This device explores the physical properties and gestures of calligraphy with Chinese ink on layered ice. Different layers of salinity in the ice cause the calligraphy to change unpredictably over time, resembling micro landscapes. The drawing is fed through an artificially intelligent generator, transforming the data into a seemingly real macro Chinese landscape painting. The synthesised landscape is experienced in a virtual reality environment, allowing the viewer to inhabit an immersive and ever-changing Chinese landscape. 9.4–9.8 Ian Lim, Y3 ‘Tomb of the [Un]Known Soldier’. A memorial for those who died in conflicts during the Cultural Revolution, this project deals with the perception of the history, where two realities are present – the local government view, and the view by foreigners and dissidents. Considered a dark part of China’s modern history, a physical memorial dedicated to the victims of the Cultural Revolution cannot exist within China, and as such the proposed physical design is a tomb for the Unknown Soldier that follows the conventions of Fengshui, which would be acceptable to the Chinese government. The use of virtual reality in the building provides an alternate reality which foreign visitors can access through the internet via a virtual private network, allowing two spaces to exist within one. 9.9 Jeffery Wen, Y2 ‘Butterfly Farm and Nursery’. This project is a butterfly farm set in the Xixi Wetland Park in Hangzhou, which reintroduces native butterflies to the local area. The proposal focuses on the concept of duality, negotiating between inside and outside, light and heavy, butterfly and human, landscape and human-made. The building also offers spaces of contemplation inspired by the different stages of the butterfly’s delicate lifecycle, which is often used as a metaphor in Chinese aesthetics. Negotiating between spaces designed specifically for butterflies and humans, visitors are taken through subtle shifts in the datum and experience of the building in relation to the landscape. 9.10 Sum (Victoria) Chan, Y2 ‘Fabric Dyeing WorkshopGallery’. Sited in Wuchang, Hangzhou, China, this building uses natural and sustainable processes that minimise the impact on the wetlands. The programme rebuilds the wetland and fields for plantations to produce natural dyes for silk production in a responsible manner. The structure has been designed to collect rainwater for fabric dyeing, which will in turn be filtered by plants before being released into the main river. 9.11 Lucas Lam, Y2 ‘Hokutolite Mineral Laboratory and Museum’. Sited next to a natural stream in Beitou, Taipei city, Taiwan, water from the stream is pumped to recreate a hot spring to encourage the growth of the mineral Hokutolite on the roof. The form is inspired by studying the molecular structure of the mineral and photogrammetry data of the site. The architecture of the building and its joints are inspired by the additive process of Hokutolite forming, similar to 3D printing. 134
9.12, 9.14 Yixuan (Aurelia) Lu, Y3 ‘Alibaba Business Incubator’. A campus building for Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in Hangzhou as part of their ongoing investment in tech start-ups. Facilities include co-working and co-living spaces. The proposal sits on the edge of an artificially created pond that connects to existing waterways to reintroduce an area of wetland to the landscape. Water is used to cool computers that facilitate the automation of the architecture, which is in turn used for heating before releasing back into the cool waterways. 9.13 Alfred Gee, Y2 ‘A Microeconomic Fortress for the Preservation of Shanzhai’. Located in Huangpu District, north of Shanghai’s traditional fortified city walls, this proposal digitally reinforces the marketplace to provide a haven for the prolonging of Shanzhai in the face of increased legal scrutiny. Shanzhai goods are those that liberally borrow from an original product but contain an element of originality. Through shameless reinterpretation they unlock cultural remixes impossible in the highly regulated Western economy. The Microeconomic Fortress thrives in the legal grey area, playing with formal economies such as karaoke bars and informal economies such as shanzhai tech shops, as well as physical and virtual layers of security and visibility. 9.14 Jeffery Hao Wen, Y2 ‘Water Map Machine’. Designed according to real conditions in China, water is moved along different vessels interpreting the three main rivers, the Yellow River, Yangtze River, and the Huaihe River. Pumps installed in the device lead to a chain reaction of water flow. Cones representing different cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, redirect water to different channels using fluid pressure. The device is annotated with projection mapping. 9.15 Tianpei Wang, Y2 ‘Digital Water Fountain’. Inspired by scenery paintings from a traditional Chinese Jiangnan garden, the Lingering Garden, digital water is used to create four overlapping scenes into the stair landing within The Bartlett’s building. The experience activates our brain to ‘see’ landscapes in the absence of object in between water particles. Digital water is manipulated in the virtual reality environment to reflect its different states throughout the four seasons of the year. 9.16–9.19, 9.21, 9.23 Chueh-Kai (Daniel) Wang, Y3 ‘Wetland (Re)treat’. A healthcare retreat sited in Wuchang, west of Xixi National Wetland Park in Hangzhou, this building fuses the natural and the human-made, and aims to heal both its occupants and landscape. Drawing on the traditional Chinese concept of ‘gui tu’ (meaning ‘returning ground’), through its construction process the project reintroduces water back to the wider landscape battered by neglect and urbanisation. Flooded in summer and dehydrated in winter, the negotiation of soil condition challenges methods of construction. At micro-scale, the project provides much needed aftercare facilities in the Chinese medical system. At macro-scale, the restructuring of earth reintroduces the wetlands to the wider landscape. The project deals with the limitation of available materials in reality and speculation. Through the reuse of modelling material, the building is renegotiated repeatedly at various scales, as an analogy to the reality of the wetland’s appearance being constantly reshaped by water. 9.20, 9.22 Anahita Hosseini Ardehali, Y3 ‘The Eleventh Scene: Slow Fashion Silk Workshop’. Hangzhou is the silk capital of China but due to mass industrialisation, silk production has caused considerable damage to the landscape. This proposal is sited on the edge of West Lake, known for its ten exquisite ‘scenes’ or views. The project creates an eleventh scene by using atmospheric byproducts of slow silk production, many of which relate to water. When viewed from the lake, these elements combine to create the illusion of a surreal mountain range floating in the sky.