{{archived}} Byron Huang // Portfolio² '24 // University Of Waterloo

I’m Byron.

Currently a second year at the University of Waterloo’s School of Architecture, I am so eager to explore the architecture industry further.

An artist since young, I’ve always needed an outlet for my creative itch. Coming across architecture, I naturally garnered an interest in the field. Not only does it fulfill my artistic design requirements, but architecture also serves as an essential social service for the user, with my job (the designer) to create experiences whether they are meant to be lived in, walked through or admired from a distance. To me, an excellent architect is one who combines one’s passions of creative expression whilst being able to provide a civic duty; and that is what I strive for in my work in the past, present and future.

Eager to discover and learn more of the vast landscape of architecture, I hope that I can take part and contribute to your team and your successes.

SKILLS

Digital

Blender

Enscape

Grasshopper

Illustrator

Indesign

Microsoft Suite

INTERESTS

Bouldering

Film

Film Photography

Illustration

Music

Skateboarding

Snowboarding

Photoshop Premiere Pro Procreate Rhinoceros 7

SketchUp V-Ray

Analogue

Hand Drafting

Model Making

3D Printing

CNC Milling

Laser Cutting Photography

LANGUAGES

English Mandarin

CURRICULUM VITAE

EDUCATION

09/2022 - present

09/2017 - 06/2022

EXPERIENCE

01/2024 - 04/2024

University of Waterloo - School of Architecture Cambridge, ON

Bachelor’s of Architectural Studies, Honours Co-op Program

Lord Byng Secondary School Vancouver, BC

Byng Arts Mini School Honours Art Program, Dogwood Diploma

07/2023 - 08/2023

09/2021 - 06/2022

03/2022

Architectural Intern

Diamond Schmitt Architects - Toronto, ON

Designing interior spaces for public health projects

Creating drawings for various projects for promotion, proposals and archival

Design Intern Architect

City Light Development - Richmond, BC

Input in design and layout for development projects (residential, hotels, academic/schools)

Creating fabrication and connection drawings for clients

Director of Design Team (Art & Graphics)

Lord Byng Annual Production - Vancouver, BC

Managing work and deadlines of other illustrators on the team Illustrating for backgrounds, graphics featured in the yearbook

Work Placement Intern

GBL Architects - Vancouver, BC

Familiarizing with industry standard software

Understanding working timelines, seeing projects in all stages of progress

AWARDS

2022 - present

06/2024

05/2023

Dean’s Honour’s List - Excellent Academic Standing Term average for all courses over 80%

School of Architecture Award

Recipient for Outstanding Design Work in 2A

School of Architecture Award

Recipient for Outstanding Design Work in 1B

June 17, 2024

Letter of Recommendation

To Whom This May Concern,

We are pleased to provide this letter of recommendation for Byron Huang who completed a co -op term with Diamond Schmitt Architects from January 8, 2024 to April 26, 2024

During his time with the firm, Byron worked as a team member on a number of significant projects including:

• Humber College Cultural Hub, Toronto

• Fanshawe College Innovation Hub, London

• CAMH, Toronto

Byron was an exceptionally reliable and conscientious student who was always courteous and co -operative, exhibiting very good interpersonal skills and consistently establishing excellent working relationships with his co -workers. He is a very capable and skilled individual and we are confident that Byron would be a positive asset to any firm that hires him.

We wish Byron all the best in his future endeavors.

Sincerely, Diamond and Schmitt Architects Inc.

Elizabeth Gyde Art Director

VIVIDITY

↳ “Living Archive of Lost Things”

↳ Toronto, ON, Canada

↳ Fall 2023

This archive sits at the west of Toronto, as a facility of art education. With the core principle of being an archive, it stores a vast collection of colour pigments used throughout history.

Divided into 3 cores, each core corresponds to what one may know, experience and get out of each part of the archive. We introduce, the existence of colour, we reveal, the past of our hidden pigments and we expose our artificial present. the archive is a place where the art of the past can live, where the art of the present can be taught, and for the future of art to be preserved.

Understanding Our True Colors, One Stage At A Time.

Located in the intersection of Dundas and Sterling, the site serves as a central position for a communal space, located alongside one of the largest transit streets in Toronto. Not too far from city centre, Vividity is only a short detour away from the core of the city. With its green roof terrace, the archive serves the local community in bringing more green spaces to the suburban neighbourhood.

render, north exterior view

An Archive of Pigments +

Stage 1

1 - Foyer - Reception - Coat Check

2 - Main Gallery Space - Broad Pigment Displays

3 - Youth Classroom + Painting Workshop

4 - Cafe

Stage 2

5 - Gallery - Raw Materials & their stories

Exhibition

6 - Deep Storage

7 - Pigment Crafting + Production Workshop

8 - Painting Studio

9 - Administration Offices

10 - Gallery - Art throughout the ages alongside their raw materials

11 - Artifact + Painting Restoration Workshop

12 - Artist’s Residence’s First Floor

Stage 3

13 - Gallery - Pigments Today and the world of Art without it

14 - Artist’s Residence’s Second Floor

15 - Rooftop Terrace

Divided into 3 cores, each core corresponds to what one may know, experience and get out of each part of the archive.

Stage 1, is the introductory stage, through the familiarity of a design language that is more commonplace in museum architecture, visitors are brought to a space where they can interact with pure pigment, a familiar form of colour. But as they descend the stairwell, the forms of pigment shown become larger and more solid, transitioning into a more raw, natural form.

Stage 2, a world of the unknown, where knowledge previously unknown is revealed to us, through learning about the raw materials and the material processes of creating pigment. In the second stage, there is more hand to hand interactions with such pigments, creating experiences with the raw form. Furthermore, after interacting with the raw pigment, the potential of pigments shown within painting forensics, showing how historically such pigments are used.

Stage 3, the visitor returns and ascend back to the present where we see the modern developments of pigment but as also see the world without classically crafted pigments.

A SOULFUL REVERIE

↳ Music Conservatory & Library

↳ Toronto, ON, Canada

↳ Winter 2023

This music conservatory is located in the Don Valley Parkway, a communal hub for all levels of interests in music. The project supports musicians with its music library’s resources ranging from scores to music history. Including its chamber music hall and jazz pit, the conservatory gives a platform for musicians to perform and opportunities to learn both on and off stage with its music programs. The project’s vision is to celebrate the music of the past, present and the future generations through the spaces it creates.

This project was the final studio project of my 1B term. The project required the design to have a library as well as a secondary program; in my case, I choose to focus on music and the performing arts education.

The most prominent space at entrance, the double height space, functional as a public vinyl cafe space, but also as a music bar with a performance pit. The space reaches upward to main archive space, providing ambient music to those reading/studying. The space transforms from an ambient musical cafe by day to a warm lively jazz pit by night.

The diagram below displays the functionality of the placement of the wooden slats, and how they create differing lighting situations at different times of day.

The morphology diagram above shows the importance of the balance and placement of each space, although conceptualized as individual blocks, you can see how the spaces came to overlap and become a shared space with time and development as seen in the section cut below; cutting through the chamber hall, cafe, jazz pit, library and the practice rooms.

Located at the intersection of Thompson and Broadview Street, the conservatory is located in a central location, a key location for a communal hub. The first floor has a lot to offer, with a cafe, jazzbar, vinyl collection, chamber music hall and lounge area.

With wooden slats incasing the second floor, the library program is rotated to point out toward the intersection. The length of the mass is directed towards the greenery of the “front yard” of the library as well as towards the public dog park. The first floor is behind a layer of glass and steel, but behind that screen is more wood, laid throughout the interior to have the same warm woody feeling as a concert hall.

The second floor is small, consisting of practice rooms of varying sizes. The largest room houses a grand piano, ideal for quartets and larger groups to practice in. The other rooms are supplied with soundproofing and recording equpiment, perfect for solo or duo musicians to write and record music.

The third floor is comprised of the library program, rotated creating pockets of canatalever and balcony in contrast to the floor below. The floor also has an opening, creating a double height space with the cafe/ bar. The spaces of this floor is mostly bookstacks, for storing all kinds of music literature, recordings and sheet music. The space is also kitted with study areas and listening spaces to consume the vast library of media located on the third floor of the library.

render, chamber music hall interior

second & third floor plans

WOODEN ARRAYS

↳ Pedestrian Bridge

↳ Kitchener, ON, Canada

↳ Winter 2023

Located in the Waterloo Region’s Victoria Park, this bridge is designed to replace a previous pedestrian bridge, spanning over 20 metres. With a focus on connection details, the bridge is covered end to end with wood and steel, with wood to wood connections, steel to steel connections and wood to steel connections. The project is required to be fifty percent covered as well as wide enough to be used by accessibilty mobility devices. The bridge also features seating and a lookout point, towards the large pond of Victoria Park.

park site plan

bridge lookout extension - 3.50 m of accessible space - timber deck beams span out additional 1.15 m

timber railing - 2 pieces attached at 120 degrees

timber beams bolted to central wide flange (5) with bracketsfront piece is structural holding up canopy - rear piece is minor in structure for vanity

timber bench held up by brackets on central steel wide flange (5) and held in the center through HSS (12)

steel wide flange held through deck and below wide flange (11)clamped by steel plate bracing

timber deck beams - 3.00 m of accessible space

2.00 m of accessible space

timber panels held by HSS (9)

steel hollow structural section welded at angles - attached to wide flanges underneath (10,11), timber deck beams (6), timber panels (8) and timber railing (2)

angled wide flange - custom fabricated - attached to spanning channel connecting to flange (11)

angled wide flange - holding up central wide flange (5) - attached to spanning channel connecting to flange (10)

steel rectangular hollow section (25mm thickness) holding the bench (4) up while wrapping around deck beams (6)

timber roof joists spanned between central wide flanges (5)

concrete footing - wide flanges going through - sits in between steel HSS (9)

victoria

The canopy is made of vertical slats, bolted together, covering over 75% of the bridge. The wooden canopy is held up by the steel supports that emerge from the steel structure underneath the deck.

render, canopy detail

timber roof joists

- 250 x 70 mm L: 2.87 m

steel bolts - 12 mm radius L: 210mm

timber roof joists

- 145 x 70 mm L: 1.68 m

steel spanning channel

- 255 x 400 mm with 40mm depth

steel spanning bracket - 200 x 50 mm

steel bolts

- 9 mm radius L: 90mm

steel bolts

- 9 mm radius L: 45mm

steel plate bracing (30mm thickness) with 400 x 100 mm welded bracket

steel angled wide flange

- 675 x 200 mm with 40mm depth

steel wide flange

- 450 x 400 mm with 40mm depth

steel bolts - 24 mm radius L: 81mm

steel bolts

- 18 mm radius L: 114mm

steel bolts - 12 mm radius L: 140mm a b c d a b c d e f g h i j

timber deck beams

- 250 x 200 mm L: 3.29 m, gap: render, canopy connection detail

timber roof joists spanned between central wide flanges

timber beams attached through central wide flange and held with steel angle bracket

steel wide flange held through deck and below wide flange

steel plate bracing (30mm thickness)

timber

SKIN & BONE

↳ Off-Grid Housing

↳ Kutchan, Hokkaido, Japan

↳ Winter 2023

A off-grid home located in a small rural town in Japan. The goal of this project is to create an environmentally friendly, carbon reducing, self reliant home. The philosophy of this project is to be enviromental, so the house is designed to have two notable elements, the actual house, and the skin that surrounds it. The actual house is made of recycled materials from local demolished homes, designed to imitate the style and methods that is local to the region of Hokkaido. The skin is constructed of wooden structure and corrugated plastic. The space between the skin and the house serves as the workspace program of the two residents of the home, a botantist and a woodworker.

render, northwest view

OVER, UP AND AROUND

↳ Botany Lab & Private Residence

↳ Cambridge, ON, Canada

↳ Fall 2022

Located in Cambridge, Ontario, this wooden home is located by the riverbank of the Riverbluffs Park. Its wooden plat systems that wrap up, over and around the building provides a excellent environment for botanists and curious learners to ignite and pursue their passion in protecting the native plant species of Ontario against invasive species through selective breeding and genetic splicing.

The first floor is mostly a public area, a “lab” space for botanists to conduct work and reaserch as well as educate about the local plant life in the atrium at the front of the house. The home has plenty of storage stacks for plant life as well as a powder room and small office.

On the second floor, looking down into the double height atrium is the library, where a vast library of botanical literature lays; allowing for those at the library to read while able to look outside and look down into the atrium.

render, interior library area

The second floor is a more private area, with a library, dining area, lounge area and kitchen. With a bedroom and bathroom, it is for one person to live in. The top floor on the outside is sloped, designed for planting on whilst also letting plenty of light inside the house.

In the depths of Riverbluffs Park, it is quite a distance to get to the project. But thanks to its isolation from the town, it serves as a perfect place for collecting, growing and working with local botanical species.

render, wide exterior shot

For the scale model, I went through a process to be able to recreate the curved wooden slats at a much smaller scale. Eventually, I settled on dampening the wood by a little bit and then bending it to a mold of the curvature I desired.