Conrad Lau's Architecture Portfolio (02/12/2024)

CONRAD LAU

SELECTED WORK

2019-2024

PORTFOLIO info Bio & Resume

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project .01 (E)Co-living

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project .02 pg. 12 Biomimetic Building Block (B3) project .03 pg. 22 Third Ward Market

project .04 pg. 30 Minimal Dwelling

project .05 pg. 34 Descriptive & Computational Geometry project .06 pg. 42 Case Study 29: Olympic Village

Biography

Conrad Lau is a designer attending the University of Southern California for his Master of Architecture, expected to graduate in May 2024. Originally from the suburbs of Chicago, Conrad’s interest in architecture was embedded around him at an early age. The colossal skyscrapers, the prairie-style homes of Frank Lloyd Wright, and his favorite toy, Legos, inspired him to pursue a creative career in the field of Architecture.

Contact

phone +1 630 725 8611 email conraddlau@gmail.com

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Linkedin Conrad Lau

Work Experience

AO | Architects Orange

Intern

Summer 2023

Collaborated with residential and commercial teams to develop documents and graphics for client projects and internal operations, focusing on Schematic Design and Design Development phases. Highlights include generating marketing renders, producing material call out documents and renders for a project in Laguna Niguel, preparing lifestyle packages for client review, and revising plans and elevation drawings for renovation projects.

Lineage Logistics

Customer Care Representative

May 2021 - July 2022

Routine clerical and administrative work, including record keeping, processing intakes as well outputs, and customer relationship management at a logistics company.

Groth Design Group

Externship

Winter 2021

During a 2-day externship, I was introduced to the various departments of the firm. I met with their team leaders and members and had conversations related to the work they do and their role within completing a project.

USC

Class Assistant

Spring 2024

Class assistant for: Materials and Methods of Building Construction. Held office hours for tutoring, created presentations for lecture, and tracked data for the class.

Team Experience

SPACE Publications

Finance Officer

Fall 2023 - Present

Reached out to firms for donations and reviewed financial documents for the student run publication SPACE at USC School of Architecture.

Education

Iowa State University Core Design Program 2017-2018

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Bachelor of Science, Architectural Studies 2018-2021

University of Southern California Master of Architecture Expected Graduation: May 2024

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project .01

(E)Co-Living

description

The project takes a typical LA street and transforms it into a community of interconnected living pods, densifying the block while maintaining a sense of neighborhood. Six unique pod forms are created through merging and stretching of building blocks, each catering to the program needs of a co-living project. Minimal dwelling units offer residents freedom for customization and direct interaction with nature through window planters. Each pod accommodates 8 to 9 residents, fostering a familial atmosphere with symbiotic programmatic spaces encouraging interaction.

Exterior spaces include individual backyards for crop cultivation and community gardens addressing ecological concerns like the decline of monarch butterflies. The street serves as a circulation point and informal market, facilitating interaction between residents and neighboring projects. Throughout the Hillcrest golf course, outposts maintained by residents offer opportunities for sustainable food production and community engagement. Dedicated spaces for endangered species and ecological features contribute to a visually appealing and educational environment, fostering connections among residents and raising awareness of local ecological issues.

USC Fall 2022 Housing Studio instructor: Hadrian Predock

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project .02

Biomimetic Building Block (B3)

description

The Biomimetic Building Block is a response to rewilding in urban areas through architecture and biomimicry. The intention was to have us think abstractly, influencing our ability to pull inspiration from diverse areas. The project started with thorough research into sea sponges, examining their physical features, requirements for life, and general habitat. I chose the Orange Puff Ball Sponge, Tethya aurantium, drawn to its flagellum that influences current, tiny pores called ostia that absorb nutrients, its complex interior of channels that flow water throughout, and its spicules that resemble the cylindrical shape of toothpicks. Next, we researched species around NYC, as this was our site, following a similar path to the sponge research, observing their requirements for life and growth, I chose bees and various rodents as they’re already well adapted to an urban environment.

When it came to designing the block, the physical features of the sponge and the conditions required of the species drove the design. This step was both iterative and nonlinear, exploring a wide variety of options and physical features from the sponge.

Ultimately, the spicule shape drove the design, as the combination of these elements allowed fluidity in the shape of the block, allowing it to better mimic the qualities of the sponge, and artificially resemble the needs of the species.

USC Fall 2023 Topic Studio instructor: Evelyn Tickle

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project .03

Third Ward Market

description

The form developed through a series of massing models following the concept of embedding in place. The resulting form mirrored the void created by the massing of the structure across the street and a pitched roof to situate the market in its context.

A chunk of the second level was removed to create a split-level outdoor space, offering numerous experiences for the patrons and providing plenty of space for events.

UW-Milwaukee Fall 2019 Technical Development Studio instructor: Allyson Nemec

The circulation of the ground floor allows patrons to walk past all 12 interior market stalls and exit in the courtyard for seating. The courtyard features space to host concerts and rallys and utilizes the form to mitigate sound produced by Locust St. The building itself is pushed south on the site to create space for outdoor market stalls along Locust St for local farmers and producers. The second level expands upon the program of the first.

The highlight is the demo kitchen/presentation space to offer educational cooking classes or space for smaller presentations or team meetings.

The project acted as an introduction to building tectonics. Constructed of tilt-up concrete, the form was broken down into castable sections. To add texture to the facade, the tilt up is board formed and is given depth on the north and south elevations using tilt-up pillars to cover connection points.

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project .04

Minimal Dwelling

description

The minimal dwelling project was an investigation into maximizing minimal space. The prompt introduced a 10’ x 10’ x 10’ room that would serve as an individual dwelling within a co-living environment. You can assume that kitchens, bathrooms, and other necessary spaces would be provided for the collective.

USC Fall 2022 Housing Studio instructor: Hadrian Predock

An important consideration when approaching this problem is that humans are naturally social creatures, yet still value privacy and space to accommodate that. While living, working, and relaxation spaces can and often do have social programs, they can also be highly valuable private spaces. To achieve this in such a small space, it needed to be adaptable to conform to a variety of programs without requiring the mass reorganization of furniture and physical effort. While a possible solution to this is to simply add a desk, bed, and small chair or sofa, its also important to consider the mental attitude a space can develop.

The solution to this was a dynamic space that can rapidly be transformed into 4 different programs: Sleeping, Working, Relaxing, and Blank. The different programs are achieved by thickening the floor plane, and embedding collapsable furniture that could be lifted or concealed to easily transform the space.

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project .05

Descriptive & Computational Geometry

description

This elective course was an exploration of Descriptive and Computational Geometry in the built environment. Using complex contemporary projects from Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, and MAD architects as precedents, we critically examined their formal qualities and tectonics, reengineering how they were constructed.

USC

This form was the result of the first project, focused on creating a complex form consisting entirely of developable surfaces. Starting with a cylinder, various other primitive shapes were added and subtracted using Rhino’s boolean functions. The final result is an amorphous shape that can be unrolled into falt surfaces ready to model without the use of a CNC or other complex manufacturing methods. This understanding allows us to create unique and seemingly complex forms in a more affordable fashion, with applications to architecture and other forms of design.

Fall 2022 Descriptive & Computational Geometry instructor: Matt Conway

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project .06

Case Study 29: Olympic Village

description

This Thesis project is a work in progress The first Olympic village originated in Los Angeles in 1932 and has become part of the Olympic infrastructure. Its intention is to make the games affordable for athletes while creating a communal and unified vision of the games where cultures can be shared.

The olympic village is a cultural and social study of sociology.

USC Spring 2024 Thesis advisor: Amy Murphy

The case study houses serve(d) as a tool to address housing problems of the(ir) era, materializing developing modernist principles that combine utilitarian and aesthetic functions to idealize what housing should be. The case study houses are a cultural and social study of dwelling.

Once again we are in a position where we need to redefine housing issues of the era.

The thesis Case Study 29: Olympic Village aims to address problems in current and potentially future housing by looking back in time at the principles and motivation behind the case study houses, and combine it with the cultural, social, and communal aspects of the olympic village to examine how the the relationship between dwelling and sociology can begin to answer contemporary housing issues.

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CONRAD LAU

Thank You

CONTACT

phone +1 630 725 8611 email conraddlau@gmail.com Linkedin Conrad Lau