Elina Chen_Portfolio_2021

PORTFOLIO This portfolio contains the design work of Elina Chen.

Rice School of Architecture, B.A in Architecture Elina.Chen@rice.edu | +1 (346) 2012858 3 Hermann Museum Circle Dr, Houston, TX, 77004 Website: https://yiyingchen.myportfolio.com/

1 Mycelium as connective building tissue A manufacturing and urban design system of Mycelium Panel in El Paso - Ciudad Juarez.

Mycelium is a network of fungal roots that can function as non-formaldehyde adhesive glue in binding organic wastes into constructing materials such as particle boards. Through introducing mycelium panels as connective building tissue, we design a carbon neutral, circular manufacturing and building system.

Instead of a linear process going from extraction to production, consumption, and waste, we propose a circular system where agricultural waste distribution, mycelium cultivation, structure construction, and material decay can all take place within the selected site.

Connectivity, the thesis of our design proposal, takes place on three levels: first, on the territorial level, informed by the life cycle of mycelium material,we introduce an urban strategy that connects the river valley context of El PasoCiudad Juárez with agricultural waste sourcing, lab manufacturing, mobile housing improvement and waste reuse. Second, on the urban level, we design a manufacturing and exhibiting site that mass produces standardized mycelium panels and connects with the surrounding neighborhoods through mycelium experimental structures, an urban garden, and a farmers’ market. Third, on the architectural level, we use mycelium panels to infiltrate mobile housing neighborhoods, providing insulation and new circulation that connects isolated housings into communal spaces.

Concept Collage Fall 2021 Studio, Prof. Nathan Friedman, Collab with Tony Dai 2

Improved Mobile Housing Condition

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Research

Mycelium Panel - Life Cycle Mixed with mycelium, flour, and water, agricultural waste such as corn and cotton husks can be reused as substrates to cultivate mycelium building panels inside a specific mould and harvest within 10 days. The harvested mycelium panels exhibit extraordinary insulation, acoustic insulation, and fireproofing qualities. After its degradation in one or two years, its waste can be transformed back to agricultural lands.

Territorial Map - River Valley The territorial map shows the context of El Paso-Ciudad Juárez River Valley, which produces around 600,000 bushels of corn and cotton annually. The agricultural waste can be recycled and transformed for the mass production of mycelium panels.

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Urban Strategy

Urban Map Zooming into the urban scale, major highways connect agricultural lands with mycelium labs and individual mobile housing neighborhoods. We identify more than 20 locations of mobile home neighborhoods in El Paso. These sites provide individual land spaces for mobile homes, as well as basic utilities such as water, sewer, electricity, or natural gas. However, such neighborhoods offer limited communal space and each house has very poor insulation conditions.

Urban Plan Our proposed site is situated in an area near the border. It consists two mobile home communities connected by an empty land. We propose to build a field of mycelium manufacturing lab, experimental structures, testing sites, agricultural lands, public park, and farmers market.

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Urban Axon

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The axonometric drawing and the series of perspective collages explain different stages of the "mycelium world" in construction.

In the first stage, substrates are transported into the storage and prepared for mass production of mycelium panels.

In the second stage, an experimental structure is built to exhibit the architectural qualities of mycelium panels.

In the third stage, an urban garden is built with mycelium panels, using the design strategy that we showed in the concept collage. Fruits and vegetables will be grown and a farmer’s market will subsequently be open to the public.

The programs will draw consumers and visitors, connecting the site with surrounding neighborhoods and publicizing the architectural qualities of mycelium panels.

In the next stage, mycelium panels start to infiltrate mobile housing neighborhoods. Standardized panels start to create conditions such as courtyards, backyards, alleyways for different activities such as barbecues and collective cooking, shading parking shelters, and acoustic walls to block traffic noise. At the same time, build-at-home kits, which include packaged substrates, moulds, and a self-built instruction manual, will enable individuals to cultivate and produce mycelium panels to replace degraded ones, using their own kitchen space.

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Stages of the “Mycelium World”

Stage I – Agricultural Waste Distribution

Stage III – Urban Garden

Stage II – Experimental Structure

Stage IV – Neighborhood Infiltration

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Build-at-Home Axon

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2 Massed Massive Buenos Aires blue carbon banking research center: a private research laboratory and a public platform that exhibits the newest scientific discovery.

Buenos Aires blue carbon banking research center, located along the coast of Rio de Plata, serves as a scientific hub that responds to the risk of climate change and sea level rise the city is facing. Surrounded by train tracks and underground highway, the research center stands is an urban attraction that draws people in. From far, it reads like an undulating mass that floats above the triangulated site. The roof surface wraps around at the tree canopy level 50 ft above the ground. It drops down its volume on one part of the building body, creating a cave-like massing that serves for the public program. On the other side where labs and research offices are located, different stratas are exposed, with curtain wall structure hiding behind each layer. On the ground level, a passage of walkway trespasses blocks of wetlands, creating a promenade for entrances and crossing the site towards the Catalina Norte. The elevated ground not only responds to the flooding situation but also creates public porosity that connects the project with the imminent urban context.

The programs of this project are divided into two parts – the public and the private.

The differences between programs are reflected through the formal language. The public programs are expressed as an S-shape undulating volume detached from the ground, carving into the L-shape private programs. The two parts merge at the rooftop level, where the cafe is elevated and revealed beneath the roof structure. Serving both the public and the lab researchers, this café invites both parties to enjoy the city view of Buenos Aires and engage with the newest scientific development of blue carbon research. A field of test beds is presented on the roof level in front of the cafe.

Urban Context Axon

San Martin Front Side Elevation Spring 2021 Studio, Prof. Christopher Hight, Independent Work 10

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a b c

a b c e

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Longitudinal Section A-A

Auditorium Side Elevation

Longitudinal Section B-B

Section D-D

Longitudinal Section C-C

Section E-E

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3 Stitch&Glue Shed Plywood housing prototype that repurposes stitch-and-glue kayak building technology for Mahama, Rwanda.

Our project repurposes stitch and glue kayak building technology into a new shed prototype for Mahama refugee camp, Rwanda. The manufacture process consists of utilizing flat pieces, specifically plywood. Five pieces of veneer are oriented in different directions to create one piece of plywood – they are monoclastic, meaning that they can only bend in one direction.

When the flat pieces are stitched together, each flat piece curves to meet the adjacent piece.

This creates a low tech double curvature between the panels. This complex geometry that is formed is what gives an enormous amount of rigidity and makes the structure.

Manufactured out of ½ inch flat plywood pieces, the shelter technology allows it to be a very thin yet rigid shell. Therefore, it is easy to be packed and shipped to our predetermined site at the Mahama refugee camp. For insulation, local construction workers will mix pulverized styrofoam with water to create a lightweight cementitious matrix, which they will hand trowel onto the structure on site. For waterproof, workers will apply another layer of natural, readily available, and replenishable oil wax, such as beeswax to seal the shell.

An inner shell and an outer shell create a plenum space that allows cross ventilation. The windows allow for ventilation from side to side. Ventilation buttons at the top block rain while allow air travel. Perpendicular braces hold the shells in place and allow air travel. The base is a pedestal that raises the shell up to avoid moisture / flooding / mudslides. It is made out of fiber reinforced concrete nailed down to the base. The trusses are connected to the fiber reinforced concrete which hold the plywood floor plate.

Model Detail Fall 2020 Studio, Prof. Mark Wamble, Collab with Andrea Gomez 12

Stitch and Glue Technology Proto-Unit

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Exploded Axon

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Section, Elevation, Perspective

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4 Communal Living High-rise housing in midtown Houston; a prototype of multi-family unit that can be adapted for flexible renter types.

Section Axon

Loggia Perspective

Spring 2020 Studio, Prof. Sarah Nicoles, Independent Work 16

Plan

Typical Floor Plan (1st floor)

Typical Floor Plan (2nd floor)

Sited in midtown Houston, this project advocates for a communal living environment that can be shared across different age groups living individually through its unit design. The L forms create an open community with greeneries and public plazas extending into the urban environment.

Each building is 17-floor height, with a double-height lounge / recreational space on the first floor. A typical floor plan is consisted of three individual units of 900 sqf and two multi-unit housing combos. Main circulation is conducted through the point cores, where each unit is granted with its own entrance. Within a housing unit, two 800 sqf single-floor units—for the grandparents and the young adults respectively—and one 1400 sqf two-floor unit for the parents are connected with the double-height loggia in the center.

This housing combo can be suited for flexible use: a dorm for a group of college students who study and party at night; an office and apartment for adults who work from home; a house of elderly with collective care; etc. The loggia as the design parti provides cross ventilation, city view, and collective gathering space.

Ground Floor Plan

Exhibition - Leave as an Object 17

6 Folding Oasis A Public Pool and Cultural Center in Montrose, Houston, TX. Taking water as an active medium, this studio -- Surface Tension -- explores friction that often play out in the design of an architectural project: between surface and substrate, inside and outside, public and private, land and water... Pools are designed as a site-specific interface that mediates between people and their surroundings, stitched into a broader conversation around social life and urban generosity in Houston.

In the first phase, starting from the investigation of the current state of pool architecture, I analyze and abstract the spatial and programatic organization of public natatorium into diagramatic drawings ranging in different scales. In the second phase, upon site visit and study, I design a non-standard swimming pool and a self-contained pavilion for public rest, taking architectural constraints and opportunities of the context into consideration. Finally, I expand the design concept generated through the previous phases into architectural scale and create a folding landscape--a public space that brings people of Montrose community to hang out and swim.

In the final project, folding surfaces define the conditions of dryness and wetness and the regarding functions of spaces. A large pool on the ground level folds from deep water into a gentle slope of rest and further into a smaller and shallower upper level pool. Two inner courtyards fold from the ground and diffuse circulation around. The introduction of a sunken screening room beneath the upper pool extends the program of public natatorium from a place only for swimming to a community center where people can gather and watch movies.

Model Photo

Pool Design

Fall 2019 Studio, Prof. Amelyn Ng, Independent Work 18

Built Project Analysis

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Perspective

Site Plan

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Gradient Bar Leca swimming pool (1961-1966) by Alvaro Siza examplifies an intricate public natatorium design, where pools are interweaved with the natural landscape to create a senious physical and visual experience for the audiences. People step between concrete platform, cliff and water, and finally into the ocean, where manmade and nature fuses into each other perfectly.

Concrete

Cliff

Sand Pool Water Ocean

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Collage Illustration

Sunken Auditorium View

Courtyard View

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Collage Illustration

Second-floor Pool View

First-floor Pool View

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7 Site Ecology Watering / Lighting Infrastructure

Winter / Daily Maintanence

Spring / Tourism

Fall 2020 Technology Series, Prof. Sarah Nicoles, Independent Work Seasonal Change at Menil Drawing Institute Courtyard

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Spring 2021 Studio, Prof. Chris Hight, Indepedent Work Tree Ecology in Buenos Aires, Argentina

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