portfolio

special thanks: My Beloved Family and Four Spicy Girls.

PREFACE

This portfolio, including four works, was made during my last two years in college (2010 ~ 2011).

T

he first two works are inspired by existentialism. I try to find the relationship between our personal identity and our existence in my first work. Social networking sites are being widely used these days. It seems like we can have a second life on the Internet. Fake information about a person can be fabricated from scratch through the Web. Thus, I am trying to raise a question through this work: “Who are we?�

T

he second work is about traces left behind. I imagine that traces being left by people on the ground can turn into fossils. In this work, I rediscovered those fossils and built them in to different structures that can reflect people flow in a certain area while proving the existence of humankind at the same time.

01 03

T

he third work is inspired by my own experience. I am amazed by how people being brought together by time and being separated also by the flow of time. I believe that geographic obstacles can hardly limit people from seeing each other; instead, the thing that actually separates people apart is the power of time.

02 04

T

he forth work is a professional and group project. My friends and I together designed a coffee house interior space from scratch. The coffee shop was set to be a place that encourages creative endeavors and allow artists, musicians or everyday people to present their works and be inspired by others. I act as one of the main designers in the group, and my idea also became the final result of this design project.

CONTENT

EXISTENCE X IDENTITY

personal | medium used : cardboard | Mar. 2010

p.1 – p.9

EXISTENCE X TRACES

personal | medium used : cardboard | August 2010

p.10 – p.17

TIME & SEPERATION

personal | medium used : cardboard, acrylic paint | June 2011

p.18 – p.21

D.CAFE

professional and group project | one of the main designers | May - July 2011

p.22 – p.27

RESUME

p.28

01 EXISTENCE X IDENTITY

I

am obsessed with how the development of the Internet will affect the identity of a person.

There are plenty of popular social networking sites being used by people around the world these days such as Facebook and Twitter.

Users among these sites are able to decide what information about themselves they want to disclose to the public, and some even construct fictitious identities. The Internet gives us as many chances as we want to create an ideal illusory life. Then the question emerges.

Who are we after all?

original identity

through the use of the Internet

create new identity

original element

deconstruct into stretch out views

create new element

I

choose a cube as the fundamental element that, through different stacking process, composes of our final appearance. The Internet gives us a chance to break the cube into different kinds of stretch out views. We are free to create new structures from the stretch out views and even create new ways of stacking process that form our new online identities.

personal work

-02-

You-Chia Lai | Mar. 2010

T

he following three elements are chosen to be stacked in four different ways.

The first element is a simple cube. Reconstructing the stretch out view of a cube makes structure type one. Combining two type-one structures makes structure type two.

original type

type 2

type 1

Combining two type 1 structures into a type 2 structure.

personal work

-03-

You-Chia Lai | Mar. 2010

DOT

LINE

Cartesian coordinates See each element as a dot on the coordinate.

Connecting two dots together forms a line. A line on the coordinate can be extended by joining more dots.

type 1 type 2

personal work

-04-

You-Chia Lai | Mar. 2010

SOLID

SURFACE

Combining two or more surfaces together forms a solid.

Combining two or more lines together forms a surface.

personal work

-05-

You-Chia Lai | Mar. 2010

type 1

Initial Status z

Rotate

x

y

Starting from the initial status, I view the x axis as the axis of rotation. I rotated each type 1 element 90 degree at a time. Then I stacked every one of them perpendicularly based on the amount of degree which they’ve been rotated from small to large.

270

0

1800

900

00 personal work

-06-

You-Chia Lai | Mar. 2010

type 2

Initial Status z

2700

x

y

Starting from the initial status, I view the z axis as the axis of rotation. I rotated each type 2 element 90 degree at a time. Then I stacked every one of them perpendicularly based on the amount of degree which they’ve been rotated from small to large.

1800

900

00

personal work

-07-

You-Chia Lai | Mar. 2010

upside down

type 1

Starting from this direction.

Turn the structure upside down.

Combine the two reverse structures together to create a new type “X”.

personal work

-08-

Then turn type “X“ upside down and call it type “Y“.

You-Chia Lai | Mar. 2010

Stacking type “X“ and “Y“ alternately.

type 2

Starting from this direction.

Turn the structure upside down.

Then combine the two reverse structure together to creat a new type “Z“

personal work

Repeatedly stacking type “Z“ structure perpendicularly.

-09-

You-Chia Lai | Mar. 2010

02 EXISTENCE X TRACES

A

n old Chinese proverb says “We leave scars behind on the paths we passed by.� Traces can be a good proof showing our existence. I love to watch people walking urgently in crowded areas and imagine their traces transfer into fossils and precipitate gradually into the ground as time goes by. n this work, I tried to dig out traces people left on the ground and re-constructed them into structures that reflect how the crowds move in a public space. I chose Taipei train station as my site and set my camera aiming a certain area. I recorded people walking by the area for about 10 minutes in order to capture the traces made by them. I then excerpted three sections from the film and started to analyze their traces.

I

People leave traces on the ground after they passed by.

Traces scatter on the ground.

personal work

Newer traces remain on the top of the ground; older ones precipitate into the earth and turn into fossils.

-11-

You-Chia Lai | Aug. 2010

I try to dig them out in this work.

Traces in the three excerpted sections are being drawn on slides.

I then simplified the traces into straight lines in order to find specific patterns of human flow.

personal work

-12-

You-Chia Lai | Aug. 2010

Three walking patterns in this area.

T

he crossed lines in a trace produce several dots. Connecting three dots together can make a basic surface. Then I gave every dots different height in order to transform the 1-D trace into a 3-D structure. Traces were dug out from the ground by this process.

personal work

-13-

You-Chia Lai | Aug. 2010

I used several triangles to divide the three paths.

personal work

-14-

You-Chia Lai | Aug. 2010

personal work

-15-

You-Chia Lai | Aug. 2010

personal work

-16-

You-Chia Lai | Aug. 2010

personal work

-17-

You-Chia Lai | Aug. 2010

03 TIME & SEPERATION

T

he following two works are inspired by my own experience. I graduated from college a few months ago. After graduation, some of my friends had to serve the military, some of them decided to find a job, and some others chose to study in the graduate school. I feel that time is really a magical stuff. It put us together and makes us great friends but all of a sudden, it separate us apart and force us to move on into different directions. he first work is shown below. I used acrylic paints and tape cores as medium. Every tape core acts as an individual. I try to show that we all walk our own path during the life-long journey led by time. We meet someone in the middle of the journey and at the same time we say goodbye to someone else.

T

Medium : acrylic paint, tape core

personal work

-19-

You-Chia Lai | Jun. 2010

I then try to transform the first work into a 3-D structure.

personal work

-20-

You-Chia Lai | Jun. 2010

personal work

-21-

You-Chia Lai | Jun. 2010

Always improving

facebook: d.cafe

04 D.CAFE

Two Main Concept Used in This Project

I

have devoted my time to this architectural teamwork project - the interior design of a unique coffee shop that encourages creative endeavors and allows artists, musicians, and everyday people to present their work and be inspired by others. For a place like this, the design must be imaginative. I am one of the main designers of this coffee house. My idea also became the main ingredient of the final space planning of this shop. tree shaped space division based on people flow

These are the original looks of the coffee shop interior space.

professional and group work

-23-

You-Chia Lai | May-Jul. 2010

height discrepancy in a terrace field

single seats bar door

discuss seats

exhibition area

people flow

space division

final result

I

propose that the shop should have a fluent interior space, one that moved with the flow of people into the shop. I therefore analyzed potential walking patterns, and divided the spaces in the coffee shop accordingly. Then a tree shape division appeared on the ground.

Each area was designed with its individual use in mind. professional and group work

-24-

You-Chia Lai | May-Jul. 2010

stage

door

exhibition area

single seats

stairs

stage

stairs exhibition area

W

e combined the tree shape division design with the image of terraced field together. We gave three divided areas various heights mimicking the shape of terraced field in order to give each area more uniqueness and particular functions. We also hope that this design will add more fun for consumers when using the space.

professional and group work

-25-

You-Chia Lai | May-Jul. 2010

Peeping

Gossip Idea Factory Couch potato

Kaleidoscope

What’s up?

Secret Plan

professional and group work

-27-

You-Chia Lai | May-Jul. 2010

Education • B.S. in Mechanical Engineering National Taiwan University GPA : 3.32

09/2007 – 06/2011

Research Experience • Researcher in Department of Structure Analysis

Formosun Advanced Power Research Center Researched and developed hydrogen oxygen fuel cell motorcycle Aimed to create a vehicle that ran on eco-friendly-power

08/2008 – 02/2009

Work Experience • Substitute Military Service

08/2011 – 06/2012

• Freelance Interior Designer

05/2011 – 07/2011

Division of Disaster Rescue, Fire Department, New Taipei City Government

Designed the interior space of D. Café according to predicted human behavior within the shop; participated in shop’s creation from inception to completion • Waiter at 5sense Café • Private Tutor in Mathematics

09/2010 – 12/2010 03/2010 – 07/2010

Extracurricular activities • Participated in NTU Innovation Competition

03/2011 – 05/2011

• Played crucial role in the Marketing Department

09/2010 – 11/2010

• • • • •

08/2010 03/2010 – 05/2010 12/2009 – 01/2010 05/2008 09/2007 – 06/2011

07/2011 04/2011 – Present

Ranked 10th out of 128 teams

Planned Pan Asia Model United Nations Conference Planned Creativity & Entrepreneurship summer camp; Led team Organized Graffiti Art Promotion for Activity Planning Dept.

Planned course offerings for Kids’ Mech. Eng. Summer Camp Named Best Delegate in National Model United Nations Conference Played in the Department Baseball Team as the Third-Base Man Won Championship in the 2009 Freshman Cup • Sponsored and Organized “BANG!” Joint Concert • Performed as Vocalist and Guitarist in a band

Skills • Programming : Visual Basic, Labview • Tools : Solidworks, Rhinoceros, Catia • Language : Native Chinese, Fluent English, Basic Italian -28-

You-Chia Lai

YOU-CHIA LAI Address: 5f, No.9, Lane 9, Alley 38, Lin Chuan St, Lin Ya District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan Tel: +886 – 928 – 612 – 497 +886 – 7 – 721 – 0173 E-mail: fxp61111@gmail.com