Arch 202 Spring 2022 Instructors: Rene Davids and Greg Castillo
University of California, Berkeley and Harvard GSD
Exhibition Spring 2022 Curated by Rudabeh Pakravan and Michelle Chang
In Collaboration with Sidell Pakravan Architects and JaJa Co
University of California, Berkeley Arch 260 Fall 2023 Instructor: David Jeahning
In Collaboration with Tim Gao and Zilu He
University of California, Berkeley
Arch 229 Fall 2021 Instructor: Raveevarn Choksombatchai
Solar Decathlon- A House with Four Pillars
University of California, Berkeley
Solar Decathlon 2023 Fall 2021- Fall 2022
Advisors: Mark Anderson, Mia Zinni, Jasmit Rangr, et. al.
In Collaboration with the UC Berkeley Solar Decathlon Team
Model MakingMass Timber Cantilever Residence
Anderson Anderson Architecture Assisted by Ao Ziang and Yafei Li
University of California, Berkeley Arch 100B Spring 2018 Instructor: David Orkand
University of California, Berkeley Arch 100A Fall 2017 Instructor: Lisa Iwamoto
Mission Institute
University of California, Berkeley Arch 203 Fall 2023 Instructor: Dan Spiegel
In Collaboration with Cameron Yetta
Situated in Bernal Heights, San Francisco, The Mission Institute serves as a gateway for drivers exiting freeway I-280 at the convergence of San Jose Avenue and Mission Street. This proposed educational and cultural hub is designed to cater to the needs of local residents and visitors, offering spaces for commercial activities, catering, arts, performance arts, and continuing education. Specifically tailored to benefit elders, single parents, minorities, and the working class, The Mission Institute seeks to provide opportunities for social mobility, showcasing San Francisco as a city rich in cultural diversity and reinforcing community resilience through education and business development.
Spread across three levels, the community center boasts a ground-level market and retail space, a second-floor educational hub with library and rentable studio spaces, and a third-floor with expansive 15 ft tall performance venues. These spaces accommodate diverse activities, including art exhibitions, performances, and business meetings. The seamless integration of programs is supported by a thoughtful organizational structure, incorporating structural, mechanical, and facade systems with a keen consideration for life and fire safety. The Mission Institute stands as a testament to San Francisco’s commitment to cultural diversity, education, and community strength, fostering an inclusive and dynamic environment.
1/2”=
Chunk Model; Plywood and Chipboard. Model in collaboration with Cameron Yetta.
1/2”= 1’- 0” Chunk Model; Plywood and Chipboard. Model in collaboration with Cameron Yetta.
Mission Institute
Gene Lee|01
1/16”= 1’- 0” Massing Model Iterations; Bristol and Grey Museum Board. Site Model in Collaboration with Studio Section Colleagues.
Exterior Rendering from San Jose Ave.
Exterior Rendering from Mission Street.
Interior Rendering; Central Oblique Void.
Interior Rendering; Educational hub and Library Space.
Interior Rendering; Event Space and Skylight.
Structural Diagram; Structural Cores/ Shear Walls and W-Flange Framing and Columns.
Mission Institute Gene Lee|06
Facade and Envelope Construction Sequence Diagrams
Section Oblique
1/2”= 1’- 0” Chunk Model; Plywood and Chipboard. Model in collaboration with Cameron Yetta.
Mission Institute
Gene Lee|09
(Just) Architecture
University of California, Berkeley Arch 201 Fall 2021 Instructor: Rudabeh Pakravan
Oakland, as a city, has a sense of looseness in it. Its laissez-faire attitude towards planning allows a certain degree of individualistic façade expressions, forming a pluralistic, eclectic urban landscape.
This diptych set illustrates looseness with the collaged facades of domestic spaces claiming the surfaces of the edifices in Oakland.
The incorporation of diagonal bracing in some of the buildings disrupts the orthogonal components of the city, reinforcing the language of looseness found in the city.
Collage Diptych, Exteriority and Interiority
Two precedent studies continue the investigation of the representation of looseness. Four variations of unit types within Unite d’ Habitation by Le Corbusier demonstrate the opportunistic use of space, creating variation within a rigid grid system.
One Santa Fe by Michael Maltzan has a similar sectional quality in the project. One exceptional condition is illustrated in the diagram on the top left as an example of how the rigidity of the layout can be challenged and interrupted through subtle design moves.
The previous observations inform the chunk, which the looseness of the façade is juxtaposed with a rigid sectional division borrowed from Unite and One Santa Fe. The misreading of interior spaces is experimented through coplanar conditions and the insertion of volumes that synthesize and disrupt perceived interior voids.
One Santa Fe, Plan Oblique Diagram
One Santa Fe, Sectional Diagram
Unite d’ Habitation, Unit Typology Diagram
Unite
The collages, precedent studies, and chunks inform the final housing project. Located along Broadway between 27th and 29th Street of Oakland, the 6-story housing proposal occupies three existing buildings on the site. While their facades are preserved, the existing community center is refurbished with programs like a small community library, counseling services, local stores, and restaurants. Workspace is incorporated into each residential unit. The retail-residential combination units on the 1st to 3rd floors offer family-owned businesses and ground retail spaces directly connected to residential areas. The workspace-residential combination units on the 4th to 6th floors provide flexible workspaces equipped freely with their corresponding business types.
1/16”= 1’- 0” Massing Model; Bristol and Foam Core. Site model in collaboration with Elaine Forbush and Pinzhen Li.
Process Models; Bristol.
1/8”=1’-0” Section Model; Bristol.
1/16”=1’-0” Massing Models; Bristol.
1/8”=1’-0” Section Process Models; Bristol.
Dessau Effect
University of California, Berkeley
Arch 202 Spring 2022 Instructors: Rene Davids and Greg Castillo
Der Wald, German for the forest, is crucial in German culture and identity. Often mentioned and appearing in German literature as places of happiness and contentment and used as a symbol for German unification in the 19th century, forests have been a cultural icon in Germany to unite Germans and solidify the pan-German identity throughout the recent history of Germany.
The symbolism of German forests is applied to the design of the Textile Pavilion in Dessau. As a site for offering training and education for locals in Dessau, the Textile Pavilion intends to unite Dessau’s citizens, who are experiencing a shrinking, aging population and industries. Tilting HSS columns are distributed on the 10 ft by 10 ft grid field. W-flange steel members are tangentially connected to the HSS columns or span between the columns. The project’s ground floor is reserved for market and retail spaces, while the raised, archipelago-like pavilions house textile-related programs, namely an exhibition room, a studio, a machine workshop, storage spaces, and a residence for visiting artists.
Textile Pavilion and the German Forest
The Wald in the City; Conceptual Drawing
1/16”=1’-0” Massing Models; Balsa Wood, Chipboard, Bristol, and Acrylic.
Conceptual Model; Balsa Wood, Chipboard, and Mylar.
1/4” Section Model; Balsa Wood, Chipboard, Acylic, and Bristol.
Small Infrastructures
University of California, Berkeley and Harvard GSD
Exhibition Spring 2022 Curated by Rudabeh Pakravan and Michelle Chang
Role: Model Building Team Lead
In Collaboration with Sidell Pakravan Architects, JaJa Co, Keenan Gravier, and Earl Kho; Models Photographed by Quinn Gravier
[Exhibition Description] Small Infrastructures is an exhibition of ADU designs that uses the economics of building assembly as the groundwork for experimentation. Ten architects teaching at Harvard GSD and Berkeley CED consider the overlaps between academia, where cost is often external to conceptual work, and practice, where budgeting is an integral task. Participating architecture offices include Sidell Pakravan, Neri & Hu, Iwamotoscott, Nemestudio, Anderson Anderson, JaJa Co, First Office, Ultramoderne, and Sean Canty Studio.
As the model-building team leader of the exhibition, I was responsible for the logistics of materials, staffing, built models for Anderson Anderson and Neri & Hu, and participated in building Sean Canty Studio’s model.
ADUs designed by 10 participating architects from UC Berkeley and Harvard GSD. Models photographed by Quinn Gravier.
ADU designed by Anderson Anderson Architecture. Model Photographed by Quinn Gravier.
ADU designed by Anderson Anderson Architecture. Model Photographed by Quinn Gravier.
Small Infrastructures
Gene Lee|20
ADU designed by Neri & Hu. Model Photographed by Quinn Gravier.
ADU designed by Neri & Hu. Model Photographed by Quinn Gravier.
ADU designed by Sean Canty Studio. Model Photographed by Quinn Gravier. Model in collaboration with Pinzhen Li.
Small
Precedent Study- De Krook Library
University of California, Berkeley
Arch 260 Fall 2023 Instructor: David Jeahning
In Collaboration with Tim Gao and Zilu He
The De Krook Library project by RCR Arquitectes in Ghent, Belgium, is a testament to the architect’s visionary approach to urban renewal and cultural regeneration. At its core, the project aimed to transcend its physical boundaries, not merely as a conventional library but as a “city within a city.” This conceptual ambition sought to create a dynamic and inclusive space that resonated with the historical context of Ghent while envisioning a modern architectural landmark.
1/2”= 1’- 0” Chunk Model; Plywood and Chipboard. Model in collaboration with Zilu He and Tim Gao.
Drawing Water
University of California, Berkeley
Arch 229 Fall 2021
Instructor: Raveevarn Choksombatchai
Anticipation of Ruins
The anticipation of ruins has long been embedded in art and design culture. The prophecies of grandeur monuments as ruins project the continued legacies of architectural pieces beyond civilization, implying the timeless designs that the architects or artists propose.
However, modern civilization builds differently. The aim for efficiency, speed, and scale within a limited budget on maintenance informs a different kind of ruins- a bleak prophecy of the near future that epitomizes our anxiety about the accelerated development and the lack of consideration about the continuation and maintenance of the newly erected monuments.
With the theme “Drawing Water,” the class asked students to formulate an argument or provocation through four digital drawings. In response to the anticipation of ruins in the contemporary context, I selected four wellrecognized swimming pools and demonstrated their ruins to provocate the effects of climate change on man-made ambitions and the result of overly-rapid development that turns to waste soon after their celebrated completion.
[Top left] A dried pool in front of the Church on the Water by Tado Ando.
[Top right] Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio being forgotten after the 2016 Summer Games.
[Bottom left] Álvaro Siza’s Leça Swimming Pools being subsumed by rising sea level.
[Bottom right] Therme Vals by Peter Zumthor turned frozen.
Solar DecathlonA House with
Four Pillars
University of California, Berkeley Solar Decathlon 2023 Fall 2021- Fall 2022
Advisors: Mark Anderson, Mia Zinni, Jasmit Rangr, Dan Spiegel, Arup Oakland, and Tipping Structural Engineers
Role: Architectural Designer/ Drafter
In Collaboration with Bryan Huang, Mia Campbell, Johannes Yu, Elaine Forbush, Joseph Oncago, Adeline Leung, and the UC Berkeley Solar Decathlon Team
This competition entry for the US Solar Decathlon 2023 explores light-frame construction with the incorporation of two relatively new products on the market- Ground Frame anchor bolt foundation system and T-Stud 2x6 truss stud by US Engineered wood. Also, we experimented with a different framing technique for possible relocation of the structure in the future.
Designed as a community center for the Youth Spirit Artwork tiny house village in Oakland, California for homeless youths in the Bay Area, the structure, with four rigid modules supporting the spanning floor and V-shaped roof, manifests the four programs of the community center- An artist residence, a recreational room, a study room, and a utility core, with a central space for gathering, learning, dining, and art-making.
Worm Eye Isometric; Light-frame Structure
Ground Frame Foundation and Floor Framing Wall and Ceiling Framing
Upper Wall Framing, Roof and Overhang Ladder Framing
Sheathing, Water-proofing, Exterior Finishes, and Solar Panels
Plan; with floor and wall framing overlaid
Plan; Dissembly
Solar Decathlon
Gene Lee|25
Model MakingMass Timber Cantilever Residence
Anderson Anderson Architecture Summer2024
Assisted by Ziang Ao and Yafei Li.
Situated on a steep slope in Pemberton, California, the single-family house, designed by Anderson Anderson Architecture, experiments with a hybrid system combining mass timber (Glulam and CLT panels) and a cablestayed steel structure. The CLT panels, supported by the spans of Glulam beams, define the massing and exterior envelope of the protruding cantilever, while the delicate, lightweight cable-stayed steel structure stabilizes the cantilever with minimal tectonic interventions to the exterior form.
The landscape is represented by the stacking of 148 layers of 1/8” plywood. The rustic finish of the topographic base contrasts with the white, 3D-printed podium and the cantilevering structure.
Good Food
University of California, Berkeley Arch 100B Spring 2018 Instructor: David Orkand
The Good Food Center, functioning as a food research center and an educational, commercial, and exhibition hub for the public, has two programmatic interests. While the institutional research sector dominates private programs such as urban farms, compost units, research offices, and laboratories, the public sector adopts programs like the market hall, open kitchens, and the public library.
The division of the private research institution and the public programs is expressed through the designation of two separate, individual circulations, connecting the corresponding programs of each of the sectors. Despite the independence of the two programs, the spatial arrangement and the glazing between programs retain visual porosity, facilitating recognition among adjacent programs.
Exterior Collage; Structure
Exterior Rendering
Section Oblique
Interior Rendering, View from Circulation to Atrium
Model, 1/4”- 1’- 0”; Bristol Paper, Chipboard and Acrylic
University of California, Berkeley Arch 100A Fall 2017 Instructor: Lisa Iwamoto
Individual and collective reading spaces in Potrero Hill Library are housed in two distinct volumes. The lower volume is occupied with reading pods for individuals, while the upper volume or void contains spaces for collective uses. The two volumes intersect to generate overlapped space for book storage, with books shared by readers from both sets of programs.
A formal scheme consisting of the transition from vertical to horizontal adjacency of two volumes facilitates the programmatic division yet, unifies the two programmatic entities through the change of materiality and porosity. Porous wooden bookshelves indicate the double-negative volume through the transition from vertical to horizontal compositions.
