AAD_SU21_016

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The Transition Through Scales

Tianyuan Deng Graduation Portfolio 2020-2021 Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design GSAPP Columbia University

Table of Content

The Infra-Street of Trash

01 - 09

Street Installation ---Questioning the present infrastructure

Inside The Wall

10 - 18

Interpretive Education Center ---Revitalizing the hidden history

Armature for Multiple Activities

19 - 24

Urban Remix ---Armatures into the future

Design Exploration Sunlight villa design using generative design tools

25 - 30

01

The Infra-Street of Trash Street Installation ---Questioning the present infrastructure

Group work Instructor: Jing Liu Semester: Spring 2021

02

The Infra-Street of Trash So long as we are human, we eat, we consume, we metabolize, and we produce trash. Trash, one may say, is one material that binds us together in our human experience across our cultural and social differences.

We propose a social space between the street and the sidewalk that makes collecting and separating trash more effective and incorporating it into everyday life’s routine. Through the design, we hope to influence people’s behavior positively and heighten our awareness of trash’s impact on the larger social and environmental systems.

Global loop of plastic waste What happens to your plastic after you drop it in a recycling bin?

Currently, the average amount of trash produced by an American person is 5.91 tons and only 25% of that is recycled. The rest, are part of an extremely environmentally tasking global waste infrastructure that results in most of them ending up as landfills in poor countries. Ill-managed and ever-growing, they create toxic fumes and pollute the local waterways, thus creating acute public health issues in these communities.

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Global loop of plastic waste

Our project takes on this enormous and fundamental question of “what do we do with our trash?” and attempts to imagine a more locally and regionally based infrastructure that is socially caring, environmentally responsible, and economically nutrition to our communities, our cities, and our plant.

05

Optimized loop of the recycling industry

At the global scale, we try to eliminate the waste transported away to be disposed as landfills in poor countries. This means more recycling regionally through the recycling industry. Different types of trash can be bought from local communities and turned into new resources in these facilities.

06

Jackson Heights, the most diverse neighborhood on the planet, is also where immigrants from many of these communities come to call home. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we have observed them becoming the most affected population in the city. The over-flowing trash on the streets due to the inadequate service from the sanitary department, and the increased informal street vending activities, reminds us of the challenges and inequity these people face both at home and in their new home.

This requires trash separation at the local level. Current common single stream recycling requires extensive labor at the separation facilities which makes them cost prohibitive to be recycled. In countries like Japan and Taiwan, where separation are done at the local level, the recycling rate of plastic and glass are proven to be much higher.

07

We propose a social space between the street and the sidewalk that makes collecting and separating trash more effective and incorporating it into everyday life’s routine. Through the design, we hope to influence people’s behavior positively and heighten our awareness of trash’s impact on the larger social and environmental systems.

Plan - System

Plan - Top 5 Module covers : Paper: 108 ft³ (300% covered) Cardboard box: 180 ft³ (200% covered) Metal bottle: 105 ft³ (1,160% covered) Glass bottle: 216 ft³ (1,200% covered) Plastic bottle: 105 ft³ (318% covered) Organic waste: 335 ft³ (360% covered)

08 Our project takes on this enormous and fundamental question of “what do we do with our trash?” and attempts to imagine a more locally and regionally based infrastructure that is socially caring, environmentally responsible, and economically nutrition to our communities, our cities, and our plant.

Can / Plastic / Paper

Glass

Cardboard

Organic

The separated trash would be sold to and picked up by local and regional recycling facilities and generate income for the community. It would also lesson the city’s $1 billion dollar waste management burden and divert tax to better uses such as health care and education in the community.

If this metabolic process of consumption and waste operates more locally and is rooted in our daily life, the current global waste loop would be shrunk, thus, the amount of landfills greatly reduced, and the sense of care harbored at the individual and community level. Big change starts here.

Can / Plastic / Paper

Glass

Cardboard

Organic

09

10

The Infra-Street of Trash Street Installation ---Questioning the present infrastructure

Inside The Wall Interpretive Education Center ---Revitalizing the hidden history

Individual work Instructor: Mark Rakatansky + Jorge Otero-Palios Semester: Fall 2020

11

Walking Inside The Wall – Illuminating the hidden history of slaves

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Slaves in achitectural space

Slaves in history

"The slaves normally lived in the cellers or attics of their owners' houses" Oringinal drawings of slave dwellings on Jay Farmhouse

The hidden room built within the Jay Mansion as servant's room

The title page of a pamphlet from former U.S. President James Madison proposing the gradual abolition of slavery, “without danger or loss” of the economic and social stability of the South, in 1825

"Jay said, that "every man of every color and description" had "a natural right to freedom" but he was convinced that "the abolition of slavery must necessarily be gradual."

hidden or invisible in space and in history Component in Jay Mansion

hidden doors

The hidden space inside the wall

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Immersive Reading Space

New York Manumission Society: The New York Manumission Society was founded in 1785 by thirty-one luminaries including John Jay and Alexander Hamilton.

reward for a run-away slave man

Following the Revolutionary War, slave owners came to New York City searching for runaway slaves who had escaped behind British lines, which lasted until “Evacuation Day” in November of 1783. One of the reasons for the founding of the Society was to safeguard former slaves who had already secured their freedom.

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Bookshelf Corridor of Slave History

New York Manumission Society: The New York Manumission Society was founded in 1785 by thirty-one luminaries including John Jay and Alexander Hamilton.

The contradiction that many of its members were themselves slaveowners The Society formulated a proposal to ask members to commit to freeing their slaves.

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Double-faced Auditorium

John Jay was a member of the American delegation that negotiated the peace terms ending America's War of Independence with Britain. This process culminated with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in September 1783.

Rye is the place to which John Jay returned after negotiating the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War.

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Twin Gallery of Entangled Emancipation

The ruling class

The enslaved people

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Twin Gallery of Entangled Emancipation The ruling class

Photo: The Fifteenth Amendment.

Celebrated May 19, 1870. the grand celebratory parade in Baltimore. A similar parade in New York City on April 8, 1870 drew over 1,500 spectators and over 7,000 participants.

Slavery continued for those enslaved born before 1799 A state law passed on March 31, 1817, slaves born prior to 1799 were finally emancipated.

Slavery was eradicated in the state.

When Emancipation Day finally arrived, the number of enslaved men and women freed was roughly 4,600 or 11% of the black population living in New York and the black community and its supporters held joyous celebrations and parades throughout the state.

The Gradual Emancipation Act The 1799 gradual abolition law declared that children born after July 4, 1799 to enslaved mothers in New York would be born free.

Two unadopted state law to abolish slavery In 1788, the New York Manumission Society successfully prevailed upon the New York Legislature to end the importation of slaves into New York.

It was believed, perhaps too optimistically, that abolishing the slave trade would lead to the abolishment of the institution of slavery.

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Twin Gallery of Entangled Emancipation The enslaved people

The 1799 gradual abolition law declared that children born after July 4, 1799 to enslaved mothers in New York would be born free, but would have to provide free services to their mothers’ masters until they reached 25 if female and 28 if male Portraits of former slaves

The Gradual Emancipation Act The 1799 gradual abolition law declared that children born after July 4, 1799 to enslaved mothers in New York would be born free.

But thay would have to provide free services to their mothers’ masters until they reached 25 if female and 28 if male

slavery continued for those enslaved born before that year and a final act of emancipation was needed to eradicate slavery in the state. One was passed on March 31, 1817, even though some of those freed were required to continue to serve their masters under an indenture for a term of years

A state law passed on March 31, 1817, slaves born prior to 1799 were finally emancipated. some of those freed were required to continue to serve their masters under an indenture for a term of years.

Under New York’s gradual emancipation program, slaves born prior to 1799 were finally emancipated by July 4, 1827

Photo: The African Free School

The New York Manumission Society established the African Free School, which was open to the children of both free and enslaved New Yorkers. The Society also resisted the kidnapping of freed slaves and organized boycotts against those involved in the slave trade.

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Inside The Wall Interpretive Education Center ---Revitalizing the hidden history

Armature for Multiple Activities Urban Remix ---Armatures into the future

Individual work Instructor: Eric Bunge + Mimi Hoang Semester: Summer 2021

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The Armature for Multiple Activities Due to the multi-racial and multi-religion reality in Jackson Heights, There are diverse activities happening on site, both the everyday and the festive ones. With the aim of addressing the fact that this neighborhood is packed and lacking in both private and public spaces. This project, located at the traffic junction, wishes to be the armature for multiple activities, both indoor and outdoor, private and public.

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The REMIX Concept -- The Remix of Street and Building Horizontally, to introduce the public outdoor space into the private indoor space, Vertically, to multiply the ground plan to the second level that connects with the train platform, as the second layer of urban public space

Ground Floor Plan On the first floor plan, Consist of Open and semi-open space, that introduces the public space inside. The strategy for the rest is not to define and enclose space with solid walls, but to use the columns as the cores for different activities. This columns also serves as different spacing armerture as well as the vertical structures

Second Floor Plan On the second floor, -- is the multiplied ground plane, takes the remix to the vertical dimension. Could be considered as the second layer of streets fused into the building , this floor has more enclosed indoor space to accommodate the private uses such as the shops and offices, which could be considered as the building . But still permeated by the outdoor space to create the secondary road network to allow the remix and interchange of activities

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Armature of multiple activities -- Cataloge of columns These columns also serves as different spacing armature as well as the vertical structures

Street Fair

Informal commercial

Community classroom

Nighttime Gathering

23

50/50 Indoors/Outdoors By the combination of vertical columns and the secondary urban streets could response to the 50/50 , the semi-outdoor and the semi-indoor space are created. the in and our spaces are fused together both horizontally and vertically. Breaking the boundaries of how people use space, and making more space available when there are certain activities.

Original

Outdoor

Outdoor

Semi-Outdoor

Semi-Outdoor

Semi-Indoor

Semi-Indoor

Indoor

Indoor

1F

2F

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Section Perspective this remixed space of street and building provides flexibility in use . this view shows the parade portal , the 50/50 remix and the second layer walkways adds to the porosity of the street fronts, by guiding visitors to look up and go multiple directions (for example the visitors can go upstairs, release the crowded parade road), it can accommodate people of the neighborhood in both time frame

Interior -- The Parade Portal Everyday

Festival Day

Regular Commercial

Parade

25

Design Exploration Sunlight optimization for served and servant spaces

Group work Instructor: Danil Nagy Semester: Fall 2020

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Sunlight optimization for served and servant spaces Different spaces inside a project have specific lighting requirements. These spaces and their orientations determine the lighting condition of that area. The lighting inside a museum requires a combination of ambient and focus lights whereas in a residential home this is not the case. The light needed in different rooms of the home differ. When we try to use natural light or sunlight to satisfy these conditions, there is an interdependency that gets established between the planning, orientation, and context in which the architectural layout is designed to its lighting conditions. The project aimed at understanding this relationship and achieving a layout optimized for adequate exposure to natural light. The site context decided was a plot in Manhattan where the possibility of receiving direct sunlight is limited to only 2 open sides of the plot and the other 2 sides are closed because of the adjoining structures. This constraint made it imperative to experiment with an open architectural plan where the spaces are set apart from each other by a specific distance allowing light to reach all spaces Taking inspiration from the concept laid out by Le-Corbusier about the served and the servant spaces, “served” spaces are those spaces in a building that are actively used for example living room, bedroom, kitchen, etc. “servant” spaces being those spaces that serve the utilized — principally staircases but also ventilation systems, lift shafts, etc. The idea was to make a direct relation between the served and servant spaces to the lighting conditions that each requires.

Tadao Ando — Koshino House

An illustration of the served and servant spaces.

This would achieve a layout where each space is oriented to a set of lighting conditions and requirements defined specifically for that room. An example of this is to compare the amount of natural light required in a bedroom to the living room, kitchen, and toilets which because of their use have a different requirement. A toilet because of its inherent purpose cannot have large openings and hence is artificially lit. In that case, a preference is given to spaces that need more sunlight and orient them in a space of high exposure. The result was to not only optimize the sunlight exposure on the facades of the individual spaces but also to understand and analyze its impact on negative spaces(servant spaces)thus created and assign them with a function. The model eventually designed not only optimizes the served but also the servant spaces.

The Moriyama House is an example of an open architectural layout, where each space is an individual block with a servant space surrounding it. This servant space is also then given a set of functions to optimize the layout to its efficiency

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Methodology

A conceptual plan of the architectural layout with a set of requirements.

The objective to be achieved is a multi-criteria optimization which starts first by arranging a layout with a set number of rooms, their dimensions, and establishing their relationship to a neighboring room. Once this is done, then optimizing the sunlight received by each room. The generative design method deployed to create the first part of optimization is dense packing. The methods commonly used to create an architectural layout are subdivision and Dense packing. It is important to understand why one method is chosen over the other as it is directly related to the objective needed to be achieved.

Sub-division helps to divide a predetermined area into zones and spaces whereas a dense packing method helps pack the spaces together without leaving any gaps or overlaps. This is usually achieved by a specific distance by which the rooms must move away from each other to avoid overlap but close enough to ensure no space gets wasted. But as seen in diagrams 1 and 2 the rooms must be moved by a specific distance to allow each space an adequate amount of sunlight. The dense packing algorithm allows this flexibility to optimize layouts that maximize efficiency as well as enable us to specify a distance that would move one space from the other. Once the generative method achieves the layout, the ladybug component is used to optimize the sunlight received by each space.

The parametric model is built on input parameters, objective functions, and constraint functions

A conceptual diagram of the light analysis.

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Grasshopper & Python model

These inputs, objectives, and constraint functions are then put into grasshopper to create the generative model. The process is to first set the input parameters (the individual spaces with functions and pre-determined room dimensions x and y) and the site context which would create bounds for the packing model.

Continuous inputs for x and y coordinates of points and 3rd for variation in height

2 continuous parameters from Discover create a set of random points (the center points of each space which determines their point of movement) in the model both for the x and y coordinates respectively. These points are in the range of a bounding box that corresponds to the bounds of the site. The count in the continuous component is 6 which is the no of rooms. A 3rd continuous parameter adds optimization to the vertical dimension which is the height of the rooms. This ranges from 3 to 6 meters. A combination of these 3 parameters helps to generate a layout that would optimize the layout in the plan as well as the height that directly impacts the sunlight received as seen in Diagram 2. These heights will be optimized

by Discover in the range specified by Grasshopper.

These points are then split into lists to create a variation in room type, as point A (toilets), point B (kitchen), point C(bedroom ), and point D(living rooms). This is the foundation of the dense packing model.

The python script is created with a set of 12 input parameter in which 4(point A, point B , point C, point D) being the location of points in the model and 8(lenxA, lenyA, lenxB, lenyB, lenxC, lenyC, lenxD, lenyD), being the x and y dimension of each individual space that is controlled by a number slider.

An overview of the GH python script starts by creating a class that initializes a room instance with a center point, radius, and an empty list of neighbors. With the “def addNeighbor,” it adds another room object to the list of neighbors.

Analyzing different conditions for collisions

29 The timeline of the generation

Results

Plugging the script into Discover the simulation generated over 2000 models, with the program able to learn and generate optimal solutions over time. The model was optimized for maximum sunlight exposure received within a 24hr cycle on facades of each room and interstitial spaces formed between them. The timeline of the generation is shown in the image below. The y axis describes the degree of sun exposure, the x shows room generations made over time with each color describing a specific room combination. Discover then tests each room type by varying its heights and produces a calculation on the amount of sun exposure generated as a result of this variation. The upward curve of results generated over time shows the model learning more efficient room layout overtime and the general condensed spread of results overtime reveals the same fact for room heights.

Low performing designs

Within the optimal designs generated, trends and similarities were picked up by Discover on what worked better for optimization and what did not. The same can be said for the least optimal designs. Some of these patterns observed in the low performing solutions were a large clustering of rooms, the room layouts getting generated close to the boundary walls, and too close similarity in room heights.

These design problems may seem obvious however utilizing the model gives precision and indiscrimination that would be hard to mimic. Likewise, the optimal solutions and sets that were picked for further development exhibited the inverse, these spaces followed the linearity of the overall boundary, avoided clustering near the walls and with other rooms, and had proper height variations. The results picked exhibited a proper balance between sun exposure and spatial organization.

High performing designs

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Conclusion

In designing this design space, many considerations and parameters had to be made to properly define what exactly our script was going to optimize towards and help it along this process. The rooms within the space have a lot of its control given to the script however there exists a multitude of preset conditions embedded in the rooms by design. This is where bias in the design can be observed and the negotiation starts between that bias for the sake of variation in the model. These biases occurred as a result of normalized design conventions and keeping the model efficient. The first one of these being the number of rooms and room types available in the design space. Whilst it may have been interesting to observe a script determine these outputs, these are processes that remain very intuitive for a house of this scale, and would be inefficient to design a process to determine this.

Another consideration made was the volumetric dimensions of the rooms. Here a negotiation is done between design normality and variation. Enough flexibility needs to be given to the model to produce something unique, and this is done by the range of movement allowed by each room type. However, this exists within a set range given to it by the designers. The range exists to not overcomplicate the model, as having too many options can become as inefficient as having too little. It also exists based largely on intuition and how we understand certain spaces. The maximum and minimum height of each room is given a boundary because of its common sense that a bedroom should not have a 22ft or 4ft tall ceiling height. Similarly, for the area of these spaces, the room for the toilet does not need to be as large as the living room and because the design team understood this as a standard, to probe the model to consider and iterate on an option that would never be picked would be inefficient.

An illustration that suggests the position of the fenestrations on facades with maximum sun exposure as optimized by Ladybug and Discover

The high performing design as generated by Discover and a graphic illustration of adding function to these spaces

Finding this balance to operate within our design space is essential within the generative design. Taking complex design conditions, that deal with the qualitative nature of spaces and interpreting them into a measurable phenomenon is not an automatic process. It requires an intimate and detailed knowledge of your design intentions which adds richness to the overall process. This process acts as a dialogue as interpreting and detailing out desired outcomes and how to measure that informs and clarifies what the purpose of the design is. The generative design process provided a unique and fresh take on understanding lighting conditions as it relates to the program creating spatial architectural layouts.

Based on the light analysis of the ground by Ladybug, it allows optimization of the servant spaces thus emerged where they can be assigned a function based on their light quality