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C O N T E N TS

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I N FO R M A L I T Y I S N O N - B I N A RY

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H E T E ROGE N EO US T RANSI T

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YUAN LI U yl4520 @col umbia .ed u

A C A D E M I C W O R K MS Advanced Architectural Design C O L U M B I A G S A P P

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I nf o r m a l & Fo r m a l Pro je c t 1

I nf o r m a l & Fo r m a l Pro je c t 2

AS L I T T L E AS P OSS I B L E A M a ua l G ui d eb o o k to M cke nna S q ua re Pa rk

T H E L E AST W E CA N D O Pl a nti ng L a b & We tl a nd Pa rk D es i g n

S U P E R TA L L Te ch no l o gy E l e c tives

X I N FO M O D E L I N G I Vi s ua l Stud i es E l e c tives

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01 I N FO R MALITY IS NON - BI NARY Informal & Formal Project 1 Migrant Climate in the Immigrant City

Columbia University GSAPP ADV V Design Studio Location: Flushing, NYC Instructor: Phu Hoang Team Members: Sarah Shi Collaborative Design Work, September 2020

Informal urbanism cannot be thought of in binary terms. Typologies are either/or conditions that have a clear demarcation, and anti-typologies are both/and conditions that challenge the boundaries between opposing ideas. Our study looks at night markets in Shanghai and micro malls in Flushing. The two are connected by small markets, as a retail type, brought to the States by immigrants from China.

public/private, exterior/interior, horizontal/ vertical, light/dark. The project also explores the interrelationship of climate changes, power infrastructure, and small businesses in Queens, specifically around the issue of lighting, which we also aim to think of in heterogeneous terms.

Working towards climate justice, we seek to look at how these businesses could adapt to environmental changes while continuing their business culture and community.

Beyond sharing the linear organization and hybrid functions, both sites blur the boundaries between

Two conditions of informal urbanism: night markets in Shanghai, China, and micro malls in Flushing, Queens, NYC, both are softening and expanding the boundaries of public space. The two urban conditions are tied by the flow of informal market culture through immigration from China to the States. Influenced by their specific social and economic context, the night markets interiorize government owned streets, whereas the micro markets exteriorize the privately owned space to form a more diverse and dynamic public domain.

Planetary Scale Research

Energy Consumption in Micro Mall

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02 H ET E ROGE N EOUS TRANSIT Informal & Formal Project 2 Migrant Climate in the Immigrant City

Columbia University GSAPP ADV V Design Studio Location: Flushing, NYC Instructor: Phu Hoang Team Members: En-ho Chan, Liwer Guo Collaborative Design Work, October 2020

As the sea level rising in 2100, some urban road transportation will be cut down. But the current railway system in New york city will be affected less. Facing the potential climate crisis, we are working on designing a community center transit to reconnect the food supply chain, supporting Chinese immigrants with their business and life. We hope to replace the long-distance food source from Miami with new transportation, which will reconnect urban and regional community gardens and greenhouses through railways to form a food supply network.

Greenhouses will be created on the top of industrial

buildings, factories and shopping malls like auto repair and Macy’s that are next to the railway. And our building will distribute cheap cooked food to the other immigrant communities through the railway network.

We were looking at three perspectives of informal urbanism- Hacking,Non-Binary and Trespassing. We have extracted three behavioral fragments from Project1, focusing on the characteristics of Street vendor, Food Cart and Signage.

We start our program with designing heterogeneous conveyor system which is the anti-type in our program. Compared with general staircase and circulation, our informal convey system could be regarded as a combination of function and transportation.

To support more chinese immigrants in Queens, our Site is located in downtown Flushing which is the most concentrated area of local business with various Chinese snack shops, retail wholesaler, and food carts on the sidewalk.In order to connect our program with the railway network, we will take an old restaurant next to the railway on the 40th street.

Chinese Immigrants & Food Supply Chain

Small Business Research

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Green House System Based On Railway Network

Greenhouses will be created on the top of industrial buildings, factories and shopping malls like auto repair and Macy’s that are next to the railway and our building will distribute cheap cooked food to the other immigrant communities. Green House System will reconnect urban and regional community gardens and greenhouses through railways to form a food supply network.

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Plan

Conveyor System

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Programs

Different types of functions are expressed in different colors, and their functions are permeable to each other. This means that you can not only read books in the fixed library on one floor, you can pick up a book on any floor and read it, and buy fried rice in the Food cart nearby, you can put the book in the conveyor, it will go back to the library by itself.

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Food conveyor system connects with railway and urban road transportation for food resources loading.

The goods from outside of the building will be transported to storage through the food conveyor. For food consumption, the conveyor connects different rooms like cinema, library, language school in the building with food carts and food transportation bents.

Book conveyor system connects the library, language school, and restaurant on different levels through conveyor and book cart. The horizontal book transportation bent in conveyor will also combine with bookshelves where users can choose what they want to read.

Vendor Hall The perspective drawings show how the shuffled column used in interior space .

Book Corner The shuffled column grid will provide signages on the facade several anchor points in different directions.

Two Types of Conveyor

Interior Perspective

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The solid part is made of Polycarbonate envelope with internal CLT panel, while the void part is made of glass with steel structure. In the daytime, the chair and table will be stored away. The food carts will show on the building facade to attract consumers on the street, this activities can be served as a dynamic signage.

At night, the signage will be lit up. The faint light will come through the transparent material, and the study Room in the box will provide a small and independent space for language learners.

Daytime

Night

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Section

The section of the building highlights the vertical space of the building, containing a small multifunctional hall and atrium.

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03 AS L I T T L E AS P OSS I B L E A Maual Guidebook to Mckenna Square Park

Columbia University GSAPP ADV VI Design Studio Location: NYC Instructor: Hilary Sample Team Members: Renee Gao, Veeris Vannichtantikul Collaborative Design Work, March 2021 In the 1980s. landscape architect Lee Weintraub was commissioned by the NYC HPD to redesign McKenna Square Park. He is quoted as saying, "Parks were vacations for those of us who couldn't afford them. They were safety valves, escapes from hot asphalt , real breaths of fresh air."

This project proposes the design as the Field Guide to McKenna Square Park: as a way to produce a comprehensive understanding of what should be changed on the site: whether there are aspects that can be removed, repurposed, or left alone entirely. Parks are precious; especially in this last year, we have all recognized the city’s dire need for comfortable and functional outdoor space, and so our project aims to reimagine the park through the idea of the outdoor living room, extending needed and necessary spaces of the community into the park.

Considerate and helpful changes to the park require careful attention to detail, t ime , m a ter ia l a s sem bly, a n d site b eh av i o r.

There are many varieties of trees growing across the park, which we wanted to preserve.

The park furniture is odd; the bench seating encourages processional circulation and discourages gathering.

The pavilion in the middle of the park is an unprogrammed steel frame structure.

Site Photo

Site Status

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Proposal for the Removal and Repurposing of Pavers

To remedy the problem of damaged paving we are strategically unpaving large areas of the site. This mode of unbuilding removes the hardscape to make room for new plants to grow in the exposed soil. To unbuild is to unearth a layer of space previously forgotten and overlooked.

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Landscape Reconstruction Timeline After removing some pavings, the soil was exposed. The gaps between the pavings provided the possibility of landscape reconstruction.

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Fauna Catalogue

We found out Birds species in conservation in New York and we focused on the specific native plants that birds are attracted to. We hope that this site can become a birds friendly community.

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Flora Catalogue

We researched the flowering period and fruits, found the plants that bloom in different seasons to ensure that there are enough flowering periods to feed the birds.

Meanwhile, some small plants can also be combined with furniture design.

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Landscape Proposal

The plants that make up the landscape design are divided into three groups. The first is berries and fruits, which can satisfy the diet of some birds in fall.The second is composite flowers which could satisfy the beneficial insects or birds. The last group is trees that already exist on the site, such as oak and pine. Some particular species of birds rely more on seeds and nuts from these plants in their winter diet.

The growth of plants is spontaneous. With the different distribution of composite flowers and single type flowers, we tried to transform the site into a seasonal garden.

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Dismannting and In-Depth Analysis of Pavilion Structure

In addition to removing paving, we dismantled the steel frame structure and its components in order to imagine what could be done with the material left over.

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Furniture Catalogue - Paving Stone

After we unbuilt the structure on the site, here is the catalogue of urban furniture that we designed based on our material circulability concept.

The main idea is that we want to activate the life in the park by creating more engaging environment through the furniture that encourages the community life, regarding to human, birds, wildlife, and plants.

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Furniture Catalogue - Glass Block

This one we repurpose the glass blocks from the central arcade and redesign them as a furniture that responds to the park visitors’ ritual.

They’re turned into tables, bicycle parkings, shelves, and benches that are not only care about the human but it illustrates the form of care to other species.

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Furniture Catalogue - Scaffolding

For the scaffolding from central arcade, we transform it into a structure for the construction of small pavilions.

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Proposed Redistribution and Dismantled Materials

Responding to our goal of material circulability, we propose dismantling the pavilion structure and using its components to construct smaller, more appropriate pavilions across the site.

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We also looked at cultural rituals of the people living there and the lack of outdoor furniture for them.

Predominantly Dominican-American, and local residents often play dominos on the sidewalk using makeshift furniture like supermarket crates or upside down trashcans.

An important part of the community, the Word Up bookstore is a hub for locals and can hold a variety of events such as writing workshops, book launches, and book fairs and would benefit from having additional space for gatherings or events.

The proximity of the church and the effects of COVID-19 on church practices suggest that they could be held outside. Outdoor weddings and mass have been performed outdoors in parts of Harlem and could be a possibility here.

Lastly, the site’s proximity to Gregorio Luperon High School also suggests school activities taking place outdoors; such as nature-watching activities for biology classes or P.E.

Community Adjacencies

We analyzed the adjacent programs to the park; finding a high school, apartment complexes, several restaurants, a Catholic church, a hospital. There are also seasonal events in Washington Heights such as Summer Sundays and the WaHi Jazz Festival that typically happen outdoors.

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Site Proposal

Responding to the community practices of the area, we intend to translate them into park programming. Different areas of the park are designed to accommodate various activities and users in multiple scales.

The activities of surrounded institutions, commercial, and cultural units are taken into an account and we respond their needs through the proposal of these pavilion design.

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Night View

We expand the HPD’s initiative of having this park as an extended living room for the residents / into a space where other public forms of gathering are introduced / in the degree that we haven’t seen in the park before.

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For informal classroom, we want to highlight the learning activities that would happened after a biology class. Students could walk to the site and take a close look at the nature lifes.

In a day, this pavilion can be used as a small classroom, let’s say when the students finish biology class in the school, they can visit this park and learn about plants, birds, or animal in real life.

We provide the space for adjacent schools’ students.Especially in this pandemic era, this reflects the social need of the extension of the public spaces into the outdoors

And at night, the users of the park maybe the night-birdwatchers, or homeless. So we add a lighting detail shown in a bottom left. Thinking about the transitionality of the space.

Redesign Proposal 01 - Informal Classroom

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We want to highlight the activities of people at different ages in the Community Living room. Giving the flexible space, local residents could play dominos here as they usually do.

We also illustrate the life in the park in different seasons. Like in spring, the park can be activated by the birdwatchers or community dwellers that can have a picnic in a garden.

In details, we focus more specifically to neighborhoods’ rituals. Like we design tables hopefully for the elderly to play dominoes, or hangers where they can hang newspaper, domino box, or even our field guide.

We imagine distributing copies to both young and old parkgoers for them to learn about the flora, fauna, and potential ways to use the park.

Redesign Proposal 02- Community Living Room

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The wordup bookshop serves the surrounding student community. At the same time, the feeders attract birds to the site which offers the birdwatcher a chance to get a close look at their nature friends.

Although it’s mainly designed for the Word Up, we‘re thinking about the openness and temporary of space.

Like we provide a main structure, adjustable canopy, storage, and some fixed furniture for them.

People can see more bookshelves and space for reading and small gathering here. On the left, we’re showing some small configurations of the furniture

It can be a space for reading, book fair, Open Mic, or etc. So our whole proposal is not something permanent but it will grow and developed through the time responding to the need of the community.

Redesign Proposal 03- Word Up Community Book Shop

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During the day, Central Arcade can form a shared market, and at night, when the lights go on, it can be an intimate and unique venue, with a myriad of possible activities.

This cross section shows proximity to adjacent programs. Churchgoers attending mass or students getting out of school could easily relax in the park.

Transforming it into a larger gathering space with shaded seating that can accommodate performances. Here the community could hold jazz festivals, farmers markets, or other audience-based programming.

This area also includes a rainwater harvesting system; the water can be used for hand washing or plant watering around the site.

Redesign Proposal 04- Mckenna Central Arcade

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Modular Furniture

We design the furniture in modular unit that the park visitors can assemble and disassemble by themselves. The big idea is that it can be composed in different configurations to accommodate different activities.

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Usage Scenario

We’re trying to integrate the life between interspecies. This drawing shows the small intervention of how human can interact with birds or animals through the furniture.

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The Section of the Site

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The Section of the Site

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04 T H E L E AST W E CA N D O Planting Lab & Wetland Park Design

Columbia University GSAPP ADV Summer Design Studio Location: West Windsor Instructor:Emmett Zeifman Team Members: Liwei Guo, Zhongwei Wang Collaborative Design Work, May 2021

Suburban 2035 will be characterized as concentricity.

Different compartments will be modified for different group of people: Resident(citizen), longterm immigrants (international student/scholar/ worker) and short-term immigrants(tourist/worker).

will break the isolation and create more diversity at Princeton Junction. At the same time, more public spaces based on our design can help improve the mental health of local students and residents..

A natural and public friendly space shared by the community. This design’s goal is shafting f rom constructing t he social to f acilitating socialites. This is the least we can do.

Most local schools and residents are middle-class Asians due to excellent local educational resources and encouraging house purchase policies. We hope in the year 2035. The knowledge transportation system

2035 West Windsor

Transportation Plan

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Township Mapping

As can be seen, our site is located in a suburban area surrounded by green space and preserved farmland.

Near Priceton, there is a large area of educational land, and at the same time, the bike network is more intensive.

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Our site is located in West Windsor.As can be seen from the right diagram, our site is connected to NY and Philadelphia with NJ transit. It is easy to get to the site by train in 1 hour from NY and Philadelphia.

And the train also connects to Princeton. As can be seen from the right diagram.

People in the vicinity of Princeton Junction mainly rely on cars.

2021 VS 2035

Master Plan of Planting Lab

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Master Plan of the Whole Site

All of the existing building will be reused for different purposes. College and library with a big auditorium provide students place to study. The Planting lab with the next to the wetland park not only serve education but also for research. The Material recycling labs will serve the community and school. Museum and community center provides exhibition and day care for local people.

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Landscape Section

The wetland environment forms different landscape layers from low to high, and the interwoven walkway also makes more rich layers for the water space.

Multiple plant species and large area of forest vegetation in the distance contribute to the formation of a nature friendly community.

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Axon

The original structure system was retained and the structure of the first floor was removed. The elevated floor was used as laboratories independently.

The landscape ramps can be connected with the waterfront walkway system to communicate the boundary between indoor and outdoor space.

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Exterior Perspective

The light and transparent laboratory contrasts with the solid and stable core.

Rich layers of wetland environment can become the habitat of some birds, enabling natural creatures and human beings to co-exist in harmony.

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Architecture plan logic is based on the original structure grid.

And by using circular curves we disrupted original grid and created new potential program space.

On Lab level, interior space kept the original building’s outer edge shape.

Circulation corridor is along the outer edge and the center courtyard.

Program Diagram

Lab Floor Plan

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Sectional Perspective

Sectional Perspective from main entrance. Public Planting core providing a Lab Planting showcase on every level, has not been closed, semi outdoor space. Private core provide lounge and seating on every level. Top with solar panel and mechanical space.

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Ground Floor Plan

Ground level give full access to the public, with natural landscape transform to wetland. Program including Animal Hospital, which includes a public restroom. Individual green houses are located around the landscape. and a storage room for Bikes and planting tools is located near the main entrance way. Public use furniture will be formed by landscape/ original columns and building. Makes them more than what they were and more playful.

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Interior Perspective

Structure Renovatio

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Exterior Perspective

Transparent core and elevated ramp system provide the landscape space on the first floor. The walkway system is pedestrian - and bike-friendly, allowing people to enjoy the wetlands along the shore.

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OT H E R WO R KS V I S UA L ST U DY & T E C H E L E C T I V ES

05 S U P E R TA L L Technology Electives

Columbia University GSAPP ADV Spring Instructor: Nicole M. Dosso Individual Work, March 2021

06 X I N FO M O D E L I N G I Visual Studies Electives

Columbia University GSAPP ADV Fall Instructor: Nicole M. Dosso Teammate: Lihan Jin Collaborative Work, September 2020

Super Tall

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X Info Modeling I

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