AAD_SU21_077

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GR A D UAT IO N

PORTFOLIO. 2020 ~ 2021 SELECTED WORKS

ZIXIAO(KIWI) ZHU M.SAAD GSAPP 2020~2021

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GRAD UATI O N

PORTFOLIO. 2020 ~ 2021 SELECTED WORKS

ZIXIAO(KIWI) ZHU zz2749@columbia.edu (323)-403-6614

CONTENTS. CONTENTS. Academic

SELECTED STUDIO WORKS

SELECTED SEMINAR WORKS

A NEW AMERICAN INDEX 06-37

U.S. NATIONAL ATLAS, FOOD & AGRICUTURE Master - AAD Entangled Studio

ARCHITECTURE DAYLIGHTING Summer Semester 2021

Spring Semester 2021

Group Work

VEGEN MEAT FACTORY IN PIER PARK, NYC Master - Architectural Design Studio VI

Spring Semester 2021

Fall Semester 2020

Master - Architectural Design Studio V Group Work

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Zixiao Zhu | Selected Works 2020-2021

3ds Max Excercise Master - Visual Study Elective

58-63

Group Work

THE HELL & PARADISE STREET RENOVATION IN HELLS KITCHEN, NYC

56-57

ULTRAREAL

Group Work

46-55

Master - Technology Study Elective Individual Work

SHRINKING FACTORY 38-45

Climate Studio Excercise

TRANSSCALARITIES Fall Semester 2020

Fall Semester 2020

Precedent Analysis Master - History/Theory Elective

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Individual Work

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A New American Index | Summer, 2021

A NEW AMERICAN INDEX U.S. NATIONAL ATLAS IN FOOD&AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY

CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE DEFINITIONS

1st year of Master - AAD Entangled Studio Group Work - Summer Semester 2021

Studio Coverage: Industrial agriculture and cattle production are an exceptionally profitable industry in the United States: a set of initially favorable environmental conditions and a steady technological development have allowed this sector to grow into the current large-scale, intensive farming industry aimed at affordable mass production.

Instructor: Marco Ferrari Work in collaboration with: Yipeng Liu

Cargill

ADM

Pizza Hut

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ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

Syngenta

CNH

Farm

Automation

Google

Amazon

Production

Media

Innovation

Income

History

Logistics

Transportation

Chick-fil-A

Domino's

John Deere

Factory

Taco Bell

Dunkin' Donuts

Bayer

Nature Resources

McDonald's

Burger King

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A New American Index | Summer, 2021

What We Can Buy

What We Choose to Eat

Trade

NOW and Future

Culture

American Dietary Habit

Decenterialize

However, most of the farmable land in the US is controlled by big corporations, which almost exclusively grow crops like corn, soybeans, and wheat, which provide highly profitable yields and can be traded as staple commodities on the global market. As a result, natural resources have been depleted: soil degradation and the dramatic decline of the nations’ biggest aquifers are probably the two major consequences of decades of over-exploitation.

On the other hand, the price of healthy food is disproportionately high for a country with such an outstanding amount of farmable land. Consumers are steered towards high-fat, mass-produced fast food by its extremely cheap cost and widespread distribution. Therefore unhealthy diets have become the first cause of death in the United States. A food industry that prioritizes an affordable, healthy diet should be considered as essential critical infrastructure. The project aims to unveil the consequential cost of junk food and look at possible strategies for the redistribution of property regimes in the agricultural sector.

ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

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A New American Index | Summer, 2021

WHAT CAN WE EAT?

Geographically, there is a large amount of temperate continental climate plain-land and freshwater as well as under-groundwater for irrigation in the central U.S. Such favorable environmental conditions have allowed the agriculture industry to evolve to the current large-scale intensive farming aimed at mass production.

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ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

This

case study is located in Kansas. A 72 -years-old man is taking care of over 1000 acres of a cornfield while earning over 100,000 dollars every year. He drives his 1997 John Deere Tractor and controls the center pivoting irrigation system to his iPad. This is a typical American farm, relentlessly pumping underground water irrigating a single species of the crop while destroying the biodiversity for most of the farmable land in the United States.

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ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

This is a map indicating areas where subsidence has been attributed to the compaction of aquifer systems caused by over-use of groundwater and could lead to disasters like land-sliding and land cracking, which is a hefty price to pay. Dr. Joseph documented land sinking in Mendota, California, from 1925 to 1977, a city with many typical soybean farms. This proved that the current method of agriculture production is not really sustainable.

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ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

Most

farmable Land is controlled by big corporations: the top three agricultural companies (Cargill, ADM, John Deere) are accountable for nearly 50% of the gross revenue. This map shows the territory and acre yield of one of the corn production monopolies named Syngenta in the United States.

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ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

These

companies transform most cultivated land into a specialized production zone where one or a few highly profitable agricultural crops dominates, forming several agricultural belts for largescale production, leading to a low variety of produce.

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ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

There are only two million farmworkers in the U.S, yet agriculture contributes to more than 5% of the total GDP, one producer can raise 10,000 cows or 100,000 chickens. Therefore, agriculture has become one of the major export sectors.

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ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

Because fruits and vegetables are more difficult to farm on a large scale and require a lot of human labor, 2/3 of vegetables and fruits are imported from Mexico and other countries. A complicated distribution model induces high prices of vegetables, significant transportation loss, and the enormous waste of logistic resources.

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ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

In

this Trade map, the size of each circle indicates the population of each trading partner, which determines the market size for agriculture commodity consumption.

Although the surplus of agriculture trade is as high as 40 billion every year, the average American hardly benefited from it.

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ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

23

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

Some counter strategy has been applied to California’s agriculture industry. By incorporating more high-value organic farms, California is accountable for 8% of the nation’s agricultural output within less than one percent of the farmland. This is showing new opportunities to utilize cultivated land for growing fruits and vegetables

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ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

25

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

WHAT DO WE CHOOSE TO EAT?

Take Los Angeles as an example; when seeing the median household income and obesity rate map side by side, clearly, there is a relationship between income and an individual’s health condition.

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ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

27

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

Obviously, income inequality is deeply entangled with what we choose to eat. When looking at some typical dining experiences with a different budget, people usually consume more sugar, sodium, fat, additives, and less essential nutrients with a lower budget, which is proven to be some of the major causes of fatal diseases.

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ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

29

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

Industrialized mass production solved the hunger issue a long time ago, but what is the actual

Streamlined and automated production line is efficient and cost-effective. McDonald’s factory pre-

cost of those cheap junk food? We compared McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets to traditionally grown free-range chicken meat. McDonald’s genetically modified its chicken to adapt to a more crowded environment; those chickens can build over three times more body mass in half of the lifecycle of a free-range chicken. To produce the same amount of food, McDonald’s method is way cheaper.

cooked the nuggets and put them into Frazer for distribution.

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ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

31

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

Chicken nuggets utilize leftover material like bone marrow and chicken skin, adding large amounts

The big corporations are always ambitious to dominate and compete; they often wage a duopoly

of flavorings, additives, and preservatives in the process while using a substantial amount of water, land, and energy. Less than 20% of the chicken nuggets are actually chicken.

price war and spend a lot of money on celebrity’s advertisement for its media influence. Those chain businesses crush the local restaurant, and people have even less variety of food to choose from.

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ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

33

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

Food production accounts for 19–29% ofglobal greenhouse gas emissions

The True Cost?

Cu red Por k,

Salt , Ma ltod ext rin, Sm ok e

Fl

ium Sod or, av

Su ge r, (D ATE M,

1,714 trillion Btu of energy

r user of Agriculture is a majo

wat rface and su ground

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0 ly 8 ate oxim ppr a r fo ng unti cco es,A Stat d e t i Un in the

to cen per

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Asc orbic A ci d,

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Poor diets linked to $50 billion in U.S. health care costs

A self-serving salad bar is a smart way of delivering healthy food for cheaper in some densely pop-

Consumers are steered towards extremely cheap, mass-produced fast food, unhealthy diets have

ulated areas. However, food in salad bars usually still costs more compared to fast-food restaurants and doesn’t taste as good.

become the No.1 cause of death in the United States, which is around four times more than Alcohol & Drug Use related death. “ Chicken nuggets sold in the United States for $2; in reality, it might cost $200 if you consider all the natural resources needed to produce it as well as the medical care for dietary-related diseases.”

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ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

35

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

NOW AND FUTURE

Some early implementation of decentralized Urban Farming has been made into building code at many major cities worldwide, which could significantly shrink the distance between fresh food and consumers, therefore production could directly respond to the market and vastly reduce food waste. Because of the flexibility of indoor farming, more variety of crops and new type of restaurants are become possible.

However, the current scale of urban farming is negligible compared to the traditional centralized farm because people are not ready for the higher price of urban grown food. Development of technology and methodology will for sure make urban farming more affordable; and People will eventually realize that sometimes it is smart to pay more for less. Hopefully, in the future, a food industry that prioritizes affordable healthy diets instead of profit will become an essential infrastructure in United States.

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ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

A

A New American Index | Summer, 2021

ACADEMIC - U.S. National Atlas

37

Shrinking Factory | Spring, 2021

Shrinking Factory

Project Video:

VEGAN MEAT FACTORY IN PIER PARK, NYC

SHRINK THE IN-BETWEEN DISTANCE

1st year of Master - Architectural Design Studio VI Group Work - Spring Semester 2021

Studio Coverage:

Instructor: Mimi Hatram Hoang Work in collaboration with: Yipeng Liu

American economy benefited enormously from globalization and automation by producing food in efficient and streamlined linear manufacturing processes. However, the modern production method has pushed manufacture away from densely populated urban areas and even further distanced the land for growing and harvesting the raw material.

With the increasing physical distance between each stage of food production, a severe separation between different job positions became inevitable. The intersection between different workspaces is becoming narrower, resulting in more inequities between blue and white color labor and the invisibility of the manufacturing class.

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ACADEMIC - Factory Design

F Shrinking Factory | Spring, 2021

ACADEMIC - Factory Design

39

Shrinking Factory | Spring, 2021

Shrinking Factory | Spring, 2021

SOCIAL & ENVIRONMENTAL

Our factory is highly automated, the work-

space is more like a laboratory with few workers. After harvesting the required crops from the farming wall, two or three workers are assigned to transport them to the machines in the upper part of the factory, where the plants are processed into raw material for the production of vegan meat.

To achieve the texture of the real meat, we put green peas protein through a thermoplastic extrusion machine to mimic the complex three-dimensional protein fibers network of the real meat; we also managed to mass-produce a crucial ingredient called heme using soy plant extraction.

Indoor

We are proposing a vertical factory that aggregates farming of

the raw material, an efficient yet theatrical machinery production line bring the factory closer to the vibrant city, a laboratory that does researches not only on the statistic spec of the vegan meat but also the cultural and artisanal aspect of the product.

Function as a propaganda tool to attract more local residents working here, more visitors coming here taking cooking class in the factory. Shrink the distance between production stages and create a communal workspace for both white and blue color workers.

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ACADEMIC - Factory Design

vertical farming has taken root in more urban environments with limited land space. Even though it uses 70 percent less water for the same amount of output than a regular farm would, and farm yields up to 400 times higher vegetable production per square foot. it has been estimated that this type of farm, cost more than 0.3 million dollars per year for their electricity bill and the maintenance for the air conditioning system.

Because the use of artificial light, Vertical farm in places where fossil fuel is the primary energy source generates 7-20 times a carbon footprint than outdoor farms.

ACADEMIC - Factory Design

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Shrinking Factory | Spring, 2021

ENCLOSED CYCLE LOOP

The

project both take the advantages of ground level topography to collect the runoff water bottom to the up, and roof platform to collect the raining water up down, through the infrastructure pipe of hydroponic vertical farming delivering water resources thus creating an enclosed recycle loop.

During the winter season, the machinery on the top floor also enable to melt the snow and transform into water for further use.

Our

factory not only provides laboratories around the vegan meat production line to allow workers and lab personnel to communicate more comfortably; but also introduces the educational space open to the public, offering cooking classes on vegan meat to promote this new food type which has more opportunities to receive advices from visitors. In the end, it can produce 500 tons of vegan meat per year.

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ACADEMIC - Factory Design

Shrinking Factory | Spring, 2021

FACTORY LIFE CYCLE

In

March, with the arrival of spring, the factory starts its cycle of working and the workers plant their first round of crops; in April and May, the first harvest of short-daylighting crops like green beans and mung beans finishes

In June and July, most crops like soybean get their first harvest; in August, the end of summer, the workers plant their crops for the second round; and with the arrival of fall, the second harvest is completed. Thanks to indoor vertical farming, New York’s winter did not prevent the third crop from being planted, and the following February brought the third harvest of crops.

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ACADEMIC - Factory Design

F Shrinking Factory | Spring, 2021

ACADEMIC - Factory Design

45

The Hell & Paradise | Fall, 2020

THE HELL & PARADISE

Project Video:

STREET RENOVATION IN HELLS KITCHEN, NYC

MOBILITY & STILLNESS

1st year of Master - Architectural Design Studio V Group Work - Fall Semester 2020

Studio Coverage:

Instructor: Bernard Tschumi Work in collaboration with: Yipeng Liu, Ye Xu

46

ACADEMIC - Street Renovation

H The Hell & Paradise | Fall, 2020

New York is an extremely developed city packed with economic and cultural attraction; most people here live a fast-paced lifestyle with inevitable increase in stress. Intense social pressures and competitive atmosphere, New Yorker’s stress level is higher than most cities in the world.

Entitled “Hell & Paradise” contradict mobility and stillness within a street experience, implementing foreseeable technologies and different types of human-nature interaction, while exploring new possibilities of social occasion and activities. Create a paradox in which the mobility of efficiency and the stillness of serenity coexist within the street experience.

ACADEMIC - Street Renovation

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We want to create a pocket of stillness within an ever-moving city, a restful void within the urban fabric. Here, we are generating an autonomous, discrete zone to allow for new event types and spaces, redefining the communal idea of public and private within the urbanscape.

We want to address different ways human can interact with synthetic nature. There are moments where you can immerse yourself in a forest-like experience; Small interior spaces are embedded into the landscape for poor weather or for those who are circumstantially unable to interact with nature directly. Anyone can still enjoy a fixed view from the inside

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The Hell & Paradise | Fall, 2020

The Hell & Paradise | Fall, 2020

OFFICE PLAN

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ACADEMIC - Street Renovation

ACADEMIC - Street Renovation

51

The Hell & Paradise | Fall, 2020

The Hell & Paradise | Fall, 2020

LONG SECTION

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ACADEMIC - Street Renovation

ACADEMIC - Street Renovation

53

The Hell & Paradise | Fall, 2020

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ACADEMIC - Street Renovation

H The Hell & Paradise | Fall, 2020

ACADEMIC - Street Renovation

55

Climate Studio Daylighting | Spring, 2021

Climate Studio Daylighting | Spring, 2021

ARCHITECTURE DAYLIGHTING

56

ACADEMIC - Technology Study

0621-1500h

cd/m2 0-100

cd/m2 0-500

cd/m2 0-1000

ACADEMIC - Technology Study

57

3ds Max Rendering | Fall, 2020

3ds Max Rendering | Fall, 2020

ULTRAREAL

58

ACADEMIC - Visual Study

ACADEMIC - Visual Study

59

3ds Max Rendering | Fall, 2020

60

ACADEMIC - Tectonic Study

3ds Max Rendering | Fall, 2020

ACADEMIC - Coding Practice

61

3ds Max Rendering | Fall, 2020

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ACADEMIC - Visual Study

3ds Max Rendering | Fall, 2020

ACADEMIC - Visual Study

63

Precedent Analysis | Fall, 2020

Precedent Analysis | Fall, 2020

The Quzhou Sports Campus

[1]The Quzhou Sports Campus, designed by MAD Architects in 2018, is a sports park which is located in the city of Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. It imports the function of gymnasium into the natural form of the landscape, combining the idea of public park and sports center, thus creating this terrain like architectural design which resembles volcanoes and a mirror lake within the center of the city. Therefore, the essay will illustrate how the landscape in this project functions as a constructed nature to conceal the architectural form thus creating a pocket of stillness within an ever-moving city, a restful void within the urban fabric.

In the wake of the high-speed social progress, people’s life is encroached upon fastpaced working environment and surrounded with buildings made from concrete, steel, and curtain walls. The terms of economy and efficiencydrive the direction of people’s life and influence the environment where they live.[2] According to the 2018 National Time-Use Survey,

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ACADEMIC - History | Theory

including 38.8%, which is around 9 hours, of sleep and rest time, personal discretionary time only take up 16.4% while laboring and commuting time take up more than 40% in a resident’s daily activities. Under such social conditions, the increasing mobility gradually arises the need for stillness, a space of escaping from the noise of mundane for releasing living pressure. The concrete forest paves the earth as the non-stop construction continues. While the boundary of the project plants mountains of trees in order to distinct from the surrounding context so as to create pocket of stillness within an ever-moving city, a restful void within the urban fabric, thus generating an autonomous, discrete zone to allow for new event types and spaces, and redefining the communal idea of public and private within the urbanscape.

The entire project is hidden inside the landscape, and the façade disappears, covered with greenery and becomes the landscape itself. The white lines

carve new curves on the façade, part of which actually carry the function of a pedestrian walkway.

The slope of the façade becomes a new place for the public to exercise, climb, and ascend, and the lawn at the gentle slope can also be a place for people to rest after exercise. It has become a new public space in the city, a shelter from the bustling city.

[3] It’s significant to put the city in nature instead of put nature in the city for urban planning in twenty-first century. The nature here in this project is human-constructed. Such artificial nature is well controlled by engineering system to satisfy the requirement of the function as both landscape and architecture. The Quzhou Sports Campus creates landscape worlds with the language of earth, erasing and blurring the boundary between the functions of architecture and landscape. The advantage of this design is that it allows the user of the building to be in the landscape all the time.

As one experiences and uses the building, one is also walking through the landscape. By removing the sharp edges of traditional architecture, hiding the steel and concrete, the architecture in the park transforms itself into a more inner, subtle beauty, breaking people out of their busy lives and bringing them back to the nature. Also, such concealment provides an exposure of natural environment within the urban plan and highlights the ecological zone to arise the need of stillness and enable residents escaping from the mundane of noises.

To put it into a nutshell, the Quzhou Sports Center arises a great concern to the need of landscaping architecture, not only creating an urban space about sports and ecology for the public, but also turning it into a distinctive central park within the city, which establishes a relationship between the city and nature. Admittedly, this design relies heavily on meadow integrity and due to the high possibility of rainfall in Zhejiang Province, the cost of grass maintenance and waterproofing for such a large area of grass slope roofs is enormous. In spite of this, as an architecture-based sports park, which takes into account the nature of the park and is relatively landscaped, it is at least better than a stadium with only “buildings”, and paves the way for the future direction of architectural design.

Reference [1] “MAD.” MAD Architects, 2018. http://www.i-mad.com/work/construction-breaks-ground-on-mads-quzhou-sports-campus/?cid=4.

[2] “2018 National Time Use Survey Bulletin.” National Bureau of Statistics, January 25, 2019. http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/zxfb/201901/ t20190125_1646796.html.

[3] Balmori, Diana, and Michel Conan. Essay. In A Landscape Manifesto.

New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.

ACADEMIC - History | Theory

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© 2021 Zixiao Zhu Selected Work Samples, 2020~2021 Thank you for viewing this portfolio.

Please contact me for collaboration and more.

I’d love to work with you and hope to see you again.

Contact: zhuzixiao19970502@163.com +86 186-0650-3710

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