PORTFOLIO
Hanzhang Lai
The following collection of work examines the discourse of architectural design as an instrument to connect.
Content
Layered Journey spirituality - physicality
The Concourse household - community - city
Parasite preservation - contemporary
Monumental Colony individual - civilization
Hanzhang Lai 5th year in Syracuse University, US hanzhanglai@gmail.com | +1 (443)-938-8226 | hanzhanglai.com
Education
Experience
Syracuse University, US Bachelor of Architecture, 2016 - 2021
Research assistance for Professor Lori Brown June - August, 2019
- Dean's List - Nominee for The Seinfeld Scholar Award - study abroad in Florence and London center
assist in following forthcoming publications:
Architectural Association, UK Summer school, 2017
Extracurricular Publication Fei Wang, Design Energy Futures: Xiong’an 1.4 2020 Besler & Sons, Casa Qualcosa 2019 Exhibition
- Birthing Centers, Borders and Bodies - The Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture CSPE Architetti, Florence, Italy January - May, 2019 POSITION (architecture media) Shenzhen, China June - August, 2018 Design Synact, Shenzhen, China June, 2017 Gensler, Baltimore, US May, 2016
Smart Cities: Perspectives and Possibilities 2018
Freelance Graphic Designer / Photographer
Language
Skill
Mandarin Chinese (Native) English (Advanced) Japanese (Daily Conversation)
Adobe Suites (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Lightroom) Rhino, Autocad, Revit, Laser Cutting, Woodshop
Layered Journey
Crematorium + Waste-to-energy Factory Xiong’an, China published in: Design Energy Futures: Xiong’an 1.4 Partner: Suren Sivaram Spring, 2020 A crematorium placed within the trash. The idea finds itself being very problematic. But is trash just waste or is there a beauty within the process of its life cycle? Historically our disgust towards identifying bodies to trash limits our understanding of the complexities hidden within our self ’s. We are not just machines; we have a sensibility and compassion that strives for our well-being.
crematorium program
terrace
columbarium
funeral hall
chapel
lobby
This project asks to find waste to energy process more than just a scientific means to make more energy for the consumer, but that the process of objects becoming trash itself is a multi-layered proposition that in turn dissipates a past to make room for the present. However, trash does not hold the same value as a body.
factory program
locker
meeting
A body retains memory and importance to the hearts of many, as trash serves a purpose that diminishes over time. The design of this project is conceived with these ideas at heart. Strong lines must be drawn and layered between these two programs, but at the same time, it should be perceived as one monolith, one being, one body.
offices
control room
maintenance path
waste - to - energy process
energy object
cleaning
burned
regenerated
trashed recycled
gravel, etc.
death - to - memory process
memories body
ritual dies
burned
remembered
recycled
return to air
chapel
Traditional Chinese Taoism mythologies are founded on the concept of “Round sky and square earth.� Based on this idea, the crematorium resembles a reflection of one’s life journey in a spiritual sequence. Visitors would enter from underground, where they would ascend through a ceremonial ramp circled the central holly space. The funeral services are located on the second floor, including chapels for close families to mourn; and funeral halls for the farewell ceremony before the body is cremated. The third floor leads to the columbarium, where visitors can come here directly to memorate their loved ones.
funeral hall
columbarium
Radiant RadiantFlooring Flooring Radiant Flooring
HVAC HVAC
HVAC
Thermal Batteries Thermal ThermalBatteries Batteries HVAC HVACsupply supply HVAC supply HVAC HVACreturn return HVAC return Fans FansforforNegative Fans Negative forPressure Negative Pressure Pressure Mech MechRoom Room Mech Room
Radiant Flooring Radiant RadiantFlooring Flooring
Structure Structure
Core Core
Concrete Concrete Finns Finns
Cores Cores Steel Steel Structure Structure System System
Shear Shear Walls Walls
Conctrete Conctrete Structure Structure System System
The Concourse
Affordable Housing complex Brooklyn, NYC exhibited in Smart Cities: Perspectives and Possibilities Partner: Phang Lim Fall, 2018 An affordable housing project aims to address issues of poor accessibility by introducing a handicap accessible elevated walkway. The walkway serves as the re-introduced link between the site and the Williamsburg bridge. Strategies of encouraging community cooperation were introduced via a large interior courtyard filled with a vertical garden. Each apartment has its own “stoop� to create interior street-life for the inhabitants.
Preserve the historic Domino Sugar factory while stretches the FAR of the surrounding slots to the maximum
Transfer the FAR of the slots closer to the factory to create taller buildings as well as more open space
In order to solve the problem of accessibility, the path connects the buildings around the site as well as the Williamsburg bridge.
Baseline
Elevated walkway to improve connectivity
Create open spaces and private balconies
Shading devices inspired by ramps
Green spaces within buildings
Central atrium for vegetation growth
An elevated platform system with ramps is added to the building to connect to the entire site, where people can use the open abandoned space between buildings. It also inspires the facade’s design, where an operable facade system continues the ramp’s flow from the ground. The atrium is introduced to bring light to the center of the building. There will be a wall of vegetation in the core to allow residents to plants their vegetables.
The demographic in Williamsburg is mostly people below the age of 28. Hence, the residential building mainly comprises onebedroom and studio bedrooms, including some two and three-bedroom apartments. Every unit has itsw stoop to encourage the residents to step out from their house. With the stoop, residents can have plants outside or chat with neighbors, bringing the garden space into this affordable apartment building.
three-bedroom
two-bedroom
one-bedroom
studio
Parasite
Academic Building Renovated from Historic Villa Florence, Italy Partner: Suren Sivaram Spring, 2019 By analyzing and studying the florentine building typologies, the design borrows different extrusion types and applies them to various programs. They added on to the existing university-owned building, a reconstructed 1800s private villa, to accommodate the expanding needs of academic space. Simultaneously, the project also intends to increase the campus’s interaction and the rest of the city.
narthex
rooftop logia
housing
traditional sporti
ponte grazie
towers
Historically, Florence has had to reconcile the competing and sometimes mutually exclusive forces of history, tradition, and modernity. The traditional Italian architecture had a long history of adding infrastructure to existing buildings, leading to our research interest in “extrusion,” represented by the vernacular “sporti”, the Italian juts. Through the study and implication of the typology, the project aims to seek a way to straddle the line between accommodation and invention, preservation and reuse.
Critic Space
prin Studio
t sh
op
Model Making
/ la
b e tor
Library
Auditorium Exhibition Underground
ks boo afe
p
ic c ubl
villa
library
grand staircase
underground
arch program
add
itio
nal
class wo rooms od sho p
The design maintains while extending the existing structure, adding the different interlocking “boxes� on top of the existing academic building, mainly used for the school of architecture. In the following diagrams, different color represents various programs, and the void between the shifting gaps forms two terraces that open to the city. Therefore, the shifting boxes are wrapped by a double-layered framed shell that allows diffused light in, while also brings unity to the project.
Monumental Colony
Human habitation The Moon Entry for Moonception competition Individual work 2019 Just as the nylon flag erected on the Moon fifty years ago, a monumental tower would be marking the beginning of a new civilization era. The future city’s primary living part would be buried underground, where the soil would provide a natural radiation barrier and livable temperature. As the soil dug out for the construction would become the raw material for the tower, the tower’s height turns into a literal representation of the expanding civilization.
LUNARCRETE PRODUCTION
1 DIG
4 CONSTRUCT
2 MIX
Before the tourists arrive, the construction robots will be sent to the base and start digging for the activity center. Meanwhile, the dirt dug out would be separated into regolith and soil, mixed with oxygen and hydrogen generated from the soil just as concrete is formed. Lunarcrete would be fabricated and pull on-site for construction.
3 FABRICATE
ACTIVITY CENTER Located directly underneath the tower, the center provides the base for the moon’s necessary physical and mental life needs. The right-wing is connected to the living area, while the left is the trash disposal connected by a conveyor belt to the waste-to-energy plant and the factory area.
LIVING UNITS Each living unit contains an above-ground greenhouse and a multi-bedroom apartment beyond, connected by underground hallways. In between the greenhouse and the apartment locates the mechanical room, where facilities generate and transport the plants’ oxygen to the underground and pump the wastewater for irrigation.
The first tower would be located in the cen the mass production of different componen the tower as its center. center . New secondary tow new civic center distanced from the city
nter of a crater. The modular system allows nts, and the city would expand outwards with wers would be built to mark the community’s center when neighborhoods are formed.
