PORTFOLIO

Zhihao Xu

Selected Works 2017-2022

01

Renew The Dashilan Street

A Free Space Peking Opera Theater

Academic work

Individual work

Instructor: Zhongqi Ren, Qipeng Zhu Site: Qianhai, Shenzhen, China Spring 2022

What can a Peking Opera Theatre bring? What is the history of the building?

The historic district of Dashilan, where the project is located, used to be the district with the strongest Peking Opera culture in Beijing, and the district also generated intense cultural exchanges because of the strong Peking Opera culture, and was the most prosperous and social place in Beijing during the Ming and Qing dynasties. However, because of the loss of the Peking Opera culture, this strong social atmosphere disappeared as well. Tan Xinpei, one of the Eight Great Masters of Chinese Peking Opera.

The former residence of Tan Xinpei had to face renovation because of the change of time. The restored residence will "rewrite" history.

The renovation of a theater to recreate the atmosphere of Beijing opera in the street, and to restore the prosperity of the Dashilan area by creating opportunities for visitors to generate more social activities through a free spatial plan combination.

The building's restoration process observes the new changes that urban metabolism brings to a historically protected building. Due to the tight living area of the hutongs, box-like architectures grew on top of the original buildings, and the resulting new architectural language will become the history of these historical buildings. The program translates and preserves this language, allowing the historical buildings to record more.

A flourishing street because of Peking Opera

The strong atmosphere of Peking Opera made it a social medium, and theater actors such as Tan Xinpei were in close contact with people

Combination of Facade and Function

The different facades respond to different architectural functions in response to the new architectural language that urban metabolism has brought to Beijing's hutongs

Many boxes made of lightweight materials were added to the old building Urban metabolism brings new changes to a historically protected building

Architecture is divided into three parts: Community Space, Exhibition, and Theater People's roles are constantly interchanging between actors and visitors, facilitating the communication of the Dashilan street

1F Different Scale Theater Space

The combination of different scales and spatial forms produces free spaces that constantly switch between exhibition and theater functions, and visitors also switch between the roles of seeing and being seen

1F Exhibition, Community, Theater

The combination of different functions promotes communication, and the façade composed of different lightweight materials responds to the new architectural language

Iceberg Vending Machine

A Glacier Museum for Global Warming

Academic work

Individual work

Instructor: Xuechen Kang

Site: Qianhai, Shenzhen, China Fall 2019

What we can do when glaciers disappear? How much will melting glaciers affect the tropics?

Glaciers are disappearing at an unimaginable rate due to global warming, and perhaps until one day they will be history. At that time, we will lose this great natural landscape forever.

So, why don't we build an iceberg in the city? A fake iceberg, even if it is not real, will become a real glacier in the city from the moment it disappears.

The tropical coast has created an "iceberg" that provides a natural environment for this fast-growing metropolis, blurring the boundary between city and nature and providing an opportunity for people far from the polar Greenland, the world's largest island with an area of 2.166 million square kilometers, to get in touch with nature and learn about glaciers, and also to draw attention to global warming and marine ecological protection.The polar ice that is melting at an accelerated rate may not be so far away from our lives!

This program integrates different kinds of iceberg forms into the building as an alternative to glaciers in the tropics. The integration of structures such as traffic spaces, floor slabs and walls with the different forms brought by the environmental influence of the glacier aims to realistically simulate the natural environment of the glacier and give people an immersive tour experience.

The fake iceberg is a vending machine, a substitute for the real glacier

Vending machines are a substitute for supermarkets, like the relationship between real and artificial landscapes.

Just like how vending machines are replacing supermarkets. When the real glacier disappears, the fake glacier will become a substitute for the real one.

Changes in Greenland's glacier coverage

The world's largest island, Greenland, is melting at a new record rate of 532 billion tons of ice loss per minute for the year, and glacial melt in Greenland has been accelerating in recent decades.

Longitudinal Section

The elevators, egress stairs, and MEP systems are all tucked into a thin vertical strip of the buildig, so the rest of the footprint can be freed up for a pure geometric & spatial experience.

Longitudinal Section

The type of glaciar in the experiential precession is clearly depicted in this section, as the visitor is constantly watching from a type on the top of a floor to another type on the back of the same floor

The Wall. City Urban Design for Connecting City

Academic work

Individual work

Instructor: Fanlei Meng, Tao Wang

Site: Huangxing Town, Changsha, China Spring 2021

What is the paradox between rural and urban areas? How do we bridge the gap between rural and urban?

The modernization process after the reform and opening up has led to the rapid development of the city of Changsha.The city is becoming more and more convenient and developing faster and faster, but it is constantly encroaching on the rural areas which originally have good natural resources. As time passes, if this trend is not stopped, the countryside will be completely homogenized and rural natural resources will disappear from people's sight.

So we build a wall between the city and the countryside. It is a wall to stop the continued expansion of the city, but it is more of a bridge to connect the city and the countryside. This new type of city will repair the conflict between the city and the countryside.

As the city develops and changes over time, the building will start with five nodes (Cemetery, Ancestral Hall, Vertical Agriculture, Logistics, Animal Shelter and Farm) from north to south, adaptively and continuously growing outward, allowing the building to harmonize with nature, blurring the boundaries of artificial buildings, preserving the character of the countryside and building a geographical separation between the city and the countryside.

Complete

Unplanned Growth

City keeps growing irregularly

Countryside encroachment

The countryside is being encroached upon shelter)

Stop City Growth

Build a wall to stop the expansion of the city

Keep growing New buildings are growing to connect urban and

"Linear City" Timeline

The Wall. City will be a continuation of the "linear city" development

Five nodal sections: cemetery: ancestral hall, vertical agriculture, logistics, animal shelter and farm

The architectural form is abstracted in a painting: TheEightScenesofXiaoxiang

The building is growing into a bridge between the city and the countryside, with the five nodes as the starting point

New Ancestral Hall

Huangxing Town gathers by family ancestral halls, which are the most important heritage and memory of each family. The ancestral hall not only carries the memory of ancestors, but also carries the continuation of new life of the family.

The new ancestral hall combines the functions of family councils, community gatherings, children's education, bazaars and traditional agriculture with modern farming models such as vertical agriculture, hoping to improve the living standards of rural people while preserving their traditional culture, memories and their living habits, further improve their understanding of agriculture and ancestral hall culture, and promote communication between countryside and city.

Ancestral Ha`ll

The continuous expansion of cities has fragmented the natural ecology. Both domestic animals and animals have lost their homes. The project provides them with a space where they can survive.

In keeping with the "nomadic" mentality, animals are allowed to walk freely on the grassy slopes, and animal trails cut around the building provide opportunities for interaction between humans and animals.

Meanwhile, the animals' excrement is treated in the lower plant and turned into biogas fertilizer, which can be given to vertical agriculture to grow fruits and vegetables, creating an ecological self-

As a logistics center mostly arranged in the suburbs, the original large flat warehouses greatly wasted land resources. So logistics was similarly folded up

Elements of Logistics

The four barrels are four different functions, connected by corridors for the transport of goods and the movement of people, and the roof garden provides a place for people to communicate.

Overview of Storage Function

Chuangxing Nine-year School A School for Landscape of City

Professinal work Group work Instructor: Ting Wen

Site: Longgang, Shenzhen, China 2021.11-2022.01

How to design a city-oriented school?

How to design a building that combines function and form?

As the youngest metropolis in China, Shenzhen is growing rapidly and has created a number of urban problems. The city is heavily fragmented and many gaps have been created, a problem that we need to continue to solve.

The project is located in the Longgang district of Shenzhen, where the two parks, originally connected, have been fragmented by the rapid construction of residential neighborhoods around them, destroying the natural integrity of the city and dividing the people as a result. The new building, located between the two parks, will inevitably assume the role of restoring the integrity of the city and linking the activities of the residents to the north and south, and will activate the natural landscape.

As a public building, the school connects a series of natural landscapes through an urban corridor, while a series of diverse programs are arranged within the campus, facing the city with a connected art gallery playground gymnasium and cafeteria, providing a series of urban services to the city and truly stimulating the exchange of community people. At the same time, the school has a large number of freely arranged courtyards and other landscapes, which also turn the building itself into a park and solve the problem of urban fragmentation.

The more than 200-meter-long façade along the street uses a double-layered skin, which, through a combination of regular window openings, meets the hard requirements for school lighting and equipment placement, while responding to the architectural characteristics of the local traditional building roundhouse.

Site Plan: A City Corridor

The corridor links a series of natural landscapes to the north and south, and the building functions connected to it are oriented to the city, solving the problem of fragmentation brought by rapid urban development and truly stimulating the exchange of people in the community.

The relationship between the skin and the device

The more than 200-meter-long façade along the street uses a double-layered skin, which, through a combination of regular window openings, meets the hard requirements for school lighting and equipment placement, while responding to the architectural characteristics of the local traditional building roundhouse.

1 steeI rainwater gutter construction: aluminium flashing, anodized 20 mm cement screed 30 mm XPS thermal insulation

2 upholstered roof construction: 20 mm square tile 100/100 mm 50 mm cement screed for 3% slope 80 mm reinforced concrete cement layer 100 mm XPS thermal insulation

5 mm 2-ply bituminous sealant layer 150 mm reinforced concrete slab

3 fIoor construction: 20 mm cement screed for 3% slope 5 mm waterproofing membrane 150 mm reinforced concrete slab

4 door link window System: double glazing

5mm lam. safety glass+ 12.7 mm cavity + 5mm lam. safety glass post: extruded-aluminium profile

5 air conditioner exterior unit

6 150 mm exposed concrete wall with untreated finish

7 steel grille 200/5 mm

8 fixed thermal glazing: 5 mm lam. safety glass + 15 mm argon-filled cavity + 6 mm toughened glass (low-E coating),

The Baron On The Billboard

Individual work

Instructor: Zhongqi Ren

Site: ChaoTianmen, Chongqing, China Spring 2019

I wish I could be alone to read a book, listen to music, and play with my cat. But the place where I live, and life itself, are like tightly packed cogs in a machine. Where to go to take a breather and find myself?I set my eyes on this billboard in the downtown to create a haven for my own soul.

We inserted an "S" shaped block between the two billboards and designed a series of furniture from it. I got a bedroom and a swing facing the Yangtze River, a space to play with my cat and a roof full of nature.They are all gathered in this billboard of my own, giving me the opportunity to live and think alone.

Tongji Construction Festival

Group work

Instructor: Ye Liu, Fanlei Meng

Site: Shanghai, China Spring 2018

In 2018, as the captain of the construction festival, we built a structure using a modular approach with the theme of a crow's nest

Original Garden

Individual work

Instructor: Fanlei Meng, Ye Liu

Site: Xicheng, Beijing, China Fall 2017

First Step

Reach, Return, Fold, Turn, Climb, Travel-stop, Hide - reveal, Suppress - raise, Elevate - pitch

Each of the nine units represents an architectural space, and each architectural space has its own language. Stopping or Climbing, Tilting or Stooping

Second Step

Incorporating the principles of traditional Chinese landscape architecture, the nine architectural units are spatially combined.

Pairing scenery, barrier scenery, frame scenery, supporting scenery... With the backdrop of the Peach Blossom Garden, it creates the ancient Chinese article "At first it is extremely narrow, only one person can pass through. When you walk a few dozen steps again, it opens up to a clear view".

Detail of The School

Individual work

Instructor: Zhongqi Ren, Wei Jiang

Site: Xicheng, Beijing, China Spring 2019

I wanted to create a clean façade that responded to the geometric concept of the abstract rectangle, so the building was constructed with exposed concrete and interior insulation, and a large number of designed hidden window and door frames.