I Lok U Architectural Portfolio by I Lok U

I LOK U CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY

2020 - 2023 SELECTED WORKS

TABLE OF CONTENT

UPHAM’S CORNER LIBRARY

QUAD OF APPLIED ARTS

CRUISIN’ IT

Upham’s Corner Public Library Public Library Program| Praxis II Spring 2023 Studio Professor | Jeremy Ficca Section Professor | Vicky Achnanni

The Upham’s Corner Public Library focuses on cultivating the young generation and creating a hub that highlights the sense of unity within the Dorecester neighborhood in Boston. The project tasked with negotiating site conditions, investigating CLT strucutral systems, and tackling envelope strategies. While the library ’s program is designed to highlight teens resources through the formal gesture of lifting, the library hints at the Dorchestor neighborhood’s past by situating itself to connect the residential district to the historic cemetary, allowing for visual and physical access to public greenery.

Concept Collage

Colombia Road Elevation

Parti Diagram

Floor Plan

Program: Highlighting Teen Generation The gesture of lifting the teen space here aligns with the goal of cultivating the young population in the Upham’s Corner Neighborhood. The teens section, alongside with resources such as dance studio, music room, and maker space are all congregated on the second floor, allowing for a hub for teenagers to cultivate their talents and interests. As one enters the library, the double height lobby and adult section acts as the main volume of the building, while the back of the house, bathroom, and staff workspace are tucked to the left rear end of the library. The children’s section is located near the staff workspace and reception desk, utilizing its proximity to enable easy catering to the children. Continuing to the right is the community room, which aligns the diagonal parti axis which bridges the residential area to the cemetery. The reading area is situated at the back so that it takes advantage of the serene and quiet environment next to the cemetery, while not visually impeding the view from outside towards the open greenery at the back of the site. Finally, the result of lifting the mass creates a long open auditorium which is a flexible space that ascends towards the teens section.

Maker Space

Teen’s Hang Out Space

Children’s Section

Transverse Section between Colombia Road to Cemetary

Adult’s Section

Program Packing

Teen’s Section

Entrance + Courtyard

Structure: Timber Construction

Exploded Structural Exploration

1:16” Scale Structural Model

Chunk Model

Detail 1: skylight and ceiling construction

Detail 2: Connection between concrete footing and glu-lam column

Folding CLT The goal of creating a coherent form that blends between double height and lifted space with single height spaces resulted in the strategy of the triangulation of CLT panels. To ensure structural integrity while preserving the folded planes, the 3-ply CLT panels are sandwiched with glulam studs so that the interior structure is hidden, allowing the interior form to read clearly. The folding of the roof structure itself is influenced by each main space in the library and the ridges help inform the sequence as one walks along the main spaces. In addition, the CLT panels that rest against each other are incremented with skylights, which not only bring in natural light into the building but also visually infers sequence.

Roof Folding according to Program

Initial Structural Model

Interior Perspective

Composite Envelope Study

Envelope Strategy The envelope of the building consists of Zinc paneling, as well as utilizing terracotta fins. These fins are oriented from northwest to southeast to block the harsh sunlights from the east and west while allowing northern indirect sunlight into the space. The fins themselves vary in sizes along the facade, which is influenced by the formal gesture of lifting and pushing. The building aims to stand out throughout its unique form while still situating to its surrounding context, which connects the community to residential. The library will become the centerpiece of upham corner through its emphasis on community and bridging the urban landscape to the cemetery.

1:4” Scale Envelope Chunk Model

Quad of Applied Arts w/ Jackie Yu, Norman Situ, Ashley Su Project EX| Praxis III Fall 2024 Studio Professor | Gerard Damiani

The Quad of Applied Arts is a proposal centered around bridging the gap in the School of Architecture(SoA). Due to the current state of CMU SoA being dispersed across two buildings, Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall and College of Fine Arts, there is a lack of identity for SoA in the broader campus. Our proposal focuses on bridging these two buildings by filling up the currently occupied parking lot with an underground addition, and repurposeing the exisitng parking lot into a Quad. As students who have experienced CMU SOA, we’ve found that architecture is one of the few disciplines in which students live and work within our subject of study. Because of this, we found it important to create a space that reflects the use and needs of the students and faculty while emphasizing its presence on campus.

Positioning: Strenghtening Campus Alightment The Department of Architecture began as a part of the College of Fine Arts(CFA), formerly known as the School of Applied Design. Although School of Architecture (SOA) is housed in the CFA and MM, these two buildings also house the School of Music, Art and Design. The Quad of Applied Arts is not only creating outdoor space for the SOA but also the other schools within the college of fine arts. This open space draws from the legacy of space-making in the larger campus and mirrors the intentions of the campus planning. Due to the separation of SOA into two different buildings, some problems that SOA is challenged with are the absence of a campus presence, lack of working space & facilities to support staff and current & future enrollment. Our proposal sits in the existing parking lot between MM and CFA to take advantage of the view from The Cut down towards Margaret Morrison St. This site selection helps to activate the middle ground between the two buildings, creating not only a visual connection but also marks the new presence of School of Architecture.

We have chosen to occupy what is currently the CFA parking lot. Not only is it a poorly utilized space, it has so much potential as it is bordered by CFA, Posner Hall, Posner Center and MM. Our project creates an above-ground visual experience as well as underground connection between MM and CFA. Buildings being connected is a common occurrence on campus and it drastically improves student commute experience during harsh Pittsburgh weathers. We maintain a small building footprint above ground as we acknowledge a part of campus that is already crowded with buildings. Instead, the quad reactivates pathways and adjacencies across the number garden, and brings an identity to not just the School of Architecture, but also the College of Fine Arts as a whole.

The Quad On ground level, the building holds a gallery space that houses temporary exhibitions for student/faculty work and can conform to more open layouts for workshops shared between CFA schools. Both northern and southern facades are glass to encourage people to come inside while passing by the building. We envision a blend of landscaping and skylights for people to peer into the workings of SOA students below to create a quad. Open to the public, this level incents a place for meandering and lingering that allows the School ofArchitecture to further mark its presence and connect with other colleges. A mix of multipurpose space and seating framed by lawn and perennials slows down the pace within the quad and allows for unprogrammed flexible areas students across schools can use. Moving into the building, the second floor is cantilever above the quad and over the exhibition space. The space between the cantilever and CFA frames a view to MM on the east side, as well as Doherty Hall on the west. Celebrating the historical origin of SOA in Doherty Hall as well as paying homage to the history of perspectival manipulation such as the Hamerschlag Hall. In addition, the cantilever also provides a programmatic solution for the need for additional studio spaces. The space is laid out in a traditional foundation studio fashion with critique nooks along the north side overlooking the tennis courts. The cantilever also creates an overhang as people are able to walk under and experience the exhibition space and the quad.

Floor Plan

Underground Addition Descending below the Quad through the sinking stairways is the new front entrance for the School of Architecture. The subgrade level opens out to the tennis courts and spans the full parking lot from the edge of MM to the front edge of CFA. Greeted by the main lobby, the 2 main circulation axes provide the organization for 32,000 sq ft space. The 2 axes are reinforced with 20’ corridors which act as a bridge for the rest of the school as well as for SOA. Circulation across MM and CFA is provided through the A level of MM and a proposed freight elevator located in, what is currently, the mechanical room on the first floor of CFA. (That is already planned to be removed in future building) Surrounding these wide corridors are faculty offices, advanced studios, a lecture hall, DFAB space, an archival library (spirit of original archival lib. of CFA), meeting rooms, a cafe, and lounge. These programmatic spaces are decorated with sliding partitions and glazing that promote the interaction of programs across the building’s floor plan including the corridors. Moving into the studio space underground, it is governed by an open-floor plan concept prompting cross-studio collaboration. Dedicated crit and review spaces are scattered throughout the studio which are framed by adjustable walls and occur under large skylights. Similar to the crit spaces, skylights frame programmatic spaces such as the main lobby, the library, and Dfab. Not only providing ample daylight to the working level below but also allowing pedestrians above to peer into the school of architecture.

Section

Structural Compostion

Structure The building is a type 2B building with its structure comprised of non combustible materials such as steel framing and concrete retaining walls. The building’s structure has distinct characteristics each level to suit different structural needs: the main addition underground and the quad above is supported by a double-layered waffle grid system. The waffle grid is made up of prefabricated 4’ individual C 8 channel units that are pieced together into 8’ x 40’ panels with each unit bolted into ½” cruciform steel plate as connections. These prefabricated panels are then shipped to site and assembled into 40’ x 40’ modules. The double layered waffle grid also allows integrated mechanical system to run in between. The assembled 40’ waffle modules are then hoisted up and supported by 10” HSS columns; the columns and waffle modules are connected through the cruciforms which extend down and form a notch which is then secured with a welded connection. These HSS columns span 40’ apart for the underground area, but condenses into 20’ in the areas where it also supports upper levels. The upper levels features dominant 40” deep I beam that carries the load of the cantilever and steel framing to support the roof.

Modular Assembly Sequence

Structure Model

Skylights To support meandering throughout the quad, the ground plane is thought of as an occupiable roof and employs the American hydro techintensive green roof system to support our landscaping and the foot traffic above. This consists of a 2’ waters encompassing of garden media, system filer, root barrier, dow styrofoam insulation, and roofing membrane that sits on top of the concrete ceiling slab. The skylight continues the c-channel modular grid structure with bent steel plates at the corner connections. Sandwiched by 2 bent steel plates at each corner, the C-channel runs vertically to frame the skylights.

Method of Measure: Climate Studio Analysis on Metal Scrim Facade

South Elevation

Canteliever Section Detail

Integrated Mechanical Ventilation, Heating and Cooling Our addition is dependent on the centralized system from campus including water and steam from the tunnels to run our heating and cooling. The mechanical system that our group has selected for our design is a Variable Air Volume system (VAV). It is a central ventilation system including heating and cooling. A Central Air Handling Unit Supply Fan (AHU) is located in the equipment room on the lower level, providing heating and cooling, and ventilation to all three levels. We chose the VAV system because of its omission of Rooftop Units. Because our roof is visible from both CFA and MM, we chose not to install RTUs to eliminate visual obstructions on the rooftop. Furthermore, we take advantage of the campus chilled water line which also eliminates the need for a standalone chiller. Due to the majority of our footprint being underground, the lack of direct solar radiation and infiltration loads leads to a minimal cooling and heating load. This allows us to only have one AHU unit to provide enough heating, cooling, and ventilation into the building. In addition, the minimal need for these loads allows us to tap into the campus chilled water line without jeopardizing its limited capacity. The conditioned air is distributed throughout the building through the main arteries that weave around the skylights in between the structural grid, through the circulation space, and up the shaft to the two floors above.

Cruisin’ It w/ Jackie Yu Chain Necklace | Praxis I Fall 2022 Studio Professor | Heather Bizon Section Professor | Jared Abraham and Ala Tannir

Can architecture be satirical? Does it strip away the responsibilities/design process of an architect? Cruisin’ It is a project that attempts to tackle mainstream consumerism. The project envisions a cruise line that connects a chain necklace of sites located around Pittsburgh. Through the cruise line and development projects, the goal is to enrich tourism and culture while being cognizant of how and where we use water, ultimately questioning how to give back to the river and community. By creating a sustainable water feedback loop that powers the system on all sites, the project tests the idea of consumerism and its ethical limits. To sell these reimagined futures, the project will be narrated through the lens of a tour guide and developer representative. TOUR GUIDE NARRATION: On behalf of the YU agency I’d like to welcome you all to cruisin’ it, our unique cruise line experience that encapsulates Pittsburgh’s rich culture in casinos, distilleries, as well as delicious oyster bars. Our goal is to reinvigorate and push Pittsburgh towards a more colorful and cultural city that celebrates who we are. DEVELOPER REPRESENTATIVE NARRATION The water used at each event is contributed by the purification of harvested rainwater and recycled rivers. With water activating the underlying operating system in the sites, cultural moments in relationship to water are situational and explorative.

Cruise Line: Mini Casino Boats TOUR GUIDE NARRATION: As our cruise line demonstrates, being conscious of water usage doesn’t mean we should sacrifice leisure activities. We embark on our journey cruising it by introducing our signature mini boats situated in the North Shore. These little guys will be transporting you throughout your stay with us. But what’s more is that the mini boats are built in with casino facilities and distillery systems, so don’t worry about motion sickness because you will be intoxicated and gambling the entire time. DEVELOPER REPRESENTATIVE NARRATION These mini water delivery boats play an important role as the main connectors of our destinations. Their main job of transporting used and cleaned water across the river allows recycling resources.

OHIO

RIVE R

Y EN H G

RIV

Chian Necklace Model

Duquesne Incline Chunk Model

Strip District Proposal

Duquesne Incline Proposal

Northshore District Proposal