2022-2024Tzu Yu Jason Huang Architecture and Urban Design Portfolio
Yu Jason Huang
Tzu Yu Jason Huang
th3129@columbia.edu
+1 929 668 0036
New York City, US
Eduacation
Bachelor of Architecture
National Cheng Kung University
MS.Archiecture and Urban Design
Columbia University
Experience
Exhibition participant
2023 Architecture Venice Biennale
Taiwan Pavilion
Architectural designer
CTAA Architects Lab
Main Curator
NCKU Graduation Design
Diachornic Appraratuse of Taiwan
2023 Venice Architecture Biennale
The Ongoing Boundary
The furture monumentary of the infrastructure
The Generator
Figurative Forms of Energy in Sunset Park
Discover Cumberland Art as an interface connecting community and visitors
The City Themary
The library containing the urban themes
The Collective Projection Commemorative fragments within the city
Floating Eave
The redesign of activity pavilion
The kitchen at Mituo Elementary School
The next step of a school kitchen
2023 NCKU Graduation Design Exhibition
Display exhibits, activities, and viewers themselves Scorched by Hierarchy
Diachornic Appraratuse of Taiwan
2023 Venice Architecture Biennale
The 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale theme, “The Laboratory of the Future,” focuses on sustainable and innovative designs addressing climate change, urbanization, and cultural preservation. Our team highlights the evolving Taiwanese landscape, shaped by its distinct climate, history, and industrial changes. As an exhibitor, I explore Taiwan’s colonial city walls, like Kaohsiung’s Old Fongshan City Wall, remnants of the Qing dynasty now integrated into modern urban growth. These historical structures provide a foundation for rethinking Taiwan’s architectural future, blending historical elements with contemporary influences.
Site : Palazzo delle Prigioni, Venice.
Organizer : Tunghai University
Unfinishedness
The Ongoing Boundary
The furture monumentary of the infrastructure
“The Ongoing Boundary” is an urban boundary entity that responds to environmental changes. It envisions new forms over the next thirty years by reflecting the evolution of the ancient city wall in relation to the environment over the past three hundred years.
This city wall once protected and demarcated the old city of Zuoying, which was a prosperous settlement and has now turned into wilderness amidst a dense urban area. During this dramatic transformation on an urban scale, numerous evolutions in settlements and city planning have influenced the remnants of this ancient heritage, resulting in diverse forms. Some sections remain intact, while others are intersected by traffic systems or integrated with residential buildings. Despite its seemingly static appearance, I believe that this ancient wall dynamically coexists within the ever-changing city, exemplifying “continuous evolution.”
Site : Zuoying, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Instructor : Jue-Zhi Gu
1745 Enclosement
Settlements inside the city, wilderness outside the city.
The ancient boundary began to disappear
1920 Linking
The city wall was partly split by the involved traffic system.
1980 Dwelling
Foreign houses began to parasitize near the city wall.
The new boundary is becoming involved
2020 Gathering
Settlements outside the city began to form massive architectural complexes.
2030 Reversing
settlements inside the city, wilderness outside the city.
20?? Urbanizing
The new boundary keeps changing accompanied with urbanization.
SECTION 1
SECTION 2
Temple Festival
Harvest Season
TYPE A
VEGETABLE MARKET
TYPE B
CAMPING HOSTEL
TYPE C
PUBLIC FARMING AREA
The Staged Evolution
01 From barrier to interface : Repurposing the ancient city wall into a linear agricultural greenhouse, encapsulating agricultural activities and autonomous cycles.
02 From Wall to Social Infrastructure : Reshaping the city boundary as settlements shift, incorporating existing trails, and utilizing Mount Guishan’s resources for a self-sustaining boundary.
03 From Infrastructure to Monument : Over time, the newly built boundary becomes a relic, showcasing the evolution of three hundred years and providing insights into history and the future.
Modular composition
Evolution Pattern
2F Plan
1F Plan
The Generator
Figurative Forms of Energy in Sunset Park
Our project, The Generator, envisions a new ecosystem for electricity generation, shifting from aging fossil fuel power plants to localized, renewable, and community-friendly energy sources. By transforming industrial waterfronts like Sunset Park into renewable energy hubs, this approach generates electricity, supports local industries, fosters vibrancy, and creates economic opportunities. This vision ensures a sustainable and resilient energy future for all NYC neighborhoods.
Once viewed as polluted and flood-prone, NYC’s manufacturing waterfronts hold untapped potential. We reimagine the shoreline as a dynamic space, combining a naturalized flood wall with a reactivated electric tram railway to create a vibrant loop connecting visitors, locals, and workers to the waterfront. This design protects against flooding, engages the community with renewable energy processes, and offers opportunities for a sustainable future.
Site : Brooklyn, NYC, US.
Team : Georgia Fernandes, Xiu Guo, Suzzane Alphonse
Discover Cumberland
Art as an interface connecting community and visitors
Cumberland aims to increase its population to 30,000 by 2030. Key revitalization strategies, including the Baltimore Street redevelopment and River Park design, are already in place. Our project, Discover Cumberland, builds on these initiatives and is anchored by the city’s vibrant arts and cultural potential.
The site is strategically located near the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, a major attraction drawing over 65,000 visitors annually. Our vision for Discover Cumberland enhances the city’s Reimagine Cumberland initiative by introducing a visitor village and a streetscape project, Artistry Avenue, which will help transform Cumberland into a thriving destination. These proposals are designed to integrate with future developments, including housing, to ensure sustainable growth and community connection.
Site : Cumberland, MD, US.
Team : Georgia Fernandes, Tanishka Kelkar, Suzanne Alphonse
Flea Market
Recycle Material
Green House Artist Residency Program
Informality
The City Themary
The library containing the urban themes
In the Great Library of Alexandria, Egypt, sunlight was brought into the center of the stack room because of the need for luminosity. This turned knowledge pursuit into a sacred and formal activity, and light became a spiritual medium that changed the atmosphere of a place.
In this project, I want to represent this original experience in this modern library and make light become the main character to define the dynamic, informal, community-oriented events happening in this project. I designed two main cylinder core structures to support the main load of the building, creating an open ground floor for multiple public events. These core provided relatively informal spaces for various urban themes, such as parent-child activities, discussions, workshops, presentations, and more, aiming to create a city-themed hub unique to Hsinchu.
The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, a significant architectural legacy from Chiang Kai-shek’s dictatorship (1938-1975), spans over 240,000 square meters. Originally a symbol of authoritarian rule, the Hall has evolved into a largely unused plaza. Recognizing the need to repurpose this space aligns with Taiwan’s democratic values, emphasizing active citizen engagement. Our design approach integrates the historical dictatorship symbols into the new design rather than removing them, enriching the democratic dialogue.
We propose symbolically dismantling the dictatorial barriers, such as the 3.5-meter-tall walls surrounding the Memorial Hall, by transforming them into “Public Bulletin Boards” scattered across Taipei. These movable structures on tracks can be repositioned to suit various public events, turning symbols of oppression into tools for democratic expression. This flexibility reflects Taiwan’s dynamic democracy, allowing the space to adapt to the community’s changing needs and expressions.
Site : Zhongzheng, Taipei, Taiwan.
Team member : Ping-Hao Hsieh / Hao-Yong huang
Detailed Design
Floating Eave
The redesign of activity pavilion with detailed designs
The area situated between the Department of Architecture and the Exhibition Center served as an intermediary space for student activities, lectures, and gatherings. The original canopy was old and damaged, prompting discussions about reconstruction. In the redesign, the overall planning maintained the original spatial design and requirements but required more in-depth thought and creativity in the details to propose a plan that was both aesthetically pleasing and practical.
The design focused on the keywords “replaceability” and “transparency.” The flooring, display walls, railings, and the membrane of the ceiling all adopted a design with replaceable modules, aiming to create a flexible and interchangeable user experience. The semi-transparent ceiling not only provided shelter from the rain but also enhanced the brightness of the space. The truss structure in the background, with shadows projected onto the ground, exhibited a lightweight posture of the structure.
Site : East District, Tainan, Taiwan.
Instructor : Chia-Hua Liu
The kitchen at Mituo Elementary School
The next step of a school kitchen
Due to Taiwan’s declining birth rates and resource centralization, an increasing number of rural elementary schools face challenges related to the provision of nutritious lunches and aging infrastructure. Consequently, the Taiwanese government actively discussed the concept of regional central kitchens. This concept involves using a single kitchen to supply the needs of the surrounding schools while enhancing overall budget allocation and lunch quality.
As a result, the central kitchen at Mituo Elementary School was considered one of the pilot models of this program. In addition to meeting supply demands, the design aimed to transform the previously isolated school kitchen into a more inclusive place and how it could seamlessly integrate with multiple users, including teachers, cooks, locals, and kids.
Site : Mito, Kaoshiung, Taiwan
Designer : CCTA Architects Lab
Practical Curation
2023 NCKU Graduation Design Exhibition
Display exhibits, activities, and viewers themselves
The 2023 NCKU Graduation Design Exhibition showcased the creative endeavors of 30 designers who addressed distinctive social issues and phenomena in Taiwan. We conveyed our visions for the island’s future landscape using architectural drawings and spatial models. The works were organized into six thematic groups: Hydro-landscapes, Industrial Anecdotes, urban fabrics, Old and New Interweavings, Spatial Types, and Rural Areas.
The central exhibition area, which featured a site model, showcased the key themes of each category. In contrast, the lateral exhibition area highlighted individual works with unique design approaches, emphasizing both personal styles and thematic divisions.
Site : Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan.
Project Partner : Ping-Hao Hsieh
Art Work
Scortched by Hierarchy
A comic unveiling the hidden stories of the Dom community
Varanasi recognized as one of the oldest cities globally and an essential Hindu pilgrimage destination, plays a vital role in the spiritual life of the Dom community, which, as legend suggests, is destined to uphold a sacred fire for Hindu cremations. Dom women encounter significant gender and caste discrimination, limiting them to traditional roles and financial reliance, with education frequently concluding at puberty because of early marriages. We aim to produce a comic book that sheds light on these issues to enhance awareness.
