Jerry Xinchen Yang Selected Works 2021

Jerry Xinchen Yang Selected Works 2021

URSA URSA (Urban Resilience Score Algorithm) is my master’s thesis design. Powered by the coding language of Python, URSA aims to aid future developments to have a higher impact on urban resilience.

After I developed URSA with two other classmates, I individually carried out a series of spatial exploration into the potential of URSA-driven developments. Generative design tools were used to derive the final product, an experimental resilient boosting typology, with a complex bundle of functions informed by URSA. Design tools used include Rhino, Grasshopper, Enscape, GIS and Python.

More information about URSA available on: www.ursaplanningtool.com

Urban Voids This study started by overlaying and polarising urban mapping using GIS tools to reveal lacking areas in the urban system. These areas are defined in this study as urban voids. Urban voids are a product of the complex nature of the urban system, meaning all identified urban issues are continually changing matters, interconnected with each other.

To resolve these complex and “wicked” issues, multi-faceted, cross-disciplinary approaches need to be adopted, with understanding of topics like governance, social demographic and economy.

However, neither the current UK planning system nor the future planning white paper address the identified complexity of urban systems. We interpreted such phenomenon as the speed of policy-making falling behind the speed of urban changes.

Urban Resilience Score Algorithm To address the difference in speed between current policy and the urban system. Our study created a codified planning tool URSA to aid policy making process. URSA’s function can be divided into two phases: evaluation and comparison.

During the evaluation phase, URSA quantifies a development’s resilience impact score against16 categories of urban resilience. The categories cover a wide range of urban factors, ranging from macro issues like water and connectivity, to micro issues like surveillance.

In the comparison phase, URSA take the quantified resilience impact score and measure it against the site resilience requirement. Site resilience requirement is informed by our previous urban voids study. If the development’s site falls within certain urban void, the development will be required to have a higher impact in the respective resilience categories.

If the development does not fulfil its required resilience impact, URSA will highlight the category and report the amount of impact score missing.

The algorithm and its interface is coded using Python.

The urban resilience score URSA’s output include a star diagram showing the difference between the development’s contribution to urban resilience and the actual site requirement.

Development Impact (DI) Site Requirements (SR)

*More information about URSA available on: www.ursaplanningtool.com

* Through grasshopper comonent Monoceros, modules can be assigned into a user defined envelop, according to scripted adjacency rules.

Prototype URSA Development Because URSA assesses a bundle of seemingly unrelated urban factors, an alternative design method is required to spatialise this high level of function mixing. The final spatial response uses generative algorithms like Wave Function Collapse to create an alternative mixed-use development, with new synergies in its complex function and energy envelope.

The test site in this study (Land East of Maghull) is recognised as critically lacking in healthcare infrastructure in the urban voids study. Therefore, healthcare and its large bundle of support functions are investigated as the organiser of the design process.

Belleek River Market This is a residential scheme I completed as part of my MArch professional studies modules. This project explores the potential opportunities within the UK-Irish border condition under a Brexit context.

A portion of the UK-Irish border follows the natural path of the River Erne, making the border a transient line in the water that is impossible to define.

Belleek River Market turns this condition into advantage, utilising the river border’s ambiguous nature to create an illicit trading space on water, only accessible by boats.

Furthermore, the project honours the smuggling tradition that existed before the border was abolished by the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

Belleek River Market is not bound to tax and policy restrictions in either country; all exchanges in the river market are carried out on boats. The traders’ accommodation units are modular pods designed with security and secrecy as priorities; these units are also collapsible and transportable.

Design tools used include SketchUp, Enscape and the Adobe Suite.

High Street

Ireland

United Kingdom

t

River Marke

N

N Site Plan at First Floor Level

River Level on a Normal Day

River Level on a Fair Day

Belleek High Street on Fair Day

The Floating Piers by Christo and Jeanne Claude

On “Fair Day”, the River Market connects to Belleek’s high street with a temporary floating structure, attracting all residents from the border region. Help boost the local economy and re-enact Belleek’s formal glory as a traditional Irish market town.

Amazon Idea Farm This is a re-use project exploring the possibility of corporate-led urban regeneration. Amazon idea farm spatialises a widespread phenomenon in the tech industry, where the start-ups operate with the end goal of getting purchased by large corporations. Retail giant Amazon uses such a strategy to absorb competitors and acquire new technologies.

Using a similar construction method as Amazon’s fulfilment centres, a modular structure is attached to a vacant bank building’s back facade in Belfast city centre. Extending the existing building to house offices for start-ups of different sizes.

Idea farm provides incubation facilities for start-ups companies of all sizes. As the companies grow in size, more successful start-ups would compete out less successful ones and eventually get acquired into the Amazon retail Empire. The building program organisation is heavily informed by this business model, as well as Amazon’s company cultures.

This project was modeled in Revit, rendered in Enscape.

Extension

Existing Building

3

Ground Floor Plan

First Floor Plan

UP

UP

1

Second Floor Plan

Third Floor Plan

To reflect Amazon’s company culture of fostering internal competition, Amazon Idea Farm is organised in exact hierarchical order, start-up companies will begin the incubation process in a crowded hot-desk office on the top floor. As companies grow in size, they move downstairs to bigger office spaces. The start-ups will eventually reach the ground floor with their own shop-front space and a tiered lecture theatre to host events.

2

Extension West Elevation

Existing Floor Finish (20mm) Existing Steel Beam Infill Insulation Rigid Insulation(30mm) Existing Wall build-up with back insulation Existing Steel Beam Double Glazed Panel Rigid Insulation Concrete Composite Floor Slab Vertical steel Truss Extension

Existing Building

Horizontal Steel Truss Modular Unit Roof

UP

Existing Detail Extension Opening Detail

Extension Detail

Dún Laoghaire Vocational School This project was completed in the third year of my bachelor’s degree in University College Dublin, under RIBA gold medal winner John Tuomey and Sheila O’Donnell’s studio.

This project envisions a Vocational Education Centre in Dublin’s seaside suburban town Dún Laoghaire, aims to act as an educational resource centre for locals and students alike, including facilities like workshops and speciality classrooms, along with social functions like restaurants and cafés.

A notable site constraint is an 8-metre level change from the south end of the site to the north. This project aims to establish a natural flow across the site and organise the programme so that all functions onsite feel connected as one cohesive unit.

To deal with the level change mentioned, the vocational school’s vehicular access is placed at an intermediate level (+3600) with workshops. The three workshops at the intermediate level frame a central working yard, symbolising the vocational school’s hands-on pedagogy.

+3600 +3600 Level with work shops

All pedestrian access are lifted to +8600 level, providing a flush walkway with the back of the site (+8600), this walkway connects all three buildings on-site and flows into the open atrium in the west tower.

A

A

N

+8600

N

Elevated Walkway

Long section across elevated walkway (Section A-A)

Site Plan

Model Pirctures

North Elevation

The Disruptive Impact of Airbnb on Cities Under the current development of sharing economy, P2P sharing platforms like Airbnb are increasingly linked to various urban issues. Research has viewed Airbnb as an urban disrupter exacerbating issues like displacement and urban gentrification.

However, on the urban impact of Airbnb, there is a disproportionate amount of media coverage compared to academic studies.

Therefore this study aims to contribute towards the pool of knowledge on Airbnb’s urban impact. By focusing on its disruptive effect on Barcelona’s rental market, at a neighbourhood level. With the research question being: Do P2P short term rental platforms like Airbnb play a disruptive role in rental markets at neighbourhood Level? In this context, P2P platforms are web platforms that allow its user to share their under-used resources directly with other users.

Full Dissertation Here: https://issuu.com/jerryxcyang/ docs/20_0504-xinchen_yang_march_ dissertation-00

With tools like QGIS and Tableau, secondary data of Airbnb activity in selected neighbourhoods were compared with their rental availability and rental price data.

Then using the theoretical framework of Causal Analysis with panel data, the causality between Airbnb activities and rental price/availability were calculated. Analysis of calculation results demonstrated the causality between Airbnb activity and rental price/availability.

Meaning that when there’s an increase in Airbnb activity, rental availability will drop and rental price will rise. Indicating that Airbnb does play a disruptive role in rental markets at neighbourhood level.

However further research is needed on other impacting factors to rental markets to improve the accuracy of the causality model. Which can provide knowledge for future policy-making and help short term rental companies like Airbnb to understand their urban impact and take actions.

Airbnb listing availability an

Airbnb listing availability ch

Causal relationship betwee

nd price change overtime, graphed with Tableau.

hange overtime, illustrated using QGIS.

en Airbnb listing data and the rental market, calculated using the method of first differences.

TU Dublin Business School During my year-out, I worked with 2019 Aga Khan Award winner Heneghan Peng Architect. My time in heneghan peng was mainly spent working on the first three RIBA stages of TU Dublin’s new business building, the facility provides 15000m2 of teaching/ office area for TU Dublin. It houses six different school departments and a series of informal collaborative learning spaces.

My main roles in earlier development stages involved conceptual design and diagramming, preparing material for client presentations, and physical/3D modelling. In later stages, I mainly focused on preparing the planning application and coordinating drawings with MEP consultants.

The software I worked with for this project includes AutoCAD, Revit, Enscape, Photoshop, InDesign, illustrator and Rhinoceros.

* All Material on this project are used by permission of Heneghan Peng Architects. Please do not circulate publicly.

Ground Floor Site Plan

Active Facade with Overlapping Voids.

Triple Height Civic Square.

Lecture Theatre Layout Studies

Renders for Planning Application (Produced by ZDA Visualisation)

Anji Retail Village During my summer internship for Chapman Taylor’s Shanghai office, I was placed into a small team of two to work on a commercial project located in Anji China.

The project’s total building area is 9000 m2, providing a hotel, retail units, and F&B amenities to its surrounding residential developments.

Due to the fast-paced nature of Chinese construction projects, I was able to touch on multiple sides of the design process within the three months internship, including initial conceptual design and visualisation, planning document preparation, and some of the construction drawings.

This project improved my ability to communicate to clients and consultants in both English and Mandarin; it also trained me to multi-task efficiently under highstress environment.

* All Material on this project are used by permission of Chapman Taylor Architects. Please do not circulate publicly.

In-house renders done by me for design development and client meetings.

Building Plans and sections for planning submission

+44 742 124 2761 jerryxcyang@gmail.com www.linkedin.com/in/xinchenyang96 Manchester, UK