Kit Tang Work Sample by kitkittenkat

WORK SAMPLE YIFEI KIT TANG

STATEMENT

Millions of eyes look up at windows, bridges, capers, and they might be scanning a blank page. Many are the cities like Phyllis, which elude the gaze of all, except the man who catches them by surprise...

- Invisible Cities, ITALO CALVINO

Ideas are the pursuit among the people and their culture, manifested through the means of materiality into architecture. By inheriting unique constituencies constructs and varying geographical contexts, Architecture expresses the memories of the population through time.

The fabric of cities emerge and diminish as its citizens’ memories - foreign and local - rise and fade. Architectures, in turn, crystallize fragments of moments that tell tales of fossilized memories. Believing that architecture shall be a reflection of people and their cultures, I find myself fascinated by the characters carried through built objects as they express attitudes, agreements and searches - marking the memories of generations, giving forms to the intangibles. Upon such belief, I carefully curate my projects – rendering materiality and memories of places and their citizens.

01. TARRAGONA SAILING SCHOOL

2023 FALL INSTRUCTOR: Jordi Adell Roig UPC - ETSAB

Along the endless coast of Tarragona, Spain an array of beaches is scattered. For eons, the tides of the Mediterranean wash the smooth sand as the wind brushes against the rocky cliffs. Nothing has changed much until a sail emerged on the horizon – a ship from a distant empire – announcing the arrival of the Roman settlers. Cities were built and abandoned, civilizations formed and forgotten. Then a thin line of rail prowled across the plain of Catalunya, laying itself along the coast of Tarragona. Hence comes the train, the noise, the visitors, the ancient hospital atop the sandstone cliff and now – riding the same waves that has indifferently embraced the sand and wind -rises a sailing school.

The school situates itself at the junction between a rocky peninsula and a modest beach lined with a lovely boardwalk. The program of the school revolves around a central plazanow acting as the main hangar where sailing boats are docked during off-seasons -- around which all service programs such as changing room, warehouse, repair shop and a small cafeteria are composed around. With higher levels of the building complex made with removable timber, the plaza, changing rooms and cafeteria are constructed with concrete that is cast into the landscape. They will remain long after the school is rendered obsolete -- providing necessary infrastructure for daily uses, or simply mark the remembrance of those who cherished the ancient wind and waves of Tarragona.

FLOOR PLAN - TARRAGONA SAILING SCHOOL

AXONOMETRIC - CURTAIN SCREEN ASSEMBLY

DETAILING

THE HANGAR is conceived to be a semi-outdoor space with minimum enclosure. Twenty columns, which carry the timber frame canopy, are wrapped in polished metal sheathing. Dematerialized under the sun, they frame the view towards the ocean.

THE CURTAINS are situated in between the columns. They are anchored against the pedestals and the heavy timber beams of the canopy. A series of cable mechanisms are applied to raise and lower the curtain based on weather condition. The metal mesh screen appear translucent from afar while bearing the capability to protect the sailing boats from heavy rains and wind.

The CEILING of the canopy is lined with the same material of the curtain. They provide a sense of ambiguity that stands contrast against the Oculus in the center. Together, they gently frame the gateway towards the ocean, capturing a piece of serenity between the wave and the wind.

HANGAR LOOKING TOWARDS OCEAN

STAIR LANDING

CONSTRUCTION SECTION - WAREHOUSE

PERSPECTIVE

- PLAZA STAIRS

30 WORKS 12 GARDENS

Coordination - GERARD DAMIANI 2024

Landart has been considered to be one of the first environmental movements. Its intent was to make one “Earthwise“ and to become aware of environmental change through perception and the acknowledgement of geological change/ time. Pushing the design and technology to scales ranging from details to terraforming, this project ventures across the boarders of architecture and land art.

DAC - Direct Air Capture - is a technology emerged to filter carbon molecules from the atmosphere and store them, in the form of a solution or compound, 1 kilometers deep into the sedimentary layer of Earth’s crust. Such plant inherits the technological that calls for the most efficient and logical planning, yet also embodies poetry: its creation bears the attempt to create paradise on a scorched earth - a last resort to refuge the future of humanity - and shall take form as Gardens of the New Age.

The representation, just as the project itself, attemps to blur the boundary between drawing and models. The final works are of a hybrid nature. They bear critical architectural information as traditional drawings yet take the presence of physical models. One work for the site and guesture, thirty for the gardens, and a desk that sancturiazes concept sketches and objects found through a series of odysseys that contributed to the project.

36” * 36” * 20”

56” * 24” * 32”

CITY VIEW APARTMENT ADDITION

With BRIAN HARTMAN & COLIN WALTERS Coordinated by GERARD DAMIANI

SoA | Carnegie Mellon University | 2022

Designed and constructed in the 1960s by I.M. Pei, the City View Apartments is part of an urban planning project in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that was never completed. This comprehensive studio reimagines this residential project brought to fruition.

The proposed concrete frame houses various apartment unit types while maintaining the original structural language. Perforated aluminum and bronze panels clad the southern facade, delivering a monolithic elevation that shifts its transparency across the skyline. A moment frame foundation flows along the undulating topography, giving the public space back to the communityelevating the living above the roaring streets of the Steel City.