Architecture Portfolio

ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO

KAIXIANG XU

architecture portfolio

This portfolio consists of 3 student projects and 1 practical project, developed between 2018 and 2021.

The reason for such a selection is my wish to show my understanding of architecture and most of my architectural technical skills by collecting the best projects together.

Kaixiang Xu

Kaixiang Xu

Graduate of Architecture | a ninja

I am a highly motivated and detail-oriented ninja with a Master of Architecture with Distinction from RMIT University. My strong empathetic nature drives my dedication to creating subtle and intricate architectural designs that have a positive impact on all members of the community. I am passionate about sustainable design and firmly believe in the ability of architects to make a meaningful difference.

With expertise in Rhino, AutoCAD, SketchUp, Revit,ArchiCAD and Unreal Engine, I am experienced in managing complex projects from conception to completion, collaborating with clients and stakeholders, and delivering exceptional design solutions. I am well-versed in building codes and regulations and have a deep understanding of sustainable architecture and urban planning.

Major Project the Other in the ‘home’

“Otherness is the basic category of human thought.”

- Simone de Beauvoir

Who designs the environments and spaces around us?

Whom are they designed for?

And in turn, if these spaces shape us and our society, how does it work?

What if architecture acknowledges our diverse society? Who is missing and absent here?

The other in the ‘home’, is about an interest of ‘the Other’; the interest of the ‘out-group’ citizens who are neglected in the grand narrative.

The three ‘homes’ projects are in Chinatown, Melbourne, and I will act as ‘the Other’ to provide three different shelters with additional public buildings to serve the specific client, Asian immigrant women who are facing family violence in different situations.

Taking the idea of ‘the Other’ as a tool of self-reflection and architecture as a critical practice, to blur the typology of spaces, from the private space of an individual to the public living space of a family, from the ‘home’ to the public building facility, from the unnamed alleys of Chinatown to Little Bourke St, to the whole community. This serves to reshape our society by redefining the public and private realms to make it more inclusive and reflective.

Here, All the subtle moves or thinkings could light up the street.

Here, everyone is the other and no one is the other.

'in-group' and 'out-group'

Chinese-related functions

1.

2.

3.

Figure: Nolli maps of Melbourne Chinatown based on Mahlstedt Maps. a: 1888, b: 1910, c: 1948, d: now

the mirror gate of Chinatown

Elaborate gates, illuminated lanterns and performances during special festivals. These all things by the local Chinese are trying to represent themselves, but these decorations here with no more architectural use, making it look like a theme park.

Melbourne Chinatown has been seen as an Iconic Enclave, it is the other in the western context.

Between the real and the virtual, the mirrored gates of Chinatown are no longer objects to be observed through reflection, but can observe their surroundings and identify themselves as subjects.

This is a discussion of non-binary.

Project a: the ‘home’ for single women

+ Communal Kitchen

The ‘home’ for single women combined with a communal kitchen, focuses on the idea of therapeutic space and selfcare and aims to set up a shelter for single Asian women who faced family violence, using a flexible home layout to help them cure themselves and go back community soon.

A safe space can live alone and meet friends.

It is located in Hughs Alley, a dead-end between the two existing buildings. The doors and windows are highly flexible, the inhabitants could convert the doors and windows to change the layout according to their mood.

Keywords: layered entry; self-care; free layout; therapeutic space

A narrow building and hidden in the public view

Here are two entries, one for visitors and one for inhabitants. A hidden aisle, which only those people who live here know. is just like a secret, could make people together. Close friends come in through the aisle and play within the backyard.

The ground floor is more of public use, acquaintances and visitors need to be asked for permission and are met at the front door. During the day, the window bar will be opened, it will become the small communal kitchen for the community.

change the room layout according to the mood

The bedrooms are not exposed to the main street. Sleeping in the bedroom or reading on the balcony without any consideration.

When the sun shines through the skylight into the home, hope you are not as scared as when you move in.

Socialising with supporting others could make you feel better, it will be a homey place for all moods.

sun shines through the skylight

a bedroom for single lady balcony with blinds

Project b: the ‘home’ for women with babies + Australia Asian Women's Association

The ‘home’ for women with babies combined with one Australia Asian Women’s Association is located on an unnamed alley and combined with two existing buildings.

204-206 Little Bourke Street, which once was a single building, now shared with the same facade, has now become the two entrances for the women’s association and the house visitor.

Considering the inconvenience of women with babies in their daily life or women who have some trouble with movement, this home project mainly focuses on the nursery and universal assist.

Keywords:

nursery and universal assist; local community support;

Into some subtle things.

Stairs, elevator interior, handrails, surrounded by soft materials, and mirrors help you see around, the button low enough to get easily.

The part is for inhabitants and here for the staff of the association and the visitor who come ask for help.

A folding table at the entryway for helping mothers put their stuff conveniently when they are trying to open the door while holding a baby or with too many bags in hand. A bathroom is designed with some nursery and universal assist too.

bathroom with assist a folding table at the entryway staircase

The private living room allows staff to visit and come to provide some counselling help, the living room becomes a semi-private space for a moment to protect privacy.

The association on the first floor is mostly used as a communal space, the bright, open spaces of different degrees for all of you, it also provides language help, there is no more need to worry about can not finding community support because of the language barriers.

association at Ground floor elevator surrounding by soft materials

language support

Project c: the ‘home’ for women with children + Daycare Centre

It is located on 113-115 Little Bourke street, two entrances for visitors and staff are on the main street, and the entrance for inhabitants is on the other side.

Staff’s offices are in the basement, and the public space that mothers and kids can both use is on the ground floor. Mothers’ waiting area, where they could pick up their children and watch them through the window, and also could meet with the staff here. An open central square for children, with flexible interiors, the child could explore and create activities by themselves.

The staircase for children is easy to access, and the play area room and classrooms on the first floor, with natural lighting, some smaller rooms to provide a space for children who feel emotional and need to spend time alone.

Keywords:

facilities for children of different ages; child focused

What kind of space we could provide for the children, I think it is probably a safe and stimulating environment, we see them as the leading role in their development, mother and others will just be the observer, so the space in this project became to provide changes, multi-choices, activity and communication, which I found the alcove could provide this opportunity.

staircase with handrail

spacial space for kids

In the backyard playground, the mother could keep eyes on their children while they are hanging clothes outside, if they are not there, then the neighbour could.

my idea of Melbourne the idea of Melbourne

All about the subtle and detail things.

This is my third Studio in RMIT, the idea of Melbourne, running by Simone Koch. We’ ve been asked to do the different type of projects in Elizabeth Street every week.

One final project and six different selected projects, where the ideas for the final project include all the ideas for these six projects and they all represent some of my ideas of how I see the city of Melbourne.

All about the subtle and detail things.

My idea of Melbourne began with a casual stroll. It’s my third year in Melbourne, and I realized that I had never gotten lost in the CBD, because I could find my way back soon to the streets which I am quite familiar with and I attribute this to a well-designed and logical urban road network, the Hoddle Grid.

Although this street grid designed by Robert Hoddle in the early colony exists as an ambitious symbol and map of Melbourne, it is actually considered to be unimaginative. The frantic urban sprawl of the 19th century, the surge of high-rise office buildings, the widening of streets, with the prosperity and economic growth of the city, people seem to be full of hope for the future. When a sudden pandemic comes, and enforced isolation and social distance increased the sense of isolation and anxiety about crowds. After the epidemic, for me, the city's defects were fully exposed - people found themselves in a crisis of public space and social interaction, the quality of the urban experience is ignored, the street is no longer as an important place to meet people for random and disordered interpersonal connection, but becomes a transitional space or a transport corridor.

In response to this idea, and while ensuring that the original urban framework is not changed, the grid still remains a treasured inheritance of Melbourne.

My proposition is a series of architectural interventions that provide the public with architectural spaces that blur the public and private spheres, while at the same time rethinking the street facilities which are designed as appendixes to these weekly projects, bring them back within the city life cycle and restore their collective value.

A casual stroll: Some Street facilities on Elizabeth Street

Public Building: Community Centre

A public building, this small community centre I design is like a conclusion of my idea of Melbourne:

'public' means a shared, accessible place open to all members of the community, my idea of Melbourne is essentially the politics of public space, the idea that the street should belong to all people, we come to public space not to escape it, but to participate in it.

exhibition here public building offer the street lighting

project a: Landscape

The Hoddle Grid is often considered an ambitious but unimaginative iconic feature of Melbourne, William Creek was also hidden by Elizabeth Street without mercy, and became the main storm water drain in the end. As more and more skyscrapers began to rise in the CBD, the distance between the city and the suburbs seemed to grow further and further apart. In the pandemic era, the city is no longer serving people is becoming more and more obvious. The seemingly refined urban design is beginning to break down, and if one tries to lower the arrogant posture, then fixing the ‘BUGS’ seems possible.

Square obsession, maybe the first step to fixing the ’BUGS‘. The city's centre does not provide enough space to support the existing social needs. The project itself is hoped that the possibilities can be found without changing the original urban framework. Not all squares have to be large open spaces; they can be a few trees and chairs placed by design, or they can be art installations. Squares appear in pieces on Elizabeth Street as a way to meet the obsession for random and disordered interpersonal communication.

project b: Artist's house, studio and gallery

project c: Apartment / Office

blur the boundaries and use different typologies to create new ones

project d: extra house, apartment

The junction of our idea of Melbourne and the concept of other homes provided an ambiguous relationship where we reverse the depiction of homelessness as a public issue and look at homes through their potential to house public space. We question the relationship of private, personal issues being shared through a larger public domain.

We thought through the project by living in a new home, as the occupants of public space and visitors to a site.

On a vacant lot at the intersection of Flemington Road and Harker Street our project sits. The extra home starts the conversation with the public externally, with small scale public utilities. Once inside, the conversation of a new-found home can be celebrated with others. The predicate nature of the extra home sets a neighbourhood character, which causes the apartment building to create a spatial interaction with the public domain. Through providing this extra space, this becomes a public resource for information, a library.

Through the experience of imagining ourselves as living in our home. our extra home is in an unassuming place covered by a double brick wall, now we’re in a little boring room, so we planted a few yellow lemon trees in the yard. The breeze mixes with the scent of lemons as we are watering them. We like having people over and experiencing a simple laugh with them. Next door is a library, and occasionally we sit there, waste time, read books and look through the small windows as people are hurrying from one place to another. I wonder if some of them are probably my neighbours from the apartment upstairs. Those Benches outside are all mine, but you can always sit down and rest a little, then you can also be like me, smelling the air mixed with the scent of maybe another lemon tree, so enjoy the rest of the day.

project e: Public Toilet

about gender and power, more like an architectural experiment, or just an attitude to the city

project f: Market / School

blur the boundaries of public and private

Block Party

a mediator between public and private realm

‘Lazy Susan' at Victoria street

‘Lazy Susan'

The idea of ‘Lazy Susan’ intrigued me. A mediator is on the table, where the line between public and private shifts differently with a constant movement as it is turned.

Lazy Susan -- Mediator -- Minh Phat (constantly movement, series of rings, lock in)

Plates -- Program -- how to be occupied, programmatic response

Meals -- Activities -- how to be serviced, formal vs informal

Types of activities: entertain; eat; commercial; exercise; social; worship

A mixed-use apartment on a vacant space in Richmond Victoria Street, we looked at some models of resilience and Well-being cities as references, to understand how we use these ideas around the site. And also, because of the speciality of Victoria Street, the first important thing is to consider how the resilient city could benefit Richmond, a multicultural community.

From the public to the private, this idea is to talk about the blurring of the boundaries between the private and public spheres when a mixed-use apartment, as a new system, occupies the site.

A dynamic space has been designed, depending on the different degrees of specific programs. It also could be complete or incomplete. When people’s daily activities and rituals occur, the uncertainty and incompleteness of different programs will make more possibilities possible in this space.

diagram: lazy susan and human activities

retail and apartment entry

Minh Phat (one Asian grocery by the site) as one program, trying to update Minh Phat itself, I wonder how does it look like Lazy Susan, like when people turn to the Lazy Susan, the different movement could form the different edge, so it becomes a Cylindrical tower with one wall shelf, every level have a different Platform with a different edge to interconnect with the apartment to form a new program, and at the meantime, I also think about what quality of the supermarket should be.

I categorized the general items, like snacks, cooker, delicate flowers, special stuff for Buddha and so on, so these new programs will be the communal kitchen, stage library, farming garden and temple. And also with a super lobby with a roof plaza, and some commercial stores face Victoria street as other stores there.

So it is about a new realm that has been formed using Minh Phat as a mediator in the public and private.

LAZY SUSAN AT VICTORIA STREET

section

site plan

‘Lazy Susan' at Victoria Street

axo diagram

One of the educational project when I worked for archive studio as an architect assistant, completed in 2018. It is an honor to be part of the archive and participate in the whole delivery process, from designing to drawing and finally seeing the project through to completion.

The new venue that archive designed for w studio is located in an office park. The glass windows, ceilings, and central air conditioning in the space remain unchanged. The newly created functions are basically enclosed by plywood.

The property has already installed the air-conditioning. In order to separate different functional areas while allowing decent air circulation, all the partition walls are not up to the ceilings.

The choice of the transparency of interface materials is based on different functional requirements. The facade of the walkway is a plywood frame that is inserted into the original wall. The wooden frame at the entrance is installed with transparent PC wave plates, which is used to highlight the interior space. The rest part is translucent PC panels that function as the back of the lockers.

The reception desk opens up to the entrance in a triangle design. The adjacent reception area is relatively private, which is a closed space constructed by wood wool sound-absorbing board. The area of teachers’ office is similar to an extension of the shared working area, which is simply separated by transparent PC wave boards.

common study space

reception

(5)

Yephome Staff Portraits

/ Portrait_Metahuman

Virtual Reality Tour

/ Unreal Engine 5 + Revit

Visualising the virtual concourse -- Elective class

Life on Mars -- Elective class

Integrating existing cities on Earth with urban textures from NASA’s Mars landscape imagery to investigate artificial intelligence-assisted design searches to project the possibility of future cities on Mars, which can then be transferred to Earth as a design strategy for Mars development

A virtual platform for virtual exhibition at the 2020 Venice Architecture Biennale

Yanyueshan Store

program: Retail location: Shanghai status: completed

UOOYAA STORE

program: retail location: Shanghai status: design process

Advertising Shooting Program

Adidas modelling design

‘Define Yourself’ Exhibition

PEACEBIRD MEN 2019 Glenn Martens location: Shanghai modelling design