Selected Works

Laichee Yang

Architectural Works

‘18 - ‘23

DESIGNER NOTE:

TEB LAUS IB TXWM PIV TXOJ LUS HAIS TIAS, “XYOOB IB TXOOJ, NTOO IB TSHOB.”

THE ELDERS HAVE ALWAYS SAID, “BAMBOOS ARE OF ONE RHIZOME, BRANCHES ARE OF ONE TRUNK.”

WE SHARE THE SAME AIR. THE SAME LAND. THE SAME WATER.

WHEN WE WORK TOGETHER, WE TAKE CARE OF OUR COMMUNITY.

WHEN WE WORK AGAINST EACH OTHER, WE HURT OURSELVES.

Masters Final Project

Critic: Gayla Lindt

01 hmong ness

The cultural crises for HMong-Americans means to be in a perpetual state of negotiation between deconstruction and reconstruction, HMong and American. For the purpose of architectural inquiry, I named this modality HMong ness . Its edges are as follows:

HMong-ness is the physical marking of difference from dominant culture where members and nonmembers of HMong identity perceive a difference in architectural aesthetics.

HMongness is the culturally coded design and construction process that occurs when disparate materials meet to create HMong spaces.

Default Culture is the dominant expression of space that renders all alternative cultures as other, irrelevant, and irrational. It is the system in which all other cultures facilitate their building practices, which in this place, is Whiteness.

The inquiry focuses on observed patterns found in HMongness as methodology for designing public space and design thinking.

HMong-ness

HMongness

Default Culture

Part 1 : Research

Precedent studies of HMong places in St Paul were analyzed to generate architectural principles of HMongness. Precedent studies were selected based on proximity to the HMong community and building type. The next phase applies the research by speculating how the principles could be generative on two separate sites.

Population Density of HMong People in Minnesota in 2022

1 = 25 people 2022 US Census Bureau. Mapped by Kyle E Walker, November, 6, 2023.

Precedent Studies:

Speculation Sites:

Hmong Home Hmong Town Agape Hmong Garden

Little Mekong Plaza Goodrich Golf Course

HMong Home as Code Switching

A strategy of challenging spatial codes that suppress marginalized peoples into mere users and consumers of space. Temporary changes in furniture switches the space from living room to a site for healing rituals.

Hmong Town as Dressing

A methodology of dressing and undressing default structures to express, amplify, and build cultural practices in non-intrusive ways. A storage facility becomes an indoor market when its walls are dressed to display goods.

Agape Hmong Garden as Landback

A call for communal use and care of land in a country where the environment has been fragmented by settler colonial notions of property. A single family homestead becomes a themed backdrop for HMong people to practice Hmongness.

Part 2: Little Mekong Plaza

The Little Mekong Plaza is a compelling site to test HMongness as Dressing and Code Switching due to its neighborhood branding as a Southeast Asian cultural district.

Currently, the commercial branding of the plaza, absentee landlords, and proximity to the light rail creates an environment that serves as a destination for suburbanites more than the people who live within walking distance.

This proposal seeks to enliven the plaza for local use by building infrastructure to host nightly markets while also blurring architectural lines between private and public use of space. This proposal is inspired by the annual festival, Little Mekong Night Market.

proposal during the day

Concept Development

1: existing plaza condition

3: test urban infrastructure

2: scale 10x10 market tent stall

4: improve pedestrian circulation

The proposal re-imagines how architects and planners can create more human-centered experiences of our streets by designing adaptive infrastructures in public spaces. Designing non-prescriptive infrastructures in public spaces also allows the ease of adding cultural layers by community members.

Part 3: We-root Community Garden

The historic and present layers of Goodrich Golf Course, makes for a compelling site to test the Hmongness as landback principle. The speculation proposes incrementally repurposing the existing irrigation system to cultivate a green space and communal garden.

Activation of the site would be led by neighboring communities to define their needs and decide collectively how the land should be cared for and used, one fairway at a time.

This proposal speculates how designers can decommission systems of colonization in order to leverage spatial resources beyond what is available at the consumer level.

GARDEN BED PLACEMENT

Net-Positive Studio

Malini Srivistava, DDes, NOMA, AIA

Christine Albertson, AIA, CID, NCARB

02 CIMBY

Learning from informal, incremental, and seemingly incomplete solutions for affordable housing in the Global South, this studio focused on defining and designing “shelter” and attributes such as comfort and safety for houseless populations in the cold Minnesota climate.

The program included creating spaces that address safety, comfort, defense, mobility, belonging, ownership, and portability.

Project collaborator: Karianna Larson

Comparing the footprint an informal shelter to my studio apartment, the concept of abundance led to the research of local mutual aid networks. The aim of the architectural inqiuiry was to conceive design solutions at the intersection of houselessness, the social implications of Not in My Backyard Syndrome (NIMBY-ism), and the waste space within residential property zoning.

These proposal not only creates a solution for protection against state-sanctioned eviction, but also offers a variety of shelter types for occupants to have agency in housing type choice.

studies on informal shelters built out of waste materials and donations

Organizers chefs policy makers

MUTUAL NETWORK activists allies crowd sourcing platforms google communication platforms social supply organizer/ runners security educators organizers organizers

Graphic visualizing mutual aid network based on case studies in Twin

Fixed: Houses

Infrastructure, connection to grid, utilities, internet, physical address

Transformable: Waste Space

Existing utilities, sheds, garages, “green” space, tree space, recycled materials

Transportable:

Informal shelters, mutual aid, services

The project scope involved the adaptive use of a Zone 5 residential block in Near North, Minneapolis. The transformation of a dreary alleyway becomes a vibrant micro village made of affordable middle housing types supported by localized mutual aid resources.

CIMBY : Community in My Backyard

Exisiting Zoning Codes

Proposed Change to Zoning Codes

Accessory Dwelling Units

Legalize up to two secondary dwellings per lot.

Detached Single Family

Based on floor area ratio allowed on a typical 45’ x 120’ lot in R-5 Multiple Family District.

Micro-Shelter Hostels

Axonometric diagram of backyard CIMBY village made up of “missing middle” housing types.

Tiny shelters with plug in capacity for micro-shelters, providing access to

amenities including heat,

Micro-Shelter Clusters

Legalize micro-shelter clusters. A group of plug in stations for micro-shelters arranged around a shared court on empty block parcels.

Land Subdivision

Allow minor land subdivisions and provide public improvement for safe and e icient alley circulation.

Fourplex Stacked 2-2.5 story, detached structure with four dwelling units, two on the ground and two above, with shared or individual entries from the street.

Stacked detached strucconsists of two each with an street.

Sections of proposed Micro-Shelters Clusters: Bike Shelter (Karianna Larson), Ground Heated Lean-To Shelter, and Micro-Hostel (Karianna Larson)

The cimby app was designed to consolidate our studio wide design solutions. It also included mutual aid services in the city such as The Peoples Laundry. Users of the app include folks who are seeking mutual aid services as well as volunteers and allies who have services to offer. For users who don’t have access to a mobile smart phone, public kiosks would be available at mutual aid service locations.

app co-designed by Karianna Larson

Dispensary & Co-Working Space in Howe Neighborhood, Minneapolis

Gayla Lindt Chris Wingate, AIA, LEED AP, CPHC

The Farmacy

This studio brief focused on how conceptual explorations become materialized as architecture. Given a specific site, the project’s conceptual direction began with the study of a water retention area on the north corner of the triangle block. Studying the above and below ground conditions inspired the project’s sensitivity to the mediation between differing conditions.

This project considers mediation in three ways. Light as mediation between planes. Screen as regulator between the different datums and zoning conditions that intersect at the unique site. Void as connection between programs which include a dispensary, cafe, and co-working space.

The project also begins to ask: could architecture be a precondition for the societal mediation of recreational marijuana?

Top: SE elevation, NW elevation, and Long

view. Bottom: Rendering of Dispensary area where consultaion services are offered and a drying room displays production of herbs.

LOCKER ROOM

OBSERVATION

MOTHER PLANTS

TRIMMING & DRYING

GROWING

HYBRID

DISPENSARY LOBBY

SHOW ROOM

CAFE & FOCUS WORK

KITCHEN

Section Persective with furnishings and water retention area on site.

Section model of building with day and night speculations..

Set and Props Design and Fabrication

Ananya Dance Theatre, 2023

The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University

Michhil Amra: We Are the Procession

Artistic Director/Choreographer: Ananya Chatterjea

Stage Director: Marcus Young

Composer/Sound Designer: Greg Schutte

Costume Designer: Annie Cady

Scenic Designer: Laichee Yang

Video Designer: Darren Johnson

Lighting Designer: Kevin Jones

Live Music Artists: Douglas Ewart, Michelle Kinney, & Tarek Abdelquader

Live Artists: Douglas Kearney & Ananya Dance Theatre Dancers

“Laichee Yang’s colorful set evoked the painted boards in the Twin Cities during the civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd...One of the questions that arose during the turbulence of 2020 was what role the arts played in shaping future narratives. The answer came up repeatedly during Michhil Amra.”

— Sheila Regan, Star Tribune, September 25, 2023

Props designed for public processions then re-purposed for on stage performance to emphasize accumulation qualities of protest. Photos

courtesy of ADT.

Photo by Paochoua Vang

Photo by Erika Sanders

Photo by Erika Sanders

Top: Collage of 3 acts. Bottom: Section perspective hybrid drawing of act two.

The scenic world of Michhil Amra reflects on the various ways in which BIPoC communities, both near and far, mark, hold, and protect shared space. The objects, layers, and seating arrangements are intentionally designed to challenge the proscenium stage.

While these elements serve as agents of disruption, great care has been taken in their installation to honor the impermanent assemblages, and the personal and collective experiences they embody, that are inevitably lost in the sweep. The collective work of Michhil Amra transformed the theater into a site of preparation for a revolution, sustained by the brilliance and power of grassroots organizing, radical love, and the embodiment of together.

https://www.ananyadancetheatre.org/dance/michhil-amra-weare-the-procession/

28, MOSCOW, TN • ROBERT COLEMAN, 88, WEST SACRAMENTO, CA

CHARLES ERIC MOSES JR., 33, BRUNSWICK,

Act One Opening. Video Still. Recording by Darren Johnson

HURD, 54, CHARLESTON, SC

• DEPAYNE MIDDLETON-DOCTOR, 49, CHARLESTON, SC

• SHARONDA COLEMAN-SINGLETON, 45, CHARLESTON, SC

• CLEMENTA PINCKNEY, 41, CHARLESTON, SC

• TYWANZA SANDERS, 26, CHARLESTON, SC • KALIEF BROWDER, 22, THE BRONX, NY

• FREDDIE GRAY, 25, BALTIMORE, MD

• NORMAN COOPER, 22, SAN ANTONIO, TX

• WALTER SCOTT, 50, NORTH CHARLESTON, SC

• JAMAR CLARK, 24, MINNEAPOLIS, MN

• ERIC HARRIS, 44, TULSA, OK

• MEAGAN HOCKADAY, 26, OXNARD, CA

• RUMAIN BRISBONM 34, PHOENIX, AZ

• 2014

• NATASHA MCKENNA, 37, ALEXANDRIA, VA

• TAMIR RICE, 12, CLEVELAND, OH

• AKAI GURLEY, 28, BROOKLYN, NY

• CAMERON TILLMAN, 14, HOUMA,

• LAQUAN MCDONALD, 17, CHICAGO, IL

• TANISHA ANDERSON, 37, CLEVELAND, OH

Family Owned Eatery in South St. Paul | 2018 - 19

Schematic Design, Design Development, Brand Design

AOR: Caulfield Architectural Design



Basil & Sprout

The project is an interior fit out for a family restaurant in a former custom embroidery shop. The space is to be equipped with a commercial kitchen, storage, and dining area for a full service eatery.

The work included careful documentation of the existing spatial conditions and coordination with a structural engineer and various contractors to avoid set backs during construction.

As lead designer and co-representative for the client, I managed day-today project operations from initial programming, architect and contractor coordination, while also creating a brand that carefully encapsulates the stories of the people and food.

INTERIOR DESIGN NOTES:

Lighting: Semi-direct pendants made of fish catching baskets from Sa Pa, Vietnam

Surface Finishes: Blend of whites in varying material and degree of reflection

  

Vegetation: Plentiful indoor plants

Exterior: Logo signage Gooseneck lights

Furniture: Long tables for family dining Hightops & stools for solo-dining

Elements of home: Melamime dinnerware & framed photos of homeland

651.734.3301 mni sota makoce

laicheeyang@gmail.com withnuance.co