Lydia Xia | Fall 2022 Selected Works | University of Waterloo School of Architecture

Lydia Xia

2022 Selected Works

Lydia Xia Email: lydiaxia@outlook.com Cell: 647 633 7108

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EDUCATION

Sept. 2020 - Sept. 2025

University of Waterloo Candidate for Honours Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Co-op Excellent Academic Standing Academic Average above 80% Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Fall 2022

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE Research Assistant University of Waterloo

Sept 2021 - April 2022

June 2021 - Jan 2022

• Conceptualized multiple schematic designs for interactive and kinetic art installations • Researched Arduino robotics, exploring the intersections between architecture, visual art and technology • Collaborated in a small team of designers to curate a successful design proposal and fabricate the installation for the 2022 DesignTO festival Dec 2016 - June 2020 Lead Designer and Editor Turner Fenton SS Yearbook Committee

• Led teams of student reporters, photographers, and illustrators, working continuously towards designing and producing the school yearbook English and Math Tutor Educatus

Rhino 7 Enscape Lumion Grasshopper Kangaroo Revit

AutoCAD 3D Printing Laser Cutting CNC Model Making Hand Drafting

Adobe Creative Suite Microsoft Office Suite Autodesk Recap G2 Class Driver’s License

DISTINCTIONS

• Researching, organizing, and documenting material related to the Barnett and Rieder Archive, rigorously producing a detailed database • Working alongside faculty researcher to investigate the tradition of industrial building, post-war expansion, buildings for education, the current construction boom and studies related to the future of the Kitchener-Waterloo Region Designer F_RMlab

SKILLS

First in Class Engineering Scholarship Highest Academic Standing University of Waterloo - Winter 2021 Honourable Mention Awarded to top ten entries 2021 Canadian Off-site Construction Student Design Competition - July 2021 Honourable Mention Outstanding Work in Design Studio 1B - Winter 2021 Highest Academic Standing in 1A - Fall 2020 Outstanding Work in Design Studio 1A University of Waterloo - Fall 2020 Dean’s Honours List University of Waterloo - Fall 2020, Winter 2021 President’s Scholarship of Distinction University of Waterloo - Admission Average of 95%+

INTERESTS Illustration, Recreational Bouldering, Ceramics

Gold Award Figure Skater

(Skate Canada Highest Level of Testing Achievement)

Aug 2019 - Mar 2020

• Prepared lesson plans, taught, and supervised students at all grade levels in extracurricular math and English classes 3

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Contents Mural Nomads 6 Adaptive Densities 16 Catalogue 20 Transition 26 [dys]order 32 (murmur) 40

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Mural Nomads // 2021

Mural Nomads Library

Design a small community library with additional public programming.

Consider providing new urban resources geared towards under served communities & residents living in confined quarters.

Academic // ARCH 193 Supervised by Cameron Parkin Toronto, Canada

Recipient of Honourable Mention for Outstanding Design Work in 193 Design Studio

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Mural Nomads is a library + textile studio located in Toronto’s The Island neighbourhood.

Adjacent to many community spaces and the historical Foundry buildings, this library seeks to act as both a gateway between these public areas, and a centre for artistic production.

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Mural Nomads // 2021

The library engages the site from all directions, with an axial circulation structure. It uses a simple grid organization to create an open and flexible interior. This structure is defined by a heavy timber post and beam structural system, constructing a scaffold to host textile experimentations.

north elevation

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lauren harris square underpass park

corktown commons

dominion foundry complex front st. promenade

canary commons parks and green space residential educational & community

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Mural Nomads // 2021

cotton voile - lightweight - transparent

enclosure

velour - sound insulating - plush texture

PVC - durable - resistant to climate

wayfinding

ENCLOSURE: closed meeting room, small workshop, admin meetings WAYFINDING

ENCLOSURE: open

ENCLOSURE: open

ENCLOSURE: open

ENCLOSURE: open

WAYFINDING

WAYFINDING

WAYFINDING

WAYFINDING

PARTITION: classroom

PARTITION: large workshop

PARTITION: separate exhibition

The library explores the ephemerality and craft of fibre arts as an architectural driver, investigating their atmospheric potentials. The building encourages it’s users to interact and build connections with materiality to facilitate a multisensorial learning environment and a sense of agency over one’s space.

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ground floor plan

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Mural Nomads // 2021

cotton yarn - durable - strong in tension

deconstructed

linen - breathable - transparent

tent

lycra - elastic - durable

canopy

see enclosure material

partition

flexible open exhibition precedents

conexidade installation / Estúdio Chão

steel curtains / daniel steegmann

takino rainbow nest / toshiko horiuchi macadam

penelopiad / lighting & kinglyface

textile/fibre artists in toronto

Kinngait Studios

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in suspended silence / xiaojing yan

neon bloom / amanda mccavour

frosted / jesse harrod

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Mural Nomads // 2021

Sawtooth roof brings light into intimate studio spaces and double height atrium

Connection between indoor and outdoor exhibition space, second floor fly tower structure.

Public, flexible programming pushed in, second floor private space cantilevered outwards, creating shelter and absorbing street life into the library

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[dys]order // 2022

[dys]order Museum

Design a museum that includes two separate halls that bring out contrasting emotions - one inducing negative emotions, and the other inducing positive emotions

Competition // Museum of Emotions In Collaboration with Jenny Chen and Aaron Wong Washington, D.C, United States Skills Rhino 7 Adobe Illustrator Adobe Photoshop Lumion Adobe Indesign

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A museum that hosts architectural experimentations and moments themselves as the work of an exhibition. The 2 halls explore Chaos and Calm as architectural drivers. The design questions architectural organizations, geometries, and ideas of order and disorder through a sociopolitical lens. What does a calm space afford us?

What does a chaotic space take from us? Can architecture truly be driven by chaos or is that notion contradictory? Is there an intersection of order and disorder, calm and chaos. Can one be found in the other? The spaces use light, circulation, viewpoints, planes of a wall, floor, and thresholds to manifest both emotions in tectonic experiences.

Light Filtraton

Organized Linear Geometries

A Choice of Space

The Garden

The Bathhouse

The Church

Neutral Reception Circulation

A Confrontation

Planes of a Wall

Landscaped Terrace Ground Surfaces

Colonnade Labyrinth

Invisible Thresholds

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[dys]order // 2022

exterior view from across Potomac River

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upper floor plan

ground floor plan

lower floor plan

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[dys]order // 2022

stack halls

fragment geometry

1. Lincoln Memorial 2. Signers’ Memorial 3. John Paul Jones Memorial 4. Vietnam Veterans Memorial 5. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial 6. Washington Monument 7. Korean War Veterans Memorial

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lift verticies

add intermediary

8. Albert Einstein Memorial 9. US Navy Memorial Plaza 10. General Jose de San Martin Memorial 11. World War ll Memorial 12. Navy - Merchant Marine Memorial 13. George Mason Memorial 14. Thomas Jefferson Memorial

The Bathhouse How does randomized light filtration create calm?

In what forms does water create calm or chaos?

The Church How does visibility and impermanence create calm or chaos?

Do programmatic ideologies impact the accessibility of a space?

Planes of a Wall How can architecture choreograph the movement of the body?

A Confrontation How does an entrance communicate power, or a lack of power?

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[dys]order // 2022

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Adaptive Densities // 2021

Adaptive Densities Highrise Residential Adaptive Reuse

Design the adaptive reuse of a typical post-Second World War highdensity tower. Provide suitable units that reflect the conditions in which we live and work today, and improve the environmental performance of the building envelope.

The reuse of 53 Water St. explores modern ideas of co-housing and co-living, using Schemata workshop’s research of existing co-housing developments, extracting programmatic ideals from themes in Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language. This project asks how can architecture be integral in the creation of microcommunities and economies?

How can we revitalize obsolete plans and assemblies?

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Academic // ARCH 292 Supervised by Rick Haldenby Kitchener, Canada

Skills Rhino 7 Adobe Illustrator

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Adaptive Densities // 2021

second floor plan

ground floor plan

section aa

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Reusing the shear walls, this project questions the rigidity of existing formal organizations and shifts the massing/void structure according to programmatic requirements.

section bb

section cc

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Catalogue // 2021

Catalogue Prefabrication

Design an occupiable building that is intended to be fully or partially fabricated at another location. Present a plan for off-site construction and on-site assembly.

Competition Entry // Canadian Off-site Construction Student Design Competition In Collaboration with Jenny Chen and David Li Edmonton, Canada

Recipient of Honourable Mention Panelist at the 2021 Canadian OSC Student Design Competition Presentation

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A selection of preprogrammed prefabricated wall panels form a 6m x 6m room which expands into a larger school extension.

The layout of these units are adaptable to serve the needs and geometries of existing schools

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Catalogue // 2021

PRIVACY sliding glass door, furniture, group, partition PRESENTATION blank, multi-use, display, teach, learn, practice, WASHROOM hygiene, private, barrierfree, ENTRANCE open, closed, access, announcement

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SIT + STORE rest, occupy, storage, view, space, pass CANOPY GARAGE in/out, ventilation, environment, discover, light, shade, enter/exit GROUP common, collaborate, loud, joining, friction, listen, speak, discover, table, seat, stair

FACADE enclose, protect, view, wood siding ROOF light, sawtooth, clerestory, diffuse, unify, attach LAB equipment, science, art, exploration, storage, sink OPERABLE flexible, separate, threshold, autonomy, care, community

Lillian Osbourne High school Edmonton, AB

Climate

Temperate, sunny summers

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Cold, dark winters

Low humidity Rain, Snow

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classroom study/lounge hallway washroom stairwell existing school building

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ground floor plan

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second floor plan

section aa 33

Catalogue // 2021

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Transition // 2020

Transition House

Design one residence to house three youth aged 16-24, broadly defined as a student residence or a youth shelter. Accommodate for common goals of dignity, security, spatial and tectonic exuberance.

Academic // ARCH 192 Supervised by Fiona Lim Tung Cambridge, Canada Skills Rhino 7 Adobe Illustrator Adobe Photoshop

Recipient of Outstanding Design Work in 192 Design Studio

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Transition is a youth shelter that seeks to respond to the needs of youth in high risk situations.

Beginning to examine traumainformed design, this transitional home aims to provide the opportunity for youth to recover in a safe space

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Transition // 2020

ground floor plan

section aa

site section bb

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second floor plan

third floor plan

section bb

connection to others connection to site

The screening strategies on the west wall of the house, gives privacy to the residents, while maintaining views outwards.

A permeable threshold is created.

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Transition // 2020

The conditions this house creates allows for the simultaneous and natural unfolding of stories of friction inwards and outwards.

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(murmur) // 2022

(murmur) window installation

Murmurs are soft indistinct sounds made by groups to communicate while also being discreet.

Built // DesignTO 2022 F_RMlab Toronto, Canada

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‘(murmur)’ is inspired by the subtle methods of calls and responses between organisms both biotic and manmade. It borrows from forms and movements found in nature, from the fluttering of petals to the expansion and contraction of marine organisms floating in the deep sea. Like a beacon in abyssal darkness, the creatures signal each other with blinks of luminescence as if communicating in morse as they slowly drift up and down in an entropic trance. In the long cold winter nights, the installation acts akin to a lighthouse calling sailors home, beckoning the people passing by to enter, placing the store as the ‘Port Haven’ of a community collective. As people come closer to the installation, ‘(murmur)’ begins to murmur, the collective begins to become active and alive, agitated from the presence of a foreign entity. In this way ‘(murmur)’ becomes a measure of life in the store, drawing energy and spirit from its curious viewers and projecting it out into the city.

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view from inside the clay space

views from street

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Thank you Lydia Xia

lydiaxia@outlook.com 647 633 7108