Yin Menghua | NUS M.Arch | 2021-22

ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO

YIN MENGHUA M AY | 2 0 2 2 SELECTED WORKS

|

N U S B . A . ( A rc h ) & M . A rc h

|

2017-2022

Selected Projects 01 The Garden of Encounter A landscape of intimacy, connection and romance in the city of Beijing 02 The Landscape of Impossibility A set of design propositions that engage with imagination and surrealism to transform a harsh landscape in Inner Mongolia, China 03 The Ecology of Leaks Aberrant public infrastructures to provide basic services to the homeless population in Los Angeles

For the best viewing experience, please select “two page view” in the pdf reader.

Thank you.

The Garden of Encounter A Landscape of Intimacy, Connection and Romance in the City of Beijing Thesis Advisor: Prof Cheah Kok Ming Individual Work Duration: 13 Weeks Abstract Urban matchmaking markets and the cultural moniker of “leftover women” reveal a peculiar marriage pressure faced by young women in China today, which is rooted in both political causes and Chinese cultural backgrounds.

Addressing a women’s lack of autonomy towards love and critiquing the utilitarian attitude towards marriage, the project explores the role of architecture in creating settings for genuine and intimate encounters in the city of Beijing. Sited at major subway stations in Beijing, the project examines the overlooked events and encounters of the commute and re-imagines daily transit routines into opportunities for romantic encounters. While Beijing’s ground urban environment is designed for efficiency and traffic, not allowing rooms for romance, I envision a new typology of a garden in the air above existing subway stations. Inspired by tactics of garden design in traditional Chinese literati gardens, the project aims to create moments of intimacy, connection and romance within an undesirable urban context.

Keywords: Encounter, Romance, Intimacy, Constructed Landscape

Matrimonial Advertisements in Beijing’s Match-Making Corners

Site Map Beijing’s Major Subway Interchanges

Urban Elevation

+ 280.0m

A Graphic Novel

The Journey of a woman as one day she visits the garden

It was just a day like any other...

We chatted for two nights.

He’is unusual.

And I sent out an invitation.

Maybe tomorrow, we could meet up after work?

It was just a day like any other working in the office. Her phone rang, and she received a message from the virtual app the “moon folk”, named after “the old man under the moon”, the traditional Chinese god of love. The moon folk is a cloud database where singletons sign up for a membership for connections and entry to the garden of encounter.

Bing--

She received a profile. Pondering for a moment, she sent out a friend request, a priviledged function that only the women can exert in this system.

“Though tomorrow is a windy day, it must be cold up there.” She clicked into the Garden of Encounter online accessory shop, and bought herself a red scarf.

She took the helium lantern lift up to the garden.

She walked along the path and bumped into a symphony of wind. She paused, sat down, and waited for her date.

“It would be nice to know someone in the sound of Beijing’s wind” She thought.

Here he came.

They talked and walked along the path, encountering spectacles of the moon, the pavilion and nightsky, and decided to take a ride to enjoy the city views.

Yet along the ride she started to feel a little uneasy. Somehow he was not an interesting company to talk to.

The subway became an easy excuse.

“Sorry, but I would have to catch the next train”

She walked back to the lantern lift.

The lantern, offering the hope for an exploration, is also the portal to an exit, giving her the choice to reject and to leave.

It was not a successful date.

She let the red scarf fly away as she descended. Back to the station, she walked past the shrine again. She lighted up a nother incense, hoping for the best for her next date.

THE LANDSCAPE OF IMPOSSIBILITY Kindness is the belief in the impossible in times of darkness.

Project Keywords: Imagination, Impossibility, Hope Tutor: CJ Lim TA: Edmund Tan Individual project Duration: 13 weeks

CRITICAL THINKING In Tim Burton’s film Big Fish, the father turns every incident of his life into a fantastic adventure. While the skeptic son investigates into these extravagant myths, he eventually comes to understand the genuineness and power of father’s fantasies. By the end of his life, the father turns into a big fish. Inspired by the film, I derived my definition of kindness - that kindness is the belief in the impossible in times of darkness. The building project then starts from the critique on how our current built environment is designed based on practicality and rules of capitalism. My project envisions a way of designing that goes against the grain of science and logic, using imagination to build spaces for hope and healing.

PROJECT SYNOPSIS Context The Chinese countryside is the cradle of stories, legends, and the Chinese civilization. But the environmental deterioration and the rapid economic development in cities are killing the countryside. The site is in one of the most threatened rural communities in north-western China, an inner Mongolian tribe, called the Alxa League. People of the Alxa League lives on the edge of china’s fastest growing desert - the Tengger Desert - one of the most arid and inhospitable land for human inhabitation.

Protagonist The destructive forces of sand, sunlight and wind are the main protagonists, together with Altandol, a 12-year-old Mongolian girl whose family’s livelihood are threatened by the deteriorating climate. Reminiscent of the nomadic lifestyle, Altandol leads a travelling circus into the landscape. Through “acts of impossibilities” – combining the most advanced technologies with the most long-lived traditions – she tries to continue the story for the dying storyteller.

Site Context: Merging Deserts

Resettling the Ecological Refugees

Failure of the Great Green Wall

Disappearing Nomads

A C T S TURNING SAND INTO SOIL

O F

HARVESTING ICE FROM SKY

I M P O S S I B I L I T I E S BREATHING LIFE INTO THE DESERT

TURNING PLANTS INTO GOLD

CREATING FUN IN THE SHADOWS

TRANSFORMING DESERT INTO OASIS

THE TRAVELLING CIRCUS ELEVATION 2

1 2

1

3

5

4 5 6 7

4

The Alchemist: Soil-Making Station The Floating Ice Cube: Water Harvesting Station The Floating Ice Forest (on Ground): Water Harvesting Station with Stone Well The Bloom: Seeding Device The Glider: Carrier / Flying Market Sheep Farm

3 6

7

THE TRAVELLING CIRCUS PLAN

1

5

4

2 7 7

3

THE TRAVELLING CIRCUS MASTERPLAN

Market Route

Landscape Legend

- ACT 1 “TURNING SAND INTO SOIL”

The leading character of the circus is the alchemist, a walking fish, a symbol of impossibility in the barren desert. The alchemist spreads paste made of plant cellulose to bind sand particles together and turn them into soil. it travels on sandboard and is led into the barren desert by flocks of sheep. As it walks, it leaves a trail of fish-shaped prints of fertile land, as if creating a river.

MIXING STATION

R WATE

DRIED

BRAN

PASTE

CHES

SALT CHIPPING NEW SOIL

- ACT 1 “TURNING SAND INTO SOIL”

The legs of the alchemist are the drying racks for the pruned branches. Everyday my family and I will take the fish lift to hang the newly harvested branches and collected the dried ones for chipping. The fish lift will take me to the paste-making workshop on the top level, where we mix and create the cellulose paste to spread into the ground.

JOINERY DETAIL Inspiration Anglepoise Lamp Joinery

Fixed point Centre of rotation Direction of forces Direction of forces extended Stretching of spring Direction of movement

Joints of Alchemist’s legs leverage on the spring mechanism to maintain stability. Tension of the adjacent spring ensures that the joint will not collapse when bent under the weight of the top structure.

- ACT 2 “HARVESTING ICE FROM SKY”

When the groundwork is laid, water stations are placed around the route which extracts icy water from the sky for drinking and agriculture. The floating ice forest in the desert – another scene of impossibility. The floating ice cubes are solar kites that utilize both solar energy and wind energy to cool down its surface and condense water from desert air. Harvested water is channelled into the stone well via the snowflake funnels. The stone wells, are like the stone temple that we often go to pray for rain. Now it becomes a real water station! Isn’t it magical?

- ACT 3 “BREATHING LIFE INO THE DESERT”

Farming in huge barren deserts might be laborious and daunting. In this act, farming is turned into game. The bloom, a symbol of growth and a device for seeding will be carried by eagle-like gliders to spread the seeds. Instead of digging in the ground with a spade, we use our skill of archery to farm. Bags of seeds are thrown out from the top platform, the archers will then shoot their arrows and the seed bag explodes to spread seeds onto the land. The bloom brings back our long-lost hunting traditions and transforms them into new rituals of growth.

- ACT 4 “TURNING PLANTS INTO GOLD”

In the season of harvest, the circus will become a market in a most unlikely form. The flying market travels a different route from the alchemist’s, connecting the existing villages in the desert. Harvested produce are carried by gliders and the sheep on the ground, enticed by the hanging fruits and vegetable, gather under the glider wing to form spaces. As the produce are sold out, the sheep walk away and the market disappears.

W

- ACT 4 “TURNING PLANTS INTO GOLD”

The bamboo frames of the glider wing shifts up and down so it can stand on the ground and form clusters of market stalls. The huge shadows casted by the glider wings and the flocks of sheep gathering around define a shaded and warm space. The flying market, with a dreamlike transient quality, provides a space to re-connect the people and re-build the communities.

THE FLYING MARKET Turning Plants into Gold

MONGOLIAN HERDING PRACTICE

HERB DRYING

LOCAL HERBS

Sea Buckthorn

Cistanche

Cynomorium

Licorice

- ACT 5 “CREATING FUN IN THE SHADOWS”

SCENE 1 BOTANY CLASS

In august each year, to celebrate harvest, the circus turns into a green palace, using its shadows to create spaces for different activities. Each morning from 9 to 10am, a botany class is held for my friends to study the cellulose paste and planting techniques. The bloom sits in the long shadow casted by the alchemist, and becomes the classroom. Sheep gather in the shadowed area to form a warm enclosure for the children.

- ACT 5 “CREATING FUN IN THE SHADOWS”

SCENE 2 SHARTAR CHESS GAME

At 12pm, when the noon time sun casts shadow of the workshop grid onto the ground, we use it as a giant chessboard. We make sand chess pieces using the paste and play Mongolian Shartar chess together. Next year when we tour back, these chesspieces will become huge green topiary! I can’t wait to see it!

- ACT 5 “CREATING FUN IN THE SHADOWS”

SCENE 3 WRESTLING CONTEST

At 2pm, the weather becomes unbearably hot, the alchemist sits down and the salt water pouch turns into giant cooling beds.

What a perfect stage for a wrestling competition! We love to watch the game from the fish lifts and cheer for the wrestlers.

- ACT 5 “CREATING FUN IN THE SHADOWS”

SCENE 4 HORSE RACING

At 7pm, the setting sun stretches the shadow of the alchemist into a horse racing track. The alchemist itself becomes the starting gate of the race. The riders compete with each other to chase the end of the shadow. The green palace, using shadows, sheep, and imagination, brings people together and creates new rituals of celebration.

- ACT 6 “TURNING DESERT INTO OASIS”

Throughout the year, plants start to grow out from the fish prints on the ground and the paste-made chess pieces. The sheep take over the farmer’s job for crop thinning and pruning. As the travelling circus tours around the land year after year, it leaves behind trails of greenery and slowly revives the land.

- ACT 6 “TURNING DESERT INTO OASIS”

The barren desert is gradually transformed into a landscape of lush vegetation. A landscape of impossibilities.

ACCIDENTAL NATURE

THE ECOLOGY OF LEAKS

Provision of Basic Services through Aberrant Public Infrastructures Tutor: Jimenez Lai Pair Work Duration: 13 weeks

ACCIDENTAL NATURE

ACCIDENTAL ACCIDENTAL NATURE NATURE

Critical Thinking In the city of LA, blue and green are forms of ‘symbolic infrastructures’ that help to construct an illusory image of wealth, warmth and power. With limited access, they are installations that generate land revenue and please the eyes of the privileged urban dwellers.

The project is a critique of the blue and green movement in downtown LA. Inspired by the daily routines of the unsheltered population in Skid Row district, we propose an alternative intrepretation of blue and green infrastructures in the city. In Skid Row, the spillage of water from fire hydrants and ground drainage become spots of enjoyment and consumption. Overgrown shrubs and tree planters are used as front yards and gardens. Leaks from the blue and green make up their day as an unconventional LA citizen.

1

1

1

We explore the concept of leak formally and metaphorically. What if public infrastructures create leaks of basic services for the unsheltered? Can blue and green provide an opportunity to address the homeless issue in LA? As symbolisms, how do they represent the alternative narrative in Skid Row and act as climates and infrastructures of care?

Project Synopsis

2

2

3

The percent for art policy, in which 1% of the development cost in certain types of buildings in the State is required to be dedicated to public art, is used as the financial provision basis to support the infrastructures in this project. The sites chosen to exercise the policy and to install the infrastructures are chosen at the older concrete buildings that need to be retrofitted. Four types of aberrant infrastructures are proposed - the Tree of Light, the Fountain of Music, the Ideal Lawn and the Swim Party - to offer immediate services for the unsheltered in Skid Row. 2

3

3

4

4

2

4

3

A Day as an Unconventional LA Citizen in Skid Row

The Ecology of Leaks

Reference Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies / Reyner Banham Ecology I - Surfurbia

The Beach - Equality The beach is the only place in Los Angeles where all men are equal and on common ground. The culture of the beach is a symbolic rejection of the values of the consumer society, a place where a man needs to own only what he stands up in - usually a pair of frayed shorts and sun-glasses.

Ecology II - Foothills

The Foothill - Privacy The foothill ecology is all about: narrow, tortuous residential roads serving precipitous house-plots that often back up directly on unimproved wilderness even now; an air of deeply buried privacy.

Ecology III - The Plains of Id

The Flatland - Aspiration An endless plain endlessly gridded with endless streets, peppered endlessly with tickytacky houses, slashed across by endless freeways. These central flatlands are where the crudest urban lusts and most fundamental aspirations are created, manipulated and, with luck, satisfied.

5th Street - Stanford Ave Noon

Ecology IV - Autopia

The Freeway - Negotiation The three, four, or five lanes of an Angeleno freeway are virtually equal. The movement of the very large flow of traffic is maintained with every driver’s approved mixture of enlightened self-interest and public spirit.

Ecology V - Leaks

Leaks - Tolerance Leaks, in both a physical and metaphorical manner, represent the tolerance of diverse lifestyles and value systems of the city. Through leakages and cracks, crises can be dealt with and resilience is celebrated.

5th Street - San Julian Street

5th Street - Stanford Avenue

or ect nd or ct d

Percent for Art Policy

Sites of Retrofit Buildings

Percent for art, also known as the “Private Arts Development Fee Program”, is a city ordinance, where a fee, usually 1% of the project cost, is placed on large scale development projects in order to fund and install public artworks.

Types Buildings & Respective Fee Calculation Under to the Act The of policy is offers the financial provision basis support the infrastructures in this project.

Types of Buildings & Respective Fee Calculation Under the Act

Types of Buildings & Respective Fee Calculation Under the Act

y’s

’s

h as

as

Office

Retail

Manufacturing

$1.57 /sqf

$1.31 /sqf

$0.51 /sqf

Office

Retail

Manufacturing

$1.57 /sqf

$1.31 /sqf

$0.51 /sqf

City

ity

Warehouse

Hotel

$0.39 /sqf

$0.52 /sqf

Warehouse

Hotel

$0.39 $0.52 Program for in LA /sqfRetrofit Buildings /sqf

otel

tel

Scientists used public records, maps and street surveys to compile a list of nearly 1,500 concrete buildings constructed before 1976 in Los Angeles. The list serves as a guide for buildings that require retrofitting.

117 E 5TH ST 311 BOYD ST 331 E 4TH ST 413 WALL ST 434 S SAN PEDRO ST 518 S MAIN ST 525 S SAN PEDRO ST 529 MAPLE AVE 609 E 5TH ST 301 BOYD ST 301 E 4TH ST

Hotel Commercial Commercial Industrial Commercial Commercial Commercial Warehouse Hotel Industrial Industrial

306 W 3RD ST 310 BOYD ST 311 BOYD ST 313 S SAN PEDRO ST 331 S LOS ANGELES ST 415 S SAN PEDRO ST 420 BOYD ST 420 BOYD ST 435 S SAN PEDRO ST 448 S HILL ST 455 E 3RD ST

Office Warehouse Industrial Commercial Office Industrial Office Office Industrial Office Hotel

531 S LOS ANGELES ST 538 S SAN PEDRO ST 544 S LOS ANGELES ST 560 S MAIN ST 808 E 3RD ST 810 E 3RD ST 825 E 4TH ST 912 E 3RD ST 939 E 4TH ST 947 E 4TH ST 963 E 4TH ST

Industrial Industrial Warehouse Office Residential Residential Industrial Commercial Warehouse Warehouse Warehouse

Commercial Industrial

Fragments of “Home” in Skid Row Ecology of Leaks Fragments of leaks make up a home

Reference

Parc de La Villette - the “largest discontinuous building in the world”

Site Map

Sites of Installation - The In-between of Public and Private

Hotel Lobby

Billboard

Shopfront

Building Facade

THE ECOLOGY OF LEAKS

The Tree of Light

The Fountain of Music

The Ideal Lawn

The Swim Party

The Swim Party