STORM
Fall 2023
Critic:BarryWark_ARCH701
Location:NavileCanalinBologna,IT
Team:YingChen,SiyuGao
A new form of civic space that integrates the use of biodegradable, printed sand, designed to accelerate the effects of weathering and environmental enmeshment in the built environment. Usually, these effects happen slowly relative to human perception and are, therefore, rarely appreciated. Designing these effects to happen more quickly might in terms, allow the building inhabitants to more frequently thinking about the interconnectedness of our building with their environment and broader ideas of ecology.
Creating ‘permanent’ brick structural walls that host panels, capping stones, and areas of 3d printed stone. These areas are slopped to create slow water run-off so that it neither pools nor flows too quickly down. It traps seeds in its many ridges blown by the prevailing wind to create non-determinate plant growth.
These printed areas are to the north of the building. This is so the vegetation does not burn in the sun, nor does any water evaporate too quickly.
It begins to imagine how we might integrate biomaterials into our built environment, imagining them as degrading and being replaced.
It creates new biospatial conditions where, through accelerating weathering, we make these effects visible to humans, creating potential moments of consciousness of ecological thought
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■ Prototype Testing
3d printed Sand
■ Prototype Expression
Crossing
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Linear drip
Spatial
structured
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■ Before Wheathering
■ After Wheathering
PERMANENT STRUCUTRE
HIERACHY DIVIDE
FORM GENARATION
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WEATHERING IMPACT
T hese printed areas are to the north of the building. This is so the vegetation does not burn in the sun, nor does any water evaporate too quickly.
The brick is arranged to create high walls to the south to create solar shading across the site.
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■ South Elevation
■ North Elevation
It begins to imagine how we might integrate biomaterials into our built
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built environment, imagining them as degrading and being replaced.
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NEW THEATER
Spring2023
Critic:BrianDeLuna_ARCH602
Location:TheaterDistrictalongBroadway, Midtown Manhattan,NY
Team:LaurelLi,SiyuGao
Individualpart:allthedigitalworkinclude renderings,plan,sectionandpartofthephysicalmodel
The "New Theater" design, inspired by the film "Birdman", seeks to embrace the complex dynamism and authenticity of theatrical arts. A pivotal element of our vision is the use of glass tubes with mass timbers CLT as a primary building material. This choice reflects the project's themes of transparency, interconnectedness, and multifaceted experiences.
The glass tubes, akin to the continuous, meandering circulation in the theater, serve as a visual and spatial conduit, connecting spaces and people, while revealing the theater's inner workings to the city. Like the camera in "Birdman", these transparent structures invite public engagement, offering glimpses into the theater's off-stage activities and the intricacies of performance creation. The inherent fluidity of the glass tube design also facilitates the seamless integration of public and private spaces, resonating with the project's objective of exploring new cultural and spatial alignments in urban architecture. In essence, the glass tubes and CLT system become a medium for embodying and materializing the dynamic creativity both on and off the stage.
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Like the unblinking eye of Birdman's offstage ballet of creation and complexity
20 ■ Wall Detail Section
RENDER
CHUNK
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Birdman's camera, the theater's soul is sheathed in glass — transparent barriers that meander, dividing yet inviting. Through these lucid walls, the complexity unfolds, whispering secrets of artistry to those who wander close, blending partition with open arms to the unfolding spectacle within.
The inherent fluidity of the glass tube design also facilitates the seamless integration of public and private spaces, resonating with the project's objective of exploring new cultural and spatial alignments in urban architecture.
In essence, the glass tubes and CLT system become a medium for embodying and materializing the dynamic creativity both on and off the stage.
22 ■ Physical Model
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24 ■ Section 01 10 09 08 02
25 01 Entrance 02 Lobby 03 Green Room 04 Rehearsal Rooms 05 Fly Loft 06 Orchestra Pit 07 Control Booth 08 Arena Stage 09 Outdoor Terrace 10 Underground Garage 09 07 03 03 05 05 06 04 04 04 04
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DORMANT VIGOUR
CallowhillMarketplace
Spring2022
Critic:AnnetteFierro_ARCH502
Location:Callowhill,Philadephia,PA
Individual Work
As the sunlight flows through the site over time, it always casts an eternal shadow under the viaduct. Approaching these shadows, darkness, coldness, dampness and danger come to the fore. In these shadows, plants and garbage lushly twist with each other occupying the site. Some spores are just attached, some are growing vigorously and taking root, some are decomposing the trunk of the tree, and some are entering the decay stage.
Old things are forgotten here and gradually decay, but new natural forces decompose, climb and penetrate in these things in a never-ending life cycle. If there is any energy lying dormant in the darkness of silence waiting for a moment to explode and sweep away. When you listen carefully, it is as if the mushrooms are stretching and breathing freely after a night of rain. In the interweaving of night and dawn, the mushrooms multiply, working to reproduce both in darkness and in light as they, "voiceless," "inherit the earth."
In the damp shadowed zone of the site, which is poised to grow, a wildly growing marketplace fantasy is born. It has a cyclical vitality in all dimensions. Some parts carry out sensitive ingredients through precise steps and will, underground, grow as roots protected by humidity and shadows. Some parts are like shelf mushrooms interspersed throughout the viaduct, intertwined with the vitality of natural growth and shopping atmosphere. Some parts carry the gathering carnival and spore spreading stage. The leaf collection, composting area and the spore collection area are both decay and a renewal circle.
The project is about cycles of time, where the cultivation of mushrooms acts as metaphor but also literal agent to capture and hyperbolize agents of nature on our site.
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Collage — a new translation of the environment around the callowhill community viaduct expressed by four influencing factors
Factors: 1.Shadow 2.Humidity 3.Plants 4.Cold spots
Exchange — The rules of different exchange archetypes reshape the properties and communication of goods and agents within the site
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1FACTOR 2FACTORS OVERLAPE 3FACTORS OVERLAPE 4FACTORS OVERLAPE 4FACTORS OVERLAPE + UNDER VIADUCT
■ Callowhill Information Collage
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■ Element Exchange Prototype A
■ Element Exchange Prototype B
The second floor of the supermarket already receives sunlight from the roof skylight, allowing people to walk through the Viaduct Park, the dispersed vending units and picking zones add to the experience of being in an organic, self-circulating supermarket, and the openings in the roof allow for the incorporation of the different parts of the Philadelphia landscape that surrounds the Viaduct.
32 Entrance 01 Lobby 02 Planting Monomers 03 Vendor monomers 04 Water storage Canopy 05 Water distribution channels 06 Viaduct Garden 07 purification area 08 Visitor picking area 09 Processing and baling area 10 Restaurant 11
02 05 10 08 11 10 ■ LEVEL 2
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The first floor of the supermarket is covered by a canopy, and under the ample shade created by the roof, mainly planted with clusters of monoliths. Customers enter the entire semi-open mall through the entrance pool, and are able to feel how each functional area of the mall forms a self-circulating system.
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Entrance
Lobby
Planting Monomers
Vendor monomers
Water storage Canopy
Water distribution channels
Viaduct Garden
purification area
Visitor picking
area
Processing and baling area
Restaurant 06 01 08 08 05 06 07 09 03 04
LEVEL 1
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■ ABOVE VIADUCT
Market modular draws water from the roof — the dual identity of natural agent and commodity agent is transformed
+Above Level
+Viaduct Level
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How the dynamism of the supermarket in the shadows penetrates the water retention roof
35 ■ UNDER COVER
+Under Level +Ground Level
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BUFFERED SANCTUARY
UrbanHousing
Fall 2022
Critic:KristinaManis_ARCH601
Location:30FlatbushAvenue,Brooklyn,NY Individual Work
The harsh concrete triangle of the site is overwhelmed by the complex intersections around it, which makes it difficult for people to stay. In contrast, there are several "buffers" around the site that provide unique "quiet" spaces that can envelop the resting crowd. My project strives to provide buffers that create a sanctuary-style housing amidst the harsh chaos of this site.
These buffers are spatially and hierarchically interspersed and interspersed throughout the site, providing a soft and comfortable environment, especially for children who are sensitive to their surroundings.
By analyzing the various existing buffers around the site and testing materials with buffer effects, I established different categories of buffers to redefine the relationship between the programmatic elements of the building.
The buffer system takes its morphological inspiration from the intersections around the site that separate and connect different spatial parts of the building. It provides a comfortable rhythm for the circulation of the site. It continues to extend different forms of buffer bubbles to guarantee people's stay, while transforming into a flexible buffer layer to intersperse and wrap the unit and the whole building at different scales, the interior and exterior are integrated with the buffer systerm.
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39 05 06 04 04 03 03 02 07 01 a b b 01 04 02 05 03 06 07 a b Entrance Kitchen Bedroom Bathroom Balcony Children Play Wed Zone Share Balcony Entrance Intersection Buffer Layer Out Hang Unit Woven panels 05 06 04 04 03 03 02 07 01 a b b 01 04 02 05 03 06 07 a b Entrance Kitchen Bedroom Bathroom Balcony Children Play Wed Zone Share Balcony Entrance Intersection Buffer Layer Out Hang Unit Woven panels ■ Unit Assemblies Process ■ Unit Plan
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OVER AND UNDER
Extension for The Penn Museum
Fall 2021
Critic:RyanPalider_ARCH501
Location:PMA,Philadephia,PA
Individual Work
Museums are institution that seek to fosters an open exchange of information and ideas with the public. The traditional physical expression of these institutions arelimited in the ways in which they can foster an open interaction between the museum and public space.
“Over and under” seeks to rethink the ways a museum engages with and shapes public space. This is done by interweaving a series of roofs with three “bridges” that filters visitors through the building and links them to the river beyond. The three bridges act a hub that moves people through the building and the site while simultaneously allowing the many spaces of the museum to flow under, through and around the “bridges” like the Schuylkillriver flows beneath the many bridges of Philadelphia.
To produce a more ambiguous relationship between interior-v-exterior and gallery spacev-public space a porous system of walls, columns, and glass are used to allows one space dissolve into another. By integrating these space making devices with the oversized roofs and “bridges “Over and under” creates a museum like no other. A fluid and open system with a free and comfortable atmosphere, that encourages public engagement
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01 Souvenir Shop
02 Multimedia Gallery
03 Coffe
04 Restrooms
05 Entrance Education
06 Discussion Room
07 Reading Room
08 Theater
09 Water Walkway
10 Interactive Gallery
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■ Ground Floor
First Floor
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■ Second Floor
01 Gallery Bridge
02 Meeting Room
03 Discussion Room
04 Outdoor Terrace
05 Roof Ramp
06 North Side Roof Gallery
07 South Rooftop Exhibiton Hall
09 Water Walkway
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ON THE LINE
Fall 2021
Critic:RyanPalider_ARCH501
Location:MeyersonHall,Philadephia,PA
Team:MingChen,JieYang,MaxwellLent,SiyuGao
Individualpart:allthefabricationandcontanier4
The pavilion can be thought of as an analytique in three dimensions. This homogenity is achieved by the careful wrapping of a continuous line through space, which results in a smooth flow surface to edge, interior to the exterior.
In this spatial weave, there are certain instances where the elements pull away to reveal hidden spaces, courtyards or alcoves. This allows for the obsever to engage in multiple ways, inviting them to crawl, crouch, lean on or sit against the pieces. Moreover, this weaving of elements informs an implied grid thatasserts itself as the line-system tackles the ground-instead of just disappearing into it, the lines hit the ground plane and strech out beyound the bounds of the pailion. The two systems- the tectonic and the projectivecompete againston another for prominence in the visual fabric,each attempting to obscure the otherand intentionally providing mis-readings of depth and figure-ground relationships.
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Deployable Structure
Spring2023
Critic:MohamadAlKhayer_ARCH602
Location:PMA,Philadephia,PA GroupWork
The inspiration for the final project comes from observing the deployable structure hanging in the lobby. We found that all of the hanging structures are like exquisite sculptures, but they do not interact with the occupied space or the people in the space. Therefore, based on these considerations, the overall form of our project is composed of polygons and several well shaped deployable structures, especially at the bottom of the structure, where different shaped well shaped structures unfold in different directions to psychologically form a gathering space with virtual boundaries. It is like become the part of interior ceiling design, where people gather below it, when they look up they can see different forms of centripetal geometric patterns that change as the deployable structure unfolds and contracts.
Material:
Scissors / Joints:
- Laser cutting, ⅛” mdf
Connections:
- #6 - 32x1 - 1/2” Stainless Steel Screw
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56 ■ Photography Record—Joints
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■ Photography Record—Whole Shape
BONE WAVE
Converting the skeletal shape of the thronback into a geometric shape, using flexible linkage connections to reimagine and simulate the last remaining fossilized body parts of the creature years later, let it have the power from static to lifelike and dynamic power.
Wearable Linkage
IPD-5290-001
Siyu Gao
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Component Shape
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60 Level 1 0' - 0" Level Mezzanine 12' - 0" LEVEL 2 24' - 0" LEVEL 3 36' - 0" LEVEL 4 48' - 0" LEVEL 5 60' - 0" Level 6 72' - 0" Level 7 84' - 0" Level 8 96' - 0" Level 9 108' - 0" Level 10 120' - 0" Level roof 132' - 0" A B C D 1 A301 LEVEL B1 -12' - 0" LEVEL B2 -24' - 0" LEVEL B3 -36' - 0" A403 2 A310 2 A310 3 Level 1 0' - 0" Level Mezzanine 12' - 0" LEVEL 2 24' - 0" LEVEL 3 36' - 0" LEVEL 4 48' - 0" LEVEL 5 60' - 0" Level 6 72' - 0" Level 7 84' - 0" Level 8 96' - 0" Level 9 108' - 0" Level 10 120' - 0" Level roof 132' - 0" A B C D 1 A301 LEVEL B1 -12' - 0" LEVEL B2 -24' - 0" LEVEL B3 -36' - 0" Scale Date Drawn By 1/8" = 1'-0" 2022/3/1 23:55:19 A302 BUILDING SECTIONS RITTENHOUSE PROJECT SIYU GAO 1901 WALNUT STREET PHILADELPHIA, PA 19103 1/8" = 1'-0" 1 BUILDING SECTION -TRANSVERSE LOOKING NORTH 1/8" = 1'-0" 2 BUILDING SECTIONS -TRANSVERSE LOOKING SOUTH 1 2 A302 A310 1 1/8" = 1'-0" 1 BUILDING SECTION-LONGITUDIONAL D 1 A302 LEVEL 3 36' - 0" LEVEL 4 48' - 0" LEVEL 5 60' - 0" D B 1 A301 1/2" = 1'-0" 1 ENLARGED PLAN -OFFICE STAIR 1/2" = 1'-0" 2 ENLARGED SECTION -OFFICE STAIR A202 A B C D 1 2 3 4 5 A302 A B C D 1 2 3 4 5 A302 Scale Drawn By 1/8" = 1'-0" 2022/3/1 23:54:02 D:\2022-spring\CONSTRUCTION\WEEK2\ARCH 532_2022 Bas Site File.rvt A113 Reflected Ceiling Plans RITTENHOUSE PROJECT SIYU GAO 1901 WALNUT STREET PHILADELPHIA, PA 19103 1/8" = 1'-0" 1/8" 1'-0" RCP -TYPICAL OFFICE -LEVEL ■ REVIT SKILLS
61 Level 1 0' - 0" Level Mezzanine 12' - 0" LEVEL 2 24' - 0" LEVEL 3 36' - 0" LEVEL 4 48' - 0" LEVEL 5 60' - 0" Level 6 72' - 0" Level 7 84' - 0" Level 8 96' - 0" Level 9 108' - 0" Level 10 120' - 0" Level roof 132' - 0" 2 3 4 5 LEVEL B1 -12' - 0" LEVEL B2 -24' - 0" LEVEL B3 -36' - 0" 1 A302 A310 4 Scale Date Drawn By 1/8" = 1'-0" 2022/3/1 23:55:14 D:\2022-spring\CONSTRUCTION\WEEK2\ARCH 532_2022 Bas e Site File.rvt A301 BUILDING SECTIONS RITTENHOUSE PROJECT SIYU GAO 1901 WALNUT STREET PHILADELPHIA, PA 19103 A202 2 A202 A201 1 A B C D 1 2 3 4 5 1 A301 1 A302 2 A302 2' 3 1/2" 2' 0" 0' 0" A202 2 A202 1 A201 1 A B C D 1 2 3 4 5 1 A301 1 A302 2 A302 2' 1/2" Scale Date Drawn By A112 Reflected Plans RITTENHOUSE PROJECT 1901 WALNUT STREET PHILADELPHIA, PA 19103 1/8" = 1'-0" 1 RCP -LEVEL 1 1/8" = 1'-0" 2 RCP -MEZZANINE B 1 A301 RITTENHOUSE PROJECT WALNUT STREET PHILADELPHIA, PA 19103 3 3D VIEW -OFFICE STAIR LEVEL 3 36' - 0" LEVEL 4 48' - 0" Level 10 120' - 0"
A301 B 1 A301 3 3D VIEW -OFFICE STAIR 1/2" = 1'-0" 5 SECTION DETAIL -STAIR AT BASE 3 3D VIEW -OFFICE STAIR
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62 ■ OTHER WORKS
Jewelry Design
63 Furniture Design
Siyu Gao
+1 215-290-1223
gaosiyu@upenn.edu
gaosiyuuu@gmail.com
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BLOSSOM
