FA22_ARCH202al_Portfolio

PORTFOLIO

University of Southern California SoA Fall 2022 ARCH 202al Instructor: Andy Ku Tianyu Guo

Statement

Tianyu Guo is a second-year student at the University of Southern California School of Architecture.

Raised in Jinan and Los Angeles, Tianyu developed an interest in the visual representation in different dimensions. In her work, Tianyu focuses more on the users’ experience in the space, how the architecture interacts with the surrounding environment, and architecture contribute to human society. She believes architecture is not only the shelter for people to live in but also an immortal monument of a city’s history.

Outside of the field of architecture, Tianyu is interested in the artistic expression of different creative mediums, such as photography, ceramics, installation, and painting.

A threshold for the city

THRESHOLD 2022

A threshold for citizens

CONTENTS

PROJECT 1 | SUPER POSITIONS

P1.1 Reading Response

P1.2 Precedents

P1.3 Research

PROJECT 2 | SUPER PLAN

P2.1 Studio Proposal P2.2 Super Plan Introduction P2.3 Diagrams

PAGE 8-19 PAGE 20-27

PROJECT 3 | SUPER BLOCK

P3.1 Individual Proposal P3.2 Super Block

PROJECT 4 | SUPER FUTURE

P4.1 Super Shift P4.2 Super Section P4.3 Super Chunk P4.4 Super Cut

PAGE 28-41 PAGE 42-59 PAGE 60-64

PROCESS | PROCESS COLLECTION

Process.1 AI Generated Images Process.2 Study model & Concept Collage Process.3 Sketches & Research

SUPERPOSITIONS

Learning from the past

“Cities have the capability of providing something fro everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.“

“The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city.“

“From Object to Field: Field Conditions in Architecture + Urbanism“

Most people have regarded the city as an immortal object in the world for a long time. However, the city is a great example to reflect the uncertainty and change that the city undergoes over time. Architecture, as a vital component of a city, plays a significant role in adapting to the development and adjustments of the city over time.

The most vital point that Sanford Kwinter made in the passage “From Object To Field” is that the field in architecture is changeable over time and architecture leaves space for the uncertainty of the real. However, the fact does not follow the ideal condition. In the past 20 years, most developing countries are experiencing fast development. And the city became lost the ability to accept further development.

I always believe that people are the passerby in the world; the only immortal thing in the world is the city. If a city has no capacity for further construction and development in the human world, there should already be a limitation on people’s life. Architecture, as the constitutive element of the city, should be responsible for the unpredictable redesign and reuse. Architecture is not only architecture but also an essential component of a city. Therefore, I believe that we should consider architectural form and the whole rhythm between the city and its elements when doing urban design. The rhythm in the city is the most significant part of urban design. If all the architecture in the city is all monument architecture and has different forms, and there is no architecture for the background, the urban planning will also be a mess. Only the rhythm of the city achieves harmony, and the whole city will be close to the ideal condition of a fair city.

“The Architecture of the City“

Architecture is a miniature of the city. In the article “The Architecture of the City,” Aldo Rossi defines architecture as the city, and the city is a human creation instead of the work of nature. Architecture is deeply rooted in the formation of civilization and is a permanent, universal, and necessary artifact.

There is an interesting definition of urban artifacts in this article. Rossi defined urban artifacts as works of art. At first, the idea of the urban artifact was ambiguous for me because, before reading this passage, I had never considered the city, or part of the city, as a piece of art. The city is more like an indifferent collection of human needs. However, according to the article, a unique rhythm exists in each city, which developed from a memory. Although most people think the city is the work of nature, the city is a product of human creation. The urban artifacts are different for the user and the owner due to the difference in perspective.

Suppose the city is a product of human creation. In that case, when architects prepare for their future urban design, they should be able to control the design of both architectures as the individual and the city view as a whole picture. Each part should contribute to the overall picture, and each part of the city should have cultural and technical expandability.

Architecture, the combination of art and science, seems inclusive enough as a subject, whereas the actual practice of architecture is socially exclusive. There is a dilemma in the professional architecture practice field. Architecture, the fundamental component in contemporary society, is responsible for people’s life. However, the architect has a limited social responsibility due to the lack of resources in real life.

In the article “Can Architects Be Socially Responsible?” Margaret Crawford discussed the social responsibility of architects. Architecture is different from any other professional field because it costs a lot, and architecture has already become a luxury in society. Architects cannot compete with engineers. Even compared with artists, architects are bound to larger economic forces. Those lack of resources caused the architecture field to exaggerate the gap between the rich and poor and hurt social responsibility. It is a great sadness that architecture, the medium of the past and future of the city, is only accessible to the elite.

Architecture nowadays is the invisible wall between people in different social classes. Although it is undeniable that there are differences among people, and the classification of social class is unavoidable both for now and in the future, ideally speaking, architecture should not exaggerate the gap between social classes and harm the whole society. Nowadays, architecture and the area distribution of the city are the classification of people, which does not follow the idea of equality. To achieve the goal of building an equitable city in the future, all the citizens should keep the right to enjoy the same architecture, and every part of the city undergo an invisible classification of social class. Also, we should reduce the existing dependence on economic and political power, make the architecture and the city suitable for people of different social classes, and eliminate the barrier to achieving equality.

“A Note on Race and Architecture“

Architecture criticism is one of the hottest topics for architecture students to learn. The most significant point that Cornel West made in his article is that the intellectual crisis in architectural criticism is primarily rooted in the modernist promotion of “the myth of the machine.” The myth of the machine is an isolated aesthetic ideology and also a pervasive sociocultural phenomenon that promotes expert scientific knowledge and elaborate bureaucratic structures that facilitate the five Ps. As architecture critics put more attention to the academicist perspective on the macro crisis of human culture, architecture critics are assimilated into literary criticism. And therefore, there is a loss of the specificity of architectural practices and objects. Because of the promotion of the myth of the machine, architectural criticism becomes identical and does not follow nature anymore.

The lack of diversity in architectural criticism will cause the identical future development of architecture, which includes the form of buildings and the overall view of the city and country. The identicalness in architecture and the city is inhumane and will cause the loss of culture. Imagine that all the places in the world become the same; what is the difference between each culture? Architecture and the city, the medium between the past and future, will lose the responsibility to carry the memory.

However, architecture, both the practice and discipline, needs to keep its uniqueness, both culturally and technically, to achieve a more equitable future. For example, architectural criticism only focuses on the artistic portion. In that case, the different cultures are imbalanced because the cultural carrying capacity in architectural design should have the same importance as the technical and aesthetic expression.

Putting eyes on the future, instead of following the mainstream to follow classical criticism, we should consider how design functions in our current society and what the problematic design means for those affected communities when we face difficulties in future city planning. Only if we do so will the goal of a fair city be achieved.

“Can Architects Be Socially Responsible?“

“Urbanized“

China has experienced a fast development in the past 30 years. Chinese people focus more on how to rapidly construct a new modern city instead of considering keeping their unique culture in real life. Therefore, some issues exist in contemporary society. For example, in the documentary Urbanized, Yung Ho Chang mentioned that in the past 30 years, cities were conceived in design to be part of economic development, and there are lots of mistakes that exist in cities, which means there is a lack of rethinking in urban design. Therefore, architects should take the responsibility to consider the city as a whole and correct the mistakes made in the past in their future planning.

Rem Koolhaas, the architect of the most representative architecture in Beijing, the CCTV Headquarters, mentioned that with the fast development happening in China and the lack of rethinking of the city, Chinese society is struggling with lots of issues in urban design: the density of people, the use of public space, how big a city should be, and whether they city should have the history or not. Those problems that Chinese cities face are the consequences of fast development because there are no expandable spaces in the city to adapt to those changes. Eyes on the future, urban design should be expandable and flexible to support the possible development of society. People with different cultural backgrounds always have other thoughts toward the same topic. Instead of considering the issue that Chinese cities face now, architects with Chinese cultural experience are leaning more towards making changes to the city based on the unique memory of the past. In the documentary Urbanized, Yung Ho Chang mentioned that nowadays, Beijing has already lost its original environment compared to the past, which means identicalness is happening around cities. As those tiny streets and neighborhoods disappear, the unique cultural background of each city has been replaced by fast development. Nowadays, almost all Chinese cities fulfill the stereotype of what the modern city should be: skyscrapers, glass walls, concrete buildings, and a well-developed transportation system. Walking in the city, there is always a similar view around the corner. Therefore, for cities with unique historical or social backgrounds, architects should keep their uniqueness while designing for the future because the city should carry human history instead of having similar urban views anywhere.

In conclusion, the city, the medium between the future and the past, should be expandable and be treated seriously. Architects should put more time into rethinking the expandability of the city to make the city unique while fulfilling people’s needs for life to adapt to the fast development in the future.

Vidhyadhar Nager Master Plan (1984)

Architect: Vastushilpa Consultants / B. V. Doshi

Location: Jaipur, India

Type: Mat

Vidhyadhar Nager master plan is a planning and urban design project located in Jaipur, India, designed by B. V. Doshi, the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize of the year 2018, and completed in 1984.

The most challenging part of this project for Doshi is to consider the city in totality. The primary geometry of this urban planning project was a deformation of nine squares. In this project, Doshi attempted a synthesis of two traditions: the first one is from Le Corbusier, which is an emphasis on nature, circulation, and hygiene; the second one comes from the ancient Indian urbanism that has tight knit streets, urban courts, and mixed uses in the city. Each intersection of the road is related to the hierarchy of open spaces, the central axis of this plan is going north-east to south-west, crossed by another axis along the main transversal road. The orientation of this planning is determined by the solar path to minimize solar contact with the architecture’s facade. Therefore, there is a response to the needs of the user group and a consideration of the surrounding area.

Jiading Mini Block (2020)

Architect: Atelier FCJZ / Yung Ho Chang

Location: Shanghai, China

Type: Mat

Jiading Mini Block is a planning and urban design project in Shanghai, China, designed by Yung Ho Chang, the founder of Atelier FCJZ, and completed in 2020. Jiading Mini Block has 22 block buildings in an area of roughly 70,000 square meters, and the majority of the buildings have a similar size but is designed differently in terms of floor plans and elevations in order to meet the different needs of businesses.

Jiading Mini Block is a test of making urban spaces on a more human scale. The size of the typical block in new Chinese cities starts from approximately 500x500 square meters, which is different from European cities. To achieve urbanization in a suburban area, the architects proposed a low-rise, high-density configuration with a mix of programming. They let the public or commercial facilities and the residential elements co-exist in one building. In this project, the main urban space the provided by the street, which is 10 meters wide with 3-meter wide covered walkways on both sides.

Urban Parks and High-Performance Landscapes

Case Study: The High Line, New York City

Size: 310000

Year: 2000-2019

- Innovative revolution of redesign: convert derelict railway to public open space.

- Deliberate consideration of the design strategies: the different use of space, surrounding environment, diversity of the component in this park, and urban greening in metropolitans. Many of the strategies, design principles and recommendations outlined in our study have been followed, including: pedestrian use is the best reuse for the High Line; visitors should enjoy a variety of environments; plantings should recreate original meadows; art should be part of the design and programming; the space should be recreational and contemplative; the space should include some commercial uses.

- Most Importantly, zoning incentives should be used to attract private financing for this public amenity.

Sidewalks and Pedestrain Plazas

Comparison Study: Qianmen Street, Beijing & The Grove, Los Angeles Qianmen Street

- Is the reconstruction of specific urban area: Qianmen in 2006: Still Retaining Some Original Character but Redevelopment Commencing Qianmen in 2011: Pedestrian Street Directly South of Tiananmen Square Rebuilt Completely in Qing Dynasty-era Architecture; start building the commercial area

The Grove

- Combination of commercial and entertaining area

- Public space as recreational area

- Multiple function for visitors

SUPERPLAN

The foundation to create a brighter super future

Group Work

Individual Work: Zoning Diagram; Visual representation of all group drawings and diagrams

Software Used: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Rhino

Learning from all the precedent study and research, We learned how the city works in society as one of the main components -- the city has the responsibility to achieve sociological goals: not only under the eco-friendly consideration but also the impact the different programs of the block brings to the surrounding area.

With the rising awareness of building a more environmentally friendly community, and the undeniable future development trend of Pasadena, more and more high-rise slums will appear as part of the city’s skyline. An area for people to heal and have more accessibility to nature, both mentally and physically, is the core of our studio’s super plan. Aiming to bring positive emotional guidance to the community, fight the rising density in the urban area, and seek a less-pressure super future is the fundamental idea of the super plan.

Concept Diagram

The city is just like a tree, the building is the leaves, and the branches are the streets. Everything connects through branches. Though taking inspiration from the natural organic form, especially the curved leaf, we decided to employ the curve as the foundation of the architectural form of our super plan.

Through learning from the precedent, we learned the importance of streets’ role in urban design. Therefore, in our studio’s super plan, we connect different parts of the city through a branch-like pathway in the center and use a loop-like sub-circulation path to connect the buildings with similar functions.

The concept diagram tends to visualize the two components of our city, buildings and streets, and how they connect.

SUPERBLOCK

A threshold for the city and citizens

Individual Work Software Used: Adobe Illustrator, Rhino

Admitting that high-rise slums will fulfill the future city, with the rising depression and anxiety rate among the commons in the post-pandemic era, Super Block 9 is leaning toward creating a block for therapy, with both individual healing and professional’s help.

PETCARE PUBLICPAVILION EXISTEDROAD URBANFARMING COMMERCIAL

Model Photo Model Photo Detail

SUPERFUTURE

From private to public, from each individual to the group, from mental to physical health, Super Shift 9 create a gradient for therapy from private to public from west to east with a higher design ‘resolution‘ than Super Block 9.

To construct a brighter future, the city has to provide citizens with a place to heal themselves. Through developing the ground condition, Super Shift 9 uses space that digs in, in between, and builds up to control the privacy, publicity, and people’s experience when they occupy this block.

I hope Super Shift 9 is where people will go when they have pressure, and the mountain-like building will last longer and finally become the city’s immortal monument.

“Delirious New York”

New York City satisfies all people’s fantasies about modern cities: highrise skyscrapers, busy transportation networks, and the metropolitan lifestyle.

In the book Delirious New York, Rem Koolhaas talked about the theory of Manhattan. Regarding himself as a ghostwriter for Manhattan, Koolhaas illustrates its metropolitan condition and describes Manhattan architecture as a paradigm for exploration congestion’. ‘Culture of congestion,’ as a blueprint, is the main content of Manhattan.

Through admitting its splendor and miseries, Koolhaas regarded New York City as a delirious city: the city can be seen as a ‘top-down’ approach that overlooks Manhattan’s nature and original features. Therefore, an interesting point has been raised for us when considering the future city. As all the city becomes identical, even all of them becomes delirious city. How can people take a breath from their life in the city, and where can they go if they have stress. Admitting that the future city, not only future Pasadena, will be filled by high-rise slums. Those high-rise slums connect together through the complex transportation system. However, it is impossible to take those high-rise buildings away from urban areas because of the rising density of the population. Therefore, under the unchangeable fact that the future city will be fulfilled by high-rise multi-use buildings, which part of the city could be variable and changes along with the city development is the rising problem that future architects should consider.

Seen the urban area from a front elevation view, if all the build-up buildings are unchangeable, the ground level is the only variable that will change along with the city’s development to fulfill the rising new demand of citizens. Therefore, when future architects design for a super future, they need to consider ground conditions more than they have today. Through digging into and within the ground, the ground condition has the responsibility to provide citizens a place to return to nature and their original life. Eyes on the future, the near future, as the result of the post-pandemic era, will have a rising rate of depression and anxiety, which means citizens will have an awareness of the importance of both mental and physical health. A block to healing citizens themselves, to bring them back to their original life, is the first demand of the future city. Therefore, through learning from Koolhaas and thinking about what the future city will be like, I found the fundamental idea of my super shift.

“The Glories of the Architectural Section“

“Just like architecture, a city should be read in sections.” It is undeniable that section plays a vital role in architectural design, especially in the form of the space and the experience that space will give the users. The section of the urban area is similar to the architecture section, from underground to ground level, eventually reaching the high-rising level.

Based on the fact that the future city will be highly-dense with highrise buildings, the small portion of the section between ground to both above and below the ground level becomes essential. It reflects how the city communicates in a vertical sectional consideration. The future city should be separated from the underground to the high-rise building part, and all the high-rise buildings should be interconnected. Therefore, the underground and ground space is responsible for distributing people into the different functional blocks and keeping publicity and privacy in the city. The unique form of the ground-level section is more complex than the layering in architectural design. The solid ground can have different uses; some parts could be raised up, and others can be dug in. The small transition in both section and elevation will provide citizens with a new experience as they roam in the city.

The role that humanistic care plays in architectural design will become more important as the social ideology of the city develops. Both citizens and architects will focus more on their own demands. By providing and controlling people’s experience in the urban area by the variation of the ground level’s section and elevation, people will get a completely new experience at the ground level and also achieve their rising demand in the city.

Circulation from outside to inside the block is one critical consideration of the super shift. By putting the super shift model into google earth and developing the ground condition in both plan and elevation, I created two main pathways which allow accessibility from outside Pasadena to the super shift 9, and also keep the publicity and privacy of my original design.

As part of the center of the site, I accommodate my two neighbors to achieve coherence throughout the whole site through the development of the ground condition.

Based on their existing program (a pet care area for supershift 7 and a tree pavilion for supershift 9), I use circulation to accommodate their schedule with mine therapy, a more private program. By providing an underground space in the middle part, as a variation of our super plan transportation system, I keep the underground coherency with my two neighbors and the high privacy that the western part of my shift has.

In this combined site map, I use red and blue to highlight the ground-level accessibility among my super shift block with my two neighbors.

Site Map

Fall SUPER SHIFT 9

Site Map

Animation Stills

Super Chunk Front Elevation

Upper: Perspective Render

Bottom: Left Elevation Render

Exploded Chunk Animation Stills

PROCESS

Sketch & Study Model Collection

Type of Work: Sketch, Study Model, Concept Diagram (AI Generated), Dradel (Drawing + Model)

AI Generated Images

The End. Tianyu Guo Fall 2022