Tiffany Chang - Undergraduate Architecture Portfolio 2022

TIFFANY CHANG SELECTED WORKS 2022

CONTENTS PART 1 PART 2 PART 3

Fabrication Representation Abstractions

PART 1 PART 2

DEPLOYABLE GRIDSHELL PAVILLION

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FRAMES IN MOTION

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Hybrid Modular Assemblies 2020 The Bentway Stage 2019

EXPLORING FRESHWATER AVAILABILITY 16 Geographical Research 2020

PACING IN FOUR PARTS

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NOTES FROM A VOYEUR

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DECEPTIVE GEOMETRIES

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PART 3

Analytical Film Study 2021

“Musical” Spatial Analysis 2019

Exploiting the Proto-Image 2020

DEPLOYABLE GRIDSHELL PAVILLION Hybrid Modular Assemblies Technology Studio IV Advisor(s): Tom Bessai Partner: Polly Yip April 2020, 10 weeks

BENDING: This project began with an exploration of existing projects involving linear assemblies and bending active wood structures. From our precedent study, we were inspired by the geometry of the ZCB Pavilion and the use of flat wooden members of the UWE Pavilion.

Through extensive material studies, we developed a system in which bending active gridshell structures can be mass produced and easily deployed to create a

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temporary event space. Here, it is contextualized as a collapsible canopy for a local farmers market.

ABOVE: Perspective view of final prototype, digitally produced using Enscape.

RIGHT: Plan and elevation views, showing the edge condition produced by the arrangement of modules.

FABRICATION / 5

MATERIAL COMPOSITION 01. Birch ply sheets 02. Fibreglass screen mesh 03. Steel pin joints 04. Concrete base insert 05. Steel screws

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MODULE DETAIL 01. Concrete base insert 02. Steel screws 03. Birch ply strips 04. Fibreglass screen mesh 05. Steel pin joints 04

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PLATES ASSEMBLY 01. Steel bolts 02. Metal top/bottom plates 03. Interchangeable metal plate 04. Steel screws (permanent) 05. Birch ply strips 06. Main axis metal plate

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02 CONSTRUCTION: Our prototype evolved to a staggered linear arrangement where tensile fabric, pinned at different places along the main axes, connects the modules to each other and creates a more dimensional spatial experience underneath. The tensile fabric showed potential for coverage and shade, but also presented an opportunity to alter the atmosphere and user experience.

The single modular unit was further developed as a fragment, from the concrete base inserts

to the module’s collapsible logic and potential fabric options.

LEFT: Module detail and collapsible logic of an individual gridshell fragment.

ABOVE: Plates assembly detail, highlighting the only component to have a unique cut.

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FABRICATION / 11

FRAMES IN MOTION The Bentway Stage Design-Build Studio: Urban Dock Advisor(s): Clint Langevin & Amy Norris Team: Group of 16 July 2019, 2 weeks

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BENT: The Bentway in Downtown Toronto is a unique public space situated under the Gardiner Expressway in need of a temporary stage to host its weekly summer concert series. As a team of 16, we collaboratively designed and built the stage within two weeks, balancing visual aesthetics, efficiency and structure. The design utilizes the iconic concrete bent form to create a sense of fluidity, alluding to the Gardiner as the former location of the Toronto shoreline.

ABOVE: Site plan showing the stage’s orientation and shape, one that follows the existing pathway and deck.

RIGHT: The final product, using yellow to highlight The Bentway’s iconic form that inspired the design.

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LEFT: Detailed shots of the completed stage, showing The Bentway’s logo abstracted as a moment frame to create the wave-like motion, thus creating an interior condition for the accessible ramp that runs along the back of the stage. Yellow was used as an accent colour to highlight the bent iconography, as well as complement the existing uses of the colour on the site.

supporting the frontal overhang while maintaining the desired visual effect. The stage deck’s asymmetrical shape correlates to its position on site and its relation to the angle of the existing walking path.

LEFT + ABOVE: Construction diagrams for the moment frames and stage deck, respectively. Each frame was assembled offsite, made possible by optimizing the form and minimizing the number of unique angles and custom cuts.

Structural analysis throughout the process presented challenges with regards to

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EXPLORING FRESHWATER AVAILABILITY Geographical Research Landscape Topography & Hydrology Advisor(s): Vincent Javet Partner: N/A December 2020, 10 weeks

IMPACT: Nova Scotia has listed various climate crises, their impacts, and plans for adaptations on their provincial website, including freshwater availability. Water impacts include changes in supply and demand, lower water tables, saltwater intrusion, and flooding.

This set of drawings focuses on the Upper Musquodoboit Watershed Supply Area, which is one of the largest watershed areas in the province. Through this comprehensive study of the

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landscape and its characteristics, we are able to observe the area’s low range in elevation and how this contributes to the region’s susceptibility to flooding and freshwater availability at-large.

These representations reflect the need to observe and act on river logic. That is to say, we must work with the river, rather than against it. There is a need for social responsibility and action with climate crises, rather than inaction or waiting for a sense of “normalcy” to return.

DRAINAGE ANALYSIS Upper Musquodoboit, NS REPRESENTATION / 17

SUBWATERSHED + STREAM NETWORK Upper Musquodoboit, NS 18 / TIFFANY CHANG

GROUNDWATER REGIONS Upper Musquodoboit, NS REPRESENTATION / 19

PACING IN FOUR PARTS Analytical Film Study Film & Architecture: The Only Two Arts of Our Time Advisor(s): James Macgillivray Partner: N/A April 2021, 3 weeks

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CONTEXT: Released in 2003, Memories of Murder is South Korean film based on the Hwaseong murders in the late 1980s to early 1990s and the second film directed by Bong Joon-ho. After five years of investigation, thousands of suspects, yet no resolution to the murders of at least ten women, this period was a marking of trauma in Korean history. Since the 2019 confession, the film has been brought back into circulation, highlighting the generational trauma and

speaking to the prevalence of this cold case in Korean pop culture and the longstanding desire to continue the investigation. As he interviewed several people close to the murders, it was also Bong Joon-ho’s personal desire to speak to the killer himself that greatly impacted the film’s tone of desperation.

STATUS: The film follows two lead investigators on the case who have conflicting investigation methods. The characters’ behaviour, as informed by social

hierarchies in Korean culture, “good cop, bad cop” dynamic, is explicitly supported by the but more about the system they prevailing themes in the film, represent. the pacing of the shots, and the framing of the camera. This study breaks down a scene and how it serves as a pivotal turning point in the characters’ development. The sub-two minute scene depicts a shift in tone in the film, as there is a sudden sense of selfawareness between the two main characters. As they have continued to oppose each other, the film becomes less about their

REPRESENTATION / 21

SEQUENCE I: Park and Seo get into a physical altercation

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SEQUENCE II: Sergeant Shin escalates the situation, stopped by Officer Kwon

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SEQUENCE III: Officer Kwon calls attention to the song on the radio

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SEQUENCE IV: Phone calls are made

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NOTES FROM A VOYEUR “Musical” Spatial Analysis Studio First (Carleton University) Advisor(s): Piper Bernbaum Partner: N/A June 2019, 1 week

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AN(NOTATION): In order to study voyeurism in the city, it is important to know who is the subject, or the “voyee.” The following three panels function as a series, an abstraction of a day trip to Montréal at three different scales. This exercise in spatial analysis and annotation is approached through musical notation and thus, creating a “soundtrack” of the day.

This study aims to dissect infrastructure and experience, as governed by personal documentation and narrative.

MACRO: Abstracting the density of visual information on path taken through indeterminate musical notation, inspired by the works of composers Cornelius Cardew and John Cage.

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MESO: Cataloging harmonious and dissonant spatial relationships, using musical conventions to draw parallels with their physical characteristics or their intended use.

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MICRO: Highlighting digital distortion frame-by-frame, creating an alternating sequence of a skewed personal experience at a particular moment in time, in an urban space.

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DECEPTIVE GEOMETRIES Exploiting the Proto-Image Lazy Computing Advisor(s): Andrew Bako Team: Angus Cheung & Polly Yip October 2020, 3 weeks

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CONTEXT: In “Rendering Environment”, Andrew Atwood calls for a closer examination of the image and the digital processes and techniques used to produce images in architecture. Atwood denotes an expanding gap between the architectural object and its image, as “images are produced as abstractions of abstractions,” and thus, moving further away from their “original” source. He breaks down the digital image into four categories by their processes: the proto-image,

para-image, post-image, and meta-image.

EXPLOIT: Proto-images are often used to refine the object or geometry by subtly adding the appearance of texture. What would happen if we exploit this tool and put it to its limits? In order to investigate the impacts of proto-images, we have used this tool of refinement as a design tool to “manipulate” the form. As a result, this visual geometric manipulation creates illusions of false geometry.

PROCESS: To achieve this, we produced a series of bump and normal maps of varying levels, orientation, and density. The textures of the bump maps were created using the raw geometry itself, strengthening the relationship between the object and the final image. The bump maps are then applied to the original base geometry to allow for direct and accurate comparisons of the protoimaging process and its effects.

RESULTS: This exercise reveals

the increasing destabilizing image? When are formal qualities effect of using recursive texture subverted by exploiting the protomapping. Although the first image as a design tool? “texture” is directly sourced from the reference object, the subsequent images become more and more deceptive, as the unrefined use of the bump maps change our understanding of the object and its surface conditions.

This project questions the limits of image making and the role of image making processes as a design tool. At what point is the object disconnected from its

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TIFFANY CHANG

2022

tiffanylynnechang@gmail.com