Dimensions, a portfolio.

TOMMY TSO Portfolio

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1D Linear Strings

2D Bezier Curve

3D Spiral Form

1D Linear Strings

2D Bezier Curve

3D Spiral Form

[18 spools of wool, 8 hours, two flights of stairs]

4D

Wear and Tear

5D

Demolished by Fire Marshals

4D

1D Linear Strings Wear and 5DBezier Demolished 2D Tear Planar Curve by Fire Marshals 3D

Formed Around the Stairs

4D

Experienced in Sight and Touch

5D

Demolished by the Fire Safety Regulations

Twisted Parallel Installation, June 2007

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BREADTH

THE SCIENCE OF RESILIENT SOLUTIONS Design is not for philosophy it’s for life. - Issey Miyake Like a soldier in the army, complex administration and narrowed task designations can easily defocus an employed designer from the larger promise of the profession. That is, at its essence, Architecture is a solution business. Unlike Arts, it does not decorate first. Nor is it Landscape, it does not regionalize first. Mostly, it is unlike Realty, it does not profit first. Architecture is a humanitarian service first.

The core concepts of DIMENSIONS came from a previous project, COLLAGE ARCHITECTURE. Professed as a mental model, COLLAGE optimistically appreciates the reality of unoriginal designs. Subsequently, it promotes fearlessness to copy and fuse invented, local, but appropriate ideas as resolves. The results are often unexpecting, but believably practical.

In the process of COLLAGE, selections were made to shortlist local ideas for fusion. Curiously, ideas that made sense, and likely made popular, are designs that have lasted and replicated. Like the Italian red roof clay tiles, Israeli four-storey typology, American skyscrappers, they are architectural products that have served well.

Since COLLAGE largely focused on fusions, the science of idea selections was applied but not explored, not until now.

Greater ideas will always emerge and prevail because of their ability to resiliently survive in all dimensions - with intent or by accident. However as designers, in order to consistently make valid contributions, our design canvas must stretch beyond the familiar three dimensions. We must tangibly imagine in the fourth and fifth realm where time and political finance matters.

This personal portfolio has been organized by the ideas of Dimensions - its ideals, qualities, and deficiencies. Although each project gallery may be ordered in chronology, the macro sequence in this book is not. Because good ideas are not bound by time, scale, or context, but they are appreciated for the breadth it capacitates.

TOMMY TSO Portfolio

FIRST DIMENSION

THE LINEAR RACE

The Tower of Babel is more than a biblical legend; it is a timeless model of a simple innate human character, to win. Since nature only permits the best, and the world, of its 248752 cities, only shines at the highest.

That is why we race.

We race to climb the highest mountains and compete for greater wealth. We boast about the largest airships and the build the biggest boat. We make high scores and keep records, document and advertise, all because these races chase after temporary and sentimental achievements.

Manhattan’s World Trade Centers were once the tallest buildings in the world. The $2 billion dollar (current value) estate held its status for 2 years, until the Willis Tower (Sears Tower, Chicago) succeeded the title of the tallest building. Apples-to-apples, all the apples are uncharacteristically generic. Sooner or later, a sweeter and fresher fruit will devalue the previous ace. It is without complexity and capacity; this is world of the first dimension.

Burj Khalifa, 2010 828 m 6

Source: http://skyscraperpage.com

Shanghai WFC, 2008 492 m

World Trade Centers, 1973 417 m

Petronas Towers, 1998 452 m

World’s Tallest Buildings, with WTC, by roof heights

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TABLE OF CONTENTS CHRONOLOGY AND STORY TELLING [InDesign CS4]

Start from concept, then schematics, d 1ST DIMENSION Table of Contents

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www.tommytso.com

010

2ND DIMENSION Lamp Trapeze

014

Metropolis Bike Rack

018

Architecture Survey

022

Collage Architecture 3 026 3RD DIMENSION Nuit Blanche

040

Pine Lids

048

Post-Carbon Mall

052

Air India Memorial

054

Ryerson Expo

058

Favela House

062

Cultura

064

4TH DIMENSION Winery

074

Collage Architecture 1 078 5TH DIMENSION Collage Architecture 2 094 0TH DIMENSION

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Curriculum Vitae

108

Contacts

116

INFO PORTFOLIO CONTA

development, documentation, visualization, realization, and ends in evaluation

S

M

L

XL

ART

COLLAGE

UNTIL THE STORY ENDS

ACT

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WWW.TOMMYTSO.COM CHRONOLOGY AND MARKETING

[Flash CS4, InDesign CS4, Photoshop CS4, Wix Editor] My architectural stories presented chronologically in a linear belt, with beginning, middle, and end.

My World Wide Web Citizenship

My architectural stories are told in linear chronology. It conveys my rational process in hopes to provoke a concordance. The presentation format is sequenced in a linear belt. It will always start from the concept, then schematics, development, documentation, 10

visualization, realization, and ends in evaluation. Without ornaments, the object of communication is genuineness.

The Browser is simply a crop box that displays my design chronology in increments.

Navigation Control (Left)

The website is live in October of 2011. Bound only within the confines of a browser window, the linear presentation is flexibly cropped.

Readers can scroll, slide, and click through the story using scroll bars, roll-overs, and navigational buttons, respectively.

WWW.TOMMYTSO.COM is the primary front of public relations. All news, recent works, and bio make their first publications there.

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THE OPTIMAL PLAN

Designs ideas are translated onto technologies like computers monitors, paper sketches, and blueprints. In these documents, orthographic projections - such as plans, elevations, and sections - accurately illustrate the built geometries. Then, these drawings are governed by regional building codes and by-laws. These rules are written largely in orthogonal language: the gross floor area are plans, glazing ratio are elevations, and setbacks are both limits for plans and elevations.

Even with these tools, copy-and-describe are unlikely the only scopes for Architects. Clients and developers expect meaningful strategies tailored to increase their operation or maximize marketable space. As such, many projects usually rivet in floor plan layouts. The method is rightful, but the floor plan focus can often over-dominate the design process.

The World Trade Centers were designed to optimize useable floor spaces. Architect Yamasaki introduced a stacked junctional elevator system that can substantially reduce core structural shafts. He also added versitility; where all office areas are uninterrupted by columns.

Engineers pioneered an exo-skeleton where 236 steel columns ensured the integrity of each tower and offer the Architectural needs Yamasaki desires. The optimal plan left no room or budget the elevation design. The final form was no more than an extrusion of the floor plans.

On September 11, tragedy was made when airplanes took out critical exterior structures. It left the columnless office areas unsupported. It was the worst price to pay when the extra dimensions were not accounted for in a product of seond dimension.

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Source: http:// http://911research.wtc7.net

World Trade Center Typical Office Floor Plan

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LAMP TRAPEZE DIGITAL FABRICATION

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15

BREADTH

ARCHITECTURE FOR

[AutoCAD 2010, Laser cutter,

Illustrator CS4, Rhinoceros 4.0] The

tools

of

Computer-Aided-

Manufacturing (CAM) introduces a level of intracacy and proficiency unachieveable

by

hand.

Given

two 800X400 sheets of acrylic and vellum, a pendent lamp is designed to be flat-packed and assembled in 30 minutes. Much like the schematics of an IKEA product, the lamp will be given with a set of comprehensive instruction, written for the nonarchitectural laymen (Right).

The tectonics of the lamp structure is expressed with the truthful display of click-snap connectors. These joints link up the main structural frame.

From afar, the lamp may look slightly distorted, but this is intentional. All 40 pieces of the main lamp structures are unique; a gentle shape shift helps create the subtle warp in the overall form. Attached on top of the exoskeleton is a shell of thin vellum that diffuses the light. Layer by layers, the 2D pieces becomes 3D. All components have been designed for the efficiency of planar production.

It is so that a 3D work of art can be realized and perhaps replicated.

3RD PLACE

Before it ambitiously become the city’s bike rack, it must be tested in Toronto’s Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.

This memorial site laid many celebrities to rest. In respect, visitors treat this park with extra care and gratitude. Today, the cemetery has become one of the most popular cycling grounds in downtown. It is only fitting to have the first prototype here.

METROPOLIS BIKE RACK A CONTEMPORARY RENDITION OF AN ICON [Rhinoceros 4.0, AutoCAD 2010, 3D printer, Photoshop CS4]

A new need for bike racks arises as the population of Torontonian cyclists grew. Although this traditional means of commuting is not known for eccentric innovations, the design of a new bike rack will reflect the recently renewed motivation to bicycle in the city. So, the bike rack must remain locally familiar yet surprisingly refreshing.

It must welcome cyclist to park but remains beautiful without one.

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When this culture is revived, so does the street life of metro Toronto.

Photo: the original Toronto Bike Rack 19

The concept is to rasterize an inverse image of the iconic Toronto bike rack. The process of rasterization is similar to poster printing.

Unlike fine printing, from a book-reading distance, pixels of a monochromatic image look like varying sizes of dots. Using Computer-Aided-Manufacturing (CAM), these dots are translatesd as holes that can be cut out of a sheet of alluminium. The engraved and cut metal is then rolled and embeded in a concrete footing.This new bike rack turns the function of locking bicycles into an urban art.

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3D printed model: the rasterized image 21

ARCHITECTURE SURVEY PROFESSIONAL WORK [AutoCAD 2009]

Architectural Site Plan

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Architectural Ground Floor

Survey and Document a 5 Storey Commercial Building

Architectural 2nd Floor

Architectural Basement

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BREADTH

ARCHITECTURE FOR REALITY

Searching for a formula of design is like finding a cure for mutated cells; it’s difficult. Unfortunately, this reality does not quench our thirst for idealogies. As rationalists in a rational world, when our patrons has overloaded our capacity to reason against ‘economical’ alternatives, the average designer recedes from critical design decisions, allowing non-architects to make architectural decisions.

We must revolt; (1) Eradicate our utopian fantasies, (2) Actively abide a joint position with the client, (3) turn economical and political ori nos es illaborit am sunt reicid ut p

As requested from a real estate client, an updated set of digital documentations to a five-storey commercial building will more accurately determine the rentable space for tenants. Previously, the building blueprints were in microscans. They have a very low level of resolution and they are not conveniently accessible. So, the new drawing set will document the building in vector resolutions. It will provide the architectural floor plans, elevations, and mechanical ceiling plans. The job requires multiple site visits and a trip to city hall. This three-week project has been entirely conducted, drawn, and presented independently.

Mechanical Ground Floor

Searching for a formula of design is like finding a cure for mutated cells; it’s difficult. Unfortunately, this reality does not quench our thirst for idealogies. As rationalists in a rational world, when our patrons has overloaded our capacity to reason against ‘economical’ alternatives, the average designer recedes from critical design decisions, allowing non-architects to make architectural decisions.

We must revolt; (1) Eradicate our utopian fantasies, (2) Actively abide a joint position with the client, (3) turn economical and political ori nos es illaborit am sunt reicid ut p

Mechanical 2nd Floor

Mechanical Basement

COLLAGE ARCHITECTURE 3 THE SKETCHING ADVOCATE

[Black marker pen, InDesign CS4, Photoshop CS4] Collage Archtiecture: Sketching is an extension to the series COLLAGE ARCHITECTURE - a methodology conceived in a Historical Conservation Studio, 2010. It premise on the idea that design is not original, and that all innovative concepts are merely a collage of preceding ideas. “This is not a pessimistic whine, but a realistic appreciation. Only when a designer recognizes this (collaged) phenomenon can he be free to imagine all things, charter all territories‌â€?

The hierarchy in the quickness of idea processing begins with thinking at the top, follow by speaking, sketching, sketch modeling, drawing, and then digital modeling. Unfortunately, since technological exploitation has perverted the architectural profession with excessively detailed visualizations, schematic drawings have lost its variable and disputable character. The thirst for realistic renderings and digitization has diverted the effort for quick graphic communication to fine tuning computer settings; tweaking lighting magnitudes and pixel resolutions are parts in brainstorming today.

As architects, it is critical that we understand the diverity and application of this technologies. Renderings and digital modelling, for instance, are credible for accurate depictions. They become suitable in the project development phases. Similarly, drawings and physical modelling are methods that can appropriately consolidate ideas in the final schematics phase. However, in the early periods of brainstorming, where our focus cannot be diverted from the complexity of detailed production, free-sketching reigns superior.

Sketching explores the various approaches, styles, attitudes, techniques, and factors of quick visualizations. The product of each set of trails will consolidate into an architectural image for the end. This product hopes to become accessible and benign to the audience that appreciates not just the form, but the operations and 26

conversations that derives it.

(Top) Book Cover, The Black Pen

(Bottom) The Site 1940-70, 2000-10

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SKETCHES COLLAGED Since the nature of the site allows the architectural form to have two primary facades, the design objective will be to create a north and west facing plane. However, rather than making arbitrary blends of ‘things’, I will use the local elements as resource and then collage together for a design. This can be anything from street lamps to billboards, buildings to cars.

Next, the architectural elements in one direct (North, South, East, or West) will be collected as fragments used to compose one facade of the corresponding direction. This means, elements in the view East and West will be used to collage the West facing wall of the new building. Similarly, elements in the view North and South will be used to collage the North facing wall of the building. In summary, the process is to first dissect the site, then reassemble these sketch pieces, and finally formulate a formal proposal we call the rendering.

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Site West 1

Site West 1

Site West 1

Site West 1

(Top, bottom) Dissecting the site in TEXTURE, SHADING, MASSING, PROGRAM

29

32

The North Facade: A Sum 33

34

The West Facade: A Sum 35

THE FINAL SUMMARY

The sum of all the sketches consolidates as one final image we call the architectural rendering. This is that proposal.

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FREEDOM TOWERS

Modernism promised a world of simple order and genuine minimalism. With the strip windows, open concept, and towers of repetitive floor plans, many great American city has boomed and sprawled. The simplification may have relieve urban chaos, but the process has demeaned many of our spaces to mere horizontality. Today, verticle translations within a building has confined to moving cages we call elevators, and sloped grounds have become a stigma of inefficiency. Buildings may exist in length, width, and height, but without access or experience, not all of the dimensions are affable.

The high-rise typology has become an urban predicament. While its capacity revolutionalize urban expansions, it has also imprisoned wealthy patrons in expensive glass boxes. Urbanist Jane Jacobs once recognized the sociocultural qualities of mid-rise apartments because residents can have their “eyes on the street� - a place where they can sentimentally own. In order to re-integrate these airborne buildings back on the urban fabric, stratification must happen. It must happen in all levels beginning at grade: ground floor commerce, second level patio, third level retail... fifteenth level amenity sky-lobbies are all means to free the population in the stacked cities of horizontal prisons.

The World Trade Centers were once the obelisks of Manhattan. Like any other monuments in town, they are museum artifacts used for viewing only. While office workers enjoy columnless interiors, down on the street, wanderers are orientating around a cage-like landmark that might as well be its stone predecessor.

For many reason, if the World Trade Center had other means of verticle transport and urban integration, it would have improved, or perhaps saved many more lives. Considering designs in all faces of the cube is practicing the third dimension.

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Source: Baldwin Lee, http://baldwinlee.com/

World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York, 1975

39

NUIT BLANCHE NIGHTTIME INSTALLATION

[AutoCAD 2010, Rhinoceros 4.0, InDesign CS4, Photoshop CS4] To study the vulnerability of space, a responsive mechanical dialetic is thrown in between the user and their immediate space. As the participants moves through the pavilion, they are given the freedom to augment their intrusive surrounding in order to find comfort, or rudimentarily a way through. The design development of the project was divided into three areas: structure, tubes and lights, and the motion mechanism.

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The Assembly Components of the Installation, 1-meter wall sample

Early sketches: the provoking experience walking through

Early sketches: the movement of pavilion visitors

The Intrusiveness and Vulnerability of Space

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The Interface

The Walk-thru

The Mechanisms

Tube: In the Manufacturing Line

Tube: Manual routering Structure: Laser-Cutter, CAM

Tube: the First Prototype of the Pneumatic Interface Structure: Flat-Packed and sorted

44

Tube: In the Assembly Line

Tube: On Assembly Day Structure: On Assembly Day

Tube: the Final Design of the Pneumatic Interface Structure: Testing the Prototype

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46

Completed: the tectonics of structure, light, and pneumatics

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HONOURABLE MENTION 48

PINE LIDS BIRD FEEDER

[AutoCAD 08, Photoshop CS3] Waste does not exist in nature.

Using common Canadian trash, coffie cup lids, stirs, copper wires, and a specific system of knitting, a bird feeder is made.

Common Waste: Coffee Lids

Completed: the Seed Pods On Exhibition

Common Waste: Coffee Stirs

Lids Assembly: Seed Pods

Selected to display in Toronto’s anual

Stirs: reinforced by copper

2008

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1 Hanger

5 Caps

Suspension Supports

3 Seed Pods

4 Trays

1ST PLACE

POST-CARBON MALL REVISING AMERICAN COMMERCE

[Sketchup 6, Podium, Photoshop CS3, InDesign CS3] Although the original intent of the American strip mall was to centralize suburban commerce, the result has been the creation of alienating buildings imposed in an asphalt sea of parking, with little to no greens. Today, they merely become a quick stop and little more.

Asphalt vs Green

The design begins with zoning; a change to mixeduse injects new diversity in program and social class. The over-designed parking lot will turn into farmer’s

markets,

urban

farming,

playgrounds,

outdoor theatres, patio eateries, and a reservoir that manages grey water in the summer and becomes a skating arena in the winter. Atop the low-rise mall, new private homes will offset the unbalanced daily use. Traditionally, malls had been designed to serve

Publication

cars, but the post-carbon strip mall will adjust its focus back on the people. This is the making of a walkable, diverse, and therefore exciting community center.

Parking Lot

Driving Lane

Parking Lane

52 Existing Residential Renewal: Greenhouse, green wall, front gate...

Strip Mall

Diversity of Planning: Housing, Greens, Commerce, Pedestrians, Food, and Water

From asphalt to lush, imports to local, and cars to pedestrians

Urban Farms

Occupied by the New Farmers’ Market

Housing

Vegetation Urban Eatery and Theatre

Over-Designed Parking

Allotment Gardens and Sub-level Parking

Existing

53 New Residences atop the Mall

Phasing the Development

1ST PLACE

AIR INDIA MEMORIAL

REMEMBERING A CANADIAN TRAGEDY [AutoCAD 2008, 3Ds Max 2008, Photoshop CS4]

The Air India tragedy is Canada’s very own Sept 11. At the time of the terrorist attack, the Canadian government underrated the event and denounced its own legal citizens. Uproars of mistreatment have never rested. As a resolution, the Memorial will repair this fault.

In minimalist clarity, the design parti is a circle, which signifies unity. Tracing the circumference, two long ramps gently decends its visitors in a figurative reenactment of the plane fall. Below ground, an isolated rememberance hall is filled with the music of rushing Atlantic waves. Coincidentally, the waters was also where the victims descended to. Above the head, an oculus pours in a divine light.

On the wall, the names of the lost ones are organized according to each person’s polar orientation of their “Canadian Home”. Upon exit, visitors ascend up the other ramp and ends in a garden, where brightness and hope becomes their last moment of memorial.

Circulation

54

Each name on the wall is in the direction of their “Native Home”

Plan: Ramp, Garden, and Oculus

Structure: Post and Beam

The tone and scale of the memorial is humbly appropriate its intent

Against the cold winter skies, the memorial is divinely illuminated

The Garden of Hope at grade

A Quieting Walk Down the Ramp

In Silent Rememberance

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Geometry and Iconography

(Top) Early Sketches

(Bottom) Final Technical Resolve

2ND PLACE

RYERSON EXPO AN URBAN CANVAS

[AutoCAD 2008, 3Ds Max 2008, Photoshop CS3] It is an open forum for students and the community to academically and socially interact, the site’s distinctinve lines are dividers for booths during various exposition events. Key features included the central podium, benches, and sounds from a water feature.

Competition Model

Concrete slabs offer generic and innate divisions useful for fairs and events

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Lunch, study, or relax at the podium

Like a canvas, the EXPO offers simplicity, clarity, and variability

Urban Serenity: Washed in the Sound of Water from the Fountain

“Next group meeting...meet at the podium at the EXPO�

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Programmatic Divisions

Key Map

Spring: Study Week

Summer: Convocation

Fall: Back to School

Podium Concepts

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Winter: Ice Festival

Bench Details

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FAVELA HOUSE

INFORMAL HOUSING IN BELO HORIZONTE [Revit Architecture 2008, Photoshop CS3]

Belo Horizonte in Brazil has one of the largest Favela communities in the world. These informal housing are constructed using traditional materials like bricks, concrete, and wood. The buidling size is often a reflection of necessity and affordabiity. To optimize space, this project introduces a foreign method of programmatic organization.

Inspired by the Japanese house, the public and private quarters are vertically divided by a transitional staircase. This minimize unnecessary corridors and adds a sense of clarity for its inhabitants.

Building Plans

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Building Section

Structures in Revit

Design: the central screen wall is the staircase. On the right are all private spaces like bedrooms, and on the left are all public places like the living room

Living Room

The Staircase Corridor

Work Room

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CULTURA

[Revit Arch 2009, Photoshop CS3] Cultura is a mixed-use development designed as an urban catalysts for Toronto’s emerging High Street,

100m tower (5.5m away)

AN URBAN CATALYST

Bloor Street. The building sits in the midst of six presences. Most notably, due Southeast is the

This is the traditional structure grid.

ROM (museum), due Southwest is RCM (music hall), and due East, narrow site, a 100m tall residential tower just 5.5m away. In resolution, the

facade

is

corrigated

and

reorientated. This will frame new

100m tower (5.5m away)

which is also the larger side of the

views to the ROM and RCM, and turn away from the tower due East.

To adapt to the site, the grid rotates.

Site

Medical Building

Exhibition Residence 100m tall

In towers, residents are prisoners.

Royal Conservatory of Music

Royal Ontario Museum

University of Toronto

64

The 6 Major Site Influences

Now, residents are neighbours

Red Marks the Entrance

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(Top) The Parti, the essence

(Bottom) All 25 unique building plans

Parking

Parking

Lobby

Retail

Retail

Office

Office

Living

Living

Living

Living

Living

Living

Living

Living

Living

Living

Living

Living

Living

Living

Living

Living

Living

Facade Details

Ground Floor

Office Units

The lobby has a generous 6m ceiling.

Retail Entry at ground then shop on the second floor.

Hello, Libeskind

Half Floor Units

68 Full Floor Units

Welcome Home to the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum)

High-End Units

The Landscape of Balconies

Rear Parking

The Tapestry of Windows and Walls

Street Front

69

North Elevation: A landscape of balconies turns Cultura residents into neighbours

East Elevation: What looks to be the largest facade is rotated to avoid the 100m wall

Mechanical: A boiler and chiller are responsible for the interior climate control

Electrical: Power is effectively distributed from a central panel on each floor

Fan Coil Units in every bedroom and Large rooms

Roof top Chiller

70 City Grid

Panels are integrated into the interior furnishing

Roof top Units

Basement Boiler Unit is in the Mechanical Room

Basement Electrical Vault is in the Mechanical Room City Grid

South Elevation: The lane on the East (left) services the entrance to parking on north

West Elevation: abuts a 9-storey medical building, therefore, no glazing

Structures: The core holds the elevators, garbage and mechanical shafts.

Building Facade: Prefab reduces errors, complexities, allows quicker assembly.

Core

External Structural Wall System

Walls

Foundation 71

WITH TIME

The architectural rendering is widely considered as the profession’s best arsenal for public relations. Its nickname, the money shot, evidently indicates its intent to sell. Little do people know, or even the architect realize, the rendering is a con.

Glossed in high colours and lighting effects, images of a design proposal depicts the condition on opening day. Perfect and new, thoughts of weathering and aging are not apparent to the audience. We must realize, Architecture was never about perfection; thoughtful and artful imperfection are qualities that make Architecture intrinsically affable and hollistically humane: an inefficient long corridor agitates suspense, a small half-wall creates the likely place for keys and phones, the uninsulated basement room stores food, and the crawspace below the porch hides trash bins, all because of time. To have imperfections may be a problem on opening day, but with time and adaptation, the end users will come to love the building. You will be surprised, when a family moves, they miss the littlest pieces of imperfection that makes that old home uniquely convinient.

Architecture does not appear in an instance, it lives through time. If we don’t consider its possibility for change, growth, and deterioration, it will not survive.

Like having an infant, if money weren’t saved before conceiving one, parents are deemed irresponsible.

Why should that be different with Architects who do not design with time and plan ahead?

When Architect Yamasaki designed the twin towers in 1962, its engineers insured that the building will stand even in the face of an airplane attack. They were right.

What was not accounted for was the time. 56 minutes and 2 seconds of incredible flames devalued the structural capacity of steel and anything less. In truth, the World Trade Center stood in the third dimension, but it fell in the fourth dimension.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTh3OyfGx20

World Trade Center, September 11, 2011, 09:02 AM

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WINERY

FRICTIONLESS OPERATION AND GROWTH [AutoCAD 2008]

Wineries today are no longer simply factories, they are entertainment facilities. It is a place where wine lovers can learn the science and art of the drink they love. In design, the resolve is a site specific, rational, and minimal building. It effectively services the production team, administration office, and the consumers. These parties can operate frictionlessly and independently while maintaining visual connections. Most importantly, plans to expand are concieved form the start. So if the winery naturally chooses to become popular and then expands, it can in the most optimal way.

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The triangle, circle, and rectangle.

Rectangle: horizontally expandable factory traces the processing Circle: the vertically expandable drum services all visitors and staff Triangle: the linear expandable office holds all administrators

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COLLAGE ARCHITECTURE 1 THESIS: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL

[Rhinoceros 4.0, AutoCAD 2010, InDesign CS4, Photoshop CS4] Only when we realize that design is about collaging, we can be liberated from the fear to create. Understanding that there is no single method of design, the iterative process becomes the ground for originality. COLLAGE ARCHITECTURE is only a methodology, not a fomula. So copy with care and copy with meanings.

While urban planners are busy remolding the city with large scale revitalization strategies, architects are shortsighted, blinded from seeing the communities they diminishes with the architecture they manufacture - manifesting unintended singularities. Interpretation is a culprit to unrealized visions. The solution is to devised a strategy that guide designers within the regiem of a masterplan.

The southern region of Tel Aviv has the largest collection of modern architecture. In this UNESCO heritage site is a manmade fissure, the backyard of backyards. It was left behind by a demolished railway that once gave life to its local neighbourhoods. In order to repurpose this site, architecture must directly address the contextual challenges, in a way where solutions are bluntly derived from its problems.

All design decisions are based upon “super-function�. It will deny all discussions of beauty and language because aesthetics is merely subjective, and therefore temporal. In an ecology of energy exchange, circulation cycle and growth tolerance, infrastructure should become the new architecture, buildings should become masterplans, and Architects should become Planners.

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The Goal of All Architecture

The Potential, but not the only, Architectural Outcome

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01 CHALLENGES: Identified

02 ADDRESSING Each Concern

Every program has a GENOTYPE

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03 GENOTYPE: An Architectural Embryo that optimally grows with time

Every program has a GENE

04 GENES: Programs categorized in TYPES and in itsBench need Details for SUN 81

05 BREEDING: Mating programs into mixed-use complexes based on the

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06 ECOSYSTEM: The network of energy exchange, which turns

coherence of building TYPES, their need for SUN, and growth with time

wasted resources of one program into energy by-products for another

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07 FORMALIZE: From 2D to 3D

Recreation Industrial

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09 MASTERPLAN

Industrial

Recreation

Business

Power

Arts

Industrial

Recreation

Cultural

Business

Power

Arts

Cultural

Stage 1

Stage 4

Population 300

Population 1000

Stage 2

Stage 5

Population 400

Population 1300

Stage 3

Stage 6

Population 600

Population 1500

08 TIME: The phases of growth

Arts

Power

Cultural

Business

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WEST INDUSTRIAL

WEST

RECREATION Synagogue, Amphitheatre

Amphitheatre

Sports Hall, housing, market

Allotment Gardens

PARK SOCIAL VOID

Florentine Live-work units

Mansion House Private Ownership

Education facility

Activity center Wellness Center

Farmer’s market

Bike Route

Hotels

Neve Tzedek Rental Units

The Final Tower

AMALGAMATION

Offices

EAST

A Growth Constriant typology

Opera Hall

Cafes & eater-

Opera House

ARTS

EAST

POWER

Higher Education

Club Energy Plant

Greenhouse, Night Club, Energy Plant

Activity Trail

Supermarket

07 MASTERPLAN

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Synagogue

SECTION

Amphitheatre

Synagogue

Sports Hall, housing, market

RECREATION

WEST

Florentine Live-work units

Allotment Gardens

SOCIAL VOID

PARK

Synagogue, Amphitheatre

INDUSTRIAL

WEST

Activity center

Mansion House Private Ownership

Wellness Center

Farmer’s market

Education facility

Farmer’s market

Neve Tzedek Rental Units

Activity Trail

Hotels

Offices

Supermarket

Bike Route

A Growth Constriant typology

AMALGAMATION

The Final Tower

Greenhouse, Night Club, Energy Plant

POWER

EAST

Club Energy Plant

Higher Education Cafes & eater-

Bottom

Middl

Opera House

Top

Opera Hall

ARTS

EAST

PLAN

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East Elevation

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The verticle tower typology restrains growth from turning into conjestion

West Elevation

The garden trail ends at the spiral condominium

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Florentine Live-work units

Amphitheatre Synagogue

Mansion House Private Ownership WEST

RECREATION

Sports Hall, housing, market

WEST

Allotment Gardens

INDUSTRIAL

PARK

Synagogue, Amphitheatre

SOCIAL VOID

Western Districts

Florentine Live-work units

Activity center Education facility

Mansion House Private Ownership

Farmer’s market

CENTRAL CULTURAL

Farmer’s Market Wellness Center Activity Center

Wellness Center

Neve Tzedek Rental Units

Offices Hotels

CENTRAL BUSINESS Offices Hotel

Central Districts

The Final Tower AMALGAMATION

A Growth Constriant typology

Offices Bike Hotels route Neve Tzedek Rental Units

Activity Trail Club Energy Plant

Higher Education

Supermarket EAST POWER

Greenhouse, Night Club, Energy Plant

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Eastern Districts

Cafes & Eateries

Opera House

EAST ARTS

Opera Hall

Industrial District: Amphitheatre and Church

Cultural District: Farmer’s Market, Recreation Center, Private Housing

Art District: Operal House, Higher Education Center

Power District: dynamic energy in a club is collected by a power plant

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THE POLITICAL, FINANCAL GAME

The non-partisan Olympic Games suddenly became a venue for political and financial flex. We were all witnesses as Beijing dazzled the world with non-sport related performances and architectural extravaganza.

Some believed, if Herzog and DeMeuron’s Beijing National Stadium (Bird’s Nest) was not unvealed for the 2008 Olympic Games, it would have never been built. How could it? In China, regulations were loose. Little limits exist on construction pollutions and worker’s rights; 17000 construction workers can work in continuous shifts, day and night, under minimal pay.

Funding, permits, and resources are well provided as China stages its emergence at all costs.

Finance and politics in Architecture is the highest order of complexity. It can dictate designs and affect the urban typologies. For instance, balconies may not improve energy performances, aesthetics, or function, but they account for marketable space and not Gross Floor Area. Two large bedrooms may offer greater comfort, but in real estate, a three-bedroom home sells for more. If the Architect is oblivious to the blatant game of finance and politics, their design decisions may never be passed. In the wrong time, wrong place, unsupported finance and policies, design agendas might as well be just another utopian manifesto.

9:00 PM EDT, September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush addressed to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People, “Freedom and Free are at war”.

Who knew that two towers can become the symbol of consumerism and national pride? Who knew that the measures taken after the attacks can change safety protocols in every industry around the world? Who knew that the assults of buildings can lead to 10 years of war and many more years of economic hardship? The Architect should be one of many to know; if and only if, his design was conceived for the fifth dimension.

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Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/

Freedom and Fear are at War, GW Bush, US Congress

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COLLAGE ARCHITECTURE 2 THESIS: THORNCLIFFE PARK, TORONTO

[Rhinoceros 4.0, AutoCAD 2010, InDesign CS4, Photoshop CS4] Design is never original, but the process of composition is. This is not a pessimistic thought but a realistic statement. COLLAGE ARCHITECTURE brings out a different value system to engage design, one that values the collective logistic over the individual ego. It is not a manifesto or a methodology, it is a mental model.

But we must first liberate ourselves from all of those old ideas that “weight like a nightmare on the brain of the living� (Marx wrote, from The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon) (Harley, On Architects, Bees, and Possible Urban Worlds, 221).

In the context of Thorncliffe Park, an inner city suburb in Toronto, COLLAGE hopes to investigate and experiment with the core concerns behind the phenomena of Tower Renewal. Rather than a singular Architectural solution, the goal is to produce an Infrastructural time-plan that can resolve the needs of the community sustainably. By sustainability, It is not refer to immoral commercial model, it refers to the genuine spirit of sustainability. A building is truly sustainable if it supply itself, manages its waste, and natural expand to accomodate its needs. Like a living plant, it can grow and it can die out, but it has the capacity to alway live forever.

With the means to grow and shrink rapidly, Architecture is finally user driven. In many ways true, neccessity is the best driver for change. If the inhabitants can makes a space popular, then the request to expand should be feasible. This may be the highest form of humanitarian architecture.

Through systems, catalogues, theoretical approaches, practical approaches, graphs, and writing excerpts, all ideas will be displayed though a sample idea on site. In the objective to accentuate the architectural process, COLLAGE ARCHITECTURE hopes to create a mental model that will question and find personalized practice 94

principles for all designers alike.

In 5D: A Time-lapsed Rendering shows all changes due to Finance

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01a BEFORE: Architecture and planning in its root condition @ yr. 1

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01b AFTER: Architecture and planning in transformation @ yr. 15

02a ECONOMIC PLAN: In the span of time for the Architecture

02b TIMEPLAN: Architecture Design in Time, Politics and Finance

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02a ECONOMIC PLAN (continued)

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02b TIMEPLAN (continued)

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02a ECONOMIC PLAN (continued)

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02b TIMEPLAN (continued)

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Before: Southwest Elevation

Before: A Parking Structure

Before: Groundcover on Roof, Parking, and Degrading Apartment Facades

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Before: Anchor Franchise - IKEA

After: Southwest Elevation

After: Library (added walls, lights, and furniture)

After: Pedestrian Overpass, Library, and Facade Renewal System

After: Community Facility - POOL

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THE BEAUTIFUL PARKING GARAGE

The words humility and Architecture rarely appear in the same sentence except if the word that preceeds it is ‘no’. This long accepted attitude has become a professionalism that blurs our spectacles. As we mature day by day, project by project, appreciation for the other design works becomes harder and harder.

Like the parking structure, the poetic nature of this uninteresting building can never be seen as beautiful within the world of 3D thinking.

Its gray, conventional, and boring qualities has already sentenced this type of building into the ‘most un-wanted’ list. Perhaps being ugly ranks higher than being a good piece of Architecture..

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One Instance in Time: Root Condition, Year 1

Perhaps unintensional, but the infrastructure planned by its initial designer has given the parking garage a capacity to reborn and relive. As it ages, its structural integrity does not weaken. Like an unfinished postand-beam building frame, walls can infill column bays, systems can condition the interior, and the seemingly souless architecture can find new purposes. Design decisions we make today can either become future opportunities or just another waste.

In the world of 5D thinking, we do not celebrate geometries. We see financial timelines, trace the genesis of ideas, and make educated predictions

One Instance in Time: Transformation, Year 20

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THE ETERNAL IDEA

It is not science. It is not art. It may be theory, but it is not fact. It is not linear, and certainly not planar. Nor is it geometrical, and definately not in time. It is immune to finance because policies can’t define. Below the first dimension, it is inmeasureable when it’s unconfined.

WIthout an edge, it must be discontinuous. No ways to connect? It questions its own existence. Minus its existence, it will be nothing. But in this nothingless, one thing stands discrete; it is the idea that lives.

The Tribute of the Light rose through the settling ashes at Ground Zero. The light is unlike other glow in the city that never sleeps. The World Trade Center stands taller than ever now, but it matters not. It stands with the most open floor plans now, that matters not. It stands without a horizontal break, it matters not. It stands without a sway and without an agenda and purpose, it matters not. Suddenly, our hearts are filled with emptiness just as the tower we dream is realized.

We will never forget the events of September 11.

Respect and rememberance will stand eternally in the world of the zeroth dimension.

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Source: http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/

Tribute of Light, Manhattan, March 11, 2002

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CURRICULUM VITAE

TECHNICAL SKILLS Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010

[4 yrs]

Autodesk AutoCAD 2010

[8 yrs]

Rhinoceros 4.0, with Grasshopper

[2 yrs]

Adobe CS4 Photoshop, Illustrator, & Indesign [3 yrs] Microsoft Office 2007, in the office setting

[8 yrs]

CREDENTIAL

Ryerson University, Toronto

[2011]

Bachelor of Architectural Science, honours LEED Acredited Professional

[2009]

LANGUAGES English (Native proficiency) Cantonese (Professional working proficiency) Mandarin (Professional working proficiency)

RELEVANT EXPERIENCES

Partner

[2009- ]

TASK Creatives, Canada Project Manager, Summer Trainee Swire Properties, Hong Kong Draftsman and Technical Assistant Takric Engineering Ltd, Canada

CONTACTS

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[2008]

Phone

+1 (416) 277 1523

Location

92 Holly Drive,

Richmond Hill, ON,

Canada, L4S2R5

Email

tommy.tso.kf@gmail.com

Portfolio

www.tommytso.com

[2008]

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS Honours Distinction, Bachelor graduation, Ryerson

[2011]

(3rd Place) Mount Pleasant Bike Rack Design Contest

[2010]

Highest monetary winner, Queen Elizabeth Scholarship

[07-10]

Ryerson Dean’s List, for academic excellence

[2009]

(1st Place) CitiesAlive International Design Competition

[2009]

(1st Place) Air India Memorial Design Competition

[2009]

(2nd Place) RU GREEN Open Space Design Competition [2009] Bird Feeder design selected for Canada Blooms 2008

[2008]

2nd highest GPA of the academic year in Architectural Sci. [2008] Competitive entrance scholarship winner (out of 350 ppl.) [2007] Ontario Scholars Distinction

[2007]

Technology Design Academic Award

[2007]

Gold Medalist team, Skills Canada Cardboard Boat Race [2006] RCM Grade 8 Piano Examination, First Class Honours

[2005]

(1st Place) Middlefield International Languages Bookmark [2004] Visual Arts Academic Award

[2003]

(1st Place) York Region’s ‘Together We’re Better’ Logo

[2003]

OTHER EXPERIENCES Christian Youth Fellowship Councillor Design Seoul Internatioanl Competition Church: Children Sunday School Teacher

[2011] [2010- ]

AIAS Ryerson, Graphics Coordinator

[2010-11]

Vacational Bible School Camp Leader

[2007-11]

Travel: Shanghai, Hong Kong, Wuxi, Nanjing,

[2011- ]

[2010]

Suzhou, Hangzhou, Guangzhou Studio Abroad: Rome, Florence, Siena,

San Gimignano, Pisa, Tel Aviv,

Jerusalem, Holon, Haifa, Cairo

[2010]

(3rd) Mount Pleasant Bike Rack Competition

[2009]

North ON. School of Arch. Ideas Competition

[2009]

(1st) CitiesAlive Toronto Design Competition

[2009]

(1st) Air India Memorial Design Competition

[2009]

(2nd) RU GREEN Open Space Competition

[2009]

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At its highest aspiration, Architecture is integrally concieved for all

110

[Snow, 2 hours, +8 friends crazy enough to build in a snowstorm]

DIMENSIONS. Like us, it lives from dust to dust, water to water.

Innuitian Igloo, 2007

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[Oil Pastel]

Self Portrait in Red, 2006

113

RED, THE ATYPICAL

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DIMENSIONS Portfolio

Architecture is a solution business. The day we forget this promise is the day our profession renders obsolette. Traditionally, buildings stand for centuries as fortresses and sanctuaries. Today, they have become ephemeral and pretentious. Aging is continuously our threat and revival is continuously on the brink. But at its roots, the concern isn’t about substances or ideals, it is about awareness and intent.

The moral of the sustainable theory is the importance of passive design. Building orientation, window placements, and footprint shapes are all means to create comfortable living. What sets them apart from air conditioning, light shelves, and fans is the motive for long-term energy consumptions. Building renewal is like the active measure of Architectural design. It defers its responsibilities from design and inefficiently create wasteful buildings. The contrary measure is the passive model; the intent is to conceive designs so that they can resiliently survive in all dimensions.

Greater ideas will always emerge and prevail because they can resiliently survive the five dimensions. As designers, in order to consistently make valid contributions, our design canvas must stretch beyond the three dimensions. It must consider the realms of time and political finance. My works in this portfolio are organized as examples of each realm. They show the ideals, qualities, and deficiency at each level. Please do not treat this book as universal truth, treat it as a documentation of an architectural enthusiast who has found the Principles for Good Design.

CONTACTS Phone

+1 (416) 277 1523

Location

92 Holly Drive,

Richmond Hill, ON,

Canada, L4S2R5

Email

tommy.tso.kf@gmail.com

Portfolio

www.tommytso.com

Copyright Š 2011 Tommy Tso

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