Architecture Portfolio for Grad School by Miaoxin Wang | admitted to UCLA MAUD, SCI-ARC MARCHII

Identity

Miaoxin Wang selected works 2018 ~ 2021

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Architecture and Identity Lines wander. They slide by and make corners, but never collide.

My drawing on the cover page expresses a state of searching, and it probably alludes to my journey in architecture – a search for identity.

The projects included in this portfolio all loosely ascribe to a common issue of identity. People are the most fundamental components of every city, regardless the size of it. How could architecture manifest its users’ cultures, lifestyles, and characters through the design of spaces? Every project answers to the question at vastly differently scales and applies their distinctive direction for research in spatial organization, form, tectonic relationship, and material details.

Through a series of public space and immersive activities, The Forbidden Horizon connects the public with the historic city to establish new shared identity. Through sharing courtyards, intuitive wayfinding, and iconic facade, Disturbed Linearity intends to create an identity for a community. Through a drive-in spatial strategy Read on Wheels reflects the identity of delivery workers by adapting to their unique lifestyle on scooters. Through pods, walls, and chambers, Shibuya P.W.C reflects the Japanese domestic lifestyle as a ritualistic and ephemeral practice as opposed to distinctively divided private and public activities. Through structural mutations, TUBEEEEEEE represents the expressive characters of dancers.

Thank you for reading my portfolio. Please enjoy.

Contents The Forbidden Horizon

Urban park/Infrastructure

Personal work

2021

Disturbed Linearity

Mixed-use campus

Academic work

2019

Read on Wheels

Library

Personal work

2021

Shibuya P.W.C

Multi-family housing

Academic work

2018

TUBEEEEEE

Research center

Academic work

2018

Academic work

2020

The Beijing Wall

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01 The Forbidden Horizon Entry to Evolo 2022 Competition Year: 2021 Instructor: Karen Lange Project Location: Beijing, China Personal work 3

Project Narrative An exploded street sightsees the forbidden city

Context & Research

[1] Chang’an Avenue runs along the modern axis of the city and intersects with the historic northsouth axis at the heart of Beijing. The experience of going through Chang’an Avenue is like passing a series of displayed architectural objects along two sides of the 16-lane way. These monumental buildings were built over a 30-year span, and all aspired to stand for the rapid modernization.

Therefore, these buildings reveal layers of memories and transformations that have happened since 1949. In many ways, they shaped the perception of Beijing as a place of living despite of its political status. Chang’an Avenue is a museum.

Modern Axis

Historical Axis CCP Government

The Forbidden City

1300 AC 1700 AC 1900 AC

City as an artifact

Historical Hu’tong Bureaucratic district

Tian’an men Square

[2] The modernized street created awe and dwarfed individuals. By monumentalizing the Chang’an Avenue and its adjacent buildings, the planners defined an image of central Beijing frozen in time.

The singular usage of the street, the limited horizon, the marginalized public space, and the scale of the buildings altogether create a monologue and diminish the significance of people. There is no public vitality. Those rich stories of the city are bifurcated by the asphalt road, fragmented and undervalued. The street acts as a supression.

[3] As a result of its modern planning in the 1950s, central Beijing has gone through a series of internal implosions. As time moves on, it needs digestion. To break away the restrained horizon to see the city, people need radically new perspectives to appreciate the city as an artifact, a physical manifestation of history and their identity.

[4] Chinese Screen was a spatial and decorative artifact whose prototypical function is an ambiguous, soft spatial divisor that sometimes creates focus yet sometimes becomes the background. The project would become an architectural Chinese screen that becomes the background for the city and pulls people up to engage with a myriad of activities.

Chinese screens in traditional paintings Chinese Screen as an architectural insertion

[5] A city park of 6,525 meters long stands on nearly 30 cores acts as a self-sustained structure to suspend public facilities and circulatory slabs. It pulls people from both sides of the street and allow vehicles to enter. Views are directed outwards and the entire structure becomes a series of frames for the city and the people. The entire city becomes an artifact for enlightenment.

Concept

Superimposition Abstraction of the street into a box and superimpose the park to define a loose boundary.

Subtraction Subtraction changes axiality of circulation path and redirects views outwards to the city.

Conceptual Plan The circulation and indoor programs define a wandering experience intersected by vertical cores. Cutouts act as focal points.

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Conceptual Section The self-sustained park acts as the anchor to all the boxes (programs) and curves (circulation.)

Boxes are “pulled” from curves. People travel through the lattice-like slabs to move up in elevation.

Step1: Adapt cores to street intersections, central waterfall, and other programs.

Step2: Populate curved slabs for entry, circulation, and audience.

Step3: Subtract parts of slabs to allow slide by, create voids, and connect different levels.

Step4: Follow the shape of cutouts and incorporate circular frames on facade.

Process Iteration Diagram

City Park & Cables

Sports Facilities

Slabs

Facade

Cores

Exploded Diagram

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Curved Slab Designs

Public Sports Facilities Types

Landscape Design for the City Park

Hanging Boxes

Assorted

To Top Structure

Badminton Basketball Hill

5v5 Soccer

11v11 Soccer Island Swimming Skateboard

Modified Cores Canal

ths

le pa

c Vehi

Waterfall

(Park, facade, and cables are not shown )

Dance studios

Aquarium

Bird-lovers Pavilion

Rockclimbing Wall

OVERLOOK

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ENTRANCE & TRANSITION

SLIDE-BY

CONNECTION TO BOXES

VEHICLE ENTRANCE & PARKING

Framed views of the capital

Waterfall at Tian-an men Square

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The city park extends beyond the horizon

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Abackground for the city

02 Disturbed Linearity Mixed-use Campus/Urban planning 150,000,000 s.q.f Year: 2018 Instructor: Stephen Phillips Project Location: Los Angeles, California 4th Year Urbanism Studio Individual work

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Context

Commercial and Residential Uses on Four Sides

Project Narrative Lines and Network This mixed-use campus project applies strategies mainly driven by Jane Jacob’s literature and the potential of linear geometries to organize space, which altogether lead to applying single-corridor housing typology, maximizing walkability, and creating inclusive community space as three major goals.

Given a total 150,000,000 gfa, the project is developed through a series of plans to explain the organizational plausibility, a conceptual section for the office and the hotel, and a facade concept with wall assembly details.

Single Corridor Housing Typology: Single-corridor typology is adopted for high-density with comfortability.

Social interactions are encouraged by the connected interior, shared rooms for community uses, and internal courtyards.

Step1

Santa Monica UCLA

Step 1 Three zones based on proximity to surrounding programs: housings are placed closer to residential area while office to the commercial area. Hotel is on the separate smaller portion of the site.

Step 2 Place buildings along the long axis to form multiple linear massing that allow most efficient indoor circulation to traverse the site. They allow activities to act as layers of different experiences when cutting across the campus.

Step 3 Merging and intersecting buildings of same program to allow cross sectional circulation, also creating pockets extended from street.

Step 4 Internal pockets are created as public space shared by community on site.

Step2

Step3

Step4

Downtown LA Cheviot Hill

Inglewood Park

Vehicle Circulation at Perimeters

Housing 780,00 S.F.

Office 600,000 S.F.

Hotel 120,00 S.F.

Neighborhood Walkability

Research

Process of Dissimulation is an exercise to discover unique architectural language as well as organizational principles. Linear elements converge and diverge, intersect and overlap. The resultant clear directionality, different circulation possibilities between spaces, and pockets of convergence are major inspirations to develop planning strategies.

Walkability in a neighborhood: The walkability is designed from two major perspectives: efficient interior circulation within housings and office respectively and intuitive outdoor circulation network with several public nodes.

Santa Monica Airport

LAX

DT - SM route Metro Expo Line

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Creation of an inclusive community: Naturally generated by the configuration of buildings, these public space attract users from adjacent buildings. These plazas and courtyards are under natural surveillance by the residents as well as office staff, creating a safe communal experience for all users.

In her work The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacob criticizes the lack of humanity-oriented, social, and cultural concerns in modern city planning. She argues for the application of mini-blocks of high permeability, mixed-use, high-density, and natural surveillance. These five points, especially permeability and natural surveillance, are huge reference in this project.

Permeability: the fluidity of human circulation between places of events and activities.

Natural Surveillance: the ability for users inside buildings to witness what’s happening outside.

Housing

Office

Commercial&Cultural

Hotel

Gallery

Market

Office

B1 markets connect plazas.

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3 4

10

2

1-4

1-2 1-1

1-3

8

1-3

9 7

1-2

2

1-1 1-1

22 2 25 19

16

13

24

17

19

6

14

14

12 11 5

Ground Floor Plan

10’

18

50’

100’

Southeast facade

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15

17

20

21

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Residential Compound 1-1. Micro unit 1-2. Two-bed-room unit 1-3. Three-bed-room unit 1-4. Four-bed-room unit

2. Community room 3. Daycare facility 4. Community gallery

West Wood Blvd entry point

Commercial Space 5. Flagship store 6. Cinema 7. We-work 8. Art gallery / Workshop 9. Restaurant 10. Local shop

Office Compound 11. Reception 12. Open office 13. Individual office 14. Group study room 15. Cafe

16. Exhibition Space 17. We-work 18. Streetfront Store Hotel 19. Event space

Main plaza at residential compound

20. Hotel Cafeteria 21. Kitchen 22. Hotel Gallery 23. Reception/Lobby 24. SPA 25. Service

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1-4 1-3

1-5

1-5 1-3

1-2 1-1 1-5

1-3

11

12

1-3 6 4 13 10

6 7

4 9

4

15 8 4

5

Third Floor Plan

12

10’

50’

100’

Northwest facade

Residential Compound 1-1. One-bed-room unit 1-2. Two-bed-room unit 1-3. Three-bed-room unit 1-4. Four-bed-room unit 1-5. Micro unit

2. Community room 3. Community lecture hall

West Wood Blvd entry point

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Office Compound 4. Open office 5. Individual office 6. Exhibition 7. Group studyroom 8. Lecture hall

9. Atrium 10. Grand stairhall

Hotel 11. Single-room with balcony 12. Suite 13. Standard room 14. Conference room 15. Multi-purpose room

Main plaza at office compound

Observatory Room Open Office

Indiv Office

Gallery

Lounge

Showcase

Cafeteria

Grand Stairhall

Reception

Shared Plaza

Rooftop

Indiv Office

Entry Plaza

West Wood Blvd

Hotel Spa

Conference Rooms Social Space

Longitudinal Section

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20% Perforated Aluminum Screen Lineweight 5 Skylight

Facade Concept The facade concept is developed around how architectural elements (mullion, cladding, perforated panels) could be translated to enhance the reading of facade as different lineweight. The results work with forced perspective also allow facade to be read differently as viewer moves around building.

5th Floor 48’00” Fiber Reinforced Polymer Panel

Spatial

Lineweight 4 (Outdoor) Balcony

4th Floor 36’00”

Large area of surface panelization Opaque surface treatment

3” Insulation

FRP Cap

Double Glazing

Lineweight 3 FRP Caps

Final Digital Rendering

3rd Floor 24’00” Steel Substructure

Lineweight 2 Grooves

Lineweight 1

2nd Floor 12’00”

Mullion

Moisture Barrier

Ground Floor 00’00” Rigid Insulation Granular Back Fill Perforated Drain Drainage Gravel

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Left and above Physical Chunk Model 1’=1/8”

Tectonic

Outdoor space inbetween floors

Special treatment above glass

Mullions, grooves, surface details

03 Read on Wheels

2nd Place in 2021 Tiny Library Competition 4,500 s.q.f Year: 2021 Instructor: N/A Project Location: Beijing, China Personal Work 15

Context

Research

Concept

80% of the Blue Riders are from rural areas in China, where 58% of the population only have a middle school degree, and 13.7% a college degree.

HOMETOWN

The Forbidden Palace

Beijing 2nd Ring Road

Proposed Library Typology

Traditional Library Typology

VILLAGE 80%

CITY 20%

20-30

AGE over 40

49% are in their 20s, and 38% are in their 30s.

The number of those born after 2000 is also growing.

WALKING RIDING

SITTING STANDBY

RIDING

STANDBY

30 - 40

Finance

Project Narrative A Forgotten Group in Cities In China, express delivery workers have became the human infrastructure that supports daily lives of millions of Chinese people today, known as Blue Riders. However, the conventional libraries in cities are hardly accessible to this group of people who spent 10-12 hours on their scooters, yet there is little effort in to design for their integration into the larger community.

For Blue Riders, scooters have become more than just a vehicle for transportation, but a new “territory”. To empower them with more possibilities for social and education activities within this “territory” is the key to promoting their self-growth. A tiny library could adapt to a new typology and become more inclusive towards Blue Riders by creating space for them to access educational materials on their wheels, and also serve the larger community through programs such as consulting and book-reading seminars.

Humanity

Among all the Blue Riders, 40% show interests in additional learning opportunities. 38% of those want to learn financial knowledge, and 29% want to learn humanity subjects.

SUBJECT OF INTEREST

2nd Language Art

Corporate Staff

Freelancer

king

Bike Par

Sales Others es

Scooter lan

Driver Server Postal

Automobile lanes

Factory PREVIOUS OCCUPATION

Infra

The Blue Riders are found to have a diverse pool of previous occupations. The diversity of their backgrounds means a huge opportunity for knowledge exchange as a means of community bonding.

Security Peasant Home Service Construction

Interviews “This is my full-time job on which I spend more than 12 ~ 13 hours daily. I usually just play on my phone when I’m taking a break.”

Mixed-use Block

San Litun Commercial Block

Residential Block

Bookshelves Scooter Accessible Area Other

Programs form an “S” driveway for scooters. Bookshelves serve as porous spatial divisions for visual and social interactions.

Recession and extrusion on two ends create pedestrian entrances. Pavement is modified to better accommodate scooters’ circulation.

A. Southern roof peeks out to provide shading.

B. East facade is filleted to soften the corner creating iconicity for the library.

C. Skylight directs movement.

Glass fenestrations allow visual exchanges between inside and outside and showcase the library as a public hub.

“I’m a student and working as a Blue Rider as a part-time job. I’m 22, and have been doing this for five months.

Sometimes I work 7~8 hours a day, sometimes 14~15 hours. Usually I’m exhausted after a day of running around, but I have to take care of my schoolwork as well.”

“I’m over 40 now. There is no weekend for us. I run 10 hours daily on average. When riders see each other, usually we just talk whatever. I do want to learn some stuff if possible – anything is better than nothing.”

“I’m thirty years old and doing this job for a living. I work 10 hours daily on average, starting from 7am in the morning. Because everyone is running on clock, we don’t talk with each other in person as much as they chat on their phones.” ess n acc

stria

Pede

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Diagram that shows site in a network of existing accesses and visibility

“I don’t think anyone from Beijing would be doing this job. I used to be unemployed, but I’m doing this full time now for a living. The joy really depends on how much I earn from the job. I usually work 10 hours day. Learning new things is kind of difficult for me now due to my age.”

Read-on-wheel Space

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5

3

1 Stepped Seating

2

4

7

1. Read-on-wheels area 2. Public Seminar/Reading 3. Grab-n-go 4. Social Workers Office 5. Stepped Seating 6. Bathroom 7. Outdoor Parking Public Reading Room

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2 1 3 4

5 6 7

South Elevation

East Elevation 9

8

1

North Elevation

West Elevation

3 4

1. Standing seam metal roofing 2. Steel gutter 3. Waterproof membrane 4. Fiberglass thermal insulation 5. Steel decking 6. Cold-formed steel studs 7. Interior ceiling plaster panels 8. Book shelf assembly with enclosed steel studs 9. Double-glazed insulating glass assembly 10. Interior hanging sound baffles 11. Reinforced concrete slabs

5 6 7

10

11

Section

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04 Shibuya P.W.C Neo-Metabolic Residence 12,000 s.q.f Year: 2018 Instructor: Don Choi Project Location: Shibuya, Tokyo 4th Year Travel Studio Individual work

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Context

Project Narrative A Day of lives in Shibuya

Tokyo Bay

The unique urban condition of Shibuya nurtures multitudinous activities, reflecting cyclical and ephemeral nature of daily events on any given site. The post-war types of residence is unable to address this contextual ephermerality, and therefore here the notion of “house” needs to be challenged. Could an isolated house become contextual, an event-container that also ensures privacy? The proposal is not a static building. It’s a Neo-metabolic structure that’s made up by chambers, walls, and pistons.

Privacy in Public (Walls) A crucial aspect is to ensure privacy necessary for residents. Drawing from traditional Japanese architecture, walls emerge as an essential device to allow private space takes shape, contributing to the psychological comfortability of users.

sleeping contemplating bathing private uses

reading drinking tea studying recreational uses

conversing playing games eating social uses

walking pausing talking impromptu uses

Architecture as Event-container (Pistons) Both Benard Tschumui’s Manhannttan Transcripts and OMA’s 1991 Yokohama Masterplan are examples of analyzing activities in space through annotations and sequences, rendering architecture as event-containers. Isozaki’s joint core system and Rem’s 1909 theorem altogether inspire an architectural form by the duplication of original sites connected by vertical infrastructural cores (pistons).

Bernard Tschumi Manhattan Transcript, 1976 - 77

OMA Yokohoma Masterplan Diagram, 1991

Arata Isozaki Joint Core System, 1960

1909 Theorem, cited by Rem Koolhaas

Shibuya Activity Diagram

Research & Concept

Demarcation of Domestic Territory (Chambers) Traditional Japanese residence has always been closely connected to its landscape. Post-war modernization led to the emergence of a generation of inward-looking residence that explicitly reflect the introspectiveness of Japanese characters, leading to an isolation from the context. Chambers, however, allow context and users to reconnect in their in-betweenness, permitting both private uses and interactions.

Site Event Sequence in Plan

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Context Texture [Experience] Collage

1600s

1975

2005

2009

Mapping in plans indicates the zones of occupancy by different behaviors, which helps to conceive spatial annotations such as solid, void, points, and lines etc to generate architecture form.

Zoning based on empirical observations in plan`

Extrapolated pattern of occupancy on site & circulation

Negatives of zones

+12 H

0.5m / h

0.25m / h roughly 8~10 hours occupation 6~8hours 4 hours 2 hours

Passing/Circulation

+12 H

Overlay of patterns

Formulation of walls, chambers and pistons

Moving patterns of walls

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22

Meditation - Piston 05

Breakfast Time - Chamber 03

A Day of Lives in Shibuya

Night Street Scene - Chamber 04

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Waking up - Chamber 06

Wall Construction Detail Good vibe - Chamber 05 & Piston 06

Morning routine - Chamber 05 & Piston 02

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05 TUBEEEEEE E VR Development Office & Choreography Laboratory 30,000 s.q.f Year: 2017 Instructor: Umut Toker Project Location: San Francisco 3rd Year Comprehensive Studio Individual work

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Context

Research

Form-finding

Laban Movement Analysis :

Little Italy A generic and neutral box!

Chinatown Tenderlion BODY describes physicality of human body

SHAPE describes how body changes over time basic physicality

Japantown BODY

Assigning square footage in a way that has an appropriate sale to the context results in a highly rational box.

Adjust to landscape and better views Public Attractions

EFFORT describes the overall visual effects of movements

SPACE describes an imagined relation to the space

OFFICE RESEARCH RESEARCH

Architectural Mutations:

Project Narrative A Choreography for Architecture

This project investigates an architectural design methodology through the lens of Lanban Movement Study, a choreography analysis. The methodology deviates from modernist design positions by stressing architectural mutations to expressively articulate program, structure, and envelope, creating unique conditions for special creative process such as dance choreographing.

Differentiated working conditions will stimulate collaborations between VR researchers and choreographers as a part of the active art and cultural community in San Francisco.

DANCE STUDIO AUDITORIUM LOBBY

Modernism stresses rationale and functionality as the end goals in architecture.

Buildings manifest through BODY, SPACE, and SHAPE, but lacking EFFORT, consequently, a emotionless neutrality. This building counters this neutrality by reversing relationships among architectural components in order to manifest EFFORT.

Major Traffic

DANCE STUDIO

compartmentalization SPACE

Existing landscape is taken into consideration to create better access to the building and better views to Fishermans Wharf.

BODY

physical elements of a building

SPACE

Researchers are here!

responses to the context

OFFICE

SHAPE

RESEARCH

massing for programmatic logic

RESEARCH

Dancers are here !

DANC

E DANC

E

COLLAB SPACE AUDITORIUM

LOBBY

EFFORT

Intentional mutations of components

creative process

hardware development

SHAPE

program adjustment (not expressive yet) Characteristics of different users cause massing to divert and differentiate from each other for complex interior conditions

artist socialization

software development

Building envelopes and structures are reversed

choreograph hardware testing

users/testers

software testing

tech support

public demo workshop

public exposure application samples environment Program Relationship Diagram

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experiment practice performance expressive physicality EFFORT Spatial qualities and architectural expressions are accentuated by creating two opposite conditions of envelope and structures, an architectural mutation to become anit-neutral.

workshop Cataloging architectural mutations through collaging

Core

Structure II

Envelope II Working Space Hallway

Envelope I

Structure I

Showcase Space

Lobby

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1. Lobby 2. Cafe 3. Auditorium 4. Software Development 5. Hardware Development 6. Atrium 7. Software Testing 8. Hardware Testing 9. Studio 10. VR Demonstration 11. Lounge 12. Group Working 13. Individual Working 14. Admin office 15. Collaborative Studio 16. Outdoor Platform 17.Meeting Room

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4

3

1’

5’

2F Floor Plan

10’

11

13

Sec

tio nB

8

12

2

14

1

1F Floor Plan

28

Sec

tion

A

7

6

3F Floor Plan

10 9

15 16

4F Floor Plan

7

10

5

3

1F Outdoor

2F Entrance

Section A

4F Outdoor Platform

7

8

1. Lobby 2. Software Development 3. Hardware Development 4. Software Testing 5. Hardware Testing 6. Dance Studio 7. Group Working 8. Admin office 9. Collaborative Studio 10. Individual Work Space

9

4

6

2

1

Section B

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Aluminum Mullion

Exterior Roof Sheathing Batt Insulation Roof Decking

Variable Air Volume System (VAV)

Double Layered Glass max height 12’

1

2

Stainless Steel Beam 2.5” Aluminum Mullion

2’x1’ Painted Steel Double Glazing

1 4’ Stainless Steel Truss

CFF

Roof-to-floor Glazing

1’X1/2”

3/8” Cement Panels WRB Sheathing Reinforced Concrete Insulation

Recycled Denim

Reinforced Concrete Floor

Cladding

resist weathering 48”x96”x3/8”

Double layered glazing is used for studio space for keeping the heat in.

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Insulated layer between interior and exterior steel member to minimize thermal bridge through structure itself.

Insulated layer exists between C-profile substructure, which holds cement panels, and stainless steel “cage” to minimize thermal bridge through the exposed structure

Fiberglass faced gypsum panels

06 The Beijing Wall

An Interactive Graphical Novel Traditionally, print paper defines the boundary of the presentations. However, to adapt to an online format, this comic needs to be coded to constantly engage with the audience without losing the gesture as an architectural novel. I deconstructed each page into a set of graphics and a set of chat bubbles. By

Year: 2020 Thesis Advisor: Karen Lange Undergraduate Thesis (Individual)

alternating what’s hidden and what’s revealed, the audience gets different emphasis on either graphics or texts. Therefore, all the pages collapse into a long scroll of one website page, making the whole experience of reading this website comic different from paper comic, although this interaction is only available to viewers on computers.

The Beijing Wall

Media technology has shown to be a vain and glorious species, as technology advances, its users gain access to its power in a democratic manner where anyone can grab attention, economic gain, or political agency. However, the promise of democracy in the media-scape has only been abused by centralized political authority and tech companies to enforce censorship. The society as a whole needs to be challenged through a lack of censorship and authoritarian jurisdiction to visualize and mobilize active forces in participation of social changes. An architectural proposition located in Beijing materializes the decentralization of media authority, demarcation of publicity and privacy, vulnerability of public ambiance, symbolism, and a pannoptican presence in an environment that is highly censored and charged with political and cultural attention. Without alluding in to any dramatic shift in political power, the Beijing Wall draws inspiration from Chinese culture to contextualize a radical idea inspired by western literatures.

The interactive comic is available online at: Comic on Web https://walterwang.cargo.site/ Comic in Print Layout

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