CONTENTS
Wudaokou City Theatre
Design response to theatrical functions and urban context
Theatre Design Studio, Spring 2023
Whaling Museum
Based on Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
Design Studio, Autumn 2023
Primary School on the Hillside
Nature education school design working with topography
Personal project, Winter 2023
Rural Vitalization Workstation, Weishan Island
Built project
Qinghua University Rural Vitalization Project, Summer 2021-Spring 2022
Teammate: Tianze Hao
Gallery of Other Works
Wudaokou City Theatre
Beijing, China Design Studio, Autumn 2024 Course Instructor: Xiangdong Lu Individual Work
Site Analysis
The site is located in a vivid and complex urban area near Tsinghua University, featuring a busy light rail station, shopping malls, food courts, educational institutions and congested streets. The design seeks to negotiate between functional requirements of a theatre and the urban context filled with resources and challenges.
Combining the characteristics of Wudaokou and the changing trend of theater design paradigms, this design will explore a theater design that is jointly promoted by the external factors of the city and the functional requirements within the theater.
Masterplan
The theatre is a public vessel open to the city, visually responding to the historical railroad line and easing congestion by dispersing passenger flow from the light rail station.
The foyer-viewing-backstage sequence is laid out from south to north, leaving south square as public entrance and north square for logistics.
Slightly turn of axis creats interaction with the railway station, and leaves more logistics space near stage right.
Connecting foyer to light rail station with bridge, reducing congestion and attracting people into the theater.
Public parts (foyer and rehearsal hall) create interesting facades facing light rail lines.
Exterior
Part 3
open staircase leading to rehearsal hall
Part 2
horizontal terraces outside stalls
Part 1
vertical atrium with escalators linking different floors
Public space analysis
The public space system constitutes of the foyer with a horizontal opening, an atrium for vertical circulation and the staircase leading to the rehearsal hall.
B2, B1
F1
F2-4
Viewing the theatre from metro station.
Viewing the cityscape from open staircase.
F1 Plan: Foyer, Stage, BOH
B1 Plan: Parking and Machinery
Whaling Museum
Nantucket Island, MA Design Studio, Autumn 2023 Course Instructor: Lu Fan Individual Work
The project seeks to capture and express the unparalleled power of whales depicted in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. As the novel uses the act of whaling to symbolize overwhelming forces confronting humans, the design aims to call back sublime experience into frenetic, disenchanted modern life with the instrument of architecture.
The 280 illustrations Rockwell Kent made for Moby Dick played a prominent role in the popularization of the novel. The illustrations are used in this project as visual materials.
Dreaming about marine life, Ishmael sets out from Nantucket on the whaling ship Pequod.
The mysterious captain Ahab announces his determination to chase the notorious whale, Moby Dick, who cost him his leg in the last voyage.
n the voyage after Moby Dick, a few other whales are successfully caught and processed for oil and meat.
The final confrontation between Captain Ahab and Moby Dick lasts for three days. hab manages to harpoon the whale, but the rope attached to the harpoon entangles around his neck.
A Moby Dick sinks with Ahab into the depth of ocean, a gigantic swirl stirred up by his motion swallows the whole ship and all its crew members, except for Ishmael.
Symbolic meaning
Whaling serves as a metaphor for the timeless battle between man and nature. This conflict stirs the determination of man, yet it is nature that ultimately prevails.
Illustrations used in this project are scanned from the 1930 version of Moby Dick, or, The whale.
Body gestures as metaphor for escalation
In the illustrations, the power of humans and whales is not only embodied in the shape of their body, but also in the extent to which their gestures deviate from the normal status.
Exploded view
The museum is vertically separated into two parts. The underground floor features indoor exhibition, while the ground floor features outdoor view of architectural volumes and the sea.
Entrance of the museum is under a canopy, which imitates a whale's head tilting out of the water.
Sculptures could be exhibited in the double height hall. Adjacent to the hall is an interval space where visitors could take a rest while enjoying underwater view.
The long section along the zig-zagging circulation shows the juxtaposition of exhibition space and interval space, as well as the relationship between above-ground and underground space.
Long section
1.2
The volume symbolizing a whale's head could be entered on both floors. It provides a background for the water stage facing the ocean.
The volume imitating a breaching whale is a climax in the museum space.
1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6
Double-layer exhibition hall for whale bones and ship models.
The second last hall, imitating the jaw of a whale, is a high space where underground circulation and ground floor circulation meet with each other.
Auditorium and shop below.
Primary School on the Hillside
Dali, Yunnan, China Personal project, Winter 2023 Individual Work
Project Site
The project is located in Dali, Yunnan Province, China, where hippies, artists and middle class people dwell, and educational experiments are carried out.
Located on a hillside site, the project seeks to explore new educational possibilities inspired by the site terrain.
Activity venues take up flatter parts of the site, while terracing building volume occupies the steeper strip and interacts with height difference.
Classroom units are elevateds, leaving the ground floor with interesting height difference for public activity.
Distribution of volume is controlled to respond to surrounding natural environment.
Teaching units layout
Sections
Classroom clusters elevated, public and spatially flexible elements, such as the auditorium, the public atrium, the library and the gym, occupy the ground floor, conforming to and activated by the sloping terrain.
Classroom
Classroom
Sections
Classroom clusters elevated, public and spatially flexible elements, such as the auditorium, the public atrium, the library and the gym, occupy the ground floor, conforming to and activated by the sloping terrain.
Rural Vitalization Workstation, Weishan Island
Weishan Island, Shandong, China Built project, Summer 2021-Spring 2022
Teammate: Tianze Hao Collaboration with Zhong Ke(Beijing) Architecture Planning & Design Institute
The workstation project was designed in a team of two. Our participation lasted from onspot survey to SD, DD and CD, in collaboration with the design institute. The first part of the project was finished and put into use in May, 2023.
Ground Level Plan
Section 5-5
Lecture Hall Stairs Plan
Lecture Hall Stairs Section
Dormitory Bathroom Plan
Photograph of the workstation in construction.
The workstation after completion.
Other works
Rendering for commercial design thesis project, 2024.
Clay model for primary school design in Tsinghua University Open Studio, in collaboration with Chan Wang Hin Duncan, 2022.
Hand drawing concept design for AR Golf project, 2023 ASLA student competition, in collaboration with Chan Wang Hin Duncan, 2023.
Other works
Hide and Seek in Goldfinger House, Fall 2024 Tech Seminar, UCLA MSAUD. Modeled in Rhino and rendedred in Unreal Engine. Collaboration with Yuxuan Liu, Chong Zhang.
Li's Restaurant, short film, Fall 2024 Entertainment Studio, UCLA MSAUD.Modeled in Rhino and rendedred in Unreal Engine. Collaboration with Lingyue Yang.
Li's Restaurant, short film, Fall 2024 Entertainment Studio, UCLA MSAUD.Modeled in Rhino and rendedred in Unreal Engine. Collaboration with Lingyue Yang.
Personal project, modeled in Maya and rendered in Unreal Engine.
Ming Yan
Email: yanm4089@gmail.com
Phone: +1 4245596695