Architectural Portfolio of Yikai Qiao

YIKAI QIAO

Architectural Designer Yale M.Arch. ‘23

EDUCATION

Graduated 05/2023 Yale University, M.Arch. – New Haven w/ Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Scholarship

Graduated 05/2019 Soochow University, B.E. – Suzhou, China w/ Dean’s Nomination

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

08/2023 – Present Design Associate, Richard Turlington Architects – Full Time, New Haven, US

• Spearheaded the BIM modeling and the production of construction document set for a major residential project in Seaside, FL

• Completed the schematic design drawings for 3 adaptive reuse projects.

• Coordinated with various consultants on the ongoing projects through weekly meetings and site visits.

04/2022 – 08/2022 Level Designer, Tencent TiMi Studio Group – Internship, Shenzhen

• Participated in the prototyping for an in-game map for Delta-Force Mobile a cross-platform video game, conducting research to inform the creation of an immersive game environment.

• Created a game level for test, using Unreal Engine.

11/2021 – 04/2022 Architectural Designer, Neri & Hu Design and Research Office – Intern, Shanghai

• Spearheaded the design process for a boutique store of the fashion brand Comme Moi, from schematic design to the production of construction drawings.

• Actively involved in the construction administration of one hotel project.

07/2021 – 09/2021 User Experience Designer, DiDi Global Inc. – Internship, Beijing

• Participated in the development of an in-app feature for the DiDi mobile app, which is a leading taxi app that serves 500 million users.

• Gained insights on prioritizing user experience and accessibility, which inspired a user-centric approach to my architectural design work.

RECOGNITIONS

05/2023

Design Project Nominated, Yale Journal Retrospecta 46, Published 08/2023

2020 - 2022 Media Coverage

• TV Show Participant, the Challenge TV Show The Best Brain, Jiangsu, China

• TV Show Participant, My Artlist, CCTV, Beijing, China

04/2016 – 06/2016

SKILLS

Nominated Director, Self-made Film Kowloon Skyscraper – Soochow University

Architectural Revit, Rhino, AutoCAD, Adobe Suite, SketchUp, Unreal, Blender, Enscape, Keyshot Research GIS Analysis, User Experience Design, Survey, Data Visualization, Ergonomics

Digital Fabrication CNC Milling, Robotic Scripting, Processing, Arduino, C# Coding Basics

Built Projects

Studio Projects

WEEKS RESIDENCE

Construction Document at Richard Turlington Architects

Instructor: Richard Turlington

Collaborator: Douglas Brown, Marta Pelàez

My Role: BIM Modeling of the building Helped with the detailing and coordination.

Location: Seaside, FL

Time: 2023

Video Link: https://youtu.be/dHoETF0Ay4g?si=TBqHIiE1gqDwR_1J

COMME MOI BOUTIQUE STORE -- FUZHOU

Interior Design Project, Neri & Hu

Client: Comme Moi

Instructor: Jacqueline Min, Rovi Qu

Collaborator: Jes Chen

Location: Fuzhou, China

Built Project, completed in 2022

Photo of the storefront 06/2022

Comme Moi Boutique Store -- Fuzhou

Render of the storefront & Interior Section 12/2021

Photo of the Finished Interior 06/2022

Comme

Rendering of the Interior

Enscape + SketchUp 12/2021

Advanced Design Studio, Yale University

Instructor: Zhu Pei

Location: Majiayao, Gansu, China

Spring 2023

Included in Retrospecta 46

星垂平野阔，月涌大江流。

--杜甫《旅夜书怀》

The stars droop and the fields are wide, the moon surges and the river flows.

--Du Fu Thoughts on a Travel Night, 765 A.D.

Throughout the history of Chinese agriculture, stargazing has perpetually interwoven with agricultural activities. The ancient Chinese perceived the starry sky and the earth as interconnected entities, both pivotal to their existence. They conceptualized the 24 solar terms, aligning the astronomical phenomena throughout the year with their agricultural seasons.

Perched on the hillside of Majiayao Town within the Loess Plateau, this project is a designated platform for celestial observation. With apertures oriented towards the constellation and the fields below, this building introduces the sunlight and picturesque views of the surrounding landscape. It serves as a venue that invites individuals to contemplate the stars and the plateau, offering them a fresh perspective to understand the intricate ties between the constellations and the local agricultural traditions.

Interior Partial Model 1:50 CNC Milling on MDF

Senior Design Studio, Soochow University

Instructor: Gu Zhixing

Collaborator: Jingrong Ning, Zhenglin He

Location: Suzhou, China

Spring 2018

“We must invent and rebuild the Futurist city like an immense and tumultuous shipyard, agile, mobile and dynamic in every detail; and the Futurist house must be like a gigantic machine”.

Manifesto of Futurist Architecture

Antonio Sant’Elia

The megastructure as futurist architecture has been discussed by architects as an urban solution to embrace density and effiency. From arcosanti to archigram, the architects proposed experimental projects with the lifestyle of high mobility and efficiency.

In this project, I explore megastructure based on the environment of a chaotic contemporary city. I focus on the train station area where people are in need of convenience and safety. The project is a building complex with residence and public space. Instead of a utopian proposal, the project aims to use megastructure as a new shelter within a mess of urbanized fields.

Located near the moat of the old Suzhou City, the Suzhou railway station has been serving millions of citizens with various needs. Our project aims to design a residential building around the train station.

We started with analysing who the people are. We noticed that, with the growing number of young people who work at the neighbouring city and commute by trains everyday to save on rental cost, there is a need for apartments beside the train station, so that these people can save time on commuting. In addition, Suzhou is a city with many migrant workers. The train station is the first stop they arrive at the city. However, the lack of shelter

space and the feeling of loneliness in the big square of the train station have long been an important but ignored issue. If we provide instant shelters for them, the feeling of belonging of these people might be improved.

The project consists of four building units, a fast transportation system and a set of public space which enables people to enjoy break, talks and public activities. The buildings may bring convenience to the people who take trains daily. And through the dialogue from our mega-residence to the railway station, we may rebuild the feeling of safety for the vulnerable working groups.

Project Location

Suzhou Railway Station

Siter

Vulnerable Groups

Waiting people

Passengers Workering People Children

Surveilant

The main structure of the building is an integration of three huge inclined reinforced concrete columns, each containing vertical transportation inside.

The main structure serve as tunnels for the elevators to go upstairs. People may enjoy sightseeing when coming home.

A set of steel overbridges connect each of the buildings, linking the space of every hemisphere zone.

There are escalators in the overbridges enabling people to move around fast from home till the train station.

The transportation system circulates around, linking the private and the public

The hemisphere zone includes the temporary rooms for the people with instant needs

1. Apartment Paths

2. Public Hemisphere Paths

3. Public Square Paths

The lift of the residential unitis

The public space in the hemisphere for people to take a break

The private rooms for those people who need privacy and security

The corridor between the central square and each hemisphere

The slope entering the central square from outside

Siter Plan

Northeast Hemisphere

Plan of the Northeast Hemisphere

SEED LAND -- LAND REUSE OF THE SANTA FE ART INSTITUTE

Advanced Design Studio, Yale University

Instructor: Alan Plattus, Elizabeth Galvez

Independent design with group research

Location: Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM Fall 2022

This project proposes a remediation of the site of Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI). Our research is sensitive to the way that the site creates boundaries between major subdivisions surrounding the midtown center, and we consider how our site may begin to create linkages between these neighbourhoods. The overlap of programming allows us to generate a network in which new means of community living can revitalize this area. The network manifests itself in varying forms of circulation which operate as a shared infrastructure across the site. This allows for new considerations of housing and public space to begin to generate along the circulation, and then begin to inform other new vehicles for new living models such as agriculture.

Site acknowledgement: the wilderness & agriculture

Current condition of the site

Group work site plan

Group: Calvin Liang, Mariel Lindsay, Elizabeth Cornfeld, Calvin Liang, Jerry Chow

Cornfield alongside St Michaels Road

Seed Library: rennovation of the existing library building

Vignettes: Land of Seeds

Land Matters -- Santa Fe Urban Studio

Farmlands

sheds

Site Plan 25

Section: Agriculture

Section: Seed Library

BUILDING PROJECT 2020

Residential Design Project, Yale University

Collaborator: Abraham Mora-Valle, Brandon Brooks, Claire Hicks, Christina Zhang, Diana Smiljkovic, Suhyun Jang

Location: New Haven, CT

Time: 2020

SKYSCRAPER DESIGN

Design Studio, Soochow University

Instructor: Bin Wang

Independent Work

Fall 2017

This project explores the structural system of a skyscraper. In tradition, a tall building is framed by the vertical concrete core and the curtain wall system, which leads to homogeneous layered floors. In this project, I try to develop a structural system that is non-linear and can grow upwards in an autonomous way. Starting from a plane centrosymmetric geometry, the structure rotates, folds, and grows itself, generating various space for new possibilities.

The structure consists of the central structure and the branches, both of which weave together to form a growing system. Accompanied with the growth of the structure, the floors show a constant change in shape and direction. The huge columns may run through each floor at different positions, resulting in various space. The functions of spaces vary based on the feature of the plans.

Lower Level Office Plan

Upper Level Office Plan

RED HOOK ISLAND

An Outlook of the Future Educational Urban Space of Red Hook, NYC

Core 4 Urban Studio, Yale University

Instructor: Aniket Shahane

Collaborator: Suhyun Jang

Location: Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York Spring 2021

Red Hook, the peninsula at northwestern Brooklyn, witnessed a long history of industrial prosperity followed by reluctant economic decline. It is a special district alongside NYC’s shoreline which experiences the integrated urban effect caused by its gentrification, its flood vulnerability and its isolation by the city’s infrastructure. The Brooklyn Queen’s Expy cuts off Red Hook’s connection with the rest of the city, making Red Hook a literal island. As a result, the educational resource at Red Hook shrinks. The local youth will pay a higher cost to reach to schools and other educational resources.

The aim of the project is to research on what’s at stake in Red Hook at present, then followed by projecting a future Red Hook with a designed new educartional system for teenagers at middle school. We take into consideration the isolation effect of Red Hook and its still valuable manufacturing heritage, and make the assumption that what if we keep (or even further) the isolation of Red Hook, turning it from isolation to independence. Gradually we support Red Hook to become a self-sustained, walking friendly island that teenagers enjoy educational equality.

Part of the land of Red Hook is artificially created for industrial use for centuries. As a result, it faces the vulnerability to natrual disasters such as flood. In the year 2012, the hurricane Sandy destroyed Red Hook’s shoreline. From the FEMA flood map, it is expected that 100 years later, Red Hook will be encroached most of its shoreline land.

While attempts have been made to defend against the flood, in our project, we let the flood in. We assume that the sea will slowly flood Red Hook and the whole island will shrink in the following decades. As the sea level rise becomes a universal issue, we see Red Hook as a prototype of the endangered seafront zone that needs a way out.

Map of Red Hook, Bemard Ratzer, 1770 overlapped with the area of Red Hook in 2021 (red color)

Base Flood Elevations, 2015, FEMA BFEs are the computed elevation to which floodwater is anticipated to rise during a 1% annual chance storm,

Isolation of Red Hook

The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway sepertates Red Hook from Brooklyn Lack of Subway in Red Hook

Lack of public schools in Red Hook

Flood vulnerability of Red Hook 10% annual chance flood 1% annual chance flood

Though declined with marine industry, Red Hook developed a rich culture of making. Shops and small manufacuture zones fill every street. The waterfront warehouses are turned into markets and workshops; and there are food grocery and micro factories in the streets. However, in our outlook for a ‘shrinked‘ future Red Hook, many of these shops will be gone (the noted places above).

This reminds us the issue that how we treat the heritage of manufacture shapes the future community of Red Hook. We plan to document and preserve some of the manufacture zone, especially those with local making culture. This heritage will be the root for a future education for local teenagers -- ‘Learn by Making‘.

Phasing: from isolation to independence

Red Hook gradually shrinks from the sea level rising

A process of rezoning, preserving and reusing Red Hook

Current Red Hook facing the risk of floods Present Near Future

If Red Hook will be flooded, why not just let it shrink and make it more independent? As the shoreline be encroached by the rising sea levele, Red Hook will witness a shrink in its land area. Simutaneously, new urban policies will adjust the whole community to the new environment -- shops get preserved, the communities gathered, public schools distributed and water transportation enhanced.

Red Hook becomes a more integrated community with higher resilience

The expressway area turned into walkable and safe place

The moto rvehicle roads turned into walking paths and pocket gardens

The industrial warehouses turned into street markets

New street classrooms

New food markets

New pocket libraries

The proposed new school system is rooted on the abundant culture of manufacture in Red Hook and with the consideration of the inaccessibility of public school resources at present. For the pre-K and elementary school students, 5-min walkable circles are set across the new Red Hook Island. Street classrooms are distributed inside the community gardens and streets; for middle school and high school students, the circles get larger as their age grows. The school will take the advantage of the exisiting workshops, and encourage teenagers to learn by making. The whole island is the one school for all local citizens -- instead of going to certain school spots, people learn wherever the resource exists.

Since the maximum time span walking from one side of the island to the other is 19 minutes, there will be no need for car transportation in the new Red Hook Island. Most of the time people walk to their destination. There is also a trolley line running around the island. The trolley circulates people and goods -- sometimes it’s a bus and sometimes it’s a bodega.

The existing street corner fields will be transformed into multi-purpose public zone, maybe a street library, a community food market or just a pocket park. These spots of public space are evenly distributed across the community.

The residential housings embrace the school hub. Street playgrounds and classrooms sit evenly in the housing community. These dispersed spots serve as the learning space for various age and courses. Children can conveniently transport among the spots. The street itself weaves various communities togethter by providing pocket gardens, playgrounds and other public zones.

Neighbouring the residental housings, an elementary school hub is easily accessible to children between age 5-12. The ground floor of the housing is the daycare center for pre-K children. The street turns into a car-free playground for both the children and adults. Across over the street, the school hub opens its ground floor seamlessly to the street, extending the area for outdoor activities. In the upper floors of the school hub, classrooms are set with various subjects.

When the children grow, their school circles enlarge, Eventually, the circle will expand to the area of the whole island. For a typical middle school student in Red Hook Island, he/she will start to learn the scientific truth and technical skills by literally participating in the process of industrial production and manufacturing. The paper factory, the fire department and other existing producting zones can all potentially become learning space. Teenagers get the intro of the professional training from various industries. ‘Learn by Making‘ will be the theme of Red Hook Island’s educational system.

PLAN (UNPLANNED)

Core 1 Studio, Yale University

Instructor: Nicholas Mcdermott

Independent Work

Fall 2019

The various scales of a circle can adjust its property from a dot to a field, which applies various spatial metaphor to it. Inspired by Kusama’s paintings, this project explores the spatialization of 2D patterns. By cutting the original image with the curves extrated from the painting, the artwork is dissolved and reassembled, thus transformed into a one-story building with two types of space -- the meditation space embedded in the structural walls, which are deformed dots for single person to fit in; and the bubble chambers for public performance and rehearsal activities. The two space are clearly defined between silence and sound, while unified under similar graphic language.

THE FROZEN OCEAN

Visualization Studio, Yale University

Instructor: Daniele Profeto

Independent Work

Summer 2020

This practice explores the ambiguous solidity of liquid. A raw image with the implication of mulitiple materiality was selected and then transformed into 3D objects. The surface of the object reflects the wrinkles, depth and patterns of the image. The objects were further processed and the surfaces of them turned into fluid ground. The motion of water gets framed in a still condition. Icy rocks are lift up from the terrain, mirroring the glimmering lights.

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/432891356

Image: Under the microscope. Photography by Joel Philip

Object transformed from the original image Software: Substance Alchemist + Maya

ROBOTIC DRAWING

Architectural Robotics Class, Yale University

Instructor: Hakim Hasan

Collaborator: Amber Han Spring 2023

A topographic survey tends to depict an accurate elevation changes,includes locating all buildings, structures, aboveground utilities, and major trees on the subject property.

Architecture topography mapping should allow spaces for interpretation of land conditions. How can drawing encourage the imagination of spaces and lands? This project experiments with different drawing techniques to create diverse topographic surfaces at various line densities, discovering robotics expressions in demonstrating different stroke weights, ink saturation, and line continuity.

FORMAL ANALYSIS

Formal Analysis I, Yale University

Instructor: Peter Eisenman

Independent Drawings

Fall 2019

Villa Guilia Vignola

Tempio Malatestiano Alberti

Campo Marzio Piranesi

Plan of ancient Rome Nolli

Yikai Qiao

M.Arch. ‘23

Yale School of Architecture yikai.qiao@yale.edu