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YIQIAO ZHAO

B.Design, M.Arch

SINGULAR BUT FRAGMENTED

Melbourne’s architecture demonstrates an autonomy of parts in individual property but fails to celebrate the image of the city as a collective whole. The city is a salad without a bowl or dressing. The fifth elevation is a nascent canvas that has the opportunity to engage with unity and coherency, to curate a singular but powerful image of the city.

The core element of the project is thirty-two illuminated squares that hover above the Melbourne Hoddle grid area, at 150m above the Australian Height Datum level, amplifying the peculiarity of the grid, and reinforcing the discipline of city planning. An aerial view shows the object as singular and rigid in its form yet its experience observed from an urban human scale is deliberately fragmented. Each distinctive city experience is now considered as a piece of a puzzle that needs to assemble together to define the city.

The by-product of the new aerial grid is its support on the ground. Six separate sites are selected to design prototypes of architecture supporting the new structure. The design principle is not to confront the city or to stand out, but to grow out of the logic of the city’s prosaic and modest formal language.

Aerial Grid Structure

The grid is singular and rigid in its form, yet from no angle, human eyes can capture its wholeness. Its experience observed from the urban human scale is deliberately fragmented. Each distinctive city experience is now considered as a piece of puzzle that needs to assemble together to define the city.

Once it is built, strangers figure out what it is immediately through google maps and drone videos. While the Melbournians walk in the city, look up a hundred times, and they know what it is.

At first, I thought my project originated from a piece of critique. But eventually I realise no matter where it starts, it ends as a piece of love letter. After all, this is the city I lived in since I was 16.

ROCKET FACTORY

Rocket is fantastic. Rocket factory even more, so why hide it somewhere no one can see?

In America, NASA and space X have already become culture symbols that everyone is familiar with, those culture symbols are carried across other fields and blended into people’s daily life while Australian Gilmore space is rarely known by the public.

I believe to raise awareness of Gilmore space, it is important to create certain medium for people to interact with. It can be social media and films in the case of NASA, but it can also be achieved architecturally

We decided to Plug the factory in the heart of Brisbane urban fabric as a way to invite the public to come. A roofscape that is publicly accessible allows the public to inhabit.

It is a factory, but is also a gallery.

WUHAN RENAISSANCE

Wuhan as a city for art and culture, it has a number of art museums and galleries. However, those are mainly focused on either international art or regional traditional art. The display mode of those art center are rather traditional. the curatorial aspect and aesthetic qualities are prioritized over educational and creative contents. These programs are not suited for creative visitor participation as the visitors’ experience through pure observation.

Art center is a place to not only conserve and display art pieces but also inspire visitors to create their own art in response to that on display. Art center should accept that everyone has his own experience of art and that individuals’ different interpretations or preferences are acceptable. The art center that I proposed include program like interactive showrooms and amateur participation space to respond to creative visitor’s needs. different routes are designed for different preferences.

INSIDE JOKE

INSIDE JOKE

“It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.”

--- John Berger

Artists like Magritte have explored the paradox between what we see and what we know for decades. As an architecture student, I wonder if I can represent the paradox between architectural conventions and real-life common knowledge.

Architectural drawings are made according to a set of conventions. Sometimes we forget how intangible these conventions are to outsiders. The comic book imagines a building built by a lousy builder who knows nothing about these conventions.

He builds floors while looking at sections.

He builds facades while looking at plans.

He thought scale bars and all other indicational symbols are part of the design, and he turned them all into concrete reality.

This is an inside joke.

PROFESSIONAL WORKS

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

Local Ecosystem and Community Involvement: Recognizing the importance of long-term land management, including rewilding efforts and soil revitalization, with an emphasis on engaging and receiving support from the local community

Material Innovation: Moving away from traditional, energy-intensive materials like steel and cement, and instead promoting the use of natural materials that lock in carbon and are locally produced.

Carbon-Negative Architecture Promoting the concept of carbon-negative architecture, which not only reduces the carbon footprint but actively works towards sequestering carbon, contributing to environmental regeneration.

THE ACADEMY

Inside / outside concept

screwpiles foundation + steel frame + ulin structure + plywood + timber

hanging hooks + flexible cladding = easy maintanance

Sustainable pool structure without using concrete or cement.

THE WAVE

VERTICAL VILLAS

“Vertical Villa” – a 2.5-story house designed for grandeur within a minimal 20m2 ecological footprint.

Applying for building permit Neville Mars Yiqiao Zhao

Three distinctive Vertical Villas are in the pipeline: The Villa on plot 2 has an optimal private pool, potentially further enhancing its charm. The Villa on plot 3 adopts a more streamlined design of simplicity. Meanwhile, the premier villa of the series on plot 4 offers a spacious terrace complete with a jacuzzi/hot tub.

THE CUBE