PORTFOLIO OF YITONG QU
Selected Work 2018-2024
Hyperloop Works
Hyperloop is a cutting-edge technology of future transportation. Essentially, capsules carrying passengers or cargo travel in vacuumed pipelines at very high velocity. The design prototypes and regulations remained uninvented. Therefore, many aspects of design are started from scratch. I designed the layout of the universal capsule and pipeline, invented the stradegy of Hyperloop medical capsule and came up with the stradegy of the distribution center prototype for Hyperloop freight. I also participated in the exhibition of Hyperloop at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Urban Scale Computation
The Mega Data Center of Future
UCLA Architectural Studio Masterplan Design
2021.9-2022.6
Instructor: Guvenc Ozel, Laure Michelon,Tucker van Leuwen-Hall
Team: I, Chiping Liu, Yatian Ren Site: Orkney islands, Scotland
The world today meets a need of 47 ZB of data in 2020. We propose to design a datacenter capable of processing and storing 10 ZB which can feed the needs of the whole EU. In 2018, Microsoft selected Orkney islands for their second phrase underwater data center test due to the abundant renewable energy and natural conditions, which inspired us to put data centers in the cold sea water. Nevertheless, instead of one or two capsules of servers, we boldly put a “city” of data centers in the water. This project will be scattered on the existing islands, artificial islands and into the sea of a vast area of over 5000 km2.
The Orkney islands is located 16 km north to Scotland. Despite the rather rural status quo of Orkney Islands, it is rich in wind and tidal power. Datacenter is notorious for its high consumption of energy. To meet the need of such a large project, the project demands an astonishing power of 90,000 megawatts.
Two machine learning scripts are the powerful assistive tools in the overall planning and 3D modeling. CycleGan is used to generate the early-form masterplan according to the image and key words related to this project. VqGan is utilized to generate the profile of architecture typology in the project.
The project consists of two systems. The system in the north is responsible for all the process of data and power consumption and is home to the staff. The system in the south builds infrastructure and generate power. The most significant scenario of the project might be the huge data center towers and the “piers” spreading across the sea. Inspired by the CycleGan image, the artificial islands are designed in a linear and orthogonal way, which are called “piers”. The piers act as not only means of transportation but also a facility hub. The huge towers are mostly over 200m tall for ventilation, attached with its mirrored counterpart in the water. They are self-constructed without human effort. They work on very elaborated system which populates different tiers of servers on different places.
The huge demand for artificial islands makes the process of production exceptionally challenging. Thanks to the sufficient power supply, we create a factory with an enormous size which spreads all the way across the mainland island and the sea. This guarantees a growing project: the scale will not be constrained to the land where it has the potential to grow constantly in the open sea.
If you would like to know more about the project, please check at: Cinematic video: https://youtu.be/MmEJwvg8scY
VR gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2GOsC0QDvo AR display: https://youtu.be/DkjIipD2a5Q
Image generated by CycleGan
Cloud storage and computation has become one of hottest business due to the extremely expanding global data size.The cloud storage data size doubles every three years. It is top priority to build a growable mega data center.
If the 10 ZB data is stored into standard servers, it will fill up a gigantic cube(compared to the statue of liberty).
Data centers are notorious energy consumers, especially at this large scale. It is shown that cooling takes up 43% of the energy used. If the energy of cooling is saved, the total energy consumption will reduce to half, saving billions of pounds.
Microsoft has successfully put a capsule containing servers in the cold water of the North Sea, which inspired us to put data in sea water as well. However, millions of times of what Microsoft did.
The input and output towers transmit data through the Atlantic cables and satelite dishes. They are located at the northest point of the project according to the location of the undersea cables.
The orange line is the main piers. They extend from south to north and act as the artery of the project. Some minor piers grow from the main piers.
In spite of the linear shape, they are actually artifical islands.
The mega factory have a length of a few miles. It is a superstructure that manufacture almost everything required in the project. Its large scale guarantee the possibility of such a urban scale data center.
The mophology of the project is inspired from the machine learning module: CycleGan. Generally, the artifical islands, in the form of piers, form complex clusters that look like circuit board. The huge data towers stand in between the clusters.
A cluster a basic unit of the system. In one cluster, multiple towers of different shapes and programs work with each other. The wind turbines and tidal turbines generate power and store excessive energy in the battery that are on the piers.
facade of the factory
The VR experience is complementary to the overall display of the project and will present more details of the undersea world on human scale. The player will act as a diver to fix a few bugs in the server racks. We will see the hologram of a part of the project.
The VR gameplay, made with Unity
We create a brand new experience of VR of being the pioneer of underwater VR experience. We create diving motion with very much freedom and a immersive, realistic underwater world.
The project shows little clue of human activity. Yes, the project is highly automated. Robots, drones and intelligent capsules maintain this area of over 50 square miles.
The facade of a typical tower's underwater part. Capsules are aligned for the best cooling effect.
The underwater pipelines transport capsules and drones swiftly.
The Plat
Wuhan University Architectural Studio Collective Housing Design
2020.9-2020.11
Instructor: Jinghua Song Team: I(as the group leader, 70% of work), Zhixing Wang Site: Busan, Korea
Located at the whole area of 66, Sujeonggongwonsang-ro, Dong-gu, Busan, Korea, the 400-unit community discuss an imminent problem in the modern society: so dense and so compressed communities in big city are and so little price that we can pay for the pandemic due to the population density, how to guarantee people’s living qualities and social demands while leaving ample space for everyone. The community will house over 400 units and supporting facilities including a two floored shop, a parking lot with 300 parking space, an urban farm for serving primary products and view seeing, a recycle center, an indoor swimming pool, and a central plaza with an amphitheater.
The most impressive part of The Plat is its vast thin flat platform. The 96m* 96m platform is peeled from the sloping site and extended from the mountain, giving a panoramic view without impediment. From the platform grows four individual residential blocks and two plinths. We purpose to reserve the site instead of occupying it due to the harsh topography, leaving the site as a lush meadow. The blocks are highly efficient, following the sunlight and optimizing the view.
Landscape is permeated in the very whole project to make sure that one can either enjoy a show with scores of people or hide in his secret garden. Green space is on every scale: the biggest one on top of the platform is the yard of the community. On the medium scale, each block has its distinctive mid-air garden and rooftop garden for residents to relax without leaving the block. On the smaller scale each unit has its own private corridor. Local city context of small squares is projected on the platform and forms small squares of green space.
The Plat in every aspect, is an architecture of the future. In addition to its bizarre appearance comprised of high volumn rate towers to house as many households as possible with limited footprints and flat platform with large floor area who makes way for plentiful activities which reaches two extremes of architectural forms, fully automatic supplies system that delivers cargo straight to every home, unban farm and waste disposal factory that are self-sufficient, ensure the community’s utmost convenience and high efficiency during normal days and quarantine.
The site is inclined and hard to construct on. We propose to let nature permeate through the site, turning it into a transition from mountain to city.
The new site is peeled from the slope and becomes the extension of the lush mountain. The original site is reserved as a grassland.
Max extrusion becomes a big flat box for public programs - shop, parking lot, leisure, etc. The roof becomes a green yard.
Four towers grow from the platform and two plinths adversely. All building blocks are facing south for optimized sunlight and their different heights grant better view.
Enclosed community has walls for residents’ privacy and security, but walls hamper views and bring tension.
Two blocks are spined to respect local city context, and form softer and bigger central courtyard.
By lifting the ground, privacy remains while residents are liberated from the obstruction. The platform becomes the "tray" of the community, one side is high above the ground, the other links the street.
Residential program occupies all of the tower, the 1f and 2f of the platform contain most of public program, the lower floor is a parking lot and the plinth is the office and F&B.
Programs for residents and outsiders are ingeniously isolated for non-interrupting user experience.
Building context of Dong-gu, Busan Vegetation coverage Street context
The central plaza is a lively gathering space, attracting people from all direction and sight from every residential tower.
The Twist
Wuhan University Architectural Studio
High-rise Building Design
2020.3-2020.6
Instructor: Li Xixuan
Team: I(as the group leader, 75% of work), Yuxi Gou
Project redesigned individually, drawings in this portfolio done individually
Site: Wuhan, China
As a city with fast tech development in mid China, Wuhan has a couple of universities that cultivated dozens of tech-giant founders, while at the same time continuously sending brilliant students into this industry. However, Wuhan lacks a architectural symbol that projects its growing influence on tech field. Wuhan’s skyline, which is magnificant from the perspective of Yangtze river bank, is nevertheless constitute of few buildings that are recognized nationwide and worldwide.
The multi-functional 100m tall skyscraper lies in the southwestern corner of Wuhan university’s campus of art and science. It’s main client is the tech giant Xiaomi Inc., who excepts the building to be not only one major office but a tech incubator as well. The twist consists of a shopping mall with a individual roof garden at the bottom of the building, and an office with cafeteria, library, meeting rooms and all other supporting facilities.
The architectural language is obvious and distinctive. A trapezoid-shaped block is twisted from the top to form an unorthodox shape. The conflict remains, that the orientation of old campus context which is formed by the mountain trends in WHU and the old building communities, is different from that of the surrounding roads which shapes the bases of new buildings. The twist makes a compromise and respects both orientations. The outcome being, contrary to traditional building, the spinning shape grants every floor its distinctive view, which represents the advantage of high-tech companies- flexibility and innovativeness.
Vertically, the twist is divided into four blocks with green gardens or viewing decks on top of each one. We purpose that public space can be penetrated in the entire building, from the ground to rooftop gardens. In each block, we manage to break the boundary of floors in multiple ways: a spiral like floor plate to provide a non-stop linear shopping experience in the 1st block, and two indoor straps to boost the communication between every floor in the 3rd block. It is well worth thinking how to stimulate the scarce desire to communicate and socialize in an era which most face-to-face activities can be replaced by the online counterpart, which answer to the knotty problem is to be found in this project.
The site is intimately connected with Paifang (archway), which is the symbol of Wuhan University. Paifang opens the boundary of WHU, making the school a popular visiting area. A new metro station in the northwest direction will be put in use next year, along with the station at Jiedaokou business district and high-dense road network near the intersection of two main roads, road Luoshi and road Bayi, will squeeze in larger amount of students, school staff, tourists and neighbooring residents in the narrow site. The Twist is not only an office buiding but an extention of rich public area near Paifang. Since Xiaomi company is the main client, we overlook the location of other tech company, a couple of tech incubators and tech labs are located within the 2km radius, high tech company employees would act as the major users of this building. Luojia mountain, Shizi mountain, and east lake consist of the most important part of the lush landscape of WHU.
The site locates in Wuhan University in Wuhan, Hubei, China, which occupies 3600m2 of constructable area. Traffic flows come from four main directions: tourists and incoming students from Paifang (the iconic archway of WHU) , students from the northeast corner, office workers and residents from the crossing ,and subway commuters from the west gate.
The top is pushed back from two directions to create a trapezoid shape that forms terraced gardens. The south side allows in more sunlight and the east side enjoys direct view from the campus.
Rather than confining public area on the ground, ample public space is permeated in different floors of the building, creating public nodes for people to meet. The nodes are evenly distributed that everyone in the office could take a 2-minute walk from their seat to reach.
The maximum extrusion is a 50m*50m*100m box. Square plans are adapted for the highest efficiency of an office building. The main entrances are placed on the south side since appr. 60% of the traffic flows come from this side.
We purpose an orthogonal base with the road network for better accessibility, but a top parallel with the ridges of the iconic mountains and the texture rich historical building of WHU dated back to the 1920s. The two directions have an included angle of appr. 36 degrees for which the building is twisted boldly, granting every floor different orientation.
The core tube is at the corner of the Twist in order to create bigger free plans.
Old building context following the direction of mountains and the new context following the main roads have an included angle of 36 degrees.
Analysis of Block One
Block one is filled with a shopping mall. Its main entrance is situated at the west side for optimized accessibility. Traditional mall has different merchandise on different floors, to go up or go down one takes escalator or elevator, therefore the shopping experience is fragmentized and split up. We purpose a new type of shopping, one linear shopping space folded into a spiral slope in the skyscraper envelop. A painted long arrow shows the way from the entrance to the platform on the top of the mall, in another word, it’s hard to get lost. In this project, the floors act as not only the medium of functions but also replace the vertical transportation. The southeastern corner has a shape of quarter circle removed. The quarter circle area of 1f is a stage, or just a gap for parties, between 1f and 2f is an auditorium for everyone whereas the spectacle of the stage is seen from other floors’ fringe as well. We also subvert the form of atrium, traditional mall’s atrium is a gigantic empty space, in this project the atrium is rather small so we fill it. The escalators are stretched horizontally to enrich the spatial experience, stairs and ramps which link different floors weave with the escalators. The mall, in another sense becomes a theatre in which customers are both performers and spectators at the same time. In the era of online shopping, shopping mall in the Twist transcends the traditional means of gathering merchandise, turning into the complex of socializing, relaxing, experiencing and buying.
Plan Patterns
An architectural language to be used in this project is loop or circulation.
In block one. a quarter of circle is cut from the plan, the rest being a loop of a slope that circulate all along.
The top of block two is a ring of terraces which varied in height, despite the various height the terraces make a good connection.
The lower part of block three constitute of two belts, one with stairs and seats, the other covered in vegetation. Both start from 14f and finally congregate to create public space.
From block 3 to block 4 the connection is seamless. A viewing deck gradually rises and end with an office floor with varied heights.
The
The social strap and the green strap meet.
Terraced gardens outside of office.
Primary School at T-Junction
Wuhan University Architectural Studio
Primary School Design
2018.3-2018.5
Instructor: Ning Shao
Individual Work Site: Wuhan, China
For nearby dwellers, the second primary school attached to Wuhan university can hardly escape the spotlight. The west side of Wuhan university’s arts and science campus crams full apartments for school staff, therefore a product of China’s unique communism public ownership and hundreds of children’s need for primary education incubate this primary school. It stands at the junction of two main roads, Chagang Rd. and Guiyuan 1st Rd., opposite of which is the biggest supermarket in the university. For students living in the faculty of engineering, the spot is a must-pass-by when going in or out of the campus.
The primary school faces a series of problems: the existing facility cannot house enough students, the only two playgrounds cannot meet the need of the children and the adjacent sidewalk is always overcrowded. We purpose a project that integrate three goals: Contain the waiting parents inside of the site, expand the programs of commercial and service use, and bring the vibrant college student into the primary school. It transcends a normal junior school in a huge one, to be the small containing the big. It breaks the stereotype that primary school is an enclosed nest of vulnerable new born birds, but stretches it welcoming gesture to the outside.
A slab of public classrooms and teacher’s offices completely covers the frontage side, the slabs for normal classrooms “grow” from the main slab to meet sunlight regulations. The whole school part is lifted to the second floor, leaving the first floor as penetrable and welcoming space. The main body is lifted with a cluster of shops and activity rooms on the ground floor. The waiting room for parents, like a wedge, is pushed in the façade from the Chagang Rd. direction, above which is the activity center for WHU students. The running track is lifted with a parking lot for school staff’s and parents’ cars underneath and the basketball court have an inner basketball hall below it. Green gardens and playgrounds are around the building - in the middle of the running track, next to the basketball court, and covers the whole rooftop.
The Cokebottle Gallery
Individual Form Study Studio
Art Gallery Design
2019.10-2019.12
Individual Work Site: Unknown
The Coke bottle gallery is meant to be an eccentric, for it simulates the movement trace of throwing a coke bottle in the air, an act too casual and too unpredictable to be an concept. It is an architecture generated by randomness, madness and sarcasm. We shall introspect that, in an era when inconventional idea get less tolerance, if our over-meticulous thoughts turn into a burden against our creativity. This project is meant to discover the boundary of architecture design and to accomodate a test field of observing human behaviors and activities.
Similar to a Mobius strip, the distinction of inside and outside of the gallery is blurred. Thanks to the flip of the facade, the outer side of the wall turns into the roof, followed by the inner side of the wall, eventually the roof of the underground showroom. An immense welcoming gap is opened up as the main entrance on B1 floor. The lobby is followed by a series of showrooms that circulated and at the same time elevating around the gallery.
Predictable and routine as traditional galleries are, the Coke bottle gallery manages its flexibility in many aspects. Peeking is considered a rascality under most circumstances, while in the Coke bottle gallery, visitors are allowed and encouraged to "peek" other visitors as well as they watch the collections. Studying the human behaviors is not only out of the curiosity of human nature but is practiced in many scientific fields as well therefore the gallery aims to provide an optimized spatial experience of watching both collections and people. When touring in the annular showrooms on B1 floor, the visitors are unconsciously watched by those in the centered grand showroom who will immediately figure out the situation upon reaching. Several cascading slopes connect all the floor with very gentle inclination, encouraging diversified viewing routes. The double-height atrium, which is surrounded by the cascading slopes, sees every one of the hundreds of visitors, consolidate the idea of watching both art and people.
Throwing a coke bottle in the air is a foible that takes place when idle. The position and gesture of the bottle changes constantly, granting us a movement that is hard to predict. In this way an unexpected surprisingly exquisite shape could be formed.
There's no limit between the in and out, the observer and observed, the floor and stair. A surprise can take place everywhere in this gallery.