Architecture Portfolio_Yufei Wang

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THE WET SLAB 2022 Fall | Looseness: Indeterminate Architectures

PONT DE SPORT 2023 Spring | Architecture of Perimeter

FREEWAY HOUSING 2022 Spring | Right to Housing

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13-22

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Yufei Wang Rice University, M.Arch candidate Email: yw111@rice.edu, Phone: (+1) 346-212-6511

BREATHING SCHOOL 2021 Fall | New Assembly of Primary School

ORIGAMI 2020 Fall | Super Residence for Post-Pandamic Life

ARCHIVE

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THE WET SLAB An Environmental Machine for Living in a Climatic Future Academic Work, Group Instructor: Adam Frampton Collaborator: Ignis Zhang 2022 Fall Totalization: Looseness: Indeterminate Architecture Role in Team: research on water infrastructure, conceptual design, technical drawings, study on materials, renders, physical model making

This proposal for a housing project in Brooklyn, New York speculates living in a climatic future, where environmental forces play an active role in shaping the living environment. In 2070, increasing precipitation will displace a large population from low-lying neighborhoods of New York City, and contribute to a tropical climate. Thus, the building has a system of change based on how water can help organize living in a denser, wetter future. A “wet wall” consolidates the wet programs into a continuous band that runs alongside the slab building. This allows the wet programs to become communal when the layout of the units change to create a denser co-living living environment in the future. By doing so, the building facilitates a return to a collective culture around water, where the wet programs become a space of socialization.

Massing Strategy The sinuous, single-loaded slab typology allows the building to negotiate with the conditions on the site, curating the views and orientation of the units as it meanders, while the wet wall can effectively act as a buffer between the units and less desirable conditions such as noise from the elevated tracks.

We also create larger aquatic programs such as a swimming pool and public bath in the intermediate floor at the height of the elevated tracks, which avoids the lack of privacy if living units were set on this floor.

The middle portion of the building is trussed to avoid the underground rail tunnels; braced framing on both ends of the building provide lateral stability.

Ground Floor Plan

Site Strategy The building’s footprint is essentially reduced to a line on the ground floor. It creates two triangular spaces. The wet half (on the north) is devoted to water detention: it is lined with a bioswale and detention ponds with lush vegetation, which are able to store water and delay rainwater run-off in heavy precipitation; the dry half is a public plaza, which becomes an extension of the park across the street.

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Typical Floor Plan (Present)

Typical Floor Plan (Future)

Indeterminancy of Dometic Life At present, the building has market-rate one-bedroom and two-bedroom units with private wet programs; in the future, the building becomes communal housing with 60% more beds, where the wet programs become shared. This change in organization allows us to create more vertical connections such as the spiral stairs and double height spaces. This facilitates a more collective culture around water, where people live out their social lives around the wet programs.

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Interior Section Perspective (Present)

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Interior Section Perspective (Future)

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1 metal copping 2 roof drainage 3 brick cladding 4 water proof 5 rigid foam insulation 6 batt insulation 7 concrete floor 8 glulam post 9 CLT plate 10 glulam beam 11 drop ceiling with air ducts 12 water reservoir 13 batt insulation 14 shading 15 concrete footing

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Facades This system of change is enabled by a stable structure consists of mass-timber post, plates, and CLT walls. Both sides of the facades are cladded by bricks, which help the building integrate in the city context.

The wet side and dry side have distinct facade conditions that respond to solar orientation; the south and west facing dry side has large windows with deep recess that provides shading; the north facing wet side has shallow openings and responds to the needs of the wet programs inside. The single-loaded slab allows effective cross ventilation to cool the building in an increasingly hot and humid future. Furthermore, all the rainwater collected from the roof, wet programs in the building, and the plaza will eventually go to the detention pond, where it will be treated on site to reduce runoff in the lower areas of the city.

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Wall Section & Partial Elevation 9

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Exterior Figures The circulation stairs and elevators are unconditioned and have their own micro-climate, with the building shielding the northern wind and the bricks’ thermal resurfacing effects, it encourages use of the outdoor stair throughout most of the year.

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PONT DE SPORT

Architecture of Perimeters

Academic Work, Group Instructor: Federico Pedrini Collaborator: Nicole Yip 2023 Spring Architecture Design Studio Paris: Urban Investigation Role in Team: conceptual design, diagrams, tectonic design, technical drawings, renders, physical model making

A lack of large public sports facilities within the immediate neighbourhood and Paris at large guided us in the direction to propose a public building, which would engage with users of different age levels over a range of activity types and skill levels. Focusing on urban strategy, Pont de Sport bridges over Boulevard Saint Germain to break the Haussmannian architecture and axis of 19th century Paris urban fabric, connecting two blocks of our greater site. Through the act of bridging the project faces the seine with a direct connection from river bank level to street level.

Site massing

Frame the view

Inserted light well

From street to river

Urban Strategy As one of the densest cities over the world, the urban fabric of Paris has a strict "hierarchy" system where the streets serve the Haussmannian blocks. The project approaches the hierarchy in a similar way that brings vertical street into the building as a gap. Therefore, the building is distinctly divided into two parts: the sports complex and the facilities. The gap holds the circulation elements to connect both sides while acting as an atrium.

Street View from Boulevard Saint Germain

Tectonics Two different structural strategies exist within the building to further identify the spaces. A load-bearing concrete wall structure creates a rigid volume to hold the perimeter bar and the basement. A steel structure allows for large spans to create more open sports facilities. These two structures come to a meeting point at the court level of the buildings where the object of the large truss structure intersects with the concrete where the spectator area and hard court level are held together.

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Ground Floor Plan

Pool

24.6m 19.8m 16.5m 13.2m 9.9m 6.6m 4.3m 0m

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service space

lobby/cafeteria/ spectator

office/health care

auditorium/technical

swimming/diving

fitness/multi-purpose/rock climbing

hard floor courts

roof playground

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Longitude Section through Sport Complex

Program Matrix

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The building is meant to serve the public, engaging with users of different age levels and activity types. The sports complex is stacked on the street-facing side. The perimeter bar is defined as the space of production, holds the support spaces as acting as a buffer between the residential neighborhood and the sports complex.

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River Bank (-2) Level Plan

Hard Court Level (+4) Plan

Cross Section

Gym Level (+2) Plan

Cross Section

Longitude Section through Gap

Section Design The sport programs work sectionally between the perimeter and sport complex and allow for an interaction between the different users. In the perimeter there is a density and rigidity in the spaces where the floor heights are more compressed and narrower. In contrast, the sport complex has higher floor plates and larger spans to accommodate a greater number of people and activities.

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Hard Court Level

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Roof Playground

FREEWAY HOUSING

Right to Housing

Academic Work, Group Instructor: Reto Geiser Collaborator: Anna Brancaccio 2022 Spring Architecture Design Studio Role in Team: preliminary investigation, conceptual design, research on construction technology, technical drawings, architectural representation, physical model making

Sited on Rice University-owned land in Houston’s Midtown District, the project offers supportive low-income housing for university students and formerly homeless individuals as they gain stability. The site is bisected by the sunken Southwest Freeway which currently acts as a forced border for Midtown’s south end. The project investigates a design approach that mitigates this harsh site condition to bring high quality affordable housing to the rapidly gentrifying district. Housing units line the property’s perimeter, maximizing access to light and air while prioritizing the formation of a set of two large green spaces at the center. Fourfoot thick concrete walls line the freeway edge to form a sound barrier, reducing traffic noise for residents and the nearby community.

Gentrification Boundary Growth

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1940

City Council approved the expansion of the Midtown, expanding its boundaries.

Completion of I-45; the elevated highway marks the physical boundaries of Midtown, shrinking the footprint of Third and Fourth Ward.

2009

in progress

North Houston Highway Improvement Plan that will sink an elevated portion of the I-45, eliminating the boundary between Midtown and Downtown.

Housing Crisis in Houston

What if gentrification gave way to co-existence?

Homelessness is woven into the urban landscape underneath the highway underpasses of Houston. Even though the city made significant progress in reducing homelessness over the course of the past decade, there are still many individuals who are forced to sleep rough. This is particularly visible in areas that are undergoing the early stages of gentrification, such as Midtown, which is to be turned into an innovation district. In response to this challenge, this project will tackle the development of a speculative approach to collective living with a focus on longterm support for Houston’s homeless population. “Right to Housing” is a design and research project that will address homelessness through the architectural lens of housing: reconsider the role of domestic space; and propose new typologies for multi-unit housing.

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Site massing

Bisected by the highway

periphery and open space

city park and courtyard

Site Diagram On the northern portion of the site, the western edge of the site remains open, creating a large city park oriented towards the metro stop and bus terminal. On the southern portion, the building encloses the site, creating a courtyard serving the residents of the housing complex.

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Woodshop

Ground Floor Plan

Street View

Second Floor Plan

What if a neighborhood was truly walkable?

Total Units: 247 FAR: 2.2 ADA Units (600 ft2) : 16 SROs (Single Room Occupancy) (250 ft2): 180 Four-bedroom Units (1500 ft2): 51 27

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Rather than packing the site with a maximum quantity of housing, we sacrifice FAR and unit capacity in favor of a large park and walkable green space. The ground floor holds various publicly accessible programs to support residents and surrounding community, including wood shop, fabric shop, retail, gym, community center, job market, etc.

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Roof Garden High-way Side SRO High-way Side SRO

Typical Unit Layout

Cross Section 12

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Typical Unit Layout (four-bedroom unit + SRO)

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Typical Unit Layout

Organization The 8-floor building is organized with a mix of four-bedroom units and SROs, between which the patio spaces connected by the access balconies become a share space and entrances of units. The four-bedroom units are loft and organized as shifted for reducing traffic on each floor.

On the high-way side, the compact SRO units are provided with shared entrances facing concrete walls and private balconies toward the courtyard/park. Open air roof accommodate public garden and mechanical rooms and the ADA units locate at the ground floor for accessibility.

Circulation

ADA Unit

The cores in this project occupy the hinge areas of each building including the vertical circulations and service spaces. All access balconies acting as horizontal circulation in the buildings face the courtyards with the exception of the units located along the highway edge to create public, open air hallways to encourage a sense of safety and community. On the enclosed side, two public staircases connect the units across different levels with the elevated courtyard.

Four-bedroom

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built-in plywood furniture

concrete slab

concrete slab access balconies windows

steel frame

windows

external shading

Four-bedroom Unit Axon

What if we built for one hundred years instead of fifteen?

This project adopts a steel frame structure, which allows maximized flexibility in interior space and an open-view facade. The four-bedroom units use built-in plywood furniture which provides the possibility for residents to organize their homes.

In the future, they could be divided or replaced as different layouts. Furthermore, considering the design for one hundred years instead fifteen, the structure system is easy to be renovated and reused.

Access Balcony

BREATHING SCHOOL

New Assembly of Primary School Academic Work, Individual Instructor: Brittany Utting 2021 Fall Architecture Design Studio

This project is located in 349 W 24th St, Houston,Texas. After studying the materiality and structure particularly for air circulation of the precedent (Gando Primary School), as well as the extremely hot and humid weather in Houston, the idea was proposed to make a “breathing” primary school where kids could enjoy both indoor spaces and outdoor environments. Instead traditional enclosed school space, a series of flexible thresholds blur the interior and exterior environment.

The permeable proposal is not only limited to air circulation but also aims to sunlight and people circulation. By the "overscaled" consisted facades surrounding the building, fresh air would be introduced into the building to reduce the humidity. Furthermore, the light steel frame and fragmented roofs could bring more natural light in.

Space of Learning

Space of Threshold

Space of Assembly

Permeable Space Study By studying Bauhaus School Glass Facade by Walter Gropius, the operable windows were used to define the space of threshold with the ability to facilitate ventilation and protect students from outside noise if need. The idea applies to the fifth facade, the double roof system, which introduces more natural light in the interior spaces. The whole system aims to encourage students to interact with exterior environment.

Massing Strategy Two horizontal buildings and two connections between them enclose the courtyard. The classrooms and offices are elevated so the first floor with other public programs are open and accessible. Four pop-up canopies in courtyards are designed to be more dynamic where kids can enjoy the sunlight, and be protected by shade. The design language continues to the landscape area that opens to surrounding narrow neighborhoods as public green spaces after school.

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Second Floor Plan

Ground Floor Plan

Extension All the classrooms are on the second floor with the wide semi-outdoor corridors viewing the courtyard. When the windows and doors close, students get a quiet learning space. As they open, the indoor classrooms are extended to the corridors, which helps the communication between different classes. The bridges in between not only connect the dynamic stairs in the courtyard but also connect the classroom on both sides.

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Longitudinal Section

Cross Section

Facade and Roof The operable panel system on the facade with air circulation gap between itself and the classrooms promotes the breathing idea. Additionally, the separated roofs with different orientations allow more lights and air to get in and the similar operable windows on them provide conditioned indoor spaces.

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ORIGAMI

Super Residence for Post-Covid Life Academic Work, Group Instructor: Xia Zhang Collaborator: Mengjia Liu 2020 Fall Special Topics on Architecture Design Role in Team: preliminary investigation, conceptual design, research on construction technology, technical drawing, architectural representation

In 2019, human beings have suffered from COVID-19, and had to swich from normal living style to the "suspend mode". When our social scope change from the whole world to only one community or even our little house, we believe that responsive design with resilience can suit for both normal mode and "suspend mode". Because even during this time, people should also have the right to enjoy nature to satisfy psychological freedom.

Origami is a magical game because the same paper can fold countless different forms according to different creases. Suppose that our house can change some parts of it to provide different spaces just like easily foldable sheet in our hands. While we are confined in our houses, we are rethinking our requirements and needs, along with the "Suspend Mode": green areas and gardens, exploitable rooftops, natural light, ventilation, balconies, terraces, minimal indoor environments, transitional and filtered entrances, etc. If parts of our house become foldable, individuals are allowed to customize their own space by customizing the size of sheet and creases. Also, the facades of public space are movable so that people could enjoy the outdoor environment as much as possible during pandemic.

PRE-COVID19

POST-COVID19

Pre-Covid19 intensive cluster activities happen in atrium centralized shared space physical contact activities

home

private transportation

community

outdoor entertainment

quarantine

Prototype from Creases (1) Input boundary, mountain, and valley (creases with different directions) (2) Input folding rigidity to form different forms (3) Confine some surfaces or lines to if necessary

public space

Post-Covid19 Life Shenzhen is a young city with great ecological flourish which attracted a great amount of migrants.

Therefore, if such a fatal pandemic like Covid-19 happened, Shenzhen would suffer it first because of the high density of population, particularly in the high-rise buildings. After our investigation and research on demographics, we decided to provide an indeterminate housing for migrant workers and their families including all ages which could potentially satisfy both normal mode and suspend mode.

boundary mountain lines vally lines

Form Development

Post-Covid19

1. Original Shape: customize foldable area

separated cluster activities happen in foldable space dispersed household space visual-contact activities

2. Unfolded Sheet: customize boundary and creases according to function of the extra 3. Folding: fold the sheet according to the creases and form a new space 4. Assembling assemble the extra space in foldable area

Typologies of Indeterminate Space According to “A survey on the housing demand of Shenzhen people”, we concluded that these space would be needed in addition to typical housing layout: (1) semi-outdoor space to enjoy sunlights, (2) scattered public space in communities, (3) independent study room to support on-line class or work (4) a sanitary transition between home and public space.

skylight

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workstation

balcony

living room

balcony

stair 50

Cluster Plan 1F (Pre-Covid)

Cluster Plan 1F (Post-Covid)

Community Library (Pre-Covid)

Outdoor Exhibition (Post-Covid)

Cluster Plan 2F (Pre-Covid)

Cluster Plan 2F (Post-Covid)

Living Room (Pre-Covid)

Balcony (Post-Covid)

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Second Floor Plan

SEASONAL HOUSE Timber Construction in Houston

Academic Work, Group Instructor: Jesús Vassallo Collaborator: Yuhan Chen, Nino Chen, Bailey Stevens 2022 Fall Architecture Seminar: Tall Timber Role in Team: conceptual design, research on construction, technical drawings, physical model

This project attempts to explore the tectonic potential latent in timber construction systems, that adapt the potential of the technology to the specifics of Houston’s warm and humid climate. In this house, all essential programs are consolidated in the “summer house”. The cork insulation wrapped around the summer house provides great condition with less energy consumption. In winer, the shared space on the ground floor could be extended in the periphery shaded by rolling curtains.

Ground Floor Plan (Winter)

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Detail of Post and Walls Plan 53

1 rigid insulation, 1” 2 glulam post, 9” x 9” 3 CLT wall, 4” 4 cork insulation, 6” 5 wood stud, 2”x 6” 6 water proof 7 cladding joint 8 wood cladding 9 wood door frame, 9” x 4” 10 glass, 1” 11 air gap, 3”

Detail of Sliding Door Plan 54

1 metal copping 2 wood blocking, 2" x 12" 3 furring strip 4 wood clading, 1" 5 water proof 6 rigid insulation, 1" 7 glulam beam, 9" x 12" 8 wood stuck, 2" x 6" 9 cork insulation, 6" 10 CLT wall, 4" 11 purlin 12 metal nail 13 corrugated metal 14 drip edge 15 rolling curtain 16 glulam post,9" x 12" 17 hard wood flooring 18 split wood stud, 2" x 6" 19 CLT floor, 6" 20 metal joint 21 concrete base, 3' x 3'

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Post-Beam Joint

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Detail Cross Section 55

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Street View

PARA-NATURAL HILL

Art School in The Slope

Academic Work, Individual Instructor: Yang Shu 2019 Spring Architecture Design Studio

This project attempts to explore a new methodology using in the design concept. Given that the site is located at a slope facing Eastern Lake, the project was designed to be a landscape architecture involved terraces to fit in the environment. However, it is not like a usual landscape architecture which might be embedded in the context while it is iconic and identical in a subtle way.

The basic geometry prototype units were integrated and transformed to be numerous types. They were molded in estranged way which would bring interesting space experience to users. Every integrated unit is a reformed typology as the program is related to different functions in this school. Shear wall structure is a conventional tectonic in this building to ensure that indoor space would not be occupied. Not only the typology but also the fictional material was used to interpret the methodology. The pixel colors of the concrete stand in a new aesthetic angle to fit with landscape architecture, which is an abstract visual experience for users. The reinterpretation of academic architecture is a creation of new aesthetic.

Entrance

East Elevation 57

Section 58