Portfolio 2021
Project
1
The Wall Breaking p3
Project
2
Brutalist Architecture Exhibition p7
Project
3
Bath p11
Project
Content
4
City's Echo p15
O
ther works p18
I came to Melbourne for schooling in year 7. In the past few years in Melbourne, I found that there are many open, unwalled parks in Melbourne. I usually pass through a park every day when I go to school, the pleasing environment and the sounds of animals in the park will keep me in a good mood on a new day.
This reminds me of many urban parks in China, where people have to enter the park from designated entrances due to the perimeter wall of it. When I was traveling in Chengdu, a city in China, I was very upset every time when I pass by so many parks in the city but couldn't see the scenery inside because of these walls. After seeing the comparison between parks in Australia and China, I start to reconsider the meaning of the park perimeter walls in urban public spaces.
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The Wall Breaking This is an idea about the renovation of the park perimeter wall in Chengdu, China.
Tianyi Wang
These walls will not only block the scenery in the park, but also restrict people's freedom of entry and exit, people can only enter and exit the park from designated places. Moreover, these walls need to be maintained regularly, therefore they are very inconvenient for Chengdu, which has many parks in the city.
Citang Street is a historic street next to Chengdu People’s Park, with a total length of about 300 meters. It was very prosperous in the past, with wine shops, restaurants, tea shops, grocery shops and almost everything. It has not only seen the historical changes of Chengdu, but also carried the cultural context of the city.
Public security The perimeter wall can ensure the personal safety of the visitor to a certain extent, especially at night. But people's behavior in the park could be controlled by law rather than those walls since it's still included as a public space. Therefore perimeter walls are not that necessary to parks.
T h e i n ta n g i b l e morality is the foundation of people's security
Urban governance It could prevent some people who try to damage the plants and harm the animals in the park. However, the wall does not fit the concept of "the park city", which is what the cities in China are all aiming to transform to, where people and nature could be better connected. Human being and nature always have a certain connection
Freedom and vitality The relaxing space and natural environment in the park should be a scene that everyone can easily enter. The park is like the lungs of a city, which should be transparent and open in spatial form. People can see the "green" freely from any angle, and that's how the city can breathe.
The open park keeps the city "alive"
Distance The perimeter wall is a kind of barrier, which divides the public space into street space and park space. In nowadays' increasingly crowded cities, the sense of enclosure created by walls is not what people are looking for in an ideal private space. It cuts off the connection between people. The wall is like the cage of city life which distancing people from each other
On the side of the street is the most representative park in Chengdu: People's Park. The park and the street are separated by a perimeter wall and a stream surrounding the park, and the outside of the wall is surrounded by green space facing the street.
Walls itself has a very strong pattern, so I tried to redefine walls, transform the park perimeter wall into a very free, flowing, unconstrained space.
The Golden Sun Bird is an ancient artifact which is unearthed in Chengdu city. The sun bird displayed on this piece of gold foil is a national protected animal called the crested ibis. I choose the morphological characteristics of the bird to assist me in the development of the concept, because this bird gives people a very light feeling, and the people of Chengdu regard it as a spiritual symbol.
According to its flight trajectory, I made an abstract transformation to it, and then it became to a very dynamic pattern, therefore it is in a stark contrast to the rough perimeter wall.
I recorded a section of the flight trajectory of the crested ibis from a documentary, it looks extremely smooth and free during its entire flight.
In this concept, the wall is no longer a partition, but a flowing space that connects the street space with the park space, and can embrace more functions such as a newsstand. It also provides a great permeability, allowing people to freely enter and exit the park, increasing the presence of the park environment in the city. Breaking the wall of the park is a "tangible refutation" of the wall. At the same time, the "wall breaking" idea also wishes to break the psychological or even social barriers brought about by the walls, and advocate the idea that people should not be passively live a life different from others because of the obstacles such as walls. I have the right to view the natural environment in the park, and everyone has the right to make changes for their living conditions.
Brutalist Architecture Exhibition "…What characterizes the New Brutalism…is precisely its brutality, its je-m’en-foutisme, its bloody-mindedness." Reyner Banham, 1955
This is a design for an exhibition building for Brutalist architecture. Brutalist architecture is not very popular nowadays compared to 1950s, and many people even think that this kind of buildings in the city is an eyesore. However, Brutalist architecture is very unique and attractive to me, and therefore I designed an exhibition building for it. The design is used to exhibit presentations such as photos and models of some Brutalist buildings. The purpose of this design is to encourage people to have a deep and immersive experience of the beauty of Brutalist architecture, not only through the exhibits but also through the architectural design of the building and its aesthetic atmosphere, hence wishing people to have a higher acceptance of Brutalism.
The initial study on Brutalist architecture
Research & 8Features In order to have a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of Brutalist architecture, I did a lot of research at the beginning. Although some of the characteristics of Brutalist architecture are quite straightforward, in order to be able to catch these elements more accurately, I found 25 different architectures. These 25 examples are very representative of the features of Brutalist architecture, and there is even example that appears in the game.
At the same time, these are cross-sections corresponding to 25 examples. Through these graphs, I learned about the internal structure and space relationship of these architectures, which helps me to better control the space size, the number of elements, focus of sight and etc. later in concept development.
I summarized 8 key features of Brutalist architecture. These features allow people to be aware that it is Brutalist architecture just by a quick look.
Use of Concrete
Giant, massive outlook
Rough surface
Exposed structure
Anti-gravity structure
Light and shadow
Combination of geometric forms
Light through the structure
Generating concepts, refinement and Modeling
Concept Development From the 8 key features, I start to develop the space in the museum. There will be at least one theme in each of the rooms. When people move throughout those rooms in the museum, they can fully experience these characteristics of Brutalist architecture through the layout and design of each room, and acknowledge the exhibits in each room.
Equinox People in Equinox can see different light and shadow effects. The room will be placed on the second floor because there has more light, and a large space could be very efficient with different light and shadow effects.
Breath There will be some grid structures and tall concrete blocks in Breath. The room will be very large, so that those concrete blocks could suggest people a sense of pressure.
Hover Here will mainly show the anti-gravity appearance of Brutalist architecture, and will be on the first floor.
Solidity There will be many different concrete blocks in Solidity. Since the entire museum is already made of concrete, there is no need to over display the materials. Light trough the structure
Giant, massive outlook
Anti-gravity structure
Use of concrete & Rough surface
Isometric view
Right side section view
Light and shadow
Combination of geometric forms
Exposed structure
Front view
Left side section view
There are three different small rooms in Equinox, and each room has a different lighting effect. Meanwhile, there are small openings on the facade of the museum, allowing light to spread through it to the ground plane of Equinox.
View from the entry of Hover.
In Breath, the skylight on the roof not only provides a light and easy feeling, but also effectively relieves the depressed atmosphere of the room.
Bath Beijing bathhouse culture is a local culture which is at the edge of disappearing. Although I have never been there, I often heard from my grandfather when I was a little, about the interesting things that happened in the bathhouse.
Since I have a deep interest in the culture of Beijing bathhouses, I have studied this culture in depth and designed a installation space about Beijing bathhouses. The purpose of this project is to attract people by the features of bathhouse culture, and remind people to protect the local culture.
Location of the installation Galleries
The site of the space installation is located in an art district in Beijing. There are various exhibition centers, galleries and culture centers nearby. And there are also various shops which means that there would be a constant flow of people.
Exhibition center Culture center Stores
During the Ming Dynasty, the service industry became more prosperous, and people at that time began to have a special love for bathing.
Bathing is not only a part of people’s daily life, but also means a high quality of sipiritual enjoyment.
Because of dry weather, Beijing people has a great passion towards the public bathhouse. And it also saves a lot water for the people who cannot affort the expensive rent.
Nowadays, although the water rent does not seems to be unaffordable, some people still go to the bathhouse because it is a good time to have a chat with their friends and relax.
Another reason for choosing this site is because of the several pipes on the street. This art district was originally a factory, so some factory characteristics were retained in the later transformation process. These pipes could easily make people connect with elements like water and steam, so it fits the atmosphere of the bathhouse where it is full of steam.
People would need an entry ticket to get in the bathhouse, and it will also tell what kind of service the customer would like to have.
The bathhouse is open 24 hours a day, and people can enjoy a more comfortable water temperature and a larger bathing space than at home at a low price.
The Beijing bathhouse is a product of past age, although the low-priced ticket has met the needs of the general public in the old Chinese society, the number of traditional bathhouses is gradually declining due to the increase in customer needs.
Such wooden frame structures can often be seen in bathhouse buildings, and they also frequently appear on the windows and door
frames of bathhouses
The high skylight above the bath pool in the bathhouse extends the limited space in the bathhouse vertically, so I chose this arched structure which is very representative in my opinion.
Front View
The tile material of the bathing space makes people think of a bathhouse at once, so the tile will also become a part of this installation space.
The facade of the old bathhouse is made of concrete. Although its hard texture does not match the relaxing atmosphere in the bathhouse, people have gradually accepted the concrete as part of the bathhouse building over time.
Top View
City's Echo Now people have been so used to the noisy sounds of urban life, and some even forgot to listen. Every city has some unique sounds, and these sounds are one of the most important ingredients of a city, they enrich people's feelings of urban life. Since I have a special love for Chengdu in China, I want to create an installation art that can turn the sounds of Chengdu into a 3D model that can stay permanently. Architecture is frozen music.
I selected 10 sounds most easily heard in Chengdu, analyzed the characteristics of these sounds, and then turned these sounds into 2D images.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Child's laughter
People's chating at Date Coner
The sound of sweeping the street The sound of birds
The sound of ear picking tools
The sound of playing Mahjong
The sound in the bamboo forest
When the subway pulls into the station
The sound of the downtown area
The sound of the old street
Concept development Based on the 10 different sounds that I have summarized earlier, I began to look for the geographic location of each voice on the map of Chengdu. Due to the large area of Chengdu, I choosed to focus on the areas with the most people flow in the city center, and drew a mainline in the middle to link the different sounds in this area, thus forming a city based sound diagram on the Chengdu city map.
Model analysis
Final Presentation
Other Work
Poster design for the school drama The Visit
Book cover design for graphic novel MAUS
Photography on the ACMI exhibition The Story of the Moving Image
Christmas Sales Promotion Poster for the glasses store AOJO, Melbourne
Video cover image design for school's 2021 Formal video LOCKDOWN Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w02V2O4W4KU
Pencil sketch of a pliers
Voucher design for Melbourne AOJO glasses store and First Education
Architectural design for the new building of Beijing traditional bathhouse, Interior of the bathhouse