Portfolio of hu zhenhang 2013

PORTFOLIO

HU ZHENHANG M.ARCH (AA SCHOOL), M.ENG (SOUTHEAST UNIVERSITY)

PROJECTS

XIANYANG CULTURE CENTRE

International Competition 1st Place Location: Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, China Area: 150,000 sqm Phases: Conceptual Design > Schemetic Design > Design Development > Construction Drawing

Xianyang culture centre, with a total area of 150,000 sqm, is located in the new town of Xianyang, Shaanxi province, China (formerly the capital of China in Qin dynasty 221-207 BC). The project as a building group includes a science museum, a library, an archive centre, an art centre, an intangible cultural heritage museum, an urban planning exhibition centre, a youth centre, a children centre and a theatre. The design concept derives from two aspects, the site conditions and the culture. Based on the site analysis the spatial mode and axis (two overlapping squares) are determined. The concept is also inspired by the imperial palace of Qin dynasty: several blocks are inserted onto a common stereobate. The continuous circle space inside the stereobate as well as the courtyards provide lively places for the public.

Location of the new town

Urban programmes

Location of the site

Spacesyntax analysis

Site concept

Imperial palace of Qin dynasty

Abstraction of the palace

Form generation process

Circulation system of the site

Pedestrian system on the roof platform

Fire lane system

Bird’s-eye view

Libarary

View from the fountain

Science museum

Archive centre

Theatre

Structure study

Samples of construction drawings (ground floor plan of the youth centre)

Samples of construction drawings (sections of the youth centre)

Samples of construction drawings (staircase No.2 of the youth centre)

Samples of construction drawings (elevations of the youth centre)

Samples of construction drawings (rest room No.2 & 3 of the youth centre)

BRIDGE+: VANKE ART CENTRE Invited International Competion 2nd Place Location: Shanghai, China Area: 2,970 sqm Phase: Conceptual Design The site is situated at the north vertex of Shanghai South-station CBD, which contains a strip of green park in the middle. To the north and east of the site are housing estates.

On the southwest there stands a petrol station. To the south are mixed-use buildings.

Besides, an overpass passes by the west side of the site and the underground Line 1 goes through the site beneath. The task is to design an art centre, which will be used as sales office of the CBD until the district is finished.

Hence, the design should not only respond to the complicated surroundings as a significant part of the city park, but also interact effectively with the commercial needs. Involving a concept of “bridge+”, the designed art centre crosses over the underground line like a bridge and meanwhile plays a role of the park’s north gate. The spaces on and under the bridge provide attractive platforms for diverse public activities.

Bridge + connection

Bridge + Crossing

Master plan

Park entry & start of green axis

Bridge + Combination

Journey

Programmes

Ground floor

First floor

Second floor

South elevation

West elevation

Site plan

Section

Public activities

Interior

View from the north entry of the park

View along the park axis

The bridge (physical model)

WUHAN BOTAI HOTEL Commission Location: Wuhan, China Area: 29,400 sqm Phases: Conceptual Design > Schemetic Design The project is situated in the high density area of Huhan, Hubei province, China. The site is surrounded by residential buildings.

The key problem for the project is the confliction between the high plot ratio required and the daylight standard. The high plot ratio asks for a relatively large building volume.

On the other hand, the surrounding buildings are not allowed to be shaded in many directions. In order to achieve a suitable geometry for the design, Grasshopper and Geco (connecting with Ecotect) are involved. The design finally shows a combination of several stacking blocks. The room types and layouts are further studied.

Traffic system

Location in the city

Master plan

Daylight analysis

Landscape system

Site plan

Standard floor A-1

Ground floor

Standard floor A-2

Standard floor B-1

First floor

Standard floor B

Second floor

Top floor

Room type 1 used as residence

Room type 2 used as residence

Room type 3

Room type 1 used as office

View from the main street

Bird’s-eye view

View from the Little South-lake Park

View from the Fountain Park

Room type 2 used as office

Original Design Studio

Commission Location: Shanghai, China Area: 1,020 sqm Phases: Conceptual Design > Schemetic Design > Design Development > Construction Drawing > Construction

The project is located at No.640 Kunming Road, Shanghai, China. Used as the Shanghai spike factory, two existing buildings are involved in the design. One is a wood-brick hall built in 1930s (Loft D), the other is a reinforcedconcrete office building built in 1980s (Loft B). The task is transforming loft D and part of Loft B’s ground floor into the Original Design Studio’s new office, which includes structure reinforcement, waterproof treatment, facility renovation, space re-organisation and interior decoration. The architectural design aims to restore the atmosphere of the Industrial Era while the landscape design involves techniques of making traditional Chinese garden. Therefore, artefacts and nature conduct dialogues with each other and shows dramatic interactions.

Entry (before)

Room 4 (before)

Room 5-a (before)

Room 5-b (before)

Alley between room 1 and 5 (before)

Yard 2 (before)

Plan (before)

Entry

Main corridor & reception (space between room 1 and 5)

Meeting room (room 1)

Design room (part of room 4)

Leisure space (part of room 4)

Exhibiton hall (part of room 5)

Workshop (part of room 5)

Yard 1

Yard 2

Reception

Exhibtion hall

Storage

Construction drawing of the entry

Meeting room

Main corridor

Workshop Yard 1

Yard 3 Office

Detail drawing of the scuttles

Leisure space

Office

Design room

Yard 2 Office

Construction drawing of the plan

Construction drawing of the roof truss maintenance

On site

Exterior of “Original Space�

Entry facade

Main corridor

Exhibition hall

Design room

Yard 2

Workshop

Stair in the leisure space

RESEARCH

EMERGENT TECHNOLOGIES & DESIGN @ AA SCHOOL

The conceptual structures and philosophies of Emergence form the logic of and the processes of Evolutionary Computation; and the application to architectural design is focused on genetic algorithms for structural form finding and generative design. Emergence is also a central concept of Biomimetics, in which biological structures are analysed and understood as material hierarchies self-organised into structures that are achieved by a bottom up process of self-assembly from which their properties and performances emerge. The programme is focused on the concepts and convergent interdisciplinary effects of Emergence on design and production technologies, and on developing these as creative inputs to new architectural design processes.

1. Biommetics The “Biommetics” studio studies the performance of creatures’ tissues or organs under certain external energy influences (forces, humidity, heat, etc) both through physical experiments and computational simulations. The studio then attempts to design an architectural prototype system applying the results. As for this research, the objects are the flight feathers. The first phase involves research on flight feathers’ morphological and biological composition. In the second phase, physical and digital experiments are conducted to observe the behaviour of the feather structure when external loads are applied. In the final phase, some tests are taken to develop an architectural system which intends to translate the concept of the feather´s structural behaviour to a structural system for possible architectural applications.

Prototype study 1

Digital Experiments

Physical Experiments

Prototype study 2

2. Emergence The goal of this project is to study the biological process of embryological development coupled with evolutionary development from an embryological stage.

In this case a geometrical primitive such as a cube or cylinder is set as a start point, which allows morphological transformation through means of adaptation, mutation, cross-breeding and other biological methods. The experiment deals with three sequences. The first sequence is an introduction to understanding embryological development. The second sequence deals with the evolutionary development of the populations that were created. The final sequence is an exploration into controlling the results based on the first two studies.

Population 1

Population 6

Study process

Genomes & phenotypes

Population 11

3. Complex Urban Network From the perspective of urban network, this research aims to explore a reconnection strategy for urban spaces. In many Chinese cities, newly built highways have cut off original foot paths. These new barriers along with historically existing ones such as rivers have resulted in unbalanced development and functional separation for the two sides of the barriers. Tricky social problems have been sparked by the situation. A concept of connection and balance is proposed and the solution derives from the complex urban network study and optimisation.

Two types networks are explored in the thesis which are “roads as nodes” and “programmes as nodes”. Accordingly, two parameters are evaluated respectively for the networks, which are average path length and clustering coeficient. Finally a design proposal is suggested.

Model of the site

Road system of the site

Network visualisation of Hangzhou’s road system

Programme system of the site

Site network visualisation (roads as nodes)

Site network visualisation (programmes as nodes)

Option 1 S= 19159.87695

Option 2 S= 18595.89292

Option Option 13 S= S= 19159.87695 16606.30354

Option Option 24 S= S= 18595.89292 11678.2361

Option 3 S= 16606.30354

Option 4 S= 11678.2361

Option64 Option S=10723.9873 11678.2361 S=

Option Option 57 S= S= 10974.22669 10186.21543

Option Option 68 S= S= 10723.9873 9916.954168

Option 7 S= 10186.21543

Option 8 S= 9916.954168

Option11 9 Optio Option 13 S=7966.696381 8976.769715 S= 8459.517003 S=

Option 10 14 Option 12 Option S= 8626.413365 S= 7290.713537 8255.441998 S=

Optio 11 Option 15 S=6878.188947 8459.517003 S=

Option16 12 Option S=5866.697847 8255.441998 S=

Option Option 13 S= S= 19159.87695 16606.30354

Option Option24 S= S=18595.89292 11678.2361

Option53 Option S=10974.22669 16606.30354 S=

Option Option57 S= S=10974.22669 10186.21543

Option Option 68 S= S= 10723.9873 9916.954168

Option 97 S= 8976.769715 10186.21543

Option 10 8 Option S= 8626.413365 S= 9916.954168

Figure 4.43-a Standard Deviation Evaluation

Figure 4.43-a Standard Deviation Evaluation 112

112

Optio Option119 Option Option 13 15 S= S= 8459.517003 8976.769715 S= S= 7966.696381 6878.188947

Option Option 10 12 Option 14 16 S= 8626.413365 S= 8255.441998 S= 7290.713537 5866.697847

Optio 11 Option 15 S= 8459.517003 S= 6878.188947

Figure 4.43-a Standard Deviation Evaluation 112

Option 12 Option 16 S= 8255.441998 S= 5866.697847

Bird’s-eye view 1

Option 17 S= 5676.279666

Option 18 S= 5501.188865

Option 19 S= 5402.778753

Figure 4.43-b Standard Deviation Evaluation 112

Bird’s-eye view 2

Option Option 17 19 S= S= 5676.279666 5402.778753

Option 18 S= 5501.188865

Option 19 S= 5402.778753

Design evolution Figure 4.43-b Standard Deviation Evaluation 113

View along the river

ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY & THEORY @ SOUTHEAST UNIVERSTIY

The architectural history and theory research system in Southeast university is the only one National key discipline of China in this field. Its theoretical research system includes three directions, which are Chinese architectural history, oriental architectural history, and modern architectural theory. Its related practice mainly refers to cultural heritage conservation maintenance and restoration. Currently the oriental architectural history studio which Zhenhang Hu was in mainly pays attention to ancient Japanese and Korean architecture in order to figure out their cultural and technical relationships with Chinese ones.

1. The Main Hall of Baoguo Temple: Survey and Research The main hall of the Baoguo Temple in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, China, is an ancient wooden hall built in the year of 1013 AD. Having experienced several significant repairs over its millennium history, the hall still basically remains its body as the original structure. The research are divided into two parts. Part I aims to promote an integral and in-depth understanding of the hall through detailed and accurate survey and data collecting. Part II, based on the results of Part I, studies the hall’s styles, scales and local features as well as their relationships with ancient texts. This whole research belongs to the project “A study of Chinese southeast coastal architecture in the Song and Yuan dynasties from of the perspective of east Asia” that is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Cover of the published book

Exterior

Interior

Zaojing (dome on the ceiling)

Puzuo (structure under the eaves)

Fish-eye view from the gate

3D scanning image

Plan of the current condition

Section of the current condition

Construction sequence simulation

2. Urban and Architectural Research on Entertainment Centres and Theatres in Hangzhou of China’s South-Song Dynasty Titled “Urban and architectural research on entertainment centres and theatres in Hangzhou of China’s South-Song dynasty (1127-1279)”, the thesis aims to observe South-Song dynasty’s economy, politics and culture from the perspective of architecture and urbanism. It consists of five chapters. Chapter I introduces the background and structure of this research.

Chapter II includes the textual criticism of the names of entertainment centres and theatres (Washe and Goulan respectively in ancient Chinese), as well as the introduction of their social backgrounds. Chapter III is the urban research of the entertainment centres, including location definition and analysis. Chapter IV is the architectural research of theatres, which includes historic material reviews and anaysis. Finally, in Chapter V, urban and architectural restorations of one entertainment centre and one theatre are conducted respectively.

Historical map

Historical texts

Cover of the thesis

Urban space restoration of a centre

Location restoration

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Shenlou (VIP Auditorium) (VIP Auditorium) Shenlou (VIPShenlou Auditorium) Wuting (Stage) Wuting (Stage) Yaopeng (Auditorium) Yaopeng (Auditorium)

OPTION 1

Shenlou (VIP Auditorium) Yaopeng (Auditorium) (VIP Auditorium) Shenlou (VIPShenlou Auditorium) Wuting (Stage) Wuting (Stage) Wuting (Stage)

Wuting Wuting (Stage) Wuting (Stage)(Stage) Yaopeng (Auditorium) Yaopeng (Auditorium)

Wuting (Stage) Yaopeng (Auditorium) (VIP Auditorium) Shenlou (VIPShenlou Auditorium) Yaopeng (Auditorium) Yaopeng (Auditorium) Wooden Ramp Wuting (Stage) Wuting (Stage)

Yaopeng (Auditorium) Wooden Ramp Wooden Ramp

OPTION 2

Shenlou (VIP Auditorium) Wuting (Stage) Yaopeng (Auditorium)

Yaopeng (Auditorium) Yaopeng (Auditorium)

OPTION 3

Possible modes of space organisation

Theatre restoration (section)

OPTION 4 (MOST POSSIBLE)

Theatre restoration (ceiling plan of the stage)

Theatre restoration (main elevation)

Sh

END