[exchange portfolio]

M.Arch 1, March 2010 - December 2010

[projects]

School of Architecture & Design: RMIT University Laurence Chan Yat Laam

Artist Sky Village

Prototype & ParadigmSoftcore

World Architecture Workshop

Being one of Hong Kong’s earliest industrial district, Kwun Tong is severely outdated. The district re-quires urgent ‘urban renewal’.

An opportunity arose when the Kai Tak Airport, barely 1km away, closed, leaving the industrial zones to the mercy of shopping malls and Class A offices.

This project takes place on the roof of a barely active factory. The goal is to mutate the factory building from goods production to culture production.

ARTIST SKY VILLAGEKwung Tong, Hong Kong

Bachelor Final Year Studio / Ulrich Kirchoff

ARTIST SKY VILLAGE

1997: Fine grained, low profile factories, serviced by large vehicle depots and loading areas.

1997: 70% of factories have multiple ten-ants and public programmes, such as public canteens and grocery stores.

2008: Rezoning Kwun Tong, commer-cial towers and podium malls.

2008: New develop-ments only have single tenants with significant barriers of entry.

The Infinite Mould - Prototypes & ParadigmThe University of Hong Kong / ARCH 400x

Masters Elective Course/Tom Verebes

Using furnitures as precedent, we try to understand their function as prototypes in terms of use and fabrication techniques.

Initial attempts were made to replicate the production of the plywood shells of Charles & Ray Eames.

Learning from the process of rapid moulding, the challenge turns to making a mould that is fluid, a mould whose shape can be manip-ulated and transformed.

Maximum (6cm) and Minimum (1cm) values set as parameter to control amplitude of sin curve

A specific profile is generated through mapping out the radian of the sin curve

Using the same method, the profiles are rotated along a 180o radian, producing a series of fluctuating sin curves

A prototype of this mould is fabricated, which then we used to produce the surfaces with wire mesh overlayed with soft ma-terials, newspaper strips, cloth rags etc.

The conclusion is this mould is highly success-ful when used in conjunc-tion with fluid or flesible materials, and has great potential to be applied as architectural elements.

Laminate, a sheet material and not inherently structural, was the material of choice in this studio. It becomes necessary to investigate the different ways in which a sheet material could be transformed into a three-dimensional object able to hold its own weight.

Triangles, we discover, is the best shape for structural integrity and flexibility.

SoftcoreRMIT University

Gretchen Wilkins / Leanne Zilka / John Cherry

As the triangles are the parts which form the whole, the fabric can be deconstructed and used in other ways. The size of the overall fabric is limitless, from one triangle to throusands. It could be at a very local scale such as jewellery, ie a necklace, or it could be constructed at an architectural scale.To get a sense of the scale that our project would ultimately be, and the ways in which this fabric could perform, we made different objects, using varying numbers of triangles from the singular to small quilts and put them in different contexts.

International Architecture Student Festival 2010 entryLondon Architecture Festival 2010

Task: to rejuvenate a rather glum bus stop in London

SOFTCORE was shipped to exhibit in London for the LAF 2010, representing RMIT. The Beatles were woven into SOFTCORE as a way to connect with the general public in a site usually considered as ‘boring’.

We believe to intervene an active public scene, one needs to be eye-catching and provokes questions.

Solution: HELP! + SOFTCORE

Top: deconstruction of SOFTCORE Top: packing of SOFTCORE

Mildura, a regiona city in the state of Victoria, anticipates their population to double. My task is to develop strategies for Mildura to cope with the increase.

Do I simply increase housing options? Increase the density? What services does a bigger city need?

The workshop will be joined by students from Japan and France in late November.

World Architecture Workshop[re]Threading Mildura

RMIT UniversityJohan van Schaik/Stuart Harrison

(ongoing till mid-Dec)

Can voids be used to tackle and satisfy the needs of new and existing occupants?

How can new public spaces be facilitated to be fit for the new community?

How can we anticipate possible events through architecture?

Where do the new residents live? And how does that tie in with the provision of civic programmes and spaces?

From left: i) extending the Chaffey grid through potential growth areas ii) bands where the grid meets sprawliii) locating existing fallow grounds outside of city centreiv) densification areas created by over-laying ii) and iii)v) development and densification to occur along strips

Bernard Tschumi, “Part 4: The Block.” from The Manhattan Transcripts

SEQUENTIAL PROGRAM AS SPATIAL TOOL

the Garden House preserves the same spatial freedom found in typical sub-urbia, whilst achieving higher density through the use of roof gardens and shared gardens in the same plot of land

Garden House Roof Houses Deakin Trail Urban WineyardDouble Block the Roof Houses are 4 long row hous-es united under a gabled roof, which acts as a porous skin between semi-exterior spaces and nature.

occuping the centre of Deakin Avenue, a series of bridges connects the city and shades community events happening below

fallow land around the urban fringes are redeveloped into wineyards, becoming a new tourist attractions

Double Blocks are mixed-use hubs of the city. They provide high density liv-ing as well as all civic programmes and facilities required for a city of 60,000 people

top: fashion show at 3rd floor; right: kindergarten at Double Block

top: looking into Double Block from the Deakin Route

top: tourist trail over Urban Wineyardstop: overlooking Private House from Double Block

http://tesseractcompetitions.com/2011/02/17/let-it-snow-winner/

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Let It Snow - Tesseract CompetitionsLaurence Chan & Ryoyu Kido

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2011