Lam Nguyen | Work Sample

This project was completed during the last quarter of 4th year design studio. Through-out the course of the year, we worked in groups to help revitalize a community. We implemented strategies to encourage pedestrian in-volvement, bicycle and public transportation. The site is in the Golden Hill district in San Diego. While the community has had little pockets of revi-talization the entire district as a whole seems to be disjoint-ed and disconnected. Pro-viding a live/ work community would bring new people in and create a greater sense of community.

PARKING IN THE REARAND BEHIND UNITS

RESIDENTIAL USE ON UPPER FLOORS

OUTDOOR SPACE FOR GATHERING OR EATING

COURTYARD FORSECURITY

CREATE AN ENCLOSEDSPACE OUTDOORS WITHSTREET TREES AND OVERHANGS

STUDIO SPACE OR SMALL STORE FRONTSON FIRST FLOOR

1. STORAGE2. STORE FRONT 3. KITCHEN 4. LIVING ROOM

5. BATHROOM6. BEDROOM 7. BALCONY8. ART GALLERY

9. RESTAURANT10. CAFE/ VENUE

INITIAL SKETCH CONCEPT

TYPICAL PLAN/ SECTION

COMMERCIAL ELEVATION

COMMERCIAL PLANS

OVERALL ELEVATION

Bird’s Eye View

Corner View

O. HUOLYMPIC HUTONG

In preparation of the 2008 Olym-pics, the site of the now Olym-pic park was chosen to be in the cultural center of the country, Beijing. In order to make way for the large development com-plex that supports an Olympic complex, large areas of Beijing’s vernacular fabric were annihi-lated. Our project calls out to the traditional neighborhoods of Beijing that were organized by a system of hutongs and residen-tial courtyards.

The traditional microcosm of the hutong neighborhood is iterated with a system of infill develop-ment. We examined the situa-tions created by the traditional system of the courtyard housing connecting to the hutongs and making a chaotic network of interpersonal interactions. One critical observation we made, is that the hutong neighborhoods did not develop based on a strict system of planning. The growth and expansion of these commu-nities were organic and a natural response to the need for owner-ship of shelter. In understanding this occurrence, we used the same set of conditions to derive organic moments in space to re-establish a community based on the same principles and extract the opportunities of social inter-action that are an consequence of the hutong ordering system.

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1. O. HU site2. Birds Nest Stadium3. National Convention Center4. Natoinal Indoor Stadium5. Water Cube

VICINITY MAP

SITE PLAN

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Datun Road

Beichen East Road

National Stadium North Road

Hu Jing Dong Lu

1. O. HU Tower2. Urban Hutong

7. Existing parking/ vacant8. Open grass area

3. Existing Lake4. Preserved Hutong

5. Opening to subway6. Proposed Subway stop

SOCIAL INTERACTION

By shifting and infilling the courtyard spaces that are rigid and linear, organic moments take place and shape circulation patterns of the ground plane

HOUSINGSTUDIO

HOUSINGSINGLE FAMILY

HOUSINGMULTI-FAMILY

SOCIAL

OFFICE

RETAIL

CIRCULATION

STRUCTURE

14%

20%

26%

11%

6%

4%

17.5%

1.5%

TYPICAL RESIDENTIAL FLOOR

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ESTCODE

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ESTCODE

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CIRUCLATION PER FLOOR

FLOOR PLANS PROGRAM

LINE 15Subway

Vertical Circulation

Underground Parking

Air Purifying Skin

SECTION

Thesis Project 2012-2013

With the advancement of technology and the advent of sports media in the last several decades, there seems to be a growing disconnect in the relationship of the spectator and the sport of professional basketball; home advantage has seemed to suffer in result of this. Studies suggest that the highest levels of home advantage for all sports were in their early years of existence before the age of the television. Home advantage in ice hockey, basketball and

football has declined over the last two decades. Also there is strong evidence that with the increase in crowd size and intensity, performance of the home team is increased relative to the opposition; the spectators, in some instances, are able to influence calls made by the officials. Through the manipulation of form from exterior to the interior and through circulation one can almost dictate the desired atmosphere in such an arena. An atmosphere that can influence such a momentum shift needed to win a game.

To understand the conceptual basis of architectural form, it is necessary to isolate properties like volume, mass, surface and movement. Peter Eisenman states that movement is vital to the experience and the comprehension of any architectural situation. When circulation transforms from a purely utilitarian use to a symbolic transition space it greatly enhances the experience, which is needed to understand a space. If the function stated is vertical movement, our first responses are stairs, ramps, or elevator. Each of these responses would generate more or less a constant result in terms of specific utilitarian form, but to also integrate a symbolism into the function of vertical movement generally will yield different results. This is realized as soon

as a stair or ramp is thought of as a transition, as minor spaces connecting two major spaces. This shifts the vertical circulation into the realm of symbolic.

The comprehension of volume must be made with the consideration of the movement of people, or in other words circulation. The experience of architecture is the sum of a number of experiences. Through formal manipulations of the collective parts, new interstitial spaces arise. For example moving through an enclosed corridor strictly directs people through a space, but when the surface in which people circulate is open within the volume of a building where greater amounts of people share the space at once, this creates a more powerful atmosphere. This creates interaction from floor to floor, generating a greater sense of the mood before getting to their respective seats. This manipulation of form opens up opportunities for new types of programmatic elements, like a more intimate seating arrangement or a general standing area. This breaks up the generic arena seating typically experienced in the arenas across the United States, in turn developing a sense of place to reinforce the concept of atmosphere.

FRONT VIEW

1. I took Eisenman’s concept of generic form and explored the capacities of formal manipulations. Starting from a cube and

rectilinear form, then morphing each constant in relation to types of circulation or axial forces generated.

2. In the second part of this investigation I moved my form manipulation to a rectilinear form that is closer to the scale of an arena. I implemented and interjected forms of vertical and horizontal circulation such as that of an escalator, elevators,

stairways , etc..

3. In the continuation of manipulations I also started implement-ing forces of external surfaces and axes on how it may affect

the rectilinear form.

Models were then built to explore the positive and neg-ative spaces and start to grasp the physicality of each

atmospheric condition

Taking inspiration from Eisenman’s nine square grid, I started from the parts that make up such a grid. From parts of a whole, or a kit of parts, I stacked these cubes up according to pro-grammatic volumes of an arena and its circular plan.

This method of formal manipulation creates variable height and width volumes as your circulate through the surfaces of each floor developing a series of experiences.

After the addition of cube forms as they fulfill the programmatic needs of circulation, The cubes were then shifted and offset to create a more dynamic interior volumetric language. Lastly the complexity is greatly increased by the subtraction of certain cubes through boolean subtraction. Interior spaces are now shared from floor to floor, creating a shared circulatory surface. The user is more connected through noise and visual interac-tion. Gathering the mood of the building as more a whole.

FLOOR PLANS

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Ground level

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Second Level

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Fourth level

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Entire Bowl Seatig

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Roof Plan / Polar Sections

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Transverse Section

10’

Longitudinal Section

10’

Transverse Section

10’