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STUDIOIPROJECTI1O S T E N T A T I O N

2007

01This experimental design studio is aimed to broaden first-year students’ horizon of architectural thinking.

The project is devided into two parts.

The first part involves a series of hand-sketch exer-cises that require students to explore the spatial rela-tionship created by different arrangements of L-shape blocks. Through the manipulation of the size, orienta-

tion and relative distance of the L blocks, the notion of solids and voids is critically examined.

Other than that custom textures are created free-hand. The idea of black-and-white balance is reinforced in

this exercise. The visual impact of monochrome com-positions is scrutinized via producing a number of

custom textures based on black-to-white ratios in an ascending order.

perspectives

textures

The second part of the project calls for the design of separate office spaces for

two clients, namely Carlos Slim who is the world’s wealthiest person, and

Zhang Yin who is considered as one of the richest women on this planet.

The brief also includes the design of a common space for the two clients to

meet. The clients travel to the common space from their respective office by

specially designed elevator.

carlosslim ’s space

zhangyin

’s space

STUDIOIPROJECTI2A R T I F I C E

2008

Geoffrey Bawa’s Office, built 1961-1963 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, was originally designed as a private residence for Dr. Bartholomeusz.

However the project was called off by the doctor himself when the construction was near completion. After that, Bawa decided to con-

vert this house into his own office.

STUDIOIPROJECTI3T H E 1 PA I N T I N G

2008

03This project starts with choosing a painting created in the 16th-century. Students are then required to read beyond the painting, and develop a narrative for it. The objective is to design a space that supports the narrative or hidden message behind the painting.

This oil painting by Caspar Netscher, titled Two Boys Blowing Bubbles, was completed in 1670 on a 31.2 x 24.6cm panel. It is now being exhibited in the Na-tional Gallery of London.

The painting could be read and interpreted in several ways. In the painting, one boy is staring at a bubble blown by the other younger boy behind him, probably with an intention to break it with his beret. Notice that the room behind the window looks dark, deep, and

confined. The boy’s gesture (with his head looking upward and the hands posing out-ward) is an indication of his curiosity for the world outside the window and his eagerness to break from confinement and oppression. There is also an interesting yet indirect re-lationship between the boy and the viewers. The bubble looks to the viewers like a re-flection of the world where they come from, that is, in this context, our modern world. On the other hand, the boy sees reflection of himself in the bubble. Combining the two points of view, it could be thought that the boy is curious about what he will become in the future.

Besides, bubble-blowing, in Latin expres-sion, has always been associated with “Homo Bulla” – man is like a bubble. In-deed, bubble is something rather transient, impermanent, and fragile. Thus, life is fleet-ing and unpredictable is another message that we can extract from the painting.

My design objective is to redefine the way we perceive the world through window. Here, window ought to be utilized as a source of inspirations, rather than just an opening for air and sunlight. My design is therefore an enlightening space for contem-plation.

The first thing is to create a claustrophobic space that urges one to move upwards anx-iously. I have introduced a long and steep staircase to exaggerate the upward move-ment and anxiety that one has to experience before he or she comes to the window at the top. Because of the extreme darkness at the base, one inevitably feels distressed and can wait no longer to climb up the staircase when he or she sees the beacon of light way up high at the top. However, his or her pace has to be slow as the space is dark and the wooden staircase produces sounds that are echoed by the curvy massive struc-ture above, thus aggravating the anxiety.

04STUDIOIPROJECTI4NEWTOWNIGALLERY

2008

The gallery’s plan harmonizes with the street by tilting a little on the main façade. The zigzag form of the upper fa-çade has a symbolic and expressive meaning. Each indi-vidual ‘plane’ constituting the zigzag pattern can be under-stood as the flat façade of the neighbouring buildings. The zigzag pattern is the result of compressing the façades of those buildings into a smaller space, thus expressing the meaning of compact richness of both the gallery and the street.

The four windows on the lower façade are the ‘stages’ for a performance art. Four performers will be placed in each of the rooms and doing some activities. However, due to the height of the windows, the public cannot see what they are actually doing and so they discuss among themselves and start making negative guesses. Here, the miniature piazza in front of the gallery restores social vibrancy to this place.

One novelty about the façade is that there will be several large LCD screens that display the visitors’ facial expressions captured by the hid-den cameras installed around various artworks. This kind of voyeurism provides some sort of entertainment for the people trapped in traf-fic congestions in front of the gallery. To think the visitors are here to see the artworks, now even they become part of the art themselves! The quality of celebration and engagement is thereby defined.

STUDIOIPROJECTI5B O N D I I C L I F F

2009

05Facing one of the world’s most popular beach, the site is a point of attraction at a global and local scale. This multi-storey mixed-use housing project takes full ad-vantage of the site’s most desirable at-tributes. The design intent is to achieve a beautiful balance between the breath-tak-ing sea view and winter solar access.

The solution is found in the concept of an residential block which consists of inter-locking apartment units. Such arrange-ment allows all apartments to have access to the sea views and winter sun. Not to mention the iconic rock form and spacious communal open space, living has never been such a perfect experience.

STREET WALLThe 12m street wall forms an edge between the Bondi Beach and the residential domain to the west. The street wall has a different development pattern in terms of height and form.

HUMAN ACTIVITIESShows that people flock to the commercial and recreational domain of the site. The proposed site is at a location with two active street frontages.

TRAFFICThe blue lines represents traffic while the interval between the lines indicates vehicle speed. Vehicles slow down or stop at traffic lights (areas with densed lines).

EXISTING USES Residential Commercial Special

NOISEGenerated from the analyses of human activities and traf-fic. This diagram clearly shows the site is in the midst of the noises.

VIEWS To beach To city

06STUDIOIPROJECTI6G R E E N I L O O P

2010

0STUDIOIPROJECTI7ADAPTIVEIREUSE

2010

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08STUDIOIPROJECTI8T I M B E R

2010

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