ACHITECTURE STUDIO

AIR

YANGYANG HE 367353 STUDIO 4

CONTENT

INTRODUCTION PAGE 1

EXPERIENCE PAGE 2-3

CASE STUDY PAGE 4-7

INTRODUCTION

YANGYANG HE

I am an international student which major in architecture in University of Melbourne. My hometown is a little city which called Guilin in the southwest of China. Because my father is an architect, I was growing up with seeing his work in my hometown. It is incredible when we were walking in the streets and he said the building on the opposite side is his design. And my dream during that time is being an architect like my father, and then I received a lot of drawing training from school which he said is the foundation of being a good architect. But I am planning to study urban design in the future since the work can contribute to more people live than a single building in my concern

“Achitecture is really about well-being. I think that people want to feel good in a space...On the one hand it’s about shelter, but it’s also about pleasure” by Zaha Hadid

It is a language that communicates people and the environments. And I believe a good architecture design should contribute to the environments and people in a variety of perspective such as culture and social. And I will argue that even though digital design is not the only way to produce a nice result but it is necessary for architects since it can help them to express their idea which cannot simply draw by pen and paper.

I thought architecture is just about designing a beautiful building that satisfies the customer and me, but after 2 years of learning in the university, it is more complex than what I was thinking before. It is not only what Richard Meier¡¯s believe that it is “the mother of arts” which “connects the present with the past and the tangible with the intangible” but also...

Beacause of those previous drawing trainings, I rather do my design by hand drawing before leaning the digital design software. Sometimes it is quite hard for me to visualize my idea in the computer instead of just drawing it by pen and paper. But I know it is necessay to be familar with the comtempary design software if I want to get a job when I graduate.

University is the first time that I am getting touch with digital design. Since I took another subject which is Mapping Environments instead of Virtual Environments, the first design software that I am more familar is Sketchup which is easier to learn as a beginer of 3D modeling. And I usually use it as the tool of visualize the space and refining my design. While I was just knowing a little bit of Rhino from the workshop of Visual Communication which only require some simple stuffs.

EXPERIENCE

hand drawing

poor skill of transforming 2D to 3D

Poor start of Rhino in Visual Communication

practice of rendering

practice of knowing those tools

But I also got some experiences in Sketchup

ARCHITECTURE AS DISCOURSE

TWO CASE STUDY

Because of my background and future interests in urban reforming, Ma’s Beijing 2050 proposal is really impressed me with his “madness” of destruction and creation. The proposal includes three main parts which are accentuating green space in the People’s Park, expanding vertically with a floating island over the CBD building, and updating traditional housing with futuristic bubble space. When he starts thinking of this large proposal, the main idea is trying to serve the urban residents and solve the problems that Beijing is facing in the future. In my opinion is a kind of discourse that the architects communicate with the future instead of keep referring to the past. Even though the idea of floating island is mainly come from his famous proposal of rebuilding the World Trade Centre in New York which can concern as the past, his strategy is more likely to be considered as the future model.

In general, all of these three aspects are promoting one main idea which is creating new space experience for the people with remembrance of the traditional culture. It can be seen from the updating traditional housing aspect that he is trying to create a mixture of traditional and modern with those bubbles sitting in the Hutong in Beijing. In addition, the floating island is also transforming the horizontal spreading urban space into a vertical space which may solve the problem of growing population in the urban area.

In my opinion, even though this proposal cannot be built in the future, the idea of this proposal will also impact the urban planners and reformers to consider what Ma is thinking of. And the parametric design that use in this proposal is not only look beautiful or strange in others’ thoughts. It is a result of a systematic thinking and designing which may be the answer of future. And I think the idea that architecture or urban designing is a discourse of past and the future may help my design in this course.

BEIJING 2050 PROPOSAL BY YANSONG MA

CASA DA MUSICA BY REM KOOLHAAS

Rem Koolhaas as the “last” architect of modern architecture is quite different from Le Corbusier and others in the architecture history. As an architect who still produces a lot of work from his OMA, Cassa da Musica is one that I like the most from his practices. The project is sitting in the Porto which is the city of European culture in 2001. The starting point of this project is creating an odium which opens to the urban. In this perspective, Rem’s architecture is a discourse between the private to the public. He always tries to make communication from interior to exterior environment. In this building, he not only design the building itself but also a large square which surround the building to making living space for the public. Every angle of this design is referring to the surrounding local build environments.

From the bird view, we can see the building itself is separate from the large context by its form and material. But when we further consider this project by looking at the influences on the environments, it creates a different life style and experiences for the residents. Since the site originally has a very high density of building which is lack of space for people meeting with each other and having recreational activities. The square provides the space for those usages and the opening on the ground floor is also connecting the private musical practice with the normal urban life together. Additionally, in terms of transportation, the site is centralizing people’s movement towards the building and creating conversation with themselves and the building.

From my point of view, the design is destructing the traditional grid building form set by Corbusier which transforming the box into something more comfortable for the visitors. And it also shows that form making in architecture is not just cube or rectangle, it is more about how to create unique experience and making contribution to the people.

COMPUTATIONAL ARCHITECTURE

Architecture as a professional practice in contemporary world is very different from

the time before the 1450s when the Italians evolutionally transformed the original

building process into principles of architecture. Designing in architectural practice

was more likely based on construction experiences in the ancient time without any

specific principles. It is highly limited to the builder’s knowledge and their life

experiences. Different from those craft men like builders, architects were separate

from the actual construction process after the renaissance period. They are more

focusing the design itself rather than trying to solve the problems that engineer

are more familiar with. The design process is change from design in site when

construction is processing in the same time to having the design complete before

construction.

In this kind of new design process,

architects are planning and designing

the building rather than constructing it.

However, there are still many problems

will appear to this method of design such

as incorrect communication between the

architects and the engineer as well as the

builders which may have side-effect of the

building design to the site environments.

Even though architects are trying to

communicate with the other professionals

in each steps of the designing process

though scale drawings and models, the

results can be very different from the

original design by the architect.

1.ARCHITECUTURE IN THE PAST

2.THE TWO FACILITIES OF DESIGN PROCESS

Secondly, there are two main facilities in architectural

design process which are the analytical facility and the

creative facility. Both of them are equally important

to a well resolution of the goals that an architect want

to achieve. The analytical facility is associated with

fixing problems that the design facing. For example,

the topography and climate of the site is one of the

major components that architects cannot change much

because of variety of reasons such as building code

and build budgets. In general,

all this analytical data can

be systematically evaluate

if the designer has enough

knowledge and time to deal

with. But in real practice,

sometimes it is impossible

for architects to analysis all

of those data without any

error forever. On the other hand, human are the only

animal in the world that can creatively design and

think to solve problems. With critical and creative

thinking, human can generate a large range of solutions

to problems. An in architecture practice, the design

may achieve different requirements and express the

creativity of the designer in the same time. This kind

of creativity should and can only be done by humans.

A good resolution of an architectural project should

combine systematic analysis as well as designers’

creation. 3.WHY COMPOUTATIONAL ARCHITECTURE

In current world or even earlier in the modern

history of architecture, the invention of computer is

revolutionary not only affecting the design process

and appearance but also influenced people’s world

in almost every parts of their life. Computer can

evaluate and store set data in the speed that human

cannot achieve. In addition, it is hardly mistake if

the program and human inputs are correctly since

the process is straight forward. A metaphor of the

difference between human thinking process and

computer process can be a complex geometric

comparing to one single line. Which means the

computer is the perfect tool that architects can use

in terms of the analysis and evaluation of

the design process with the combination of

human creativities. In addition, computer

is providing the easy and fast way for the

architects to communicate with their partners

and clients. For example, the 3d rendering

picture of the design can communicate with

the clients and the detail modelling is also

useful for the constructors to understand how

thing should be done in order to perform the way

that architects wants to achieve.

Moreover, architecture is still changing due to the

rapid development of technology. New material and

construction possibilities are developed that architects

can design some impossible shape and nurb that cannot

be constructing or even create by human’s pen and paper.

The opportunities of well resolved design are open to

more people. Computational architecture

is more easily communicate with other

professional as well since the program

language is the same that engineer and

builder can get the information directly from architects

with the possibility to upgrade and refined the design

during the design and construction process.