PortfolioWenfei Chen

M. Arch, University of California, Berkeley

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Flipping Space26 Trash Monuments around Bay Area

CloudCED Commencement Canopy Design and Installation

People’s ParkA Case Study of Multiple Publics and Their Spaces

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Re CycleRestoration of Factory - Information Cen-ter Design

EngraftingRenovation of Historical District

People’s Park PhotographyMirror of My World

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Flipping Space26 Trash Monuments around Bay Area

Studio One Thesis, collaborated with Yuchen Lai, 2011-2012Instructor: Nicholas de Monchaux

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26 Trash Monuments around Bay Area

Studio One Thesis, collaborated with Yuchen Lai, 2011-2012Instructor: Nicholas de Monchaux

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In our life, we creat large amount of TRASH. The trash finally be trasfered to the landfill, where they are covered to camouflage that there is nothing.

FLIP, not only for the space, but also the system is aimed to maximize the appearce of trash in order to improve people’s awareness of the TRASH.

Form Research Recycling Symbol

Flipping Space

.......

EVENT MONUMENT

2. Arc de triomphe de l’Étoile4. La Tour Eiffel

8. Monument to the People’s Heroes6. Monument of WW2

10. Sin City--Las Vegas??????

1. Victory of Bitva u Slavkova3. 1889 EXPO

7. China’s Victory of Anti-Jan panese War and WW2

5. Soviet Union’s Victory of WW2

9. Capitalism11. Landfill

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In our life, we creat large amount of TRASH. The trash finally be trasfered to the landfill, where they are covered to camouflage that there is nothing.

FLIP, not only for the space, but also the system is aimed to maximize the appearce of trash in order to improve people’s awareness of the TRASH.

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h

g

f

Trash

system1

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d gb e hc f

ab

c

de The museum has two system, One is the flipping trash system, the oher one is the flipping exhibition space. Two sys-

tems are two concentric circles with different radius. The trash ciecle is connect to the trash sorting system, which would deliver the trash to the circle after sorting. The exhibition system is connected to underground museum, which would transfer people to the flipping exhibition space.

When people go into the flipping space, they will see the trash in different position around one hour rotating period, from under their feet to above their head.

Trash

Trash Sorting Space

Museum

People

system1 26to sites

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26 Landfills around Bay Area

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Site 1

SectionPlan

Ground Floor

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1st Floor

1-1 Section

1

1

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CloudCED Commencement Canopy Design and InstallationInstructor: Lisa Iwamoto

Group Project of ARCH 269: MIN/MAX, Special Topics of Construction and Materials, 2012

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It is a group project of the ARCH 269 which aim to design and install the commencement canopy for CED. The canopy is supporsed to be used for about 15 years which require that the design would be in fashion for a long time.

After trial of different materials and modules, we finally choose MYLAR and TRIANGLE as the materials and module. Use the module to construct a cloud above the CED couryard. The semitransparent mylar would also creat increadible shadow appearence.

Unroll all the layers’ module and washer.

laye

r A

laye

r B

laye

r C

laye

r D

CANOPY

Except for the top layer, the other layers are use the grommet to assembly the modules and washer to-gether.

The top layer would be at-tached to the wire rope to hang above courtyard.

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People’s ParkA Case Study of Multiple Publics and Their SpacesInstructor: Margaret Crawford

Research Report of ARCH 219 Publics and their Spaces, Collaborated with Jiong (Abingo) Wu, Amna alrueili, Wilasinee Suksawang, 2011

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QUESTIONING UNIVERSAL DEFINITION OF PUBLIC SPACE

“A PUBLIC” & “MULTIPLE PUBLICS”

“FROM “PUBLIC SPACE” TO “THE PUBLICS” & “THEIR SPACES”

FROM “LAND OWNERSHIP” TO “SPATIAL PRACTICES”

“A public space is a social space that is open and accessible to all, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age or socio-economic level.”--Definition of public space from the Wikipedia

Apparently, this definition of the public space has two underlying concepts: a uni-versal concept of “Public”, which constitute of all the people in the world; an ab-stract concept of the “Space”, which accommodates the “public”.

However, as what we have gone through in the class, both concepts have the limits when projecting them into the physical environment.

As Nancy Fraser points out in her article “Rethinking the public sphere: A contribu-tion to the critique of actually existing”, the notion of the public has the limit. The contemporary definition of the “public” is based on the concept of citizenship of the state, and associated with the bourgeois conception of the public sphere. But it has been never successfully represent “all” in realistic.

It suggests, in contemporary society, there’s an ideal concept of “A public of all” in one hand; there’s a realistic picture of certain “publics” which constituted by spe-cific bodies of people in the other hand.

Followed by Fraser’s arguments, Margaret Crawford pointed out in her article “Blurring the boundaries: public space and private life”, that “no single physical environment can represent a completely inclusive space of democracy.”

It suggests that if we want to discuss “Public space” in the physical environment, we need to shift the focus from the ideal “A public” and its absolute “Public Space” to the realistic “The Publics” and “Their Spaces”.

In addition, Henri Lefebvre argued in his book “The production of the space” that the meaning of the social space shapes and being shaped by the social process and spatial practices. This suggests that the meanings and the characteristics of the so-called “public space” are framed by spatial practices there, but not determined by land ownership--the public owned land property.

In sum, if we want to discuss, understand, and even define a so-called “public space”, what we need to examine are the spatial practices there, which embody the specific notion of “public(s)” and “space(s)”.

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The multiple weak publics & Public space as marginalized landNOWIn our observations, we found out the center actor of the park today are the so-call “homeless people”. As shown in our research, the presence of the charities group, Churches around, Food Not Boom NGO and UC Police to large extent is because the “homeless people”. We adapted Nancy Frasier’s definition on “weak publics” (Fraser, 1990) to describe this “homeless ”group. Be-cause to large extent, as Fraser pointed out that they are hard to make collective decision, and as Don Michell pointed, they are lacking of the rights to the city(Mitchell, 1995) But meanwhile, we do not agree to generalize them as merely a group “weak public”. As indicated in our interviews, they are very varieties. To leave without home is due to different factors. We try to reveal this aspect by correcting the term to describe them as “the multiple weak publics”.

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Thought the park located in the central area of Berkeley, yet it becomes a marginalized land that create the perception of exclusion. “Exclusion” is reciprocal. When the other group of park users reduce the use of the park and said the homeless people occupied the park, they exclude them-selves from the Park but not being excluded by the “homeless group”. In another word, a space as such being marginalized is not because its location, but people’s perception.

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EngraftingRenovation of Historical District

Instructor: Hongyi LvGroup Project of Urban Design Studio, Collaborated with Yujiao Shi, Xueru Guo, Yao Yao, 2009

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The size of the new house

Though the research and collection of the original house data, I design the new house.

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The size of the new house

Though the research and collection of the original house data, I design the new house.

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Re CycleRestoration of Factory -Information Center DesignInstructor: Xing Liu

Personal Project of Undergraduate Thesis, 2011

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PhotographyMirror of My World

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PhotographyMirror of My World

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Staying , Moving People in front of Sleeping lily

Photographed in Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012/04

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Element of Architecture

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Name: Wenfei Chen

Date of Birth: April 18th, 1988

Address: 1519, Hearst Ave, Apt 6,

Berkeley, CA, 94703, U.S

Tel: +1 510.541.2398

E-mail: 13archen@gmail.com

Fluent in English,

Native in Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese

Language

Good hand-drawing skill to do the design and commu-

nicate design concept with others;

Good physical model-making skill, able to prepare La-

ser Cut file;

Software:

3D Modeling: Auto CAD, Rhinoceros, Sketch Up, Maya

basic

Programming: Grasshopper, Processing basic, Ardu-

ino basic

Analysis: ArcGIS, Design Builder

Graphic: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

Video: Adobe Premiere, After Effects

Rendering: V-ray

Skills

Master of Architecture, University of California, Berke-

ley, College of Environmental Design, U.S, 2011-2012

Bachelor of Architecture, Zhengzhou University, School

of Architecture, P.R China, 2006-2011

Education

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Fluent in English,

Native in Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese

Language

Good hand-drawing skill to do the design and commu-

nicate design concept with others;

Good physical model-making skill, able to prepare La-

ser Cut file;

Software:

3D Modeling: Auto CAD, Rhinoceros, Sketch Up, Maya

basic

Programming: Grasshopper, Processing basic, Ardu-

ino basic

Analysis: ArcGIS, Design Builder

Graphic: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

Video: Adobe Premiere, After Effects

Rendering: V-ray

Skills

Master of Architecture, University of California, Berke-

ley, College of Environmental Design, U.S, 2011-2012

Bachelor of Architecture, Zhengzhou University, School

of Architecture, P.R China, 2006-2011

EducationTeaching Assistant, University of California, Berkeley,

Berkeley, CA, US, 2012/06-Recently

Intern Architect, Shanghai Xiandai Architectural Design,

Shanghai, P.R China, 2011/02-2011/03

Intern Architect, Pei-Zhu Studio, Beijing, P.R China,

2010/07-2010/08

Intern Architect, Shenzhen General Institution of Architec-

ture Design& Research, Shenzhen, P.R China, 2009/07-

2009/09

Working Experience

1st Prize, Zhengzhou University Energy-saving and Emis-

sion-reduction Social Practice Competition, 2009/04

Excellence Award, “Revit” National University Outstand-

ing Architecture Design Work Competion, 2008/09

National Inspiration Scholarship, 2007/09

Zhengzhou University Scholarship, 2006-2010 (4 times)

Selected Honor & Awards

Nicholas de MonchauxAssistant Professor, University of California, Berkeley+1 510.642.4908; demonchaux@berkeley.edu

Reference

Gregory HurcombLecturer, University of California, Berkeley+1 917.548.1350; ghurcomb@cca.edu

Jiantao ZhangDean and Professor, Zhengzhou University, P.R China+86 13523525739; jiantao@zzu.edu.cn

portfolio version: 2012-07address: 1519, Hearst Ave, Apt 6, Berkeley, CA, 94703, U.Se-mail: 13archen@gmail.comphone: (510)-541-2398