Re:connect will provide 240 units for singletons to mitigate the housing shortage problem for at-risk individual and homeless in Shum Shui Po.
The project will use the area below the West Kowloon Corridor and a new modular building to connect the old and new Shum Shui Po. Our project will be a new destination to the community.
The team will areate a good social program for singleton’s coliving. We will connect them to the community.The programs will be replicable. The image of Hong Kong singletons is negative, and this project is aimed to rebrand their images in the near future.
Our Targets:
There are many single people living on the street and subdivided flats in Shum Shui Po. The number of cityside homeless rose by 51% in 5 years. They are forced into their situations due to high rental price, health and other social problems.
The Community doesn’t want to see homeless on Tung Chau Street. The government is forcing them elsewhere but not giving them a proper solution.
Homeless can’t get stable job without a permanent address. It forced them to be stuck in the homeless category.
Subdivided flat has bed insects.Even if people have money, it is still not sanitary to move to subdivided flats.
They can’t quit drug if they are still surrounded by drug addicts. They need a place to rebuild their circles of friends.
They can’t focus on work if the housing has too many rules. Some homeless projects close their door at 8pm. For a cleaning job, they can’t even work at night to clean if theirliving placeswill be closed at 8pm.
Public rental housing has a long line. 100,000 peopleare waiting on line as single, but only 2200 is assigned to non-elderly single person in one year. In average, singletons enter the Public rental housing at the age 58. They are too close to retire at that age. It simply brings the aging problem to public housing.
Only 580 units available to single people.
Many community projects open as homeless shelter during cold winter. They are onlyseasonable and there is no privacy.
Our Advantages:
Our project will bridge the gap that many other similar projects failed to provide.
clean
single
affordable
immediate
all–year long
private
air conditioning
Team:
Alfred Kwok – interior design
Angle Shih – social worker/Christian Concern For the Homeless Association
Bakkie Chan – social worker/SoCO
Charles Ho – real estate/HKCSS
Gordon Chick – social worker/SoCO
Karen Chan – urban planning
Paul Law – modular construction/Aluhouse Co. Ltd.
Sunnie Lau – architecture/SOSArchitecture Urban Design Limited
Guiyang Sports Center was designed as a local community center for a newly developed region. It has one indoor basketball stadium, one soccer field with grandstand and landscape to connect to an existing river. The surrounding area is filled with residents who are a minority. Our design respects Hmong culture and borrowed elements to form the landscape and architecture. Symbols of moon and sun are often found in Hmong artwork and traditional outfit. We turned this day and night idea into the sport. Sun became the outdoor field for daytime and moon became the indoor stadium for night time. The main goal is to encourage people to stay active and healthy 24/7.
Organized events in the fields are important. The landscape that surrounds the field and the center are also designed to help everyone stay active. Children playground, ecological center, and retail area along the base of the stadium help people of all ages to exercise and learn. The undulating landscape and paths challenge people of all ages to walk, run, climb and relax. The plants and soil reflect the local landscape and to collect and filter stormwater. The plants and the paths combine to form an active landscape that is sustainable and healthy.
Concept:
Concept
master plan
sustainability
programs
circulation
Programs:
active landscape
solar panel
active at night
table tennis
children playground
retail front
nature center
soccer field with natural backdrop
sun and moon stadiums
undulating architecture
Team:
Landscape: Richard Alomar
Structural Engineer: Erik Madsen, Madsen Engineering
The Artist House with Aqua Farm is a multipurpose space to explore craft beers through co-creation and experiences. By exploring the five senses, people get to touch, see, hear, smell and taste the process of beer making. The Artist House also has the first farm-to-glass concept in Hong Kong. The in-house aqua farm provides most of the ingredients for their food and drinks. It helps to lower the carbon footprint by lowering the traffic distance, reducing water and fertilizer consumption by 90%. The farm allows customers to co-create their own food and drink.
The design of The Artist House is cultural, sustainable and flexible. The form of the Artist House comes from the Belgian barn where the craft beer is made. Rather than replicating the farm, we slice them into thinner portals to fit into a challenging setting in Hong Kong. Each portal represents one sense that The Artist co-creates with their partners. The space majorly used reclaimed materials on wall and furniture to reduce its carbon footprint. The mechanical equipment is carefully positioned to reduce operational cost and energy consumption. The use of movable furniture, customized storage, and creative lighting helps to increase the flexibility of the space. Co-creators can transform its semi open space to fit up to 100 people.
Aqua Farm Research:
The Artist House has an on-site aqua farm for beer ingredients. The comparison between hydroponics and conventional farming has proved that on-site hydroponics has a much less carbon footprint. It uses 90% less water, requires 60% less fertilizer, and has 11 times more yield on a 80% less land.
Idea: The Light House is a collection of cultural activities to make Star Street Precinct into a hub to exchange ideas for the next 2 decades. It enlightens people in an intimate way using human centric design. The Light House adds to the story about the past, present and future of Star Street, while making it into a village for the global minds. It brings light to bodies and minds.
Area: Central and Wan Chai Reclamation, Sha Tin Central Link, proposed North Island Line are all happening within 10min distance of the Light House. The growing neighborhood is searching for a cultural spirit to support all the new infrastructure
People: The Light House collects places like event space for art and music, co-working office for entrepreneurs and art studios for movie makers. The abundance of restaurants with the lack of proper cultural spaces makes our curation of programs a great addition. The project helps to create better quality of life for existing residents while attracting families of all ages who are interested in vibrant lifestyle in a quiet area.
Place with Context: The Light House learns from the local context. The montage of building styles ranging from 1950 Tenement house to 1980 Star Studios to 2004 Three Pacific Place is arguably the essence of Star Street Precinct. Along with the mix of global residents already inside the area, our proposal is about celebrating this diversity of people and places. The Light House will respect buildings on site but turns Wing Fung Street into an evolving artwork. We aim to reuse all the existing buildings while adding new volumes on top in modern style to create a montage of cultural experiences.
Place with Connections: The new office at 8-18 Wing Fung Street will connect to Three Pacific Place at every floor. The new tower sits above a retail plaza. Its interior with steps creates a public corridor to connect both plazas of Three Pacific Place. The surface of Wing Fung Street will be raised and paved with stone material to blur the boundary of pedestrian zone. 21 WFS will be demolished to allow a new distinctive escalator to connect to the event space which is floating above 23-29 WFS. The aim is to extend the urban fabric of Star Street Precinct upward.
Performance (Environment): Reusing existing buildings is the most sustainable practice in terms of lowering carbon footprint. On the outside, we want to add more greenery to break out spaces. They will be accessible to the public while helping to allow the ambient temperature. It is a much-needed amenity for the area. On the inside, new sustainable features such as high-performance windows, energy efficient air conditioner and low-flow fixture will be added to all the buildings not only to meet Swire’s environmental goals but to elevate the living standard for all families.
Performance (Economic): The Light House not only maximized the GFA given on both sides and it also borrowed unused GFA from 3 Pacific Place. This generate a very profitable project to serve the growing community. The new office at 8-18 Wing Fung Street will connect to Three Pacific Place at every floor. It gives the new building extra efficiency. Elevator shaft is minimized to one when tenant can simply share elevator service from Three Pacific Place. Both buildings have orthogonal design which makes modular construction possible. Not only it provides expedited service, it also minimizes construction impact to the surrounding. Taken all these features into account, this project will have a leveraged IRR of 17.61% .
Partnership: The Light House will use the network of Swire Pacific to expand their cultural influence. Having joint event with airline, clothing company, F&B company and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, we want the whole neighborhood not only to become a place all visitors talk about but also a place Hong Kong people admire. The negative press about how tiny Star Studios were will be overwhelmed by the success story of how Swire Property created an iconic neighborhood that are contextual and intellectual.
The Cloud is a headquarter for a well-known aviation company inside two 48-floor towers. The total area of design is 162,800 m2 with the goal to fit 10,000 people. It is a creative hub that fully integrates customization, sustainability and flexibility. The scope include the lobby, typical offices, bathrooms, tourist elevators, amenities, day care, exhibition and flying zone.
The theme of flying is translated into sequences of how technology, people and nature interact. Users take off, fly, explore, share, and recharge. Every movement within the building is a flying journey connected by flight paths. Those paths creates efficient circulation and promotes more interactions among people and nature. Based on our research, those interactions will boost the company’s creativity and productivity.
Form and Functions
The functions of the design embrace the idea of flexibility, customization and sustainability. Our design aims to achieve LEED and WELL qualification. The building promotes an active lifestyle by offering facilities such as the gym, daycare, outdoor garden and indoor flying garden.
The Cloud is a future proofed office, because the design can fit more staff or more servers based on unexpected needs. In typical office and exhibition, flexible spaces and equipment allow individuals and groups to share ideas anywhere and anytime. In addition, access to daylight, use of smart and circadian lighting systems, and air purifying plants are in place to create a healthy environment.
Future of Work
The future of work relies on our ability to share and improve our ideas. The Cloud have many features to make sharing easy. From large scale planning to product design, the Cloud use nature and passive design to create a sharing-centric hub. Technology seamlessly improves the experience.
Circle of Life – Can architecture become a living organism?
Inspiration
Natural architecture photographed by engineer Erica Wong.
Concept
Circle of Life is a method of construction that treats architecture as part of the life cycle of the building site. What if architecture can grow, blossom and die naturally just like a living organism? Instead of leaving a permanent footprint, what if it morphs over time? Architecture will still serve the purpose of habitat but it will overcome the traditional sense of a permanent structure. Architecture will become permanent in the form of carbon. The carbon that is stored in the material never leaves the site. It recycles on site from one form to the next. This natural process will fully embrace the science of material cycle. It is a cradle to cradle design that combines art and science.
Process
Circle of Life can be seen as a collection of sustainable buildings made to celebrate art, nature and science. We prove our concept by proposing a natural learning center inside a forest in Mexico. Our idea will inspire people to appreciate nature as playground. People can see natural decay as part of the beauty of architecture. It is changing people’s concept of old and new. The finished center will not be the one-off result but a beginning of the next life. Below are the 7 steps to break down the cycle.
FIND & COLLECT FALLEN TREES
MAKE WOOD PRODUCTS
USE WOOD PRODUCTS ON SITE
SEED & FERTILIZE
BUILD TO PROTECT
GROW & INHABIT
DISINTEGRATE & RECYCLE
Marketing
Circle of Life will be promoted to people interested in eco-tourism and slow living. This project will provide an alternative lifestyle to city dwellers who are caught up in the urban speed. The creation of this project will simultaneously elevate the status of surrounding development. It showcases to visitors that tourism can bloom if the development can become socially and environmentally responsible. To diversify the living design, we will also challenge local artists to reside in the project by making new pavilions with materials found in the forest. This private and public engagement will make the design more diverse, democratic and ever changing. Visitors will have more reason to come back again.
Aquatic City – Agricultural + Commercial + Residential
Aquatic City is a city planning aimed to provide a sustainable city solution for Tabuk in Saudi Arabia. Tabuk has massive irrigation circles planned over the city to export flowers to Europe. The city is located in a desert area with limited rainwater, so people are using their underground water reserve to sustain their irrigation circles. At its current rate, the city will run out of fresh water in 15 years. Our design is inspired by turtle eggshell and aim to provide a self-sustaining design to converse water while allowing it to maintain its agricultural business. The turtle eggshell provides a dome like structure with pipe and perforation. It ties the city water in one hydrological cycle. From household water, to irrigation to evaporation and filtering, the mega infrastructure ties water and urban planning into one holistic design.
Why Turtle Eggshell?
Turtle eggshell is a structural design with multiple functions. Its outer mesh and inner mesh weave through the middle infill material to provide a thin membrane with perforation. Water can’t get through the shell but air will be able to go through it. Its complex design with simple outcome. The goal of this exercise is to learn how nature creates shelter while filters water and air.
Irrigation Circles in Tubuk?
It is more of a political issue when business are using underground water reserve for their one-off operation. It is more outrageous when the products are being shipped to Europe. Their practice itself is not sustainable to begin with. Aquatic City addresses the water shortage issue through design while assumes the city will upgrade its exporting business to something more sustainable.
Netzero Vermont 2030 : Sustainable, Collaborative and Diverse
Montpelier 2030 is a city plan to make Montpelier more sustainable, collaborative and diverse. People can live, work and play in downtown Montpelier without the need to use motor vehicles. A series of programmatic and urban strategies is used to increase the city’s performance on collaboration, livability, walkability, energy, water and air. The goal is to make Montpelier the greenest state capitol by 2030.
Design
The master plan is inspired by Winooski River. The river-like geometry forms a continuous walking loop around downtown. It travels at grade, on bridges and underground. The biggest improvement to the current layout is the extension of civil plaza in front of the State House. The new art plaza will connect to the riverfront. One section of State Street will be lowered below the new plaza to allow for a carless experience. The storefront of those civil buildings will be re-activated to encourage cross circulation and ventilation. This unified plaza will help to reconnect people to the government while its architecture and landscape will no longer be distinguishable.
Sustainable
Various renewable technology such as clear solar panels on windows will be deployed on new and existing buildings along with energy efficient design. To reduce water usage and pollution, new terraced bioswales will be built along the banks of Winooski River. Each layer will work like a filter to absorb different pollutants while serving as a riverfront park. Permeable pavers, greenroofs and grey water recycling will further reduce water runoff. With the help of big data and cellphone monitoring, both the city and residents will be able to control their utilities usage in a holistic way. This combination of physical and digital technique will make our sustainable approach a work of art and science.
Collaborative
New Transportation center will serve as a rental hub for bikes, drones, cars and mobile offices. People will no longer need to buy and maintain their vehicles or offices. They can travel lighter and faster. Rental is the new economy for 21st century. In fact, sharing economy will be a key component in our masterplan. The goal of sharing amenities is to reduce the overall carbon footprint by lowering the need of private amenities.
Diverse
The extension of walkway toward the mountains is to diversity the spaces available downtown. It will blur the boundary between work and play. Within 15 mins of walk, people can work in the forest during the day and go back home downtown at night. The idea is not to provide the most efficient layout but to create an abundance of break out spaces and buildings at various density. Diversity is to key to attract young people and creative businesses.
Cross-Disciplinary Team:
Richard Alomar, Registered Landscape Architect, Urban Field Studio
Our team was invited to redesign highway G107 and its surrounding area in Bao’an, Shenzhen. The other competitors included OMA and 5 global design firms. Bao’an is upgrading its old manufacturing sector to be sustainable and technology oriented, the city of Bao’an also wants to modernize its 30km long 12-lane G107 highway to allow for more efficient transit and new real estate development projects.
We started the G107 challenge by questioning the role of a highway. We propose that traditional highways are outdated and inefficient. Our presentation will demonstrate that multimodal transportation systems that integrate automated technologies like drones, auto-pilot vehicles and high-speed transit are the future of 21st century urban development. We believe there is no need to expand Bao’an’s 12-lane highway. Instead of treating the traditional highway as a fixed piece of infrastructure, we will design a smaller, more fluid, multi-layered, thoroughfare that will be a spectacular starting point of growth for an organic smart city.
Urban Design – Organic Highway 107
The current G107 cuts off the city’s western waterfront development areas from its mountain ranges to the east. One of our design goals is to reconnect these two natural amenities and create an urban landscape that can bring Bao’an back to 1990 when it was a farmland. We also identified the following values to renew G107 as the first ORGANIC HIGHWAY:
Sustainability
Connections
Technology
Sharing Economy
Opportunities
Green Manufacturing
Design Concept of New G107
We borrowed design principles from nature. We will elevate the 12-lane G107 into two 4-lane enclosures for better pollution control. The new G107 will weave vertically and horizontally throughout its 30km length. It will have sections at grade, above grade and below grade. All three sections will include spaces where the ground surface will be opened up for greenery and public amenities. Above grade Green platforms will weave through buildings on both sides of G107 to provide pedestrian access to new transit hubs. Multimodal transit systems will be employed making travel time from one area to the next within a 15 minute timeframe. An added benefit will be to reduce the city’s dependence on cars. The new G107 will not only bridge the natural and public amenities together, it will also add space for new cultural centers that celebrate art and design. The new G107 will be an organic merging of transportation modals and urban planning in three dimensions.
Sustainable Design and Holistic Approach
Landscape treatment, water management and transportation are tied closely together with the new G107. With the development of a sharing economy, transit hubs with shared vehicles will be deployed along G107 above every intersection. The multi-layered design will not only create a smooth transit experience, but it will also carry smart technology to manage water and air pollution. The new G107 will no longer be a deterrent to development, but a valuable asset for Bao’an. Our smart design will drastically reduce the city’s carbon footprint. The ultimate goal is to make Bao’an a smart city that can be carbon neutral by 2045.
Transportation Resolution:
Urban Resolution and Management:
Business Trend and the Future
We conducted a survey from worldwide business owners (see image and credits at the bottom of this page) and concluded that talented people want to live in a city that is:
Sustainable
With good quality of life
With job opportunities
Our design intent is not to give up Bao’an as a manufacturing town, but to upgrade its facilities into a “Green Manufacturing City” with the power to share and connect people, places, and amenities. This sustainable city will celebrate the new “sharing economy” with facilities like transparent factories, drone ports for deliveries, open platforms for experiments, mobile offices and natural amenities to share. The new G107 will be a place to LIVE, WORK and PLAY.
The New Pearl River Delta
Shenzhen have won the greenest city award in China, but Bao’an is behind on its pollution management and green ratio. With our design, Bao’an can and will be the greenest of the greenest city in China. With the first drone highway and the first green manufacturing facilities, Bao’an will become a pilot city for the world to emulate and learn from. At the same time we will totally redevelop our old manufacturing town. The new G107 will enhance Shenzhen as the “City of Design”. It will also diversify and redefine the Pearl River Delta and help establish China as a leader of innovation on a global scale.
Sky Museum is a mobile art exhibit inspired by Gochang (Dolmen) in South Korea and it performs like a crane. It is the ultimate Sky, Land, and Water experience. Sky Museum’s Arts Center are found within the crane’s structure. The long end of the crane will suspend ever-changing art displays in mid-air. Loading and unloading the hovering displays will make Super Museum a fun experience for all visitors. Super Museum will also render an artistic skyline that well compliments the city of Suncheon. More importantly, it will ask its surrounding community to look up to the sky for creative inspiration.
Landscape Tradition
All national museums in Korea are surrounded by sceneries. Our site in Suncheon is very urban in comparison. To continue this Korean traditional to place a museum in natural environment, Sky Museum elevates itself to the height of 55 meters to connect itself visually to the surrounding mountains and ocean. The ground and canal level is then filled with greenery as pubic plaza.
Aerial images from Google.
Artwork in the sky
Sky Museum will suspend artwork in mid-air, giving it a spectacular view of the canal. The premier exhibition will suspend the replica of the historical “Yeonja-Ru”. The replica will be rebuilt with a modernized interpretation that maintains its traditional form.
The surrounding ground area is forest-like with a peeling geometry. Interspersed amongst the foliage will be grand displays of various artistic exhibits. It will be a great civic and sustainable asset to the city. The Visitor Center is situated along Joonang-Ro at grade. The parking lots will be sub-level with access to the existing underground mall. Sub-level visitor center will extend to the canal whereas visitors will be further entertained by submerged art exhibits.
Vehicular and Pedestrian Access
Sky + Land + Water
Dubai has restaurants in the sky, Mexico has museums under water; Sky Museum combines those centers of attraction into a community-friendly Sky, land, and Water experience. Some might be shocked by a museum that looks like a construction crane, but similar unsupported form can be seen in South Korea back in 700 BC.
An Invitation to the people of Suncheon
Sky Museum is part of the Korean heritage, while shock is the other part to get people’s involvement into developing Suncheon’s creative future. Sky Museum is an invitation, and a democratic approach to transforming the Sky, Land, and Water into a primed and ready canvas for Suncheon’s artists, curators and fellow citizens.
Isle of Ryde is a three steps process to transform two old civil buildings in Ryde, Australia into a democratic art plaza filled with sustainable features.
Renew
Our calculation shows that it is more sustainable in terms of carbon footprint to retrofit an old tower rather than demolishing it. The current civic center tower has a unique position in relationship to the neighborhood and it is our goal to use it as the center point and spawn new programs around it.
Revitalize
Two existing buildings will be reused. New double-skin ventilated façade will be added to the existing building with additional structure for reinforcement. Three other programs boxes will be place to the west of civil tower. Sky Bridge will link all five volumes together as one art plaza. The ground floor is meant to be a covered space with landscape and outdoor activities. Different local species of Ryde and Australia will be planted in the plaza to allow for greater bio-diversity. Isle of Ryde will feels like a green island within the city.
Regenerate
All five programs will be wrapped by a smart canopy. The roof structure span across the site as a triangle to tie each urban entrance together. The clear portion will be glazed with newly invented clear solar penal. It allows for sun penetration while generate electricity at the same time. The beam will be cladded in local plant material. The center volume comes down as a funnel to allow water collections. Grey water will be used in toilet and landscape water. Although it will consume more carbon to build a large scale canopy, but in a long run, the smart building will turn the plaza into a local icon with carbon zero footprint.
Multi-disciplinary approach with civic participation.
We believe there is no single master mind behind Isle of Ryde. The process of design should be a bottom up approach. Each design elements should be and can be edited by local citizens. Our goal is to establish the program requirement with the government but to allow local participate to sculpt the 5 programs below the canopy. It will turns all buildings into local artwork. Isle of Ryde will become a true civil center.
Horsetopia is a horse park in Yeongcheon, South Korea. Half of the 1,474,883㎡ site is dedicated to horse racing and the other half is dedicated to horse-related activities. This proposal is a multi-disciplinary approach to create a sustainable and profitable park. It aims to elevate the status of horse racing in the next 10 years.
Marketing
Urban people live a “fast” life but all desire to live at a “slower” pace. Horsetopia targets urban customers who are seeking an alternative lifestyle.
Horse is a reflection of our desire to balance between “fast” and “slow”. Horsetopia will inspire people to treat nature as playground and horses as our companions. It aims to bring passion and tranquility to people, horses and nature.
Landscape + Architecture
All architecture are designed as extension of landscape. The undulating landscape are used to define zones and created a park without boundary. The racing track is used as a focal point and various features spins out of the fast track to create slow zones.
Sustainability
100% path lighting to be powered by on-site wind turbines.
95% of earth excavated to be reused on site.
450,000 tons of Carbon Dioxide stored on site as architecture.
5 layers of terraced bioswale to remove water pollutants.
450% of area saved for landscape from open parking to reduce heat island effect.
Innovative lighting solution to reduce light pollution.
Food to be grown on site and food waste to be processed on site.
Souvenir to be made with food waste and horse waste.
Planning + Icon
The master plan defined by an infinitive loop combines nature and architecture. It is a park created without boundaries but isolated from reality. Different design features and programs make Horsetopia a destination worth visiting again and again.
Grand Stand
The grandstand is a signature building that rises as part of the landscape ribbon. The use of locally harvested wood and other sustainable features will make this a low carbon building.
“Fast” and “Slow” Programs
Horsetopia will provide visitors with programs of fast excitements and slow enjoyments. A variety of programs are multi-seasonable, educational and connected to local community. The low carbon design brings “eco-tourism” to customers, while sustainable features will keep the park economical, functional and aesthetically pleasing.
Horsetopia will elevate the social status of horse and horse racing while rebrand Yeongcheon as the city of relaxation at a national scale.
Marketing strategy – “Riding on passion and tranquility”
The strategy is a continuous combined efforts of Horsetopia, Government, investors, marketing practitioners and citizen. It aims to brand Horsetopia as a utopia for people, horses and nature living in harmony, and hence to brand Yeongcheon as a “City of relaxation” in a national scale. It is to tell that Horstopia is one-of-a-kind theme park and worth visiting. It embraces both entertaining excitements and real relaxation with nature at the same time.
The future of retail is about collaboration, sustainability and customization. Wanda Pavilion is a state-of-the-art building that combines retail space with maker space. The aim is to break down the traditional shopping mall into many small buildings where vendors and customers explore and interact. Designers incorporated the feedback from clients to instantly improve their design. It works like a lab except it invites everyone to participate. The products get customized and refined using big data, 3d scanning, and 3d printing technology. The big data will continue to shape and designers get to better understand different body needs, conditions and behaviors.
The building takes the logo of the Wanda as a footprint which works out beautifully as core, open space and private spaces. The overall building resembled a tapered cylinder which is designed to match sun angle. The north facing curtain wall provide a well-lit interior without overheating while the south facing roof generate electricity with solar panels. Wanda Pavilion is an environmental-friendly building designed by entrepreneurs for people with entrepreneurial spirit. The size of the building is smaller than a regular mall and is limited to maximum of 338 occupants on a daily basis. According to multiple research 300 people is the maximum social circle for most people. People collaborate better if they get to work with the same group of 300 people on a daily basis. This number is again confirmed by Facebook. Its average number of friends per user is 338. Digitally and physically, we can only get to know 300 people well. Why can’t architecture reflect our social capability?
When we need more people and space, we just duplicate the same building over and continue to limit its size. This “zone network system” is proven to be a better than the current “network system” for both work and education.
Wind city is a proposal aimed to eliminate air conditioning in a residential tower. The stacked floor are made up of repetitive per-fabricated modules. The floor slab are perforated between the floors to allow cross ventilation in between the slabs. In hot and humid country with air pollution problems, this tower allows natural cooling without drawing the polluted air directly into the indoor. It brings in the air in between the slabs to cool the interior while keeping the pollutants out. It eliminated the need for a filter which has a long term maintenance cost. The rotation from floor to floor creates a dynamic curve with panoramic views while it encourages greater air movement. The roof of the podium also picks up the same wind dynamic while providing access to natural light. The roof is tiled in one direction to allow water collection into the landscape. The entry landscape serves as the grey water pond but also a reflection pool to mirror the tower. Wind City is a design that achieve the balance of efficiency, art and sustainability.
Smart City is a Detroit’s mixed use project that combines agricultural, industrial, residential and commercial spaces. The idea is to revive local businesses and essentially the brand of Detroit with this new iconic project. The landmark building will not only define the skyline of Detroit, it will also become a milestone of how future mixed use building should be planned. This project won London Creative Competition in 2015.
last frontier
Detroit – the Last Frontier
Detroit is known for its automotive industry and its recent decline in economy. The land is filled with opportunities. It is considered to be the last frontier in the US. We develop the smart city project with this frontier mentality in mind.
ideas
Idea of mixing
Smart City has a simple idea to alter spaces for multiple programs. Factory requires a large footprint. Its roof naturally becomes a perfect location for farming and residential area
Section showing four programs
Art meets Science
The mountain form is a logical combination for large void and large surface area. The form allows for terraced urban farming, which is an up-and-coming business in Detroit. Residential and commercial area form a shell-like structure along the mountain. The void inside the mountain become a large open area for green industry. The solar panel at the top of the mountain is multi-functional. It collects water and solar energy while it is the main support for the shell-like structure. The mountain profile with solar panels at the apex will form an iconic skyline for Detroit.
The future of business is about collaboration, sustainability and customization. Seun-nect is meant to provide a collaborative environment to connect work and play. By weaving the public area into the private buildings, the park is architecturally and structurally part of the Seun complex (aka Seunsangga). Pedestrian seeking pleasure can experience different programs for work, play, eat and rest. People seeking opportunities can see the park as an open platform for experimentation, collaboration and exhibition.
Geometry:
The geometry of the park was inspired by Korean Sangmo to provide a weaving experience from Jongmyo Park to Namsan Mountain. The width of the project is divided into 3m ribbons. These ribbons weave the outdoor and indoor together and provide a smooth transition from ground to deck level. Modules are also undulated or bent in three dimensions to provide programmed spaces like cafe, water playground, and planters.
Business Evolution:
The construction of the park is designed to be part of the evolution of Seun existing businesses. Adapting 3d printing technology and customization process, local businesses can start providing pavement modules for the park before the construction. Global participants can be part of the design process to provide unique pavers with their name. The process will add international diversity to this local project.
Master Plan:
The deck is typically 9m wide and it is subdivided into three 3m wide ribbons for circulation, greenery and program. This typical relationship changes at areas we dedicated as special program and landscape. This dedicated softscape transition from Jongmyo Park which is more urban to Namsan Mountain which is more natural. The program responds to each block differently. The program of work, play, eat and rest are scattered through the site, but each block will have a focused theme to make the experience more unique to the business nature of its corresponding building.
Seun Plaza:
The slope of the north plaza will not only serve as the grand entrance to the deck level, the greenery and water will also climb the north façade of the building. People are encouraged to see on the Plaza. Jongmyo Park serves as the backdrop view for this plaza. Art installation and movie can be display at the front and the grand slope become an theatre seating cladded in greenery. The plaza will become a landmark for Seoul and also a case study for the world to see how old buildings can be rehabilitated to provide new opportunities.
Landscape Treatment:
Native plants in Korea will allow for xeriscaping. The species and form are chosen to match the theme of play, work, eat and rest. Planters has three typical soil depths
Sustainability:
On top of xeriscaping, rain water cistern will be used to water plants. This will reduce the cost of maintenance , which is an inherit problem in all the elevated park like the Highline in New York.
Structure:
Different strategy are designed to reinforce the existing columns and beams. The strategy changes to fit different local structural condition. The form of the reinforcement are meant to mimic the ribbon geometry of the master plan.
Work and Play:
Seun-nect weave in and out of existing building to create an environment for both work and play. People get to collaborate more in an environment like this. See our work and play design for G107
Night Aerial
Atrium
3d Printed Pavers:
People from around the world purchased and customized their own pavers. This local project will have international participation.
Libary
Below Deck:
The area below the deck receive a linear geometry that are related to the pattern on the deck level. The business on first floor is dedicated for machinery and craft studio. Existing parking and road layout will be kept below the deck to allow transportation of goods, but the function of the road will be turned into a multi-modal path. Bicycles, movable landscape, electric cars and people are encouraged to share the path. Local business can use movable pallet on rail to promote their art and craft. This shared path will also be lighted by skylights. The vibe and excitement below the deck will encourage people to appreciate local art and craft more.
Golfscape is our imaginary landscape made out of office supplies. The interior golf course is located in a New York coworking office by Grand Central Tech. The original idea is to create a space that can inspire people to work and play. We decided to use different office items we found and manipulated their forms to make up a landscape. We turned paper cups into trees, pens into shrubs, paper into mountain and pins into stairs. The landscape takes on a similar design language you found in our Smart City project. The wall art exists somewhere between 2d and 3d, but inherits our architectural ideas and the spirit to inspire others.
From an Industrial Site to a Mixed Use Development
Avoid Obvious Architect partnered with Studio C Architects to provide master plan design to convert an existing industrial site in Williamsburg, Brooklyn into a mixed use development with three high-rise towers. The idea of the master plan is to connect all three buildings to views, contexts and people. It wants to maintain an industrial and creative feel while providing a family oriented environment. The orientation of the mass responds to different parameters and turns the overall design into an crossing matrix. The matrix activates the waterfront and provides a much needed broad walk and greenery for the neighborhood. The design approach aligns with New York City’s Vision 2020 plan to improve the city’s waterfront. Tower to the west is dedicated as artist’s studio, tower in the middle is an art hotel, and the tallest tower to the East is a condominium. The project will create a quiet but exciting destination along the English Kills. It will echo the other big project, Willets Point Development, on the other end of the river.
The Artist Shop :: The next generation of experience retail
The Artist Shop is a green retail concept for the next generation. Unlike traditional shops which only focus on sales. The Artist Shop combines customization, manufacturing and sales into the same workflow. It delivers the next generation of experience shopping. Big data collected in the workflow will continue to enhance their final products.
To maintain our goal toward sustainability, 85% of materials used are upcycled wood and recycled plastic grass. Ease of assembly also allows this shop to move and display in multiple locations. Increased mobility further extends the life cycle of our design.
Our shop is detail oriented. We provided design solution from architectural design down to windows display design. The entry canopy is designed with two cutout for photo taking. It serves as a visual connection to the shop as well as a live advertising wall. Instead of making a promotional video, it is more interactive to show the live demonstration of chocolate customization. The toy train that runs through the shop was also designed to run through the hidden work area as if they are entering a tunnel. The big concept and small details are all designed cohesively to convey a single branding for the Artist.
This shop is a continuation of our previous pop-up project for The Artist
Check out our Wanda Pavilion that continues on the same concept to combine factory, design house and shops into the same building.
Concept:
Design Iterations:
Construction Documents:
Construction Details
Reclaimed wood
Shop at Harbor City:
Harbor City Aerial
Mobile Setup
The Artist World
Customization Photo Booth
Photo Booth bridging physical and virtual display.
Reclaimed wood
Photobooth with box display.
Customization Stations
The Artist Shop
Same Shop moved to Mira:
Same Shop moved to Shun Tak Center
Team Credit:
Client: Mr The Artist – Benjamin Cox, Olivier Gilson
