All posts by Suheng Li

Peer Design Review

SCHEMATIC DESIGN REVIEW: BECCA NEWBURG

Leave a comment

Concept: Becca’s project holds a really interesting point of ‘redesign the existing building’. Instead of directly start a new project on the blank area, she noticed the huge bus-washing building on our site.  Her aim is to make the old site supporting the new uses by re purposing the building and completing the existing geometry. “Reuse” is a very clear and intensive point for the project and it will help to make the designer focusing on the main concept throughout the design process. My suggestion is that try not to be limited by the common definition of “reuse”.  Significant changes can always be applied to the building as long as there are certain connections between the old and new.

Building: The existing building is a long, low, rectangular structure with one of the corner missing. Becca completed it by adding a copper apparatus bay at the corner. The usage of the light and bright copper applies a strong contrast to the old heavy brick wall. It stands out and highlights the purpose of the building. Moreover, the blank walls are seemed as blank canvas. It reacts very well with the graffiti culture in Brooklyn. By extending the sides of the bay, she developed two main paths that go through the buildings, one of them connects to the park, the other one leads to the Monitor museum and a large public space. I likes this idea because these two paths break the formal lay out of the building in a reasonable way and add a sense of motion (of the visitors and traffics) to this big boring volume.  So far, the design of the building meets the idea of “relating the old and the new”. For the further development, my suggestion is: 1. documenting the old building more carefully, it is not only about respecting the existing structure, but also helps you having a stronger understanding of this building. Good documentation will help avoiding lots of unnecessary sizing trouble when one are in the more detailed design stage. 2. The usage of the copper is very impressive, it reacts will with the concept. However, due to the huge size of this building and the whole site, it may be a good idea to apply more copper elements throughout the whole structure. Because the design is not only like “installing a really nice hardware into an old box” (it could be nice, though), it can be more integrated with similar details at each part of the building. Or you can leave one main facade exactly as what it was so people will be surprised at the moment they realize the new structure. 3.Take oxidation into consideration. How long would the material lasts? 4. The design of the paths makes sense. However, since fire station has higher standard for the efficiency, the arrangement of the angle need to be more prudent.

Program: The arrangement of the programs is lined up from south to north inside the building. The inner space was broken up into the public and private areas. On the south end of the building, the residential and other private area was elevated from the ground and stopped by the through way. On the other side of the through way is the public area where the public lobby and administration space laid. On the north end, the apparatus bay locates in the newly designed structure and is connected to the public space. Except the building, Becca also devoted on the arrangement of the exterior space. She made new openings to give back to the community: park, farmer’s market and basketball court are all in consideration. The opening space also allows the visitors to enjoy the beautiful Manhattan skyline.

For the interior space, the layout does follow a logic. I like the idea of elevating the private space, but I think there can be more of this kind of settings. The reason why I come up with this thought is that the geometry of the building itself is pretty simple and flat, it will be nice if we could add more complexity in the term of programming. By having distinctive heights and sizes for different programs, there will be an interesting comparison between interior and exterior. Moreover, if we apply height differences in the building, there will be a chance to have a fast track that starts from the residential area, over the public area and directly into the apparatus bay. It will increase the efficiency of the fire station. For the exterior opening space, it was nice that Becca has thought about the public activities, but because of the gigantic size of the site plus the relatively blank park, it will be really hard to fill them up with particular programs. Instead of keep adding facilities into the site, making a landscape that is more integrated with the building could be a better solution. It can expand along the diagonal paths and fade out by the shore line. In this way, the opening spaces will looks more organized and will react with the garden. Another tip is that it will be so nice if Becca can add some site study about the landscape and inform people about how the landscape is changing with the seasons.

Presentation: The presentation was good. Becca presented fluently with nice hand drawings and nice outfit (=) ). But as the drawings are all in pencil, it was a little hard for the audience to see all the nice details from a distance. Maybe it is a better choice to scan and photoshop them first and then plot them as an organized board. Moreover, clear titles need to be applied so that the guests would stop asking what the drawings are about. The model did emphasize the concept. The contrast between wood and metal works pretty well. Since the model is well made, why not take full use out of it? It would be great if Becca could take pictures of it and photoshop her design into the site, or reduce the occupancy of the layer and put it on top of the pictures of the existing building. The pictures will definitely provide a stronger perspective to the audience of how the building will be like.

Conclusion: Overall it is a good presentation. The drawings and models are informative. The concept is strong and clear. And I am sure it will be a very impressive project after some further development on organizations and details.

Project Statement

SD PROJECT STATEMENT Suheng Li

Leave a comment

After the field trip I realized how proud the firefighters are of their job and how much they enjoy it, so I decided to design a relatively “high-key” but meanwhile very efficient fire station. Our site is in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NYC. The urban plan is in the form of grid and has a strong industrial heritage. It inspires me to use circles as the diagram of my project: it stands out from the  existing plan yet still interacts with the remaining industrial towers.  Moreover, the ray from the center of the circle can be a solution for “the inefficiency of the circle”, it helps to create short cuts inside the building and the exterior traffic lanes. Multiple circles that start with the same center can form a very organized complex. Thus, the efficiency and innovation can both be achieved.

 

Abstract 500w, Assignment Posts

Demolition and Reinvention

1 Comment

Proposed Periodical: Urbanland

Demolition VS. Reinvention

“Culture is experienced in the present time as the fluid gamut of structures that define our experience of living  …  We may use language to communicate and knowledge to exchange, but it is only when we look at the story of language, the body and origins of knowledge, that we can contextualize them, and understand their role as elements of culture.”  (Shah, 2012)

Architecture is a reflection of culture. Not only for the heritage of styles from old times, but also because of people’s real lives and stories that happened in the buildings.

However, development is always the theme. In the past two decades in China, 20 percent of the citizen had encountered inhabitant demolition due to the change of the urbanization. The confliction between government and general public has been sharpened to a point where government are forced to apply suppression. Though there is nothing wrong with the government devoting on the development of the city, humanity is still an essential factor that cannot be ignored. Therefore, this such intensive atmosphere makes us rethink about how to achieve the balance between urbanization and humanism.

In order to achieve the interaction between humanism and urbanization, urban designer and architects should devote more on reinventing the old buildings rather than demolition and reconstruction.

According to the latest estimates of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), the world urban population is expected to increase by 72% by 2050 (AHTH, April 2012). Thus, urbanization is an on-going trend. However, because of the lack of far- sighted urban-planning, a lot of old district and culture heritage has been destructed. Part of the destruction influenced citizens’ right of residence. (Fu, 2012)

Moreover, the analysis of great examples of successful reinvention would be incorporated. For example, Shanghai, as an international modern city, still determined to maintain lots of old cultural district. At the same time, they demanded to integrate such districts into the city pace by adding the commercial elements. Tian-Zi-Fang, a famous old neighborhood formed by “Nongtang” (a kind of traditional alley in Shanghai), was reinvented successfully. The whole construction and native residences was all kept, thus the first floor was redesigned in to stylistic café and creative groceries. Thousands of visitors are attracted to here every day, funding wise helping the maintenance of the district. Such example shows us one possible way to solve the confliction. For different sites, we can adjust the method, making it adapt to the real-life that could eventually lead humanitarian approach toward the growth of the city.

Due to the unconsciousness of the importance of humanitarian architecture, and the lack of the conservation policy, designers tend to ignore the cultural meaning of the existing buildings and demolish them when a new program is launched. If we can reinvent the old buildings, furthermore figure out the way to fit them into modern urban- planning, the heritage of the culture will be kept, people can feel the respect from the government and the development process of the city can be tracked by the later generations.

Source:

Helena L. Jubany. “The Social Responsibility of Architects”, Social Responsibility in Practice. June 29, 2011.

Stewart Brand. Emergence, desire lines and predicting behavior, “All buildings are predictions. All predictions are wrong”. How Buildings Learn, 1994, p. 160-178.

Vikas Shah. Thought Economics, The Role of Architecture in Humanity’s Story, June 2012.

Xusheng Zhang.  Four Modes to Change the old neighbor, June 2010.

Chi-Wei Yang, GuiYangLouShi web, Reinvention of old new building:  great examples, April 2014.

Siliang Fu, STLBEACON, Major Chinese cities face urbanization and demolition, June, 2012.

 

Photo credit to Lucy Wang, 09/15/15

Designed by: ARCHSTUDIO’s

http://inhabitat.com/archstudio-inserts-a-modern-teahouse-into-an-ancient-chinese-structure/

Theory Reading Posts

On Critique

1 Comment

By Paige Geldrich , Megan Shrout, and Suheng Li

Click Here to Access our Presentation 

Strategizing in Pluralistic Contexts: Rethinking Theoretical Frames
In the reading, we’ve been introduced about the pluralistic of the value system by Professor Jean-louis, Ann and Linda in their article Strategizing as an Accommodation Process: Managing Competing Values. Jean-louis is a Canada research chair on governance, and Ann, a professor of Management in Montreal as well as Linda.

The article talked about the competing values systems and was seeking a possibility of achieving the co-existence. It further explained the statement by illustrating the example of six “worlds”. Furthermore, Professors interpreted that the , critique and compromise is the process to achieve the goal of coexistence and reconciliation for the values system. This inspires us about the roles that architecture can play in the world of multiple values system.

Question:Are there other terms of architecture that can reflect different competing value systems besides the function?

Is there any example of architects/architecture that “critique in society and contest the legitimacy”?

Values
In our second reading, we are directed around the world of Values in Thomas A. Markus and Deborah Cameron’s book The Words Between the Spaces: Buildings and Language. Markus is a professor of building science at the University of Strathclyde, and Cameron, a professor of Languages at the Institute of Education at London University. With their collaborative effort, Markus and Cameron analyze the art of critiquing itself. Pointing to the location of the evaluation, selection of objects to be evaluated, language used to evaluate the object, and actual characteristics of the criticism itself, they demonstrate that architecture criticism should be read and written with a critical mind and eye.  

Question : After reading Markus and Cameron’s Values, what do you think the motivation behind most professor led studio critiques is?

 

Photo Credit to https://fischerlighting.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/lessons-from-architecture-school-separation-of-ego-and-debate/