2014 | portfolio
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Academic WorkTRANSCRIPT
© Chao-Wei Su | 2014portfolio | CHAO-WEI SU
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"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure."
- The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
portfolio | CHAO-WEI SU
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ACADEMIC WORK | 8-76
The Aesclepius Machine 8-15 Lecture Posters 16-19 M.Arch Thesis 20-29 Paradox of Preservation 30-33
B.Arch Thesis 36-45 Moca West Hollywood 46-49 2G Competition 50-57 Lyceum Competition 58-63 Motorcross Auto Dealership 64-69 DMOG Chicago Etock Exchange 70-75
TABLE OF CONTENTS
University of Michigan
SCI-Arc
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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Taubman College of Art & Architecture | Various Projects 2009-2011
photograph by Chao-Wei Su
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Movement Through Space as a Spatial Experience
Perspective view from highest elevation point showing synthetic muscle attachments in relation to the walkway. The Aesclepius Ma-chine is a spatial experience; infrared sensors (not shown) detects the occupant and the muscles contract, forcing the fins to open up as the occupant moves through the space.
R+D AWARD SUBMISSION | PROF. ROBERT ADAMS
the ASCLEPIUS MACHINE
“The Asclepius Machine, A Dossier of Spatial Patholo-gies in Three Acts situates design civic infrastructure and acts of making architecture that explore the relational mechanics between genomics, infrastructure and urban-ism by dramatically altering the perception of disabled bodies within the public sphere. The objective of this work is to reconfigure cultural codes through produc-ing spatial devices that cultivate an actionable, resilient and responsive design, thereby extending the operative range of architecture.”
Renderings & Modeling Team:
Benjamin J. SmithChao-Wei Su
(Above) Elevation rendering showing semi-opaque fabric material covering.
(Right)
Close-up view of the final hand-rail design. The handrails posed a serious challenge to design and model; 1) each had to be meticulously angled; 2) “T-Bone” shape was adapted to the mid-section ramp area as a means of creating design uniformity.
(Above) Elevation rendering showing semi-opaque fabric material covering.1 2
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“Disability culture is among the more resilient and toler-
ant forms of social organization, yet remains under-sub-
scribed by current design practices. Even as design ac-
knowledges the responsibility to accommodate people
with disabilities, it fails to invest the full spectrum of its
project subjectively, aesthetically nor in terms of the city.
The well intended ambitions of design to directly engage
the subject of disability culture are shrouded in the man-
tras of universal design, design for all or access for all.
In contrast, this proposal seeks to exaggerate the ad-
vantages of disability and open channels for design to
generate unlikely spatial itineraries.”
- Professor Robert Adams
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“...this proposal seeks to exaggerate the advantages of disability and open channels for design to generate unlikely spatial itineraries.”
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photographbyChao-WeiSu
LECTURE SERIES POSTERSTAUBMAN COLLEGE | ARCHITECTURE + URBAN PLANNING
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PROJECT EIDOLON | M.Arch Thesis
Preface:
O riginally the thesis began as a science-fiction nar-rative woven into architectural discourse. A cast of characters, including relevant technology, and a keen
focus on site specificity, were included as part of the story. However, through many iterative ideas, the thesis became a heuristic tool, one that readily communicates and reflects my personal take on the sublime.
Thesis Statement:
Human beings identify meaning through an unconscious and conscious reading of architecture's spatial and bodily parts. However, meaning has been subsumed by parametric tech-nology and algorithmic logic. Aesthetic qualities are a mecha-nism for efficiency, nurtured from the Enlightenment period. They represent technology, progress, and rational thought. Even more, they repress heuristic thought processes and de-prive architecture of its meaningful, synchronistic luster.
This thesis disrupts the layers of stability represented by Western Thought and Meaning through acts of Un-Making. Project Eidolon, a science fiction architectural narrative sited on Hashima Island, has succumbed to a planned, synchro-nistic deformation. The project spans three time periods and explores the concept of the uncanny in the wake of its Un-doing. The act of deformation disrupts rule-based causality, and promotes the sublime within the imagination.
THE SUBLIME | AN ARCHITECTURAL NARRATIVE
THESIS 2.0 | Instructor: Professor Robert Adams
Hashima Island, Initial Concept
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Sublime as Light...Hashima Island | 2030
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Sublime as Nature... Sublime as Threats.
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Cave of Swallows
kubera cave
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Synchronicity
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“Synchronicity: Events happening at the same time that are causally unrelated, but related in meaning.”
Events |A Historical Timeline of the Sublime
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“I am against mistaking complexity for meaning. Meaning is contextual, it is a correlation of events.”
Eversion Sphere|Synchronization of Three Parrellel Worlds
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T he Thames Barrier, long used as a counter to tidal shifts and flooding, will become obsolete in the year 2045. The newly modified barrier will act as a com-
mentary to the paradoxical behavior of cultural preservation.
First, a row of four library "pods" represented what is pre-served. Hidden inside are books and manuscripts that iden-tify with archaic British literary culture. These iconic books are held within the perforated confines of the pod. Its perforated skin is vulnerable to water, while increased tidal fluctuations helps it stay afloat while anchored.
Second, smaller autonomous pods housed in the barriers themselves juxtapose to the larger pods dominating the site. These refuse pods contain commercial electronic devices, E-books, and other mediums that are regarded as trash. Nevertheless, other cultures may selectively value these items based upon their own relative bias. This selectivity of the written word and how they are stored is a paradox, one that questions how institutions, religions, and states deal with preservation.
Paradox of Preservation was published in the first edition of Blueprint Literary Magazine and exhibited at the Duderstadt Gallery.
PARADOX OF PRESERVATION
Thames Barrier | 2045
THE THAMES BARRIER | A Visual Narrative
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32SECTION :: 1/16” = 1’-0”
SECTION :: 3/32” = 1’-0”
88’-0”
62’-6”
30’-1”
22’-1”
TOS
67’-5”TOS
25’-0”
REFUSE POD
ITEMS: MAGAZINES E-BOOKSELECTRONICS ETC.
LIBRARY POD
ITEMS: SHAKESPEARE KING LEARMACBETH
HARPOON
DUO-STAGE PROPELLER
STORAGE BAY
ARCHI - TYPES
BALLAST TANK
STORAGE STACK
Walkway entrance leading to main Library Archi-Type.
Thames Barrier as seen from the main walkway.
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"This selectivity of the written word and how they are stored is a paradox, one that questions how institutions, religions, and states deal with preservation."
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S C I - A r cSouthern California Institute of Architecture | Various Projects 2004-2009
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Visitor Center Study Mock-up Model
CTHONIAN INITIATIVE | B.Arch Thesis
A rchitecture is observed as a symbolic expression and language exemplified by its formal, exterior qualities. It is categorized by its ability to create phenomena; an effect is created from an unrecognizable affect. The expressive effect is most readily achieved through the reproduction of a specific style [e.g. classical, modern, post-modern,
and blobitecture, etc.], each of which are expressed through the deliberate design of skin and structure for a particular building. Consequently, the effect is reduced to a symbolic name that most closely resembles the building’s expressive form. The Chthonian Initiative, a visitor center located in the Atacama Desert near Iquique, seeks to override this notion of symbolic architecture by reinforcing the seen effects such as camouflage, proportion--and unseen, the unheimliche, a feeling that closely resembles unease. The visitor center is a machine that brings in the uncanny qualities of the Atacama Desert and re-prioritizes them within the architecture.
Thesis 1.0 | Instructor: Dwayne Oyler
THE UNHEIMLICHE | EXPERIENCING UNCANNY ARCHITECTURE
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Emerging Fog and Observation Deck
(Top Left to Right)
Photographic mon-tages using physical modeling and digital photography overlay was used to convey the cave. Models were built out of sculpted pieces of super sculpey.
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On top of the visitor center is an arti�cial lomas habitat. In addition to the building’s awkward camou�age, the top soil acts as another rep-resentation of the dopple-ganger qualities hidden in the building exterior.
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CHITHONIAN INITIATIVE
Excerpt:
“One must, as I have tried to do in funeray monuments, present the skeleton of architecture by means, of an absoluteley, naked wall, presenting the image of buried architecture by employing
blacker shadows (qtd. from Vidler, ).”
- Étienne-Louis Boullée
Underground Cities
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through underground cities, vast labyrinths and mazes, all of which prescribe to a sense of familiar-
such a feeling. It is a place of “...ambiguity, it encompassed the greatest foulness and the greatest purity, life and death, fertility and destruction, horror and fascination.”
Uncanny Cities
What is known about the city forms a false perception of the unknown. Steve Pile gives a clear example of this phenomenon. He recants a story involving a man named Freud who happens to be
fear, and perhaps a sense of unfamiliarity in his surroundings. He desires for the women nearby,
Intent: To hide architecture’s paradox by covering, distorting, or submerging its formal character-istics.
Brief Description:
Whether it is through wings or painted ships, distorting architecture to the point that it is unrecog-
is slender, and contains very few ridges, while the respective overlapping layers underneath is dense with lamella and is the primary cause of pigmentation.
Dazzle colors included on ships during World War II were designed to confuse German submari-
artistic, yet theoretically functional expression is up for debate.
Hydraulic li�
CHITHONIAN INITIATIVE
Open to below
Open to below
Undulating roof sleeve
Stairs to parking
HSRI black ceramic heat tiles (RCG)
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1 Con�gurations were designed for understanding possible views using one side as a ground plane.
SCHEMATIC DESIGN VARIATIONS
BAll given sides except the ommitted ��h and sixth sides fold.
A All lateral sides use properties of porportion to achieve cuts pictured above in grey.
2 Using the previous shceme as a base, the new design incorpo-rates methods of employing proportional values and recom-bining them into one, boolean operation.
Rotate on Z-Axis
Rotate on Y-Axis
ROOF PLAN
EAST ELEVATION
SCALE: 1:330
SCALE: 1:330
Skylight
Camou�age based on sand dune silhouette
CHITHONIAN INITIATIVE
CHITHONIAN INITIATIVE
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Hydraulic li�
CHITHONIAN INITIATIVE
Open to below
Open to below
Undulating roof sleeve
Stairs to parking
HSRI black ceramic heat tiles (RCG)
!
1 Con�gurations were designed for understanding possible views using one side as a ground plane.
SCHEMATIC DESIGN VARIATIONS
BAll given sides except the ommitted ��h and sixth sides fold.
A All lateral sides use properties of porportion to achieve cuts pictured above in grey.
2 Using the previous shceme as a base, the new design incorpo-rates methods of employing proportional values and recom-bining them into one, boolean operation.
Rotate on Z-Axis
Rotate on Y-Axis
ROOF PLAN
EAST ELEVATION
SCALE: 1:330
SCALE: 1:330
Skylight
Camou�age based on sand dune silhouette
CHITHONIAN INITIATIVE
CHITHONIAN INITIATIVE
66O
1/21 1/4 1/8 1/16
1/32
1/64
85O
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Observation deck
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Angled skylight
Fog Resevoir
Reinforced High Compression
NQ1 Steel Frame
Redundant win-dows to interior provides inlets for
arti�cial light
Library catalog of cultural research
material and relevant informa-tion regarding the
Atacama Desert
Promenade rock sculptor garden
B - LIBRARY AND CORRESPONDING EXHIBITION SPACE
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SCALE: NTS C - NORTH LATERAL SECTION SCALE: NTS
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Light box model 1:150 Scale with cover. Box not shown.
Light Box Model 1:150 Scale with-out exterior cover.
Interior per-spective of the
exhibition space. Fog projectors are
shown in back.
Interior perspec-tive of escalator leading up to the library.
Light box model 1:150 Scale with cover. Box not shown.
Light Box Model 1:150 Scale with-out exterior cover.
Interior per-spective of the
exhibition space. Fog projectors are
shown in back.
Interior perspec-tive of escalator leading up to the library.
(Top Left to Right)
1) Section Model showing outer skin; 2) Interior View of model showing fog projectors
(Left) Section View with outer skin removed
(Below) Close-up View of escalator and interior
45Visitor Center Automatic Retrieval System (ARS)
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T his studio project focuses on the relationship of boolean operations and perforated skin. Using Tony Smith models as a guide, these contorted
geometric shapes become a point of departure for ar-chitectural design. Several study models were creat-ed to initiate a discourse in skin and program design. Production of complex spatial interior geometries were emphasized by using a two-tone color scheme.
The new MOCA project is located on a site between San Vincente and Beverly Blvd. Totaling a gross sq. ft. of 80,000 sq. ft, it consists of four levels and un-derground parking. Commercial program makes up 40% of the building’s net square footage as required by a set FAR of 3:1. A fractal technique was used to explore the possibility of a seamless curtain wall system.
MOCA WEST HOLLYWOOD
4A Studio | Instructor: Andrew Zago
CONTORTIONIST ARCHITECTURE
GROUND FLOOR GALLERY
GIFT SHOP
RECIEVING
PARKING
TICKETING/REGISTRATION
STORAGE
STORAGE JANITORIAL
SECOND FLOOR EXHIBITION SPACE
OPEN COURTYARD
AUXILIARY SUP-PORT SPACE
FILE STORAGE
BOOK STORE
FILE STORAGE / PREP ROOM
THIRD FLOOR EXHIBITION
SECONDARY EXHIBITION SPACES
KITCHEN
THIRD FLOOR EXHIBITION GALLERIES
PROMENADE
STORAGE
JANITORIAL
San V
icente Blvd.
Sherbourne Dr.
Beverly Blvd.
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47View seen from San Vicente Blvd.
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+1.2m
+10.5m
+12.92m
+14.8m
+1.2m
+10.5m
+12.92m
+14.8m
Northeast Section
Southwest Section
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T he park project will be devoted to reclaiming the urban idea of the lagoon as a complex network of communications and settlements through a hypothetical re-colonisation of lagoon territory, the decentralization of program, and the reclamation of the lagoon as
an urban constellation integrated in its natural environment. The program for planning this rehabilitation will consist of an Urban Park and Lagoon Prototypes.1
2G MAGAZINE COMPETITION 2007VENETOPLEXUS | URBANIZING WITH WATTLETUDE & DEPLOYING AMPHIBIMOTTOS
4A Studio | Instructors: Eric Kahn & Wes Jones1AMPHIBIMOTTOS: Re-occuring, mechanized platforms, broadly distributed throughout the venice lagoon that provide critical purification processes and infrastruuctural support for reinvigorated ecology
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1:100 Scale Site Model
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Scale: 1:100Primary Material: 3/4" Birch [3-5 layers each piece]Adhesive: Wood Glue with screw reinforcementFabrication: CNC MillingSoftware: Rhinoceros and Surfcam Time required for completion: 4+ days [15+ hrs. per day]
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Part 1 | Blue Phase Part 2 | Green Phase Part 3 | Red Phase
The deployment of purification prototypes helps cleanse the surrounding water and establishes a base for future reclamation.
Purification prototypes are retired for rec-lamation. Soil content is distributed from the urban park and surrounding islands to encourage growth of the urban void.
The final phase involves the creation of a networked ecological extension and obser-vation zone; a bioplenum for the inhabit-ants of the urban park.
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“The final phase involves the creation of a networked ecological extension and observation zone; a bioplenum for the inhabitants of the urban park.”
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LYCEUM COMPETITIONTHE XOCHI PILI MARKET | LA CONDESA, MEXICO
3B Studio | Instructor: Alexis Rochas
T he Lyceum Competition is a individual effort that focuses on the re-design of the original La Condensa Market located in Mexico. Named after the Aztec god of maize and dance, the Xochi-Pilli Market
is situated in an area known for its artist lofts and art deco architecture. In order to communicate the idea of a hybrid market, the idea of linking per-spectives from the vantage points of two separate markets was introduced. In addition, this allowed more questions to be asked of what becomes of the site without resorting to the simple definition of a ‘’hybrid market’’ as a practical architectural piece. Therefore, the simple idea of disaggregation and aggregation was created as two market types, Xochi and Pilli respectively.
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61Typical stall unit as seen on-site
1:50 Scale model showing the Pili Market
Site Plan showing relationship between the two market areas and adjacent streets
Floor Plan showing relationship between the market stalls and plaza space
62View of Xochi Market space from the corner of Melgar and Veracruz Plaza Space
Market Stalls
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T he Motorcross Auto Dealership project involves the reuse of a 37,000 sq. ft. lot near Olympic
Blvd. located in Koreatown, Los Angeles. The challenge is to incorporate an auto dealership while examining site specific characteristics, including but not limited to daytime lighting, vehicle approach, and lot requirements. Part of the requirement for the studio was to create a diagrammatic analysis without using actual envrionmen-tal technology software. The solution to the design challenge emphasized the insertion of mechanical components to increase the feasibility of the building. For example, a rotational lift shaft was cre-ated to serve cars entering and exiting the service and exhibition bays for ease of access.
MOTORCROSS AUTO DEALERSHIP
3A Studio | Instructors: Juan Azulay & Greg Walsh
FIELD OPERATIONS
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4PM
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(DIGITAL MARKET OPERATIONS GATEWAY)
T he adoption of the internet in the mid-to-late 1990’s as the primary means of buying and sell-ing stock in a virtual setting allowed a greater
variety of public participants to engage what was once a private affair. No longer were people actively congre-gating in a trade floor making transactions; the stock market had become digitized.
The new Chicago Stock Exchange, re-named D.M.O.G. (Digital Monetary Operations Group), provides a net-worked infrastructure located in a web of modular spac-es. Branching corridors seperate different elevations of private and public landscapes between pod-like struc-tures. This hexagonal framework, inhabited by offices and computer servers, perpetuates social interconnec-tivity and symbolizes the subtle movement of nodes much like a digitized network.
D . M . O . G . NEW CHICAGO STOCK EXCHANGE
2B Studio | Instructors: Heather Flood & Ramiro Diaz-Granados
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SOUTH VIEW
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78© Chao-Wei Su | 2013