LULI-An Architecture Landscape

LULI -

National College Bamboo Design and Construction Competition

DURATION MY ROLE Team Member

May 2017-Aug.2017 Researcher & Designer Ruofei Wang, Junqi

Wang, Ziyan Xiong,

Zhenya Shan, Yalin Li,

Jiaqi Wang, Lun Hong,

Binjian Cui, Yujie Bai

Moyu Chen,Tianzi Ma

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Situated in Anji, this 185m² site is surrounded by mountains and rivers. As the city expanding rapidly, the tourists started to rush in, so the competition organizer wanted us to build an observation deck on this site, in order to attract more travelers. Inspired by the Chinese traditional landscape in this area, this project attempts to explore the abstract application of the mountains and water in an architectural landscape. The main idea of our design is to give the internal space twists and turns feeling while the whole construction could look like a mountain as a whole.

During this competition, my main tasks included designing the form of the construction, building physical and 3D models, and rendering. I also intensely involved in the actual construction process in Anji, including transfering the bamboo, positioning, tying, screwing the screws, etc.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Located in landscapes richly endowed by nature, how to better integrate the design into nature so that it can live in harmony with the surrounding environment?
How to make full use of the unique features of bamboo, such as flexibility, bending, to design its own spatial characteristics?
As one of the possibilities for the future incremental development of downtown Anji, we have learned about the rhetoric between the Anji community, how should our project enrich and improve the tourism industry of the city?

THE SOLUTION

A 185m² architectural landscape designed focusing on the concept of a sense of tortuous flow, combining historical values and cultural resources.

PROCESS

PLANNING

01 Construct the Landscape Planning Process

Unlike previous construction projects, this competition will be held on an actual site. Therefore, we carefully reconstructed the entire landscape planning process.

In the end, we decided to divide the entire landscape design process into five steps — Understanding the Cognition, Analyzing the Dilemma, Identifying Themes, Brainstorming, and Spacial Designing.

EXPLORATORY

02 Understand the cognition

Understand the site

The site is close to the city center, and the nearby facilities are very complete, which is suitable as a tourist spot. There are a library, a restaurant, a supermarket, and other public facilities within three kilometers nearby.

Because the site is right by a river, we decided to research focusing on the natural & cultural conditions of the site.

In the early 7 days, we had in-depth research to learn more about the community, landscape, and transportation of the targeting plots. We also conducted moderate interviews to understand the views of the residents. In the last 3 days, we summarized all our research findings to ensure that each team member has a comprehensive understanding of the base.

Understand the culture

There are countless specific cultural labels here - the canal culture of the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, the most distinctive bamboo culture, and the bamboo industrial culture rely on the development of the bamboo culture.

Determining Problem Statement

Through countless cultural labels, when we look back at such a neutral proposition between the site and its surroundings we actually find that there are specific touched propositions hidden behind it.

We try to use literature analysis, field study, social survey, and public opinion analysis to determine the proposition behind the site.

Located in landscapes richly endowed by nature, how to better integrate the design into nature so that it can live in harmony with the surrounding environment?

How to make full use of the unique features of bamboo, such as flexibility, bending, to design its own spatial characteristics?

As one of the possibilities for the future incremental development of the tourism industry of Anji, we have learned about the rhetoric between the Anji community, how should our project enrich and improve the tourism industry of the city?

03 Analyze the Dilemma

Research Methods

Based on the on-site research, the 4 databases are created and sorted out by means of network data capture and system inventory, which are afforestation coverage, tourist housing information, attractions development, and research.

After that, we discovered the Dilemma of Structure, Dilemma of Industry, Dilemma of Functions, Dilemma of Traffic.

Dilemma of Structure

As bamboo itself is relatively soft and has weak supporting force, its structural form is relatively simple.

Dilemma of Industry

Most of the tourists are from the central of Anji City, 65% of them came here with their kids to relax and feel nature.

Dilemma of Functions

Because of the large area of the site, in addition to the function of an observation deck, other functions needed to be added according to the needs of the tourist group

Dilemma of Traffic

The site is far from public transportation, and there is no connection between the main road and the site.

IDEATION

04 Identify Themes

After the system has sorted out the basic difficulties faced by the site, we need to analyze how the site and opportunities can provide support for our project. We combined culture, transportation, human habitation, stock, ecology, and synergy, potential, and case to create some different structural forms to find future opportunities.

In the end, we chose the site's landscape as our inspiration and tried to express the twists and turns feelings of the landscape using bamboo.

05 Braistorm Session

To get a more interesting form and structure to attract people to visit, we organized three brainstorm sessions to get more ideas. Among all the wild ideas, we decided to use my model as a concept model and built an architectural landscape in which two different volumes are intertwined.

Multi-layer Cumulative Structure Development

Backbone Structure Development — Backbone *Structure Development*

Structural Model Development

05 Design

We used the results of the previous stage as a program to further implement the design into a specific space. We built a large-scale physical model and a digital model using Rhino to test the usability of the structure.

CONSTRUCTION

07 Lay the Foundation

Due to the tight construction time, the preliminary foundation was set up by the funder in advance. In the process, we participated in the derivation of the structure and guided on-site construction.

08 Build the Landscape

The construction time is only two weeks, which is very urgent. We divided into three groups for the construction and made huge progress in a limited time. Although we did not complete the construction in two weeks, we were the fastest team among all the 12 teams.

EVALUATION

09 Presentation

In the final evaluation organized by the International Bamboo and Rattan Center, we presented our final construction 3 times on site. We reported our initial research results and medium-term results at Zhejiang University and presented our final design results at the Closing Ceremony.

In the process of presentation, the experts of the International Bamboo and Rattan Center have appreciated our results and meticulously discussed the logic and the public participation with us. In the end, we won second place among twelve teams.