History of the old Beijing has precipitated hundreds of years of culture and industrial progress. In the western edge of the Beijing City Wall, the Second Thermal Power Plant is a monument of the industrial age. Right next to it is the TianNing Temple Tower, a Buddhist temple built in the Northern Wei Dynasty. The TianNing Temple Tower and the chimney of the thermal power complex are two symbols of different eras of the city--the traditional and the industrial. What is to be inserted to the complex would be a symbol of the present, or even the future. The Specta-craft creates two systems, which catalyze the longitudinal and the latitudinal structure of the zone respectively. The systems changes when the spacecraft takes flight or anchors.
Engaging individuals into the urban context through eye contact, is one of the approaches to make users of the city to "feel" the space surrounding them. Theatrical arts deliver emotions and connect audiences through showing them lives and stories. Is it possible that we radiate slices of lives from theater to the city? This piece of work is an experiment in regard to this matter.
Centripetal
Stressed
Axis with Center
Mixed, Centrifugal
SYSTEMS AND THE CITY
Vertical Ground System (Park Scale) Ground Surface
Specta-Craft Unit (Unit Scale)
SPECTA-CRAFT --CATALYST FOR SYSTEMIC OSMOSIS
An urban installation with function is inserted to the industrial park. The Specta-craft not only is a theater itself, but it also changes how other stages are used when the spacecraft lands or hovers. The change in the skeleton of the industrial park is catalyzed by the vertical movement of the Specta-craft.
is a gaming district in Japan. In spite of its strictly gridded structure, lots of surprises are interspersed in the city. No matter the form, there is always capacity for new elements and changes among the district, such as planes like floating screens and posters, linear threads like the light rail, and also objects like statues and large figures lingering among buildings. The experience is just like venturing into another world, from where you can discover new scenes just around the corner. This reminds me of Hayao Miyazaki's film Spirited Away, in which chihiro accidentally stepped into a realm of spirits and monsters.
Project Type: Architectural reinterpretation of film works Site: Akihabara, Tokyo Time: Sep 2024 - Jan 2025
Akihabara
district skeleton
heart of the district
threads at different heights
A TOWN WITH BLIND BOX UNITS
--POTENTIAL FOR EXCITEMENTS
Akihabara is a bustling district in Tokyo, where anime has been what the city is famous for. Street logos, neon lights, gaming advertisements and animation posters populates the facades of the district. In a few of these buildings, fan products of Spirited Away and other Ghibli movies are sold. Just like Akihabara, the town in Spirited Away is populated with lights and glowing shop signs. There is significance correlation between this vibrant district of Akihabara and the world of Spirited Away.
A new railway is inserted to the complex, cutting through the river of Akihabara.
The first tower is composed of two parts, the cloud engine and the spiritual locus, both derived from the spatial movement around the "Yu" bathhouse, the main stage of the film. The cloud engine represented the boiler house, where characters received warmth, care and growth. The spiritual locus tracked different styles of vertical movement in the film, inside and outside the bathhouse.
The second tower is a representation of the pop-up stories inside the film. This is derived from the spatial structure of storyboard, where the next box may be unpredictable. Groups of fragments are dismantled from shots of camera movement. In each vertical moving footage, the films are broken into four boxes of fragments. Twelve towers of vertical fragments are created.
The third tower resonates with the grid structure of Akihabara, creating a box-lane complex. Towers from the fragment montage are rejoined to form buidings, just like the architecture in the district. On the other hand, horizontal fragments form linkages, as a representation of the overground railway in both Akihabara and the world in Spirited Away.
TOWER I: film locus and tower engine
TOWER II: fragment disjoint
TOWER III: adventure recomposition
TOWERS OF THE SPIRIT WORLD
TOWER OF POP
--TWISTING THE FANTASY FOR THE PAST , OR TOMORROW
Storyboard not only is a visual presentation of a script, but also a vertical structure for scene and space change. In each shot, a main type dominates the frame. Just like the storyboard, camera movement is a way to change space and mood through change in space structure. The shots can be broken down into seperate frames, and the types in each frames are indicated. these moving frames form towers of abtract types. These montages resonates the density of the district of Akihabara.
colonnade
TOWERS OF DREAMS
--DISMANTLING FRAGMENTS INTO FRAGMENTS
TOWERS OF DREAMS
--REJOINING INTO ADVENTURE
With the Cloud Engine Elevator plugged in next to the railway, the floating complex anchors next to the train, just like the boiler house next to the tram in the film Spirited Away.
CLOUD ENGINE
--HOW THE BATHING INDUSTRY WORKS
The kinetics of the spirits' world is analysed. With the bathhouse as the center of the other world, the activities of workers, customers all surrounds the bathing industry in the house. The boiler room, which supported all events in the house, is the core space of the whole Spirited Away universe. Activities inside the boiler room were captured with fixed camera angle. Five appearances of the same camera angle are analysed. The energy bubbles of the five scenes were transformed into boiler balloons, forming the cloud engine, as a power station.
Power bubbles in the boiler room
TOWER OF MOVEMENT
--REWEAVING THE LOCUS
Vertical movements are rapidly portrayed in the film. Through tracking the vertical movement of Chihiro, four movement peaks of different transport are indicated. The four transports forms the center tower in the complex, showing the locus in the whole film.
Vertical kinetics forming movement peaks
First peak -- Survival
Third peak -- Leader
Second peak -- Protection
Fourth peak -- Freedom
Scenes inside the floating house are shots of surprises. During anime festival in Akihabara, treats and game coins are sprinkled, as a gift from No Face. Kids can experience an exciting slide after their adventure in the pop-up tower.
HUTONG REGEN
HuGuo Temple has been a community center to those living in the area since the Qing Dynasty. In the past, various activities were held during temple festivals. However, in the present, most of the temple were destroyed and the remains were no longer available to the public. The urban structure of the HuGuo temple community in the Qing Dynasty is revised, in order to revitalize the community in the present. Apart from the temple, illegal constructions make yards overcrowded, leading to problems like poor hygiene, drainage and electricity shortage. Hutongs are also renewed by reorganizing inner public spaces. A successive group work is done to create a soothing living environment in Hutong communities, with the approach of garden landscape design.
multiple universities, boasts superior educational and commercial resources. The area around Wudaokou subway station is bustling with
gathering places, attracting many educators
young people to relax and enjoy life. Constructing
performance venue here would
more
range of entertainment options, enhancing the local lifestyle. The theater site is located at the intersection of Zhongguancun East Road and Chengfu Road, facing Tsinghua Science Park to the west, the vibrant heart of Wudaokou to the east, and the southeast gate and main building area of Tsinghua University to the north. Whether it's university students, local residents, office workers, or audiences from Haidian District, the site offers great convenience for watching performances.
