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PORTFOLIO

YANYAN ZHANG 2016 - 2021

ABOUT

EDUCATION University of California, Berkeley Master of Architecture Candidate

Zhejiang University

Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture

EXPERIENCE Architectural Intern Payette

Graduate Student Researcher University of California, Berkeley

Senior Landscape Architect M.A.O Masters' Architectural Office

Credential

LEED Green Associate

Award

2nd Place, Bakewell, Brown & Weihe Prize, 2021 Finalist, CBDX: Cities for all Competition, 2021 Bassenian, Englander and Watson Fellowship, 2020 Excellent Design, The 9th Idea-king International Landscape and Design Competition, 2019

CONTACT yanyan_zhang@berkeley.edu

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CONTENTS

01 ALMOST DISAPPEARING Community Center

02 SPACE GRADIENTS

Mass Timber Laboratory Tower

03 LOOP LAB

Hyperloop Campus Design

04 SCHOOL AS PLAYGROUND Elementary School Design

05 SUTURE CITY

An urban strategy with small architectural moves

06 HOUSE L

Accessory Dwelling Unite Design

07 PEOPLE'S COMMUNE II Community Gallery Design

08 THE FOREST

Mass Timber Pavilion

09 LOST WATER

Virtual Water Museum in The Post-Anthropocene

10 METROPOLITAN SECLUSION Professional Landscape Design

01 ALMOST DISAPPEARING Group Academic design Site: San Francisco, CA Program: Community Center Collaborators: Xueer Ma This project aims to create a vital public space where people can enter without noticing it. With a long history of planting and greenhouses, the site has been a civil center in this area. As a urban block, different sides of the site face different conditions, this diversity is strengthen by the topography. So, the strategy is to utilize the existing topography to create two different interfaces: the north side is facing the community, where people enter from the highest point go directly into the interior space at the second floor where the greenhouses, education, training and youth center locate; the south side is facing the public, which is a large open column field that attracts people to go along the gentle slope and gradually enter the building. Eventually, here is not just a space for farming but also a community center for anyone who loves nature or wants to spend some time with their families and friends.

|Almost Disappearing

Based on the site analysis, the south side will be an interface that introduce the community to the public coming from the citywide, and the north side will face the community. so the main strategy is to utilize the existing topography to create two different interface --- a welcome column field in the south and a casual wandering experience in the north.

|Almost Disappearing

GROUND FLOOR First floor is the entrance for the public. The natural grass slope was maintained, extending under the building. Several platforms provide space for outdoor retail, exhibition, performance and cafe that can attract the public coming into the building. Columns are unevenly distributed with some rotated to create an interesting field condition also to softly define different spaces.

|Almost Disappearing

SECOND FLOOR On second floor, all the program that need to be enclosed are put inside solid boxes, including education, youth&elderly center, office, art space, training and dinning space. Greenhouses are designed as void boxes, which intersected with programmed space, allowing people to build a closer relationship with farming and planting when they are in this community center.

The whole building looks like a transparent floating roof sits on the topography, gradually split with the ground, to create a column field underneath. To achiev aluminum HSS posts, which are connected to a vertical post and then connected to the main structure of this building. In order to have a thin edge, the roof is Another important detail is the gutter system. Because of the folding shape of the roof, the gutter system is positioned along the ridge. But since people can secondary rafter that is weldged to the main beam. A piece of steel was added to strengthen the structure.

|Almost Disappearing

ve such a clean appearance, this project uses triple layer polycarbonate as the façade material. The polycarbonate panel is supported by a series of horizontal s extended a bit, and the bottom of the polycarbonate panel is supported by a piece of bent plate. n see it from the outside, it is hidden with a carefully designed grille which is built with the same material as the roof panel. Structurally, it is carved out from a

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STRUCTURAL AND MECHANICAL DIAGRAM GLULAM columns and beams are the main structure of the building. 5-ply CLT panels are the structure of these boxes and work as shear wall to provide lateral stability. Both active and passive strategies are considered. Natural lighting was brought to the building from the skylight window and the envelope. Thermal mass in the roof is the main natural ventilation strategy. Displacement ventilation and radiant floor are used as active ventilation, warming and cooling strategy, which connects to the heat pump and air handler on the ground floor.

|Almost Disappearing

02 SPACE GRADIENTS Individual Academic design Site: San Francisco, CA Program: Life Science Research and Development Facility Mass Timber Tower Study The project tries to explore the potential of post&beam structure and to challenge the limitation of this seemingly normal structure system. So the question is, if the columns and beams are the only elements in the building, what kind of unique space and form can be created? Is it possible to use this system to define different space and to organize complicated programs in a lab building? Here is the system I developed. In an original rigid column grid, if some of the columns are removed, the beam depth has to be increased for structure stability. And as a result, the space is differentiated from the rest and can be used for another program. If two different column density are set as two ends, there will be a lot of possibilities in between, just like color gradients. This approach is not just an architecture interest but also a practical and efficient structure solution. Because for high rise building, the closer to the bottom, the greater the horizontal shear force, so that denser columns are needed to resist the shear force. And when people reach the top part of the building, less columns allow wider view and allow them to enjoy the city scenery. Also, different composition of columns and beams can create various space, which allow people to choose the appropriate space they need to work.

|Space Gradients

ASSEMBLY DIAGRAM This diagram shows the detailed joints of columns and beams with different depth and what it looks like when they are assemblied. It also shows the material volume of this project through layout of all different types of elements.

03 LOOP LAB Hyperloop Campus Competition design Site: Mojave Desert, Nevada Program: Hyperloop headquarter, campus and visitor center Collaborators: Xueer Ma, Zihao Wang As a Hyperloop Campus, the building's form should have the ability to convey the feeling of hightech and high-speed. Since the occupants of this building include researchers and visitors, the main idea of program organization is to create indepedent spaces for these two groups of people but letting them see each other. That's why this building has two intertwined volumes. In this case, the central double-height space would became a public gathering place which encourages people to collaborate, communicate and comprehend. It is a modern translation of Colosseum, which can be understood in the section as well.

|Loop Lab

1. arena 2. reception 3. lab 4. offices 5. training 6. classroom 7. cafeteria

8. mechanical 9. restaurant 10. museum 11. apartment 12. tour 13. gym 14. pool

The central atrium provides space for lecturing, gathering, exhibiting, etc., encourages simultaneous encounters, and as a result enhances the intelligent community

SECTION: showing the space with different height and central atrium

|Loop Lab

When the visitor space and staff space encouters, it allows people to see what's happening in the other side without bothering each other.

SUSTAINABLITY DESIGN: considering natural ventilation, rain water collection and pv panel usage

04 SCHOOL AS PLAYGROUND 2-month academic individual design Site: San Francisco, California Program: Elementary School University of California, Berkeley 2020 Spring Architecture Core Studio Instructor: Dan Spiegel What a school means is the main topic of this project. Does it mean combinations of different rooms based on aesthetics? Or does it mean to guide kids live, communicate, build social relationship with each other with the organization of architectural space? I would agree the latter and that's where Architecture works. In this project, there were only two different kinds of main programs, one is studing, like classroom, studio, lab, library, etc., the other is playing, like gym and playground. So a circulation space which is also a continuous playground is created. Taken the form of cylinders, this circulation space interacted with bounding boxes, and as a result, some curvy walls and floors were created which could lead kids to play.

|School as Playground

RESEARCH This project aims to question: what does a school mean? Instead of dividing the whole building into the studying part and the playing part, it prefers to have a continuous playgound connecting studying spaces. Cylinders are used to c r e a te s p a c e s . T h e interior of cylinders can be used as the circulation space, and t h e ex te r i o r c a n b e organized as playful spaces. Eventually all these playful space are connected as a continuous playground.

FORM GENERATION The matrix describes all source geometries used in the construction. The idealized form of the cylinders are obscure to the user as its true boundar y extends beyond the exterior building envelop. The user must gain greater implicit understanding of the nature of the geometries as he proceeds through the s p a t i a l ex p e r i e n c e . Boxes are used as light wells and view corridors, interacting with cylinders and bring richer space experience.

|School as Playground

Basically, the first floor serves as more flexible programs such as parking, gym, library, office, kitchen, medical and dinning, and the second and third floor serve as classroom. In the second floor, there is a open public space surrounded by classrooms and cour tyards, so kids could either study or communicate with each other there. And the smooth curvy floor could become a central point. In the third floor, except for classrooms, there is an outdoor playground and children can play in the convex surface. Something interesting also happens in the section. The height of window or platform is decided based on the scale of kids, which you could tell from the above section, and the continuous circulation is obvious in the below section.

ENTRANCE Before entering the real entrance of the elementary school, visitors will first enter a grey space which helps to keep students safer in such a busy city like San Francisco. Two cylinders have interacted and created graceful curved surface, welcoming kids to come in.

SECTION: showing the continuous circulation

|School as Playground

CLASSROOM The smooth convex surface works as a sitting area in classroom to activate the space and atmosphere. Users could also see the curvy surface in the ceilling extending beyond the interior and gain greater implicit understanding of the nature of the geometries

SECTION: showing the playful curvy walls and floors

|Suture City

05 SUTURE CITY Finalist of Cities for All Competition (2021) 4-month academic individual design Site: Oakland, California Program: Mixed use University of California, Berkeley 2020 Fall Architecture Core Studio Work Instructor: Adriana Cuellar This project focuses on the educational condition in Oakland, California, USA. Oakland is a divided city. People in the flatland, unlike their neighbors in the hills, have no access to enough fresh food, educational resource, even safety. And the COVID-19 intensified the social inequality. In this case, schools in the flatland act as a shelter to kids in need by providing free food, learning resources and play field. More importantly, there are less criminals in schools’ surrounding area. However, the environment is quite poor. Most classrooms are so crowded that would impact children’s wellness during the pandemic. So this project is trying to explore that, is it possible to improve the learning space while to push forward the concept of “school as shelter”?

|Suture City

REDEFINE EDUCATIONAL SPACE The proposal is to redefine schools. Today students don’t need to go to a specific physical space to study thanks to Zoom class. Only if they have access to Wi-fi, computer, library and gathering space, education could happen. Another thing is that just because of schools’ transparent fences and their frequently held activities outdoors, the front yard has become a transitional space which allows the outer public space being watched, as a result, being safer. Above all, unlike the traditional schools, the new open school I proposed is to explode schools’ program into small units including learning room, computer lab, food production and distribution, etc., then to position these units close to students’ houses, and finally cover them with a roof structure. In this case, since it acts as a linear structure (with 20’ wide) and the units are separated from each other, this new system could not only provide more flexible learning space with social distancing but also utilize small urban spaces which are not fully developed. Eventually, it could become a threshold between private houses and public parks or streets, which could encourage people to participate public activities and intensify the safety just like the old schools. Above all, unlike the traditional schools, the new open school I proposed is to explode schools’ program into small units including learning room, computer lab, food production and distribution, etc., then to position these units close to students’ houses, and finally cover them with a roof structure. In this case, since it acts as a linear structure (with 20’ wide) and the units are separated from each other, this new system could not only provide more flexible learning space with social distancing but also utilize small urban spaces which are not fully developed.

The design of the roof structure depends on the adjacent houses and can be seen as an extension of it. And six types of units are designed to be pluged into the roof structure. By doing so, a threshold between private housing and public space is developed and the strict division can be broken as a result. This intervention aims to encourage people to participate the public activities and care the public space more as well.

|Suture City

This rendering shows how the space would look like. Learning spaces that are multipurpose and flexible, that combine essential academic and nonacademic programs such as food distribution, the arts, nature awareness, reading, studying. The idyllic "classroom" not just looks to better student’s academic performance but also enhance what they have been thriving in, in the first place. It takes into consideration student’s learning patterns and interactions, breaking away from the four walls into the outdoors.

The system can grow like a rhizome. At the beginning, institutions, but gradually, it could be duplicated to de separate schools or occupying a house block’s perime a fortress because of the structure’s transparency. Fina resources could be shared and the city be sutured.

|Suture City

, it might be constructed close to existing educational eal with different urban conditions, such as connecting eter to improve the community cohesion without being ally, it would spread to the hills so that the educational

06 HOUSE L 1-month academic individual design Site: Los Angeles, California Program: Accessory Dwelling Unit Design University of California, Berkeley 2020 Spring Architecture Core Studio Instructor: Dan Spiegel This project is based on the analysis on the Case Study House in Los Angeles. The first step is to extract a geometry from the precedent, then to design a accessory dwelling unit in the courtard of the same precedent by playing with the extracted element. Specifically, the extracted element of this project is the L shape and each of them wraps up a rectangle. So in order to maintain this relationship, the design of ADU began with a series of concentric squares. Then through scaling (based on the size of the site), shifting (based on the landscape), cutting (to create L shape), rotating ( based on the property line and the location of the original house), adjusting the thickness of the L shape (based on the consideration of privacy and program), the form of the ADU was generated, which can be seen in the diagram. With the same logic, roof was designed as well. This project questioned the identification of interior and exterior. It is simple but not rough, actually nuanced in some way.

|House L

CASE STUDY HOUSE #18 Case Study House #18, also known as the West House, was constructed on a bluff overlooking the ocean in Pacific Palisades. It was the first of four adjacent houses on Chautauqua Boulevard that were built under the auspices of Arts & Architecture magazine’s Case Study House program.

EXTRACTED PROTOTYPE "L SHAPE" After analyzing, I extracted a formal logic from this building. There are three "L Shapes" that each wraps up a square space, and the L shape combined with the square space to create a specific and integrated program which is different from each other.

DIAGRAM The matrix descibes the process of form generation. It begins with a series of concentric square, to maintain the relationship that a L shape wraps up a square space. Then these squares are shiftd, scaled, cut, thickened, rotated, adjusted and finally composed a building.

|House L

PLAN The poche in this plan illustrated the L shapes and their fuctions clearly. Their composition not only divided different programs but also created amazing sequence. The first one is from entrance to living room, in which he angle of the walls express a feeling of welcoming; the other is from living room, kitchen to dinning.

EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC VIEW From outside to inside, privicy is strengthed. However, there is an open courtyard in the innermost bedroom, questioning the definition of interior and exteior.

|House L

ROOF CONSTRUCTION DETAIL Three roof plates stacked together to strength the idea of space hierarchy, and the definition of interior and exterior keeps changing with the space experiences.

|House L

PERSPECTIVE RENDERINGS No matter in which space, people could see different layers of other spaces, which brings the novel and attractive experiences and at the same time makes the space bigger psychologically. 60

|The People's Commune II

07 THE PEOPLE'S COMMUNE II 4-month academic individual design Site: Dufu Village, Hangzhou, China Program: Community Center Zhejiang University Architectural Studio Work Instructor: Xincheng Pu As urbanization and economy developed, more and more young people leave their hometown and go to the city to earn a better future, but the old and kids are left in the village and have to accept the fact that their hometown would decay. So, in order to offer a platform for those who could help, and at the same time to create a public space for the old and kids playing, I try to design a compound museum which has workshop, theatre, courtyard and playspace besides exhibition space. Through studying the village history, I found that a few decades ago, there were many houses in the site where people loved to gather. But as time passing by, these houses were dismantled to build the people's commune, and then the new buildings were dismantled again. So now it is just field. Considering that, I want to bring the historical memory back with the architecture language, to create a space which is useful as well as unique for the village.

Through studying the village history, I found that a few decades ago, there were many houses in the site where people loved to gather. But as time passing by, these houses were dismantled to build the people's commune, and then the new buildings were dismantled again. And now it is just field. Considering that, I want to bring the historical memory back with the architecture language, to create a space which is useful as well as unique for the village.

|The People's Commune II

7 9

4 1 Ground Floor Plan 1. Main Entrance 2. Hall 3. Courtyard 4. Theatre 5. Toilet 6. Workshop 7. Entertainment 8. Restaurant 9. Exhibition 10. Play Room 11. Secondary Entrance

The ground floor could offer the space of communicating, working, reading, gathering and exhibiting. The two entrances correspond to the surrounding environment including road and river. The walls which bring historical memory create beautiful shade in the ground.

|The People's Commune II

The main entrance of the building

The courtyard reminds people of old times

Exhibition hall

The outdoor space in the second floor

Looking the village through the window

Showing history of the village to tourists 66

|Mass Timber Pavilion

08 MASS TIMBER PAVILION 1-month academic individual design Site: San Francisco, California Program: Cafe, learning, exhibition, lecture University of California, Berkeley 2021 Spring Architecture Studio Instructor: David Jaehning The concept of this design is “forest”. By imitating the structure of trees, a self-supporting modular unit is designed, which allows much freedom of plan organization because of its structural balance. Therefore, different from other precedents that also use similar units, this design tries to challenge traditional way of rigid grid organization and to develop a more flexible plan by taking full advantage of its structural potential. Based on the research that a dynamic but still stable structure can be created through collecting the self-supporting units with same height randomly, this design decided to use three different size of units and to organize them from compression to expansion. In this case, the columns’ distribution with different density has differentiated the space, and the gaps in the canopy brings light and darkness, which work together to formulate the sense of forest. And this “clustered freedom” could be a fictional patent in mass timber design and construction.

|Mass Timber Pavilion

09 LOST WATER 2nd Place, the 2021 Bakewell, Brown & Weihe Prize 4-month academic drawing essay Program: Virtural Water Museum in the Post-Anthropocene University of California, Berkeley 2020 Fall Elective Course Instructor: Raveevarn Choksombatchai

|Lost Water

|Metropolitan Seclusion

10 METROPOLITAN SECLUSION Professional Landscape Design (built) Award: Excellent Landscape Design (Professional Award) of the 9th IDEA-KING International Landscape and Design Competition Site: Jingan, JIangxi, China Team member: Pengpeng Song, Xiapeng Song, Jie Zheng Client: Greenland Holdings Corporation Limited The project is located in Jingan, which was Mazu's temple and as a result is a holy place in Buddhism. In order to respond to the context, this project is defined as a demonstration area of peaceful life in which visitors can meditate, attend Buddhism class, read classical Buddhism books, enjoy tea, etc. However, the site is very close to a busy road so that the original atmosphere is noisy, tired and engaged instead of quiet, calm and decent. So my design strategy is to divide the whole circulation as three parts which are leading, shielding and staying, and to organize them progressively.

leading

shielding

staying

|Metropolitan Seclusion