lo yee cheung adrian 2005651426

THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONGDEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE

march ii studiotom verbes fall 2010

This studio will challenge the existing and unfinished develop-ment plan for Cotai, along with its associated types, tropes and patterns, through the design of alternative models of architecture and urbanism, which can critically reframe the city of the twenty-first century as socially, culturally and economi-cally sustainable. The goal is to design a living city, and in doing, so, it may be necessary, yet again, to forget everything of the existing context, both of old Macau and Cotai, and to imagine an entirely new kind of urbanism. At a range of scales, from adap-tive, time-based masterplanning, to prototypical architectural design, this studio will speculate on the notion of completeness through invesitgations of evolutionary design strategies.

forgetting macau

project 01 - site analysis

project 02 - pattenerning

project 03 - 3d parttern

project 04 - 4d master plan

project 05 - architectural work

content

Similar to Las Vegas, Cotai is also a fabricated form of urbanism, dedicated to tourism, yet limited to gambling, shopping, entertainment and leisure. Whereas Las Vegas grew out of the blankness of the desert, Cotai is reclaimed from the sea and has definite edges. Old Macau represents an aberration in the history of colonialism in Asia – a re-sidual Mediterranean city at the mouth of the Pearl River. Discarded by the master-planners and architects as the model of urbanism to replicate in Cotai, old Macau seems as innocuous a model for contemporary urbanisation to emulate, as Cotai is as vacuous a model to pursue.Cotai dismisses old Macau, only tenuously linkedgeographi-cally, infrastructurally, and politically to the city it forgets in its making. Cotai’s de-velopers, planners and architects also forgot to build a city. The street, plaza, prom-enade, and neighbourhood, along with countless other seemingly historical urban spa-tial tropes and types, were forgotten in the making of Cotai, or if they shape its urban-ism, these spaces become wholly interiorised. The two main casino complexes of Cotai, The Venetian and City of Dreams, champion the ultimate form of interior urbanism - vast, saturated suburban boxes where nearly all activities take place indoors, render-ing exterior space as residual, interstitial, and void of life, serving a function to con-nect its tourists and service industry to airports, seaports, roads and bridges to elsewhere. The ultimate post-modernist simulacra, The Venetian recreates the motifs, spaces and atmospheres of Venice, yet substitutes its authenticity with casino interi-ors, retail malls and hotels. At the least, Cotai is questionable as a model of twenty-first century urbanisation, and at most, it can be judged to be ideologically bankrupt. Despite this apparent vacuum, this studio will endeavour to learn from what was for-gotten, in charting the future of Cotai.

This studio will focus on the Cotai Strip in Macau as the context within which a critical engagement of urbanism and architecture will be pursued through new spatial paradigms and design methodologies. As a result of the 2008 global financial crisis, the development plan of Cotai, and several of its extra-large mixed-use casino developments, remain unfinished. The primary task of the studio is to complete the unfinished urbanism of Cotai, and to speculate upon the potential for architecture to evolve, rather than to be wholly planned.

studio objective

In a first stage of work, the studio will work on a series of shared topics, on the analysis of various sites pertaining to Macau SAR, with the goal of producing a shared document upon which to base further design work. Students will use 2D and 3D diagrams, drawings, and models, along with photos and other visual media in this analytical exercise, seeking to define existing contextual patterns of the following territories and topics:Infrastructure, Programmes, Typologies / Form, Environment/Landscape

site analysis

whole macau road system road pattern comparison casino layout study

In 1965, Robert Venturi, Denise Scott-Brown and Steve Izenour conducted a studio at Yale University which focussed on an analysis of Las Vegas. The impact of their research unleashed new valorisation of the raw and unashamed reality of the con-temporary American city, encapsulated in their seminal mani-festo of pop urbanism, Learning From Las Vegas. Through its profound influence on a generation of architects across the world, Learning From Las Vegas is at once a cause and symptom of the disillusionment with modernism, and in turn, it helped to shape the moral code of post-modernism through its endorse-ment of the mid-twentieth American city, as unorthodox and undesirable as it was deemed by modernist architects.

city patterning

galaxy developement venetian developement

las vegascotai paris london new york hong kong

Internationalization of the urbanism (interior streets, spaces, etc…) has been a key observation in the Venetian Development, that whole Venetian-style fake building façade and canal-mimicking water feature is installed to convey the Venice experience. The whole idea of city / urban experi-ence has been cramped into an interior space with conditioned climate and even the artificial sky! Deep space is the dominating spatial arrangement in all of the Cotai developments, though each of them is differentiated through the planning layout and a spectrum of identity is created.

analysis outcome

DEEP STREET

ROAD

interiorization of urban lifepreception of form shifted inwards

Architecture and urbanism can be defined by the organisation of legible, mathematically discernable spatial and temporal patterns. In this second stage of work, this studio will focus on developing a Parametric Pattern Book of computationally controlled complex patterns, generated from simple rules and relationships. We will emphasise non-repetitive organisa-tional patterns which undergo dynamic processes of formation.

project 02

This approach to morphological patterns develops iterative spatial logic, where complex yet coherent global order emerges from local rules. The media and methods to be used can include laser cut models, cnc-milling, 3d prints, along with more manually machined models. The goal of this stage of work is to generate new spatial models, typologies and structures, with which to carry out design proposals at both masterplanning and building scales in the proceeding design stages.

project 03

Deep space is the dominating spatial arrangement in all of the Cotai developments, though each of them is differ-entiated through the planning layout and a spectrum of iden-tity is created.

deep space

spatial testing model with structural considerations. deep space is the issue illus-trated in this set of physical models.

concept model

two physicaly model done in the 3d patterning stage, with wood and acrylic. relationship of surface and structure is explored.

study models

In respond to this situation and this question-able master plan, as a team, we proposed an adaptive master plan, which will possible to reaction to different scenario. In each scenario density, coverage, landscape to building ratio, massing, and form will vary with time being con-sidered. Here, the architectural project is a demonstration on how the master plan can be carry be individual architects to creating archi-tecture with different expression with form and spaces, but inhered the coherent concept that is being developed in the master plan level.

project 04

communal facilitiesfoundamental industrial commercial living

growth

division

time

size

swarm logic

Emphasising large scale architecture/urban design, the goal is also to develop variable urban masterplans, which partition the entire Cotai development plan region into smaller plots for design teams to develop individual building design proposals in the following stage of design work. Conventional discourses and practises of architecture and urbanism presume form to be highly stable and perma-nent. In this stage of work, teams of students will develop systemic, scenario-based and time-based 3-D mas-terplans, in which strategies for urban growth, change, and evolution over several years will be established.

4D master plan

4D master plan

large

medium

small

open space

4d matrix4d master layout plan of cotai

mega-structure with casino development of original plan20%

living

commerical

entertainment

mega-structure with casino development of original plan50%

mega-structure with casino development of original plan80%

casincommer-

indus-living

communal fa-

casincommer-

indus-living

communal fa-

casincommer-

indus-living

communal fa-

In respond to this situation and this question-able master plan, as a team, we proposed an adaptive master plan, which will possible to reaction to different scenario. In each scenario density, coverage, landscape to building ratio, massing, and form will vary with time being con-sidered. Here, the architectural project is a demonstration on how the master plan can be carry be individual architects to creating archi-tecture with different expression with form and spaces, but inhered the coherent concept that is being developed in the master plan level.

master plan drawing

orig

ional 1

:2000 o

n 2

A0

rendering 01 massing representation for area near existing casion development. vast area of land is covered by the mega structure with entertainment programme. pit-like open landscape is the left over of building mass.

rendering 02 massing representation for area close to boundary crossing facilities to mainland china, where commerical programme aggra-tion is expected to happened. connected towers with mid-rise development will be the key feature.

rendering 03 massing representation for residential area with less mega structure develop-ment and a finer low rise neghbourhood fabric.

exploring massing composition in the master plannign stage, with cut and fill operation being examined. white painted mdf with acrylic.

massing model

concept testing model at master plannig stage, sectional model

physical model

Would you trust yourself to say which is a ‘living’ form and which is not? What is it that encourages us to type-cast some forms as those made by life, and others as the products of the non-living world? A tree, a rabbit, a spider have little in common when considered as mere shapes - and yet we don’t hesitate to see them as examples of living morphology. Why? Perhaps we sense a kind of purpose, of design, in these forms? They are ‘complex’, certainly, but what does that mean? Even if we can’t say exactly what living form is, we’d like to think we know it when we see it. But do we?Philip Ball, Nature’s Patterns: Shapes

intermission

In the final project of the studio, each student will work individually to develop one single archi-tectural proposal, for one of 12 sites in Cotai. This stage of work will conclude with a more detailed and specific instrumental deployment of pattern book exercises, while deploying the con-cepts of adaptive masterplanning at a scale of archiecture.

architectural prototypes

The Cotai is situated on flat reclaimed land dissected by infra-structural divisions made by high speed roads, resulting in vast, segregated building plots. Each of these plots was planned to be occu-pied by separate, singular, uncon-nected casino development com-plexes. A rather large portion of this land is un-built due to the economic down turn.

menifasto

Internationalization of the urbanism (interior streets, spaces, etc…) has been a key observation in the Venetian Development, that whole Venetian-style fake building façade and canal-mimicking water feature is installed to convey the Venice experience. The whole idea of city / urban experience has been cramped into an interior space with conditioned climate and even the artificial sky!

Deep space is the dominating spatial arrangement in all of the Cotai develop-ments, though each of them is differentiated through the planning layout and a spectrum of identity is created. The Architectural proposal is an exploration to put internationalization to an extreme with deep space planning technique to create an interiorized urbanism. The continuous flow of deep space with discrete pockets of program, which is very commonly seen in Cotai developments is designed to echo the spatial conti-nuity from neighbor casino complex to my design. Connected surfaces / slopes and atriums are used to enforce both circulation and visual connection of the spatial flow. In my project the deep space is designed to give a richer spatial oc-currence compared to the spaces provided by the casino complexes. Each dis-crete program can be engaged by individual tenants, thought overall internal architectural scheme is unified by the deep space temporal and structural order. City within architecture and conditioned artificial natural is both being criticized and celebrated in this project.

The Architectural proposal is an explora-tion to put internationalization to an extreme with deep space planning technique to create an interiorized urbanism. The con-tinuous flow of deep space with discrete pockets of program, which is very commonly seen in Cotai developments is designed to echo the spatial continuity from neighbor casino complex to my design. Connected surfaces / slopes and atriums are used to enforce both circulation and visual connec-tion of the spatial flow.

deep . interiorization

deep spacecontinous

programdiscrete

galaxy venetiancity of dreams

In my p roject the deep space is designed to give a richer spatial occurrence compared to the spaces provided by the casino complexes. Each discrete program can be engaged by individual tenants, thought overall internal architectural scheme is unified by the deep space temporal and structural order. City within architec-ture and conditioned artificial natural is both being criticized and celebrated in this project.

deep . interiorization

programme distribution diagram

casion

entertainment

cafe

shoppinga

business

nature

circulation

traffic

P1

P2

P3

foundamental

P1 P2

P3

horizontal split

P1

P2

P3

visual connection

P1

P3

merged

P2

P1

P3

connected

P1P2

P2

P3

bridged

P1

P2

P3

large space

P2P1

P1

P3partial visually connected

P1

P2

P3

all visually connected

P1

P3visual depth

P1

P3

merged & bridged

Programmatic - Space Control

01

01

02

02

03

03

04

04

05

05

06

06

07

08

09

09

10

10

11

11

08

diagram illustrate the flow of continuous space within the architecture. circulation diagram on the right. Projects should attain a comprehensive level of design development, describing a well articulated spatial organisation, fully programmed, structured design scheme, demonstrated at various scales, in plans, sections, eleva-tions, systemic axonometrics and strategic renderings. The 12 schemes will be compiled together in a master model, produced earlier in the semester.

project 05 diagram

circulation diagram (traffiic and pedestrian)

Deep space

micro-climate contorl(tower as chimmy effect inducer)

structural system(load transfer diagram)

G/F

1/F

2/F

origional 1:500 on A0

origional 1:1000 on A0

1/F Plan0m

100m

section

view looking up from atrium of tower.even view from towe become interternalized.this echos the celebration of continuous deep space.

interior perspective

the deep continuous spatial quality , with discrete programmes and an artifi-tial internal landscape

interior perspective

auditorium space, one of the discrete programme space within the continuous space, articualted by structural elements which also served as space dividing system.

interior perspective

done in transparent and translucent acrylic. transparent part represented the continuous deep space connection to adjacent casino, where discrete programme pockets are indicated by translucent parts.

final model

Stan Allen, ‘From Object to Field’, Architectural Design: After Geom-etry (Wiley Academy, London, 1995), pp. 24-31Philip Ball, ‘City Limits’, Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another, (Arrow, London, 2004), pp. 183-192 Philip Ball, ‘On Growth and Form: The Emergence of Shape and Organi-sation’, Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another, (Arrow, London, 2004), pp. 122-135Philip Ball, ‘Pattern Formation in Nature’, Oxford University Press 1999, Patterns pp.1-15, Bubbles pp.17-49Philip Ball, ‘The Shape of Things’, Shapes, (Oxford, 2009), pp. 1-32Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari, ‘1440: The Smooth and the Striated’, A Thousand Plateaus (London: 1987), pp, 474-500

readings

Mark Garcia, ‘Prologue for a History, Theory & Future of Patterns of Archi-tecture and Spatial Design’, AD Patterns in Architecture, (Wiley, London, 2009), pp. 6-17Christopher C M. Lee, ‘Projective Series’, Topological Formations: Renew-able Building Types and the City, (AA Publications, London, 2007), pp. 136.147Benoit Mandelbrot, ‘Theme’ and ‘The Irregular and Fragmented in Nature’, The Fractal Geometry of Nature (New York, 1977), pp. 1-13.Robert Venturi, Denise Scott-Brown, Steve Izenour, ‘Learning From Las Vegas’, (MIT Press, Cambridge, 1972) Tom Verebes, ‘Experiments in Associative Urbanism’, Architectural Design AD, Digital Cities issue (Neil Leach ed.), (Wiley-Academy, London), pp. 24-33

special thanks for:

tom (words extracted from project brief)ryan & jeff (for group project contribution)