Featured Projects

Tilted Deck. Design Build in China

Ming Tang, Yingdong Hu advised a group of BJTU students to participate in the “Xinzhaiping” Rural Design-Build Competition in China in 2021.

Project name: Titled Deck. 

BJTU Students: Bingxu Gao, Zhu Chen, Xiangyu Zhou, Haolong Guo.

Advisors: Yingdong Hu (BJTU), Ming Tang (UC)

Location: Hunan Province, China.

More info on the competition “2021乡见新寨坪·乡村建造大赛”

Award:

The build project won second place in the Rural Design Build competition 2021.

The build project also won the excellent award of the 19th 2021 Asian Design Awad.

   

Exhibition: The Architecture Machine

Ming Tang, Dihua Yang’s work was featured at the exhibition “The architecture machine“. architekturmuseum der TUM. München. Germany. October 14th, 2020-June,6. 2021.

 

The Architecture MachineOctober 14, 2020 – June 6, 2021 | Slow Opening: October 13, 2020, 2 p.m.
The Role of Computers in Architecture

Computers have become an integral part of our everyday lives. Whether in the office, at the cash register in the supermarket, or in the living room—bits and bytes are now part of almost all technical devices. Today, computers are also the norm in architectural practices, aiding the design as well as the visualization of new projects. They have become “architecture machines.” For the first time in the German-speaking world, the exhibition takes a comprehensive look at digital development in architecture. From its beginnings in the 1950s and 1960s to the present day, the architecture museum tells this exciting story in four chapters and presents the computer as a drawing machine, a design tool, a storytelling medium, and an interactive communication platform. The fundamental question behind it is simple: has the computer changed architecture, and if so, how?

With contributions by:
Dennis Allain; Architecture Machine Group; Asymptote Architecture; Atelier Oslo; Studio Cecil Balmond; Barkow Leibinger; Otto Beckmann; Brick Visual; Daniel Cardoso Llach; Preston Scott Cohen; Jana Čulek; Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Foreign Office Architects; Franken Architekten; Lucia Frascerra; John and Julia Frazer; George Hersey and Richard Freedman; Frank Gehry; Donald P. Greenberg; Günter Günschel; Fritz Haller; Itsuko Hasegawa; Dyvik Kahlen; Leeser Architecture; Studio Daniel Libeskind; Greg Lynn FORM; Keiichi Matsuda; Mir Studio; Carlfried Mutschler; MVRDV; Georg Nees; NOX; Frei Otto; Luwidg Rase; Reiser + Umemoto; SHoP Architects; Karl Sims; Skidmore, Ivan Sutherland; Owings & Merrill; Tang & Yang; Oswald Mathias Ungers; Manfred Wolff-Plottegg; You+Pea; David Zeltzer

Curator | Teresa Fankhänel
Exhibition design | Florian Bengert / BNGRT
Graphic design | PARAT.cc, München

Tang’s project GenoMatrix is featured in the exhibition and the published book.

The Architecture Machine: The Role of Computers in Architecture. Editor | Teresa Fankhänel and Andres Lepik. BIRKHÄUSER. ISBN number | 978-3-0356-2154-9

 

 

 

3D print for cast-in-place concrete

Cast-in-place Freeform Concrete with Big Area AdditiveManufacturing Formwork

Ming Tang, Noah Shroyer. Cast-in-place Freeform Concrete with Big Area AdditiveManufacturing Formwork. International Journal of Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionVol 10, No 2, Vol 10, No 2 (2021) 1-9

Abstract: Parametric design and digital fabrication give precise control in the design and materialization of complex geometric forms. Large-scale additive manufacturing machines can fabricate digitally generated architectural forms quickly and economically at full scale. However, their application in building construction has been limited. Through a case study, this paper examines integrating parametric design with material and constructed reality through 3D printed formwork for cast-in-place concrete. The following details are presented: (1) creating a parametric model capable of designing, testing, and manipulating the customized freeform in response to construction and material constraints, (2) fabrication method of big area additive manufacturing of formwork with carbon fiber-reinforced acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plastic, and (3) construction process (studying material behavior, testing the formwork, and the final onsite concrete cast)

This project was supported by the computation team led by Ming Tang, the design team led by Jose Garcia Design, the structural engineering team led by Pinnacle EngineeringInc, formwork and fabrication led by Cincinnati Incorporated. The project was constructed by the general contractor Jose Garcia Construction. The rebar shop fabrication was provided by Artistic Ironworks.

Video from Cincinnati Incorporated

Rural Public Restrooms Design + Build, China

A group of UC DAAP students, led by Whitney Hamaker and Ming Tang, participated in the  “Yuzhang Construction*” workshop to design and build two public restrooms at the Pengyuan village, Yifeng County, Jiangxi Province of China in summer 2020. This workshop is a collaboration with Nanchang University (NCU),  Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU), and cooperates with the local village to carry out the 2020 public facilities construction. Due to the COVID-19, all design was completed through virtual collaborations. The first designed restroom is under construction, started in September 2020.

Project location: Pengyuan village, Yifeng County, Jiangxi Province, China

Project scope: design and construction of two rural ecological restrooms

Design activity: June-August, 2020

Construction: 09.2020- 12.2020

  • Faculty advisors: Fen Xiao, Qong Wu ( NCU), Yingdong Hu (BJTU), Whitney Hamaker, Ming Tang (UC)
  • UC Students: Sabrina Ramsay, Alexandra Steigerwald, An Le, Pwint (Audrey) Wati Oo, Nathaniel Liesch
  • NCU students: Mingxuan Wu, Ding Wang, Xiaohu Cheng, Meile Gui, Xianhao Xie, Hao Xiao, Jiayi Wang, Jiaoao Li, Mo Jia, Zheng Li, Yijia Wang
  • BJTU student: Cilu Luo, Zhu Cheng, Lurui Lue, Jiayi Xu, Xiangyu Zhou, Yudang Wang

The project won the First Place in the 2021 Asian Design Award. Sustainable Design category. 

Picture Taken by Fen XIao, NCU.  Photography Credits Go To Fen Xiao, NCU.

* “Yuzhang Construction” workshop was founded in 2018, initiated by the School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Nanchang University. Based on the concept of “innovation and construction,” the workshop works through the public welfare design and construction of social projects to serve the community and carry out a practical model of teaching. Through the construction activities of the mill building construction in Xikeng village in 2018, and the rice bridge building in Tianqiao village in 2019, students and faculties walked into the countryside to understand the rural, activate the countryside with design, and to help the local rural revitalization and sustainable development.

 

The project was also exhibited in 2021 DAAPcares and won the 2021 DAAPcares Sustainability award.

UIA-CBC Design Build Competition

Pear Orchard Cabins

Design + Build project in China. UIA-CBC Competition

2019 UIA-CBC International Colleges and Universities Competitive Construction Workshop walks into Guoyuan Village, Aiyuan Town, Siyang County, Suqian City, Jiangsu. UC + Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU) team has won the UIA-CBC competition proposal as one of the top 15 teams from proposals submitted by 101 Universities across 23 nations. After the winning of Phase 1 proposal, UC+BJTU team was invited to join the Phase 2, and build the permanent structures from August.01 to 19 in China. The project won the third prize. Please check out the final result of all 15 projects .

Taking the century-old pear orchard as the site, this year’s Competitive Construction Workshop sets a theme of creating “Pear Orchard Cabins” that can improve the quality of living in the orchard. The participating teams designed and build 15 cabins in the orchard as well as infrastructure that connected the whole community in order to contribute to the revitalization of the “Century-old Pear Orchard”, and also to explore a path for changing villages by the power of design.

The theme of this year’s workshop is “Pear Orchard Cabins”, which takes the whole 100-year-old orchard as the site of design where 15 selected teams from renowned international and domestic universities will be involved to discuss how to “activate villages through design”. The teams will use a limited space to design and construct their cabin in order to provide more activity solutions to the villagers and visitors. The design will be based on the element of “pear” and picture future scenarios involving countryside spatial experience and pear-related themes all the way from design to constructions or construction. The design content is not limited to installations and may also include consideration of the site and the environment.

As an integral part of village revitalization plan, the workshop seeks to explore a rural public architectural form than can fit in with nature. By linking up the 15 “Pear Orchard Cabins” in the century-old orchard with a continuous infrastructure, it emphasizes the fun experience of exploring the place, activates the heart of the village and injects the power of design into the basic mode of rural production, driving the change and improvement of rural lifestyle and providing a paradigm for rural construction.

Phase II: Design+Build Team

Students: Lauren Figley, Jordan Micham, Pat McQuillen, Vu Tran, Jeremy Swafford,Tess Ryan

Faculty supervisor:  Whitney Hamaker, Ming Tang (UC); Yingdong Hu, Yunan Zhang, Yongquan Chen (BJTU)

 

Phase I: Design Proposal

UC Student Team, class from ARCH3014, digital media skills. Spring 2019, taught by Prof. Ming Tang.

Winning Team: Lauren Figley, Andi Moore, Jordan Micham, Pat McQuillen, Vu Tran 

Graduate assistant: Jeremy Swafford, Shreya Jasrapuria, Kenna Gibson, Alan Bossman, Tess Ryan

Faculty advisor: Ming Tang, Xiangbin Xu, Yuhui Song (UC); Yingdong Hu, Yongquan Chen ( BJTU)

early concept

Final concept

Photo of Phase II. China